Crucial Paradigm

If you have tried installing any software on XenServer you will know that it is not an easy process. This article shows how you can install smartctl on a XenServer server. Smartctl is a great utility to monitor drives and if they have had any errors.

To install run the following:

wget ftp://ftp.pbone.net/mirror/archive.fedoraproject.org/fedora/linux/releases/8/Everything/i386/os/Packages/smartmontools-5.37-7.fc8.i386.rpm
wget ftp://ftp.pbone.net/mirror/archive.fedoraproject.org/fedora/linux/releases/8/Fedora/i386/os/Packages/mailx-8.1.1-46.fc7.i386.rpm
rpm -hiv smartmontools-5.37-7.fc8.i386.rpm mailx-8.1.1-46.fc7.i386.rpm

You now have smartctl installed on XenServer!

If the physical interface used for the manage interface needs to be changed, edit the MANAGEMENT_INTERFACE field /etc/xensource-inventory file on the host to reflect the new interface being used. Make sure you use the bridge interface (e.g. xenbr0) and not the physical NIC.

Once you have made this modification you will need to run the following:

xe-toolstack-restart

Rather than copying a virtual machine to the ESXi hardware node, there is a quick easy way to upload it via the VMware vSphere client.  This can be done by doing the following:

1. In the vSphere client, click on the server.
2. Click on the summary tab.
3. Right click on datastore -> Browse Datastore
4. Use the icon with the up arrow in front of some disks (Upload files to this datastore)
5. Upload the folder or files that you require.
6. Create a new (or use an existing) VM and use the vmdk file you have uploaded.

We have had a few issues lately when doing migrations from one server to another in HyperVM. It seems for some reason HyperVM just shows the VPS as being migrated and never leaves this state (for several hours). To fix this you can just run the following command on the HyperVM master:

pkill -f switchserver.php

IMPORTANT: Make sure you keep a backup of your VPS!

Xen and OpenVZ can be seen as one of the same both being virtualisation technologies they are actually very different. As a lot of you know Crucial Paradigm has been offering Xen based virtual private servers for some time now and to date we’ve built up a solid name for ourselves due to the stability and performance of the product we offer.

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