7 - CCAT - Troubleshooting Training XenServer v1.0

CCAT Troubleshooting Training
XenServer
April 2012
Citrix Consulting Architecture Team

Agenda
XenServer Storage Overview

Troubleshooting Storage Issues
XenServer Performance Troubleshooting
XenServer Storage
Architecture Overview
XenServer Storage Overview
XenServer Storage Objects

SRs, VDIs, PBDs and VBDs
Virtual Disk Data Formats

File-based VHD, LVM and StorageLink
What is an SR (Shared Repository)?
Describes a particular storage target in which Virtual Disk

Images (VDIs) are stored.
Flexiblesupports a wide variety of storage types.
Centralizedeasier to manage, more reliable with a
XenServer pool.
Must be accessible to each XenServer host.
VDIs, PBDs, VBDs
Virtual Disk Images are a storage abstraction that is

presented to a VM.
Physical Block Devices represent the interface between a
physical server and an attached SR.
Virtual Block Devices are connector objects that allow
mappings between VDIs and VMs.
Citrix Confidential - Do Not Distribute

SR
PBD VDI VBD

XenServer Host
Virtual Machine
PBD VDI VBD

XenServer Host
Virtual Machine
VDI VBD
PBD
XenServer Host
File-based VHD
VM images are stored as thin-provisioned VHD format files

on either a local non-shared file system (EXT type SR) or a
shared NFS target (NFS type SR).
What is VHD?
A Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) is a file formatted to be structurally identical to a
physical Hard Disk Drive.
Image Format Specification was created by Microsoft in June, 2005.
Logical Volume (LVM)-based VHDs
The default XenServer block device-based storage inserts a

Logical Volume manager on a disk. VDIs are represented
as volumes within the Volume manager.
Introduced LVHD in XenServer 5.5
Enhances LVM for SRs
Hosts VHD files directly on LVM volumes
Adds Advanced Storage features like Fast Cloning and Snapshots
Fast and simple upgrade
Backwards compatible
StorageLink (LUN per VDI)
LUNs are directly mapped to VMs as VDIs by SR types that

provide an array-specific plug-in (NetApp, Equallogic or
StorageLink type SRs). The array storage abstraction
therefore matches the VDI storage abstraction for
environments that manage storage provisioning at an array
level.

StorageLink Architecture
XenServer calls direct to Array APIs to

provision and adjust storage on demand.
Fully leverages array hardware capabilities.
Virtual disk drives are individual LUNs.
High performance storage model.
Only the server running a VM connects to
the individual LUN(s) for that VM.
A special master server coordinates which
servers connect to which LUNs

LVM vs. StorageLink
XenServer
XenServer XenServer
XenServer
iSCSI
iSCSI // FC
FC iSCSI
iSCSI // FC
FC
+
Storage
Storage Repository
Repository Storage
Storage Repository
Repository
LUN
LUN
VHD
VHD header
header VHD
VHD header
header
LVM
LVM LVM
LVM LUN LUN
LUN LUN
Logical
Logical Logical
Logical
Volume
Volume Volume
Volume
LVM
LVM Volume
Volume Group
Group
VM Virtual Disk
Troubleshooting and Diagnosing
Common Storage Issues
Troubleshooting XenServer Storage
Native Troubleshooting Tools XenServer Logs
Always check the logs first! XenServer creates several logs

that are useful for diagnosing storage problems
/var/log/messages # General messages and system related stuff
/var/log/xensource.log # Logging specific to XenAPI
/var/log/SMlog # Logging specific to XenServer storage manager
Often errors logged in any of these files can be searched for in the Citrix
Knowledge Center for a solution. See http://support.citrix.com.

Native Troubleshooting Tools XenAPI commands
The XenAPI (xe) can be used to troubleshoot storage issues too

# xe sr-scan # Force XAPI to sync the database with local VDIs present in
the underlying substrate.
# xe sr-probe # Using device-config parameters you can probe a block device
for its characteristics, such as existing VM metadata and SR
uuid.
# xe pbd-plug/unplug # Manually plug or unplug a PBD for an SR. This can be
useful when repairing an SR in XenCenter fails.

