Disaster recovery and automation with XenServer

Jerome Reid

Agenda
Introduction Backup and recovery tools XenServer CLI basics

Sample Scripts

Agenda
Introduction Introduction Backup and and recovery recovery tools tools Backup XenServer CLI basics

Sample Scripts

Why backup?
Failure can result in wider impact as a result of workload consolidation A properly designed backup plan will minimize downtime Comprehensive backup up plan needed for Disaster recovery

What can be backed up

Pool configuration database (state.db) VM Metadata

XenServer Control Domain

Pool db
Master maintains pool db The UUIDs of all objects are tracked in the pool db Slaves take pool db backup Master

Active pool db db RPC

Slaves

Passive snapshot

Vm metadata
Contained within the pool db Contains VM information: name, description, uuid VM configuration: amount of virtual memory, virtual CPUs

XenServer Control Domain

The privileged Control Domain that runs Xen and the XenServer agent The Control Domain software is installed on the primary partition.

Backup and recovery tools

Metadata Backup
xe-backup-metadata, xe-restore-metadata Also available via the XenServer console (xsconsole)

Pool db backup
xe pool-dump-database , xe pool-restore-database

Vm metadata
xe vm-export --metadata, xe vm-import --metadata

XenServer Control Domain

xe host-backup

backup-metadata
When a metadata backup is first taken, a special backup VDI is created on a SR. This VDI stores the following backups:
A full pool-database backup. Individual VM metadata backups, partitioned by the SRs in which the VM has disks. SR-level metadata which can be used to recreate the SR description when the storage is reattached.

The metadata backup and restore works at the command-line script level Also supported in the menu-driven text console.

backup-metadata
Metadata backup/restore can also be performed and scehduled via the XS console:

backup-metadata
Metadata backup/restore can be run and scripted via the CLI: xebackup-metadata,xe-restore-metadata
xe-backup-metadata provides an interface to create the backup VDIs xe-backup-metadata -h xe-backup-metadata -c -u <sr uuid> xe-backup-metadata -d -u <sr uuid>

Simplifying Disaster Recovery

1

3 4

Automated backup of VM metadata to SR Replication of SR includes Virtual Disks and VM metadata Attach replicated SR Restore of VM metadata will recreate VMs

Shared Storage

Shared Storage

Production Site

DR Site

pool-dump-database
Downloads a copy of the entire pool db and dumps it into a file on the client Only available via the CLI xe pool-dump-database
file-name=

xe pool-restore-database
File-name=

Can be scripted and saved to a network share. See Citrix article CTX116632

pool-dump-database
pool-restore-database xe-toolstack-restart Single Host

Pool db

Pool db backup

pool-dump-database
Master pool-restore-database xe-toolstack-restart

Pool db

Pool db backup

Slaves

vm-export metadata
xe vm-export
filename=<filename> vm=<vm name-label> metadata=true

xe vm-import
filename=<filename> metadata=true

Can be scripted
Can be saved to network share. Please see Citrix article CTX117258

host-backup
xe host-backup
file-name= host= <host_selector_value> Archives the active partition to a specified file

xe host-restore
file-name= host= <host_selector_value>. extracts the archive created by xe host-backup over the host's currently inactive disk partition

host-backup
The backup partition can then be made active by booting off the installation CD and choosing the Restore option.

Agenda
Introduction Introduction Backup and recovery tools XenServer CLI basics

Sample Scripts

CLI Basics
The XenServer CLI provides additional functionality over the XenCenter Interface New features are often developed in the CLI before being available in the GUI CLI enables scripts for automating system administration tasks

Object model
The object model and classes are key to understanding the CLI
Host and VM interact with the storage,virtual disk and network objects using connecttor objects
VM Config VM Network Config Disk Config

VIF
Network

VBD
VDI SR PBD

PIF HOST Host Config

Object model

VM

VIF
Network

CLI Basics
Basic Syntax
xe <command-name> <argument=value> <argument=value>

Object commands
xe <class>-<TAB> Where class can be: bond,console,host,network, patch, pbd, pif, pool,sr, task, template, vbd, vdi, vif, vlan, vm

Object List commands

xe <class>list-<TAB> xe vm-list

Object Param commands

xe <class>-param-<TAB> xe vm-param-list, vm-param-set, vm-param-get,vm-param-clear

CLI Basics
Filtering
vm-list HVM-boot-policy="BIOS order" power-state=halted

Parameterization
xe vm-list params=name-label

Parameterization and filtering can be combined

xe vm-list HVM-boot-policy="BIOS order" power-state=halted params=name-label

Minimal Output
xe vm-list HVM-boot-policy="BIOS order" power-state=halted params=name-label --minimal

