XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing)
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@FATeknollogee said in XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing):
@BRRABill
In XC menu, there is Server, Back Up... and Server, Restore from Back Up...?That is ONLY for backing up the host. And if you read through this thread (https://www.mangolassi.it/topic/9960/converting-to-a-virtual-environment/52) and the XS documentation, they recommend reinstalling the host as opposed to backing it up.
Kind of what @JaredBusch was saying above.
- Crash
- Reinstall XS
- Reattach SR
- Restore VM metadata if you have it (from XS console) or otherwise reconstruct your VMs by hand.
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@Dashrender and I were talking about this topic a little bit offline. HE was saying the metadata is stored with the VM is ESXi.
I wonder why XS does not store the metadata with the VM itself? What would be the reasoning there?
Does Hyper-V?
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Also, this is interesting...
http://discussions.citrix.com/topic/303350-backup-metadata-1st-time/
Offers some additional metadata options, including a way to backup from XC, via Windows command prompt!
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FWIW, I think XO backs up the metadata when backup up the VM. I know this metadata issue has been discussed previously on ML. There's also an ER for XO to allow for the backup and restoration of the metadata.
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Got this response, via email, from @olivier
"our backup allow to import your saved VMs on any new clear XenServer, anytime, anywhere. So it seems there is no need to save more. Eg you lost all your servers in a fire. Just get another new machine, SR type (local, NFS) doesn't matter, even if it's different from the previous servers. And import your backup, you are back on track." -
@FATeknollogee @olivier Unfortunately, that doesn't address the current situation where we are just looking to replace the boot device. If your SR is intact, it will always be faster to reinstall XS and restore the metadata than to restore all VMs from backup using XO.
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@Danp said in XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing):
@FATeknollogee @olivier Unfortunately, that doesn't address the current situation where we are just looking to replace the boot device. If your SR is intact, it will always be faster to reinstall XS and restore the metadata than to restore all VMs from backup using XO.
I thought replacing the boot device can be done in XC menu, with "Server, Back Up..." and "Server, Restore from Back Up..."?
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@FATeknollogee It can, but not recommend according to this earlier post.
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@Danp said in XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing):
@FATeknollogee It can, but not recommend according to this earlier post.
There's a difference between backing up the entire boot partition vs. Creating a backup of the metadata then when you have a problem reinstalling xenserver on to a new memory stick and then restoring the metadata to that from the backup.
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@Dashrender said in XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing):
There's a difference between backing up the entire boot partition vs. Creating a backup of the metadata then when you have a problem reinstalling xenserver on to a new memory stick and then restoring the metadata to that from the backup.
Agreed... which is why I would hope that XO will eventually offer this as a backup / restore option.
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It would take forever to restore all your VMs using XO. It's obviously great for a backup, especially if you were to lose your SR.
But if the SR is still there, just reinstalling XS is the way to go. XO would not be appropriate there IMO.
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@Danp said in XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing):
@Dashrender said in XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing):
There's a difference between backing up the entire boot partition vs. Creating a backup of the metadata then when you have a problem reinstalling xenserver on to a new memory stick and then restoring the metadata to that from the backup.
Agreed... which is why I would hope that XO will eventually offer this as a backup / restore option.
Yeah it would be great if it could kind of couple that in.
Granted, it is pretty easy to do already, though.
You can backup metadata daily to the SR (in the form of a VHD it creates for itself), or manually to another location. You can also write a script to export the metadata...
http://techblog.danielpellarini.com/sysadmin/backup-your-xenserver-vm-metadata-daily-to-a-cifs-share/ -
@BRRABill said in XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing):
@Danp said in XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing):
@Dashrender said in XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing):
There's a difference between backing up the entire boot partition vs. Creating a backup of the metadata then when you have a problem reinstalling xenserver on to a new memory stick and then restoring the metadata to that from the backup.
Agreed... which is why I would hope that XO will eventually offer this as a backup / restore option.
Yeah it would be great if it could kind of couple that in.
Granted, it is pretty easy to do already, though.