Native Troubleshooting Tools VHD commands
See and verify mount point of VHD SR

# /var/run/sr-mount/<SR UUID>
full provision VHD SR

vhd-util
See http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX118842
Check VHD architecture

# hexdump -vC <VDI-UUID>.vhd | less

Storage Multipathing
Ensure that multipathing is enabled if you have multiple paths zoned to the
XenServer
Use sg_map x and check the host and bus IDs
Problems if you do not enable multipath

I/O Errors
Decrease in performance
Introduce errors with SR.create
What is multipath.conf vs multipath-enabled.conf

multipath.conf is symlink to multipath-enable.conf or multipath-disabled.conf
DMP vs. MPP multipathing

http://support.citrix.com/article/ctx121364
SAN Debugging
Always start at the hardware

adapter, use the Qlogic or
Emulex CLI tools to verify the
LUNs known to the adapter
For QLogic, run scli
For Emulex, run hbanywhere
Use xe sr-probe
type=lvmohba to trigger a bus
refresh Citrix Confidential - Do Not Distribute
Additional Scenarios
Unable to create SRs
Verify that XenServer can see the storage/LUN
Use fdisk and /dev/disk/xxx
Verify that HBA can see the LUN
Use the HBA CLI tools
Verify that iSCSI can login:
# iscsiadm m node L all # Will force iscsid service to log into the storage array.
Clearing the device mappings via CMD line

# echo 1 > /sys/class/scsi_devices/x:x:x:x/device/delete
Be extremely careful what device is being deleted!
Clean up of orphaned VDIs, XC not displaying the right amount of free storage
If a logical volume has no corresponding VDI it can be deleted. Be extremely careful with this
because if you delete a parent disk, then you lost all differentiated disks.
XenServer Performance
Troubleshooting
XenServer Performance Overview
How do we determine optimal VM density for a host?

XenServer Hardware
Infrastructure, such as network and storage
Workload and sizing demands of the virtual machines
Native XenServer characteristics
Toolstack
Toolstack App
App App
App App
App App
App
Guest
Guest OS
OS Guest
Guest OS
OS
netback
netback netfront
netfront netfront
netfront
Native
Native
Driver
Driver
Dom0
Dom0 DomU
DomU DomU
DomU
Xen
Xen Hypervisor
Hypervisor
Host Machine (Hardware)

XenServer Performance Overview
External Factors
Network
Storage
VM Workload and Sizing
Domain 0 Memory Management
for Dom0
for DomU total Dom0

6346
352
400
752
MB
328 xn
6 MB + ( for DomU
= Total ) = memory
DomU required
footprint
for DomU for n VMs
Total XenServer
Memory
Dom0 Memory for
Pool DomU
(ex. 12GB)
752MB allows for about
Pool
60 VMs-per-host
Troubleshooting XenServer Performance
What happens when we start more VMs than Dom0 has memory to
manage?
Slow VM performance, poor user experience.
Slow response from XenAPItakes longer to process tasks like
starting, shutting down and migrating virtual machines.
It can cause XenServer host instability resulting in unpredictable
behavior and potentially crashing the XenServer host machine!!
There are two common ways to monitor performance in XenServer
XenCenter Performance Tab XenServer Command Line Interface

Using XenCenter
Good for at a glance monitoring
Unwieldy for refined or customized performance testing
Difficult to use for historical trending
Data cannot be easily exported
Some types of information not gathered.
# top # Provides a dynamic real-time view of a running system.
Tasks: 68 total, 2 running, 65 sleeping, 0 stopped, 1 zombie

Cpu(s): 13.0%us, 33.6%sy, 0.0%ni, 1.0%id, 52.5%wa, 0.0%hi, 0.0%si, 0.0%st
Mem: 417792k total, 302832k used, 114960k free, 68384k buffers
Swap: 524280k total, 104k used, 524176k free, 80928k cached
PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND

12857 65550 15 0 27784 3012 1280 D 19 0.6 0:00.57 qemu-dm
4679 root 12 -3 281m 16m 5308 S 12 3.4 3:47.85 xapi
5993 root 15 -3 6164 2276 1188 S 2 0.5 0:24.73 stunnel
1264 root 16 -4 2244 664 384 S 0 0.1 0:24.00 udevd
4641 root 15 0 16348 1936 952 S 0 0.4 0:01.25 xenstored
4650 root 15 0 12304 652 544 S 0 0.1 0:00.05 blktapctrl
12722 root 15 0 2188 1052 836 R 0 0.2 0:00.03 top
Performance monitoring commands

