Getting vDisk properties via MCLI

C“Virtual disk status” information can be extracted from the systray of the vDisk .

This can also be extracted via MCLI command
C:\Program Files\Citrix\Provisioning Services>mcli get disk -p diskLocatorId=1f4
bc0f9-8d18-4cee-88e9-241684a958d3
Executing: Get DISK
Get succeeded. 1 record(s) returned.
Record #1
    class:
    imageType:
    diskSize: 10485760000
    writeCacheSize: 0
    autoUpdateEnabled: 0
    activationDateEnabled: 0
    adPasswordEnabled: 1
    haEnabled: 0
    printerManagementEnabled: 0
    writeCacheType: 1
    activeDate: 2010/05/03
    longDescription:
    serialNumber: 62cd53ea-5448-11df-8000-000000000000
    date: 04/30/2010  12:06:11
    author:
    title:
    company:
    internalName: c:\pvs\srv2k3templ
    originalFile: c:\pvs\srv2k3templ
    hardwareTarget:
    majorRelease: 1
    minorRelease: 0
    build: 1
Source: CTX121333

Nicbonding issue with XenServer 5.5 , when connected to resource pool

If a pool of servers is created, and NIC 0+1 is bonded with the management interface running on this bonded network. All configuration steps were done from XenCenter
Problem :A new XenServer is added to the pool, the NICs are un-bonded before adding it to the pool (but the same problem exists even if they are bonded).The new XenServer is added to the pool and it picks up the pool network configuration however the Bond0+1network shows as unknown rather than connected.
Below host GMHO-PXEN002 host has been added into resource pool and under “management interfaces” you can see it as “Network”

But for host GMHO-PXEN001 both the “Management Interfaces” are clearly visible with correct bond

At the pool level only three “Management Interfaces ” are visible.

I then checked the file under /proc/net/bonding on host 001 and found that there are two bond file as per two bond existence

I then checked the file under host 002 and found that only one file is there though there are two bonds

Resolution
Remove the Bond0+1 network from the pool (which obviously affects all servers) and create the bond 0+1 again. Now this bond shows as connected on all XenServers.
To cross check I checked the file under host 002 and found that there are two files now

At the host level also it is shown correctly

Dell answer to HP Virtual Connect :SR-IOV

Dell has come up with solution partenring Citrix to virtualize I/O . They name this technology as SR-IOV (Single Root I/O Virtualization ).In this solution, instead of a hypervisor virtualizing an I/O device in the software and sharing that emulated virtual NIC with multiple VMs, a single I/O hardware itself is subdivided logically to appear as 128 virtual NICs. Each NIC is assigned independently and directly to a virtual machine to provide precise per-VM control for connection speed and quality of service.

In HP Virtual Connect , you basically control and divide LOM card on blade into 8 different nic and then it is presented to host . On host you create a virtual switch to share the nic.

Read the complete story here

Ports between Provisioning Server and VM hosted on Xen Server

When you have firewall between Provisioning Server and Virtual Desk in Xen Server host then following ports need to be opened.

Source Group	Destination Group	Protocol/Port	Description	Notes
Virtual Desktops	DHCP Servers	UDP:66, UDP:67	DHCP option for TFTP Service and Bootfile name
Virtual Desktops	TFTP Server	UDP:69	Trivial File Transfer
Virtual Desktops	PVS Servers	UDP:6910-6930	Provisioning Services Streaming Service
XenApp Servers	DHCP Servers	UDP:66, UDP:67	DHCP option for TFTP Service and Bootfile name
XenApp Servers	TFTP Server	UDP:69	Trivial File Transfer
XenApp Servers	Provisioning Server	UDP:6910-6930	Provisioning Services Streaming Service
PVS Servers	Domain Controllers	TCP:389	LDAP communication
PVS Servers	PVS Servers	UDP:6905-6909	Inter-server communication
PVS Servers	License Server	TCP:27000 and 7279	Handles check-in and check-out of Citrix licenses	Requires inter-data centre communications
PVS Servers	PVS Database Server	TCP:1433	Microsoft SQL Server
PVS Servers	XenServers	TCP:443	Communications with XenServer infrastructure	Required by XenDesktop Setup Wizard.  Management traffic is encrypted.
Management Console	PVS Servers	TCP:54321, 54322	SOAP

How to attach RDM on XenServer VM ?

On a Local Storage, iSCSI, or Fibre Channel SR please complete the following:
Retrieve the universal unique Id (UUID) of the SR via the “xe sr-list” command, which can be modified. “xe sr-list | more” will display a page at a time as opposed to the previous command which will scroll off in a long listing. Another option is to filter by type. In the following screenshot, I use the “type=lvm”. Other filters can be “type=lvmoiscsi” for iSCSI, “type=lvmohba” for Fibre Channel.

Once we had gotten the UUID of the SR that we want to create a raw LVM virtual disk image (VDI) we need to use the following command where we use the parameter “sm-config:type=raw”:
xe vdi-create sm-config:type=raw sr-uuid=687a023b-0b20-5e5f-d1ef-3db777ce7ae4 name-label="My Raw LVM VDI" virtual-size=8GiB type=user We see that the command completes when we see a new UUID for the new VDI:556cf57b-8a1d-4211-8daf-6157956cac46

Once complete, we can see that the new VDI has a different label than other VDIs. There will be “LV-<uuid of the VDI> as in the following “lvdisplay | more” command:

Now we can attach this VDI to a new VM or an existing one if needed. Please be advised that when creating and using RAW logical volumes instead of VHD based logical volumes that all ability to take snapshots/clones of virtual disk images.
On the Storage Tab of the SR, you should see a new unformatted VDI:

This can be added to an existing VM via the VMs storage tab, or a new VMs storage tab:



HINT: When using the New VM wizard, please be sure to uncheck the do not start VM automatically on the last step.