You can backup metadata daily to the SR (in the form of a VHD it creates for itself), or manually to another location. You can also write a script to export the metadata...
http://techblog.danielpellarini.com/sysadmin/backup-your-xenserver-vm-metadata-daily-to-a-cifs-share/Not sure what value an exported copy of the metadata is if the SR is lost - you'll be restoring the Metadata through XO restores, won't you?
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@Dashrender said
Not sure what value an exported copy of the metadata is if the SR is lost - you'll be restoring the Metadata through XO restores, won't you?
I don't know either, to be honest.
But if you script it, you at least have more control over it.
The console version leaves me questioning if it really worked.
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@Dashrender said in XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing):
@BRRABill said in XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing):
@Danp said in XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing):
@Dashrender said in XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing):
There's a difference between backing up the entire boot partition vs. Creating a backup of the metadata then when you have a problem reinstalling xenserver on to a new memory stick and then restoring the metadata to that from the backup.
Agreed... which is why I would hope that XO will eventually offer this as a backup / restore option.
Yeah it would be great if it could kind of couple that in.
Granted, it is pretty easy to do already, though.
You can backup metadata daily to the SR (in the form of a VHD it creates for itself), or manually to another location. You can also write a script to export the metadata...
http://techblog.danielpellarini.com/sysadmin/backup-your-xenserver-vm-metadata-daily-to-a-cifs-share/Not sure what value an exported copy of the metadata is if the SR is lost - you'll be restoring the Metadata through XO restores, won't you?
If the SR is lost, you are building a new server and restoring from backup. How did you even get here from where we were?
The point of everything here is to recover the host OS. No one has ever mentioned anything about losing the SR and recovering.
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@JaredBusch said in XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing):
@Dashrender said in XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing):
@BRRABill said in XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing):
@Danp said in XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing):
@Dashrender said in XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing):
There's a difference between backing up the entire boot partition vs. Creating a backup of the metadata then when you have a problem reinstalling xenserver on to a new memory stick and then restoring the metadata to that from the backup.
Agreed... which is why I would hope that XO will eventually offer this as a backup / restore option.
Yeah it would be great if it could kind of couple that in.
Granted, it is pretty easy to do already, though.
You can backup metadata daily to the SR (in the form of a VHD it creates for itself), or manually to another location. You can also write a script to export the metadata...
http://techblog.danielpellarini.com/sysadmin/backup-your-xenserver-vm-metadata-daily-to-a-cifs-share/Not sure what value an exported copy of the metadata is if the SR is lost - you'll be restoring the Metadata through XO restores, won't you?
If the SR is lost, you are building a new server and restoring from backup. How did you even get here from where we were?
The point of everything here is to recover the host OS. No one has ever mentioned anything about losing the SR and recovering.
Then why bring up the point of being able to store the metadata someplace other than on the SR itself. Again, the metadata is only worth anything as long as the SR is still viable. That was my point.
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@Dashrender said in XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing):
@JaredBusch said in XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing):
@Dashrender said in XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing):
@BRRABill said in XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing):
@Danp said in XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing):
@Dashrender said in XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing):
There's a difference between backing up the entire boot partition vs. Creating a backup of the metadata then when you have a problem reinstalling xenserver on to a new memory stick and then restoring the metadata to that from the backup.
Agreed... which is why I would hope that XO will eventually offer this as a backup / restore option.
Yeah it would be great if it could kind of couple that in.
Granted, it is pretty easy to do already, though.
You can backup metadata daily to the SR (in the form of a VHD it creates for itself), or manually to another location. You can also write a script to export the metadata...
http://techblog.danielpellarini.com/sysadmin/backup-your-xenserver-vm-metadata-daily-to-a-cifs-share/Not sure what value an exported copy of the metadata is if the SR is lost - you'll be restoring the Metadata through XO restores, won't you?
If the SR is lost, you are building a new server and restoring from backup. How did you even get here from where we were?
The point of everything here is to recover the host OS. No one has ever mentioned anything about losing the SR and recovering.
Then why bring up the point of being able to store the metadata someplace other than on the SR itself. Again, the metadata is only worth anything as long as the SR is still viable. That was my point.