# xentop
# Displays
xentop real-time
- 17:24:33 information about a Xen system and domains.
Xen 3.3.1
4 domains: 1 running, 3 blocked, 0 paused, 0 crashed, 0 dying, 0 shutdown
Mem: 12580820k total, 7092880k used, 5487940k free CPUs: 8 @ 1600MHz
NAME STATE CPU(sec) CPU(%) MEM(k) MEM(%) MAXMEM(k) MAXMEM(%) VCPUS NETS ...
Domain-0 -----r 9849 65.5 417792 3.9 no limit n/a 8 0 ...
Win2K3-01 ------ 1 1.5 2097020 16.7 2106164 16.7 2 1 ...
Win2K3-02 ------ 1 4.3 2097020 16.7 2106164 16.7 2 1 ...
Win2K3-03 ------ 0 9.8 2097020 16.7 2106164 16.7 2 1 ...
What if I need to increase my VM-density-per-host?
We can tune XenServer to increase VM density.

This was achieved by making two key configuration changes to a

default XenServer 6.x installation.
Increased the amount of RAM assigned to Dom0 to 2.94GB from the default
752MB; increasing it enabled us to launch more desktop clients.
Increased the Xen-heap setting to take into account the large number of VMs
on this single server host. This was done by adding "xenheap_megabytes=24"
to the Xen command-line in /boot/extlinux.conf which resulted in an increase
from the default of 16MB to 24MB.
Both the scalability study and instructions for increasing

Dom0 memory limits are documented in the Citrix
Knowledge Center here:
http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX124086 - XenServer Single Server Scalability
with XenDesktop
http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX124259 - Adjusting Dom0 and Xenheap
Setting in XenServer
Disclaimer: Your results may vary! This
testing was done on very high-end equipment
using Citrix best practices!
Troubleshooting commands - Storage

# iostat # Reports basic I/O stats for devices and
partitions
# hdparm # Performs timed sequential reads
# dd # Simple, common block device copy
utility
TIP: iSCSI storage throughput can usually be tied directly
to network performance. If there is slow throughput for an
iSCSI storage array, perform network diagnostics first!!
Troubleshooting commands - Network

# tcpdump # Dumps traffic on a network
http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX120869 - detailed instructions for using
tcpdump.
# netstat # Display network interface statistics

# ifconfig # Display and configure network interfaces
TIP: You can always type man followed by

a Linux command name (i.e., man netstat)
to get detailed help for the command.
Running Shell Scripts
Can capture customized data sets
Can be run over defined periods of time
Can be formatted specifically for reporting purposes.
Requires knowledge of Linux and shell scripting languages.
Additional Information
On the Citrix Knowledge Center you can find shell script examples,
procedures and best practices for how to troubleshoot all aspects of
a XenServer environment.
Some useful links to troubleshooting articles:
http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX124157
Troubleshooting Virtual Machine Performance
Common performance related issues inside the VM:

High CPU
Disk/registry contention
High network utilization
Memory
High CPU
Identify offending Thread (s)

Identify the top function call and its module
Capture user memory dump of offending process for analysis
Engage respective application vendor
ProcessExplorer can be used for live stack-trace viewing!

The Windows Performance Tools
Next generation performance monitoring from Microsoft

Track CPU usage, application start times, boot issues etc.
Identify common performance problems without a debugger
Included with Windows 7 SDK Download
The Windows Performance Tools: Case Study
ICA test run where problem occurred

Notice that on this dual processor machine 1 processor is
frequently at or very close to 100%.
Looking inside the above testing to see which instructions were being
executed the most during the test was wfica32.exe.
The Windows Performance Tools: Case Study
Drilling into the calls of wfica32.exe, lead to the Windows function

NtUserSetCursor() which results in calls to the igdkmd32.sys driver
and then into the kernel specifically the memcpy() function.
Memory Dump Collection
User dumps contain a snapshot of a process memory

Kernel dumps contain a snapshot of kernel memory space
A complete memory dump contains both the kernel and the
entire user space
User Dump Collection
Configure a default post-mortem debugger:
How to Set the NT Symbolic Debugger as a Default Windows

Postmortem Debugger (CTX105888)
How to Set WinDbg as a Default Windows Postmortem

Debugger (CTX107528)
Use Task Manager for manual dumps

System Dump Collection
Small Memory Dump

Generally we avoid
To enable a complete memory dump using the registry:

Kernel Memory Set Dump
the CrashDumpEnabled value to 1
HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\CrashControl
System crash
Complete Memory Dump

System unresponsive
Control Panel -> System->Advanced Tab -> Startup and Recovery
System Dump Collection
Windows 7 introduced the Dedicated Dump Drive setting

