BRRABill's Field Report With XenServer

olivier

@BRRABill Yes It could be added, but XAPI tasks are such a mess. We can't be sure about them, but yes it's possible to fetch them and store them somewhere. But it will be only informative and not the "truth".

About auto power on: if you did it with XO, it's normally done in both pool and VM at the same time (see https://xen-orchestra.com/blog/auto-start-vm-on-xenserver-boot/ ).

To check your current pool status with autopower on: xe pool-param-get uuid=<POOL_UUID> param-name=other-config

BRRABill

@olivier said:

To check your current pool status with autopower on: xe pool-param-get uuid=<POOL_UUID> param-name=other-config

This is what that command returned:
cpuid_feature_mask: ffffff7f-ffffffff-ffffffff-ffffffff; memory-ratio-hvm: 0.25; memory-ratio-pv: 0.25

olivier

Hmm no autopower_on activated. I imagine you already tick the checkbox on the XO GUI? Normally, this will add the right parameter in the pool. If not, I have to check this on my side too.

BRRABill

@olivier said:

Hmm no autopower_on activated. I imagine you already tick the checkbox on the XO GUI? Normally, this will add the right parameter in the pool. If not, I have to check this on my side too.

You mean the "auto power" dropdown on the VM? Yes.

Just to test, I enabled it though the CLI, and then re-ran the commands, and this is what it said. Note I did NOT adjust the parameter for the VM itself through the CLI, so perhaps XO just needed the pool setting changed. I rebooted, and it did indeed auto-start.

[root@xenserver-TEST ~]# xe pool-param-get uuid=3526ffee-1afe-6162-0afc-6362580d10cc param-name=other-config

auto_poweron: true; cpuid_feature_mask: ffffff7f-ffffffff-ffffffff-ffffffff; memory-ratio-hvm: 0.25; memory-ratio-pv: 0.25

[root@xenserver-TEST ~]# xe vm-param-get uuid=d09990ec-73ce-9946-9698-8b8ba70621fe param-name=other-config

auto_poweron: true; vgpu_pci: ; mac_seed: b3cddb7b-b5ec-f3c8-368a-2ba33059f96a; install-methods: cdrom; base_template_name: Windows Server 2012 R2 (64-bit)

olivier

AFAIK, XO would do both (activate the "autopower" on your VM but also on its pool).

If it's not the case anymore, maybe something is broken on our side. Let me check that.

BRRABill

@olivier said:

AFAIK, XO would do both (activate the "autopower" on your VM but also on its pool).

If it's not the case anymore, maybe something is broken on our side. Let me check that.

Let me know if there is anything I can do to help.

BRRABill

@olivier said:

AFAIK, XO would do both (activate the "autopower" on your VM but also on its pool).

If it's not the case anymore, maybe something is broken on our side. Let me check that.

They did in recent versions apparently remove the "auto power on" from the GUI due to issues with HA. I wonder if that broke something on your end?

olivier

Don't know.

But we are doing this in the code:

    if auto_poweron
      yield xapi.call 'VM.add_to_other_config', ref, 'auto_poweron', 'true'
      yield xapi.setPoolProperties({autoPowerOn: true})
    else
      yield xapi.call 'VM.remove_from_other_config', ref, 'auto_poweron'

So in theory, this should work.

BRRABill

On my Server 2003 VM, whenever I go to console, it loads the following dialog box. I hit CANCEL and the console shows up.

Does not do this on my Server 2012 eval box.

Any thoughts on why it does this? Is this standard?

Dashrender

@BRRABill said:

On my Server 2003 VM, whenever I go to console, it loads the following dialog box. I hit CANCEL and the console shows up.

Does not do this on my Server 2012 eval box.

Any thoughts on why it does this? Is this standard?

Yep...Because the older version of RDP doesn't have authentication like the new one. So assuming you're using Windows 7 or newer on the client side, the RDP client in Win7 or newer is looking for that authentication - which it gets from Server 2012, but not from 2003 - and it's warning you of such.

BRRABill

@Dashrender

Is the "console" tab using RDP?

Dashrender

@BRRABill said:

@Dashrender

Is the "console" tab using RDP?

No the console tab in XC is using whatever protocol Citrix decided to use to pull the console in, it's completely outside of Windows.

Open mouth, insert foot - apparently I don't know what I'm talking about he has a picture where XC is demanding RDC info.. the above show picture..

BRRABill

PROOF!

scottalanmiller

@BRRABill said:

@Dashrender

Is the "console" tab using RDP?

Might, it is an open protocol. Lots of things use it. I assumed VNC as that is the standard, but RDP is totally possible.

scottalanmiller

@Dashrender said:

No the console tab in XC is using whatever protocol Citrix decided to use to pull the console in, it's completely outside of Windows.

All of this is absolutely true... except possible the "no" at the beginning.

BRRABill

I thought using RDP to manage servers was a ML no-no.

scottalanmiller

@BRRABill said:

I thought using RDP to manage servers was a ML no-no.

You aren't using it to manage the servers, you are using it to install them and you aren't connected to the server with it, but to the platform.

And it IS a no no regardless, you should not be managing a server post install from the console at all. RDP is a no no because you should not be at the console.

Dashrender

@BRRABill said:

I thought using RDP to manage servers was a ML no-no.

I'm wondering where that came from?

While I do try to use RSAT whenever possible, the convinence of RDPing into a server sometimes just can't be beat.

Heck i was just RDP'ed into my Exchange and AD1 servers...

Dashrender

@scottalanmiller said:

And it IS a no no regardless, you should not be managing a server post install from the console at all. RDP is a no no because you should not be at the console.

To me saying this is tantamount to saying that you should never SSH into a Linux box - instead you should be sending remote commands to the Linux box.

scottalanmiller

@Dashrender said:

@BRRABill said:

I thought using RDP to manage servers was a ML no-no.

I'm wondering where that came from?

While I do try to use RSAT whenever possible, the convinence of RDPing into a server sometimes just can't be beat.

Heck i was just RDP'ed into my Exchange and AD1 servers...

It's not a very strong thing. But it goes against modern philosophies from all sides. On the "good systems admins" side, tools like RSAT and PowerShell are supposed to be better. On the DevOps side, you never log into to anything, ever.

RDP becomes a no no because in either of those ideal cases, the GUI isn't even installed so RDP gets you nothing but an expensive command prompt that PowerShell is better at, anyway.