No one did. It was only mentioned that one of the tools available does a backup to the SR by default.
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@JaredBusch said in XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing):
@Dashrender said in XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing):
@JaredBusch said in XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing):
@Dashrender said in XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing):
@BRRABill said in XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing):
@Danp said in XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing):
@Dashrender said in XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing):
There's a difference between backing up the entire boot partition vs. Creating a backup of the metadata then when you have a problem reinstalling xenserver on to a new memory stick and then restoring the metadata to that from the backup.
Agreed... which is why I would hope that XO will eventually offer this as a backup / restore option.
Yeah it would be great if it could kind of couple that in.
Granted, it is pretty easy to do already, though.
You can backup metadata daily to the SR (in the form of a VHD it creates for itself), or manually to another location. You can also write a script to export the metadata...
http://techblog.danielpellarini.com/sysadmin/backup-your-xenserver-vm-metadata-daily-to-a-cifs-share/Not sure what value an exported copy of the metadata is if the SR is lost - you'll be restoring the Metadata through XO restores, won't you?
If the SR is lost, you are building a new server and restoring from backup. How did you even get here from where we were?
The point of everything here is to recover the host OS. No one has ever mentioned anything about losing the SR and recovering.
Then why bring up the point of being able to store the metadata someplace other than on the SR itself. Again, the metadata is only worth anything as long as the SR is still viable. That was my point.
No one did. It was only mentioned that one of the tools available does a backup to the SR by default.
what? They did but they didn't? Yes, Bill mentioned using scripts or manually copying to someplace other than the SR - so I was commenting about that comment - geez, Just trying to have a conversation here.
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@Dashrender said in XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing):
@JaredBusch said in XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing):
@Dashrender said in XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing):
@JaredBusch said in XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing):
@Dashrender said in XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing):
@BRRABill said in XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing):
@Danp said in XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing):
@Dashrender said in XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing):
There's a difference between backing up the entire boot partition vs. Creating a backup of the metadata then when you have a problem reinstalling xenserver on to a new memory stick and then restoring the metadata to that from the backup.
Agreed... which is why I would hope that XO will eventually offer this as a backup / restore option.
Yeah it would be great if it could kind of couple that in.
Granted, it is pretty easy to do already, though.
You can backup metadata daily to the SR (in the form of a VHD it creates for itself), or manually to another location. You can also write a script to export the metadata...
http://techblog.danielpellarini.com/sysadmin/backup-your-xenserver-vm-metadata-daily-to-a-cifs-share/Not sure what value an exported copy of the metadata is if the SR is lost - you'll be restoring the Metadata through XO restores, won't you?
If the SR is lost, you are building a new server and restoring from backup. How did you even get here from where we were?
The point of everything here is to recover the host OS. No one has ever mentioned anything about losing the SR and recovering.
Then why bring up the point of being able to store the metadata someplace other than on the SR itself. Again, the metadata is only worth anything as long as the SR is still viable. That was my point.
No one did. It was only mentioned that one of the tools available does a backup to the SR by default.
what? They did but they didn't? Yes, Bill mentioned using scripts or manually copying to someplace other than the SR - so I was commenting about that comment - geez, Just trying to have a conversation here.
The mere concept of this thread makes him angry!
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@scottalanmiller said in XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing):
@BRRABill said in XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing):
@scottalanmiller said in XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing):
@BRRABill said in XenServer 7.0: clone USB (without removing):
Can we pick this discussion back up?
Maybe explain what you meant by:
"You have to copy what there is to where you want it. If the filesystem is on /dev/sda1 you don't want /dev/sda or you are copying the partitioning layer with it."Correct. /dev/sda1 is a single partition. /dev/sda is a full device. If you dd /dev/sda, you are getting the entire device, including the partition table. If you dd /dev/sda1 you are only getting the contents of the one partition.
So...
dd /dev/sda /dev/sdb
would be what we are looking for to clone the entire USB device to anotehr blank one to allow it to be used for DR purposes?
Correct
So, back to this question.
Is there a reason this wouldn't work on a running machine?
It's just doing block by block, right?