Allows a pagefile to be configured on a dedicated drive for dump
capture
Recommended to debug VMs streamed through PVS
How to Recover Windows Kernel Level Dump Files

from Provisioned Target (CTX123642)
Backup Slides
Storage Management and
Monitoring
Management and Monitoring Overview
Understanding how XenServer Perceives the Storage

Monitoring Storage
Protecting Your Data

Management and Monitoring
Understanding the physical disk layout
# fdisk l # Lists the physical block devices on the host

Disk /dev/cciss/c0d0: 146.7 GB, 146778685440 bytes Denotes a SCSI block device
255 heads, 32 sectors/track, 35132 cylinders
locally attached to the system
(HP RAID array in this case)
Units = cylinders of 8160 * 512 = 4177920 bytes
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System The first partition

on the disk
/dev/cciss/c0d0p1 * 1 981 4002464 83 Linux contains the boot
/dev/cciss/c0d0p2 982 1962 4002480 83 Linux information for the
OS.
/dev/cciss/c0d0p3 1963 35132 135333600 83 Linux

Understanding the physical disk layout (continued)
# fdisk l # Continued output Implies a block device using the SCSI

Generic (sg) driver. It is likely
Disk /dev/sda: 107.3 GB, 107374182400 bytes attached via a separate interface such
as iSCSI or FC HBA
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 13054 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes This disk is part of a Storage
Repository using an LVM file
system and therefore does
not require a local partition
Disk /dev/sda doesn't contain a valid partition table
table.

# sg_map x # Displays the mapping between Linux sg and regular SCSI devices
/dev/sg0 0 0 0 0 13
/dev/sg1 0 0 0 1 0 /dev/sda
/dev/sg2 0 0 0 2 0 /dev/sdb
/dev/sg3 1 0 0 0 13
/dev/sg4 1 0 0 1 0 /dev/sdc
/dev/sg5 1 0 0 2 0 /dev/sdd
Host Bus SCSI LUN SCSI

Number ID Type

# ll /dev/disk/by-id # List the attached block devices by SCSI ID.

cciss-3600508b1001035373120202020200003 -> ../../cciss/c0d0
cciss-3600508b1001035373120202020200003-part1 -> ../../cciss/c0d0p1
scsi-360a98000503350642f4a553833616b57 -> ../../sda
Unique ID assigned by This SCSI device is

udev. It corresponds to mapped to /dev/sda
individual block devices.
To identify a specific SR
based on the SCSI ID,
compare /dev/disk/by-id
with the SR in
XenCenter

LVM-related commands
# pvs # Lists physical volumes

PV VG Fmt Attr PSize PFree
/dev/sda VG_XenStorage-40bbf542-b9d9-ffa1-6efe-aa9c56aadd95 lvm2 a- 99.99G 59.88G
Linux sg LVM Volume Group stored on the

device SR UUID
physical volume.
# vgs # Lists volume groups

VG #PV #LV #SN Attr VSize VFree
VG_XenStorage-40bbf542-b9d9-ffa1-6efe-aa9c56aadd95 1 4 0 wz--n- 99.99G 59.88G

LVM (continued)
# lvs # Lists the logical volumes The a and o

LV VG Attr LSize attributes indicate
the LV is active
VHD-c67a887f-3a1a-41f4-8d40-1b21f6307c4a VG_XenStor... -wi--- 24.00G and open implying
it is attached to a
VHD-c9b919a7-b93b-49ea-abe5-00acb8240cf5 VG_XenStor... -wi-ao 8.00G running VM
VHD-f3d26dde-254f-4d80-a3bb-d993e904bd63 VG_XenStor... -wi--- 24.00G
LV-e056f479-b0f3-49f3-bc5d-6c226657ae6c VG_XenStor... -wi-ao 10.00G

Tip: Type lvm help for a
Represents Logical Volume containers complete list of LVM command
LV-ebdcad46-66d9-4020-baa1-0d5b6ac439c7 VG_XenStor... -wi-ao 24.00G
for individual VDIs. options.
Understanding how the physical storage is represented as virtual
objects in XenServer using the XenAPI
# xe sr-list type=lvmoiscsi params=name-label,uuid,VDIs,PBDs
# Lists the SRs configured for the pool
name-label ( RW) : NetApp - iSCSI
uuid ( RO) : 40bbf542-b9d9-ffa1-6efe-aa9c56aadd95
VDIs (SRO) : f3d26dde-254f-4d80-a3bb-d993e904bd63; c67a887f-3a1a-41f4...
PBDs (SRO) : 27d05ffc-07d3-4f02-d265-3594a2179f8f

Note that the VDI UUID is the
Using the PBD UUID from this same as the logical volume ID.
command output we will query for its We will make a note of this UUID
characteristics in the next slide to refer back to.

objects in XenServer using the XenAPI (continued)
# xe pbd-list uuid=27d0 params=uuid,sr-uuid,device-config,currently-attached
# List PBD params
uuid ( RO) : 27d05ffc-07d3-4f02-d265-3594a2179f8f
sr-uuid ( RO): 40bbf542-b9d9-ffa1-6efe-aa9c56aadd95
device-config (MRO): port: 3260; SCSIid: 360a98000503350642f4a553833616b57;

target: 10.12.45.10; targetIQN: iqn.1992-08.com.netapp:sn.135027806
currently-attached ( RO): true

device-config describes all the physical
characteristics of the block device
attached to this PBD. Note the SCSIid as
referenced earlier from /dev/disk/by-id
# xe vdi-list uuid=f3d26dde-254f-4d80-a3bb- params=uuid,sr-uuid,vbd-uuids
# List VDI params
uuid ( RO) : f3d26dde-254f-4d80-a3bb-d993e904bd63
sr-uuid ( RO): 40bbf542-b9d9-ffa1-6efe-aa9c56aadd95
vbd-uuids (SRO): 69afb055-3b52-57e3-63fa-d26b82a9b01d
This tells us what VBDs are attached to this VDI.

We will use this UUID in the next slide to query for
the VBD characteristics and determine which VM
this disk is attached to.

# xe vbd-list uuid=69afb055-3b52- params=uuid,vm-uuid,vm-name-label,vdi-
uuid,mode
# List VBD params
uuid ( RO) : 69afb055-3b52-57e3-63fa-d26b82a9b01d
vm-uuid ( RO): 2c3a0e82-3f96-eab8-4982-db33fdb3bd88
vm-name-label ( RO): Windows 7 Test
vdi-uuid ( RO): f3d26dde-254f-4d80-a3bb-d993e904bd63

This tells us which VM (name
mode ( RW): RW and UUID) this VBD is attached
Tip: You can issue xe help to, and which VDI it is providing
<command> to get syntax help for to the VM.
any xe commands.
Fibre Channel LUN Zoning
Since Enterprise SANs consolidate data from multiple servers and operating systems, many types of traffic
and data are sent through the interface, whether it is fabric or the network.
With Fibre Channel, to ensure security and dedicated resources, an administrator creates zones and zone sets
to restrict access to specified areas. A zone divides the fabric into groups of devices.
Zone sets are groups of zones. Each zone set represents different configurations that optimize the fabric for
certain functions.
WWN - Each HBA has a unique World Wide Name (similar to an Ethernet MAC)
node WWN (WWNN) - can be shared by some or all ports of a device

port WWN (WWPN) - necessarily unique to each port
Fibre Channel LUN Zoning
Pool1 Pool2
Xen1
Xen1 Xen2
Xen2 Xen3
Xen3
Xen1 WWN Xen2 WWN Xen3 WWN
Zone1 Zone2 FC Switch

Storage WWN Storage WWN
Initiator Group Initiator Group

Xen1, Xen2 Xen3 Storage
LUN0 LUN1 LUN2
FC Switch example
iSCSI Isolation
With iSCSI type storage a similar concept of isolation as fibre-channel zoning can be achieved by using IP
subnets and, if required, VLANs.
IQN Each storage interface (NIC or iSCSI HBA) has configured a unique iSCSI Qualified Name
Target IQN Typically associated with the storage provider interface

Initiator IQN Configured on the client side, i.e. the device requesting access to the storage.
IQN format is standardized:

iqn.yyyy-mm.{reversed domain name} (e.g. iqn.2001-04.com.acme:storage.tape.sys1.xyz)
iSCSI Isolation
Pool1 Pool2
Xen1
Xen1 Xen2
Xen2 Xen3
Xen3
Xen1 Initiator IQN Xen2 Initiator IQN Xen3 Initiator IQN
VLAN1 / Subnet1 VLAN2 / Subnet2 Network Switch

Controller 1 Target IQN Controller 2 Target IQN
Controller Interface 1 Controller Interface 2

Storage
LUN0 LUN1 LUN2
iSCSI Example
Monitoring XenServer Storage - Alerts
XenServer will generate alerts for certain storage events:

Missing or duplicate IQNs configured
HA state file lost or inaccessible
PBD plug failure on server startup
XenServer can be configured to send alert notifications via

email too.
See the XenServer Administrators Guide for more
information about configuring alerts.
Monitoring XenServer Storage CLI Commands
# iostat k # Reports basic I/O stats for devices and partitions

avg-cpu: %user %nice %system %iowait %steal %idle
0.12 0.00 0.05 0.09 0.02 99.72
Device: tps kB_read/s kB_wrtn/s kB_read kB_wrtn
cciss/c0d0 4.05 0.52 32.11 164361 10156264
sda 0.11 1.38 1.79 437259 566151
Note: iostat is not a great performance indicator for shared

storage devices because it is unaware of external bottlenecks, for
example the network in the case of iSCSI.
# hdparm t /dev/<device> # Performs timed sequential reads

/dev/cciss/c0d0:
Timing buffered disk reads: 286 MB in 3.00 seconds = 95.19 MB/sec
Has some limitations:

Does not measure non-sequential disk reads.
Does not measure disk write speed
May not be accurate with non-local storage devices since it is
unaware of underlying bus architecture (iSCSI, FC, etc.)
Must be sampled repeatedly over time to get an accurate picture
of I/O read performance.

# dd if=<infile> of=<outfile> # Simple, common block device copy utility

# dd if=/dev/<device> of=/dev/null
if = infile, the source dd reads from.
1998929+0 records in of = outfile, the target dd writes to.
1998929+0 records out
1023451648 bytes (1.0 GB) copied, 13.8456 seconds, 73.9 MB/s
WARNING: NEVER run dd specifying an active, running VHD as the outfileit

WILL destroy the VM container making it unreadable!!

Monitoring XenServer Storage Additional Tips
iSCSI storage throughput can usually be tied directly to network

performance. If there is slow throughput for an iSCSI storage array,
perform network diagnostics first!!
Many SAN arrays have native logging and monitoring tools that can
identify bottlenecks affecting storage performance.
Refer to the Citrix Knowledge Base for best practices and known
issues relating to storage performance.
Protecting Your Data Backup VM Metadata
Can use xsconsole or the CLI.
Makes the SR portable.
Can be used as part of a
Disaster Recovery
For more information solution,
relating to usingor,
as part ofasregular
XenServer a Disastermaintenance
Recovery
solution, refer to the Citrix Knowledge
of the environment.
Center:
Can be scheduled within
xsconsole.
Protecting Your Data Exporting VMs
Virtual machines can be exported directly out of XenServer

into XVA files that contain a complete clone of the VM and all
of its attached VDIs.
Can be initiated via XenCenter or from the XenServer CLI.
VM must be offline (shutdown) during export process.
Since it backs up all the VM data it can take a very long time
depending on the size of the VM!
Protecting Your Data Creating VM Snapshots
Snapshots create VDI clones of a VM that can be used for

backup or quickly provisioned into new VMs or templates.
XenServer supports two types in version 5.5
Regular Supports all guest environments, including Linux
Quiesced Takes advantage of Windows Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS).
It requires the manual installation of in-guest components to enable.

Protecting Your Data Creating VM Snapshots (continued)
New in XenServer 5.6!
Introduces snapshot Revert, a.k.a.
Checkpoint.
Introduces a new snapshot mode: Snapshot
with disk and memory
XenCenter GUI enhanced for easier
management of VM snapshots and to
support Checkpoint feature.

Protecting Your Data Third-Party Solutions
There are also Third-Party backup options:

In-guest backups can be performed using any guest-supported solution (backup
agents running in Windows or Linux, for example).
Volume snapshots performed directly on the storage via StorageLink plugins
(for Dell and NetApp).
Backup solutions that plug into the XenAPI to capture VM data, or clone the
LVM data directly.

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CCAT Troubleshooting Training

Citrix Consulting Architecture Team

XenServer Storage Overview

XenServer Storage Objects

Virtual Disk Data Formats

Describes a particular storage target in which Virtual Disk

Virtual Disk Images are a storage abstraction that is

Citrix Confidential - Do Not Distribute

PBD VDI VBD

PBD VDI VBD

VM images are stored as thin-provisioned VHD format files

The default XenServer block device-based storage inserts a

LUNs are directly mapped to VMs as VDIs by SR types that

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XenServer calls direct to Array APIs to

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Always check the logs first! XenServer creates several