Agenda
Introduction Introduction Backup and recovery tools XenServer CLI basics

Sample Scripts Scripts Sample

Sample Scripts
List all loaded CD and set to empty Pool-dump database script

Modify a VIF parameter on all VM's

VLAN creation

List all loaded CD and set to empty

#!/bin/bash # this section returns a list of VBD's of type CD, unpluggable false (to avoid listing xentools) # and empty is false to return only loaded CD roms this is all filtering #we are only returning the parameter vm uuid and minimal, the sed utility is used to replace the ,delimitation with spaces #the result is place in the cdlist variable cdlist=`xe vbd-list type=CD unpluggable=false empty=false params=vm-uuid --minimal | sed s/,/" "/g`

#we loop through the cdlist and for each instance we get the name label using the uuid, print it out # and we eject the the CDusing the vm uuid for vm in $cdlist do echo $vm vmname=`xe vm-list uuid=$vm params=name-label --minimal` echo "eject CD from $vmname" xe vm-cd-eject uuid="$vm" done

List all loaded CD and set to empty (Powershell 1)

#script to connect to xenserver farm and eject all media $xdsnapin = 'XenServerPSSnapIn' $xsfarmurl = 'http://10.54.76.173' $xsuser = 'root' $xspass = 'citrix #Load XS Snapin if(Get-PSSnapin| Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Name -contains $xdsnapin}) { Write-Host "snapin already loaded" } else { #load snapin $ret = Add-PSSnapin -Name $xdsnapin -PassThru if(!$ret) { #error write-host "snapin error" break } else { Write-Host "snapin added" } }

List all loaded CD and set to empty (Powershell 2)

#connect to xenserver farm $xs = connect-XenServer -url $xsfarmurl -username $xsuser -password $xspass #comment out -password to force prompt #get list of virtual block devices $vbds = get-XenServer:VBD foreach($vbd in $vbds) { #check to see if its a cd and attached if ($vbd.type -ieq 'cd' -and $vbd.unpluggable -ieq $False -and $vbd.empty -ieq $False) { #get VM name (there might be a better way) $pht = @{} $pht.Add('opaque_ref',$vbd.VM.ServerOpaqueRef.ToString()) $vm = get-xenserver:VM -Properties $pht Write-Host "removing cd $($vbd.uuid) from vm $($vm.name_label)" $ret = Invoke-XenServer:VBD.eject -besteffort -runasync -vbd $vbd $ret = wait-xenserver:task -Task $ret -besteffort showprogress if ($ret) { Write-Host "failed to remove cd $($vbd.uuid) from vm $($vm.name_label):$($ret)" } } } write-Host 'finished'

# THIS SECTION VERIFIES IF THE LocalDirectoryName HAS NOT BEEN MOUNTED. IF NOT IT WILL MOUNT THE SHARE. MountName="" MountName=`mount -l | grep LocalDirectoryName` if [ "$MountName" = "" ]; then mount -t nfs <NFSSERVERNAME>:/<NFSShareNAME> /<LocalDirectoryName> echo "MOUNT POINT SUCCESSFULL /n" Fi # THIS SECTION WILL VERIIFY IF THE MOUNT POINT EXISTS BEFORE PERFORMING THE BACKUP OPERATION. MountTest="" MountTest=`mount -l | grep LocalDirectoryName ` if [ "$MountTest" != "" ]; then xe pool-dump-database file-name=/ LocalDirectoryName/`date '+XenPoolBackup_%m-%d-%y_ %H-%M-%S'` fi

Pool-dump database script

Modify a VIF parameter on all VM's

#!/bin/bash #in this section we list all the vifs,only return the uuid parameter and use the minimal switch to omit the parameter name #we use sed to replace the , delimiter with a space #we place the result in the variable VIFLIST VIFLIST=`xe vif-list params=uuid --minimal | sed s/,/" "/g`

#in this section we loop through VIFLIST # we use param clear to clear the other cconfig parameter and we set the ethtool-tx=off for all the listed vifs for VIF in $VIFLIST do echo $VIF xe vif-param-clear uuid=$VIF param-name=other-config xe vif-param-set uuid=$VIF other-config:ethtool-tx="off" done

#!/bin/bash i=0 vlantag=1 devname=eth0 while [ $i -lt 3 ] do netname=vlan$vlantag netuuid=`xe network-create name-label=$netname` echo Network UUID $netuuid pifuuid=`xe pif-list device=$devname VLAN=-1 --minimal` echo PIF UUID $pifuuid vlanuuid=`xe vlan-create network-uuid=$netuuid pif-uuid=$pifuuid vlan=$vlantag` echo Vlan UUID $vlanuuid i=$[$i+1] vlantag=$[$vlantag +1] netuuid=' ' pifuuid=' ' vlanuuid=' ' done

VLAN creation

Continue Your Learning

The following course expands on today's topics and is recommended to support your Citrix solution:
CXS-200 Implementing Citrix XenServer Enterprise Edition 5.0

Visit www.citrixeducation.com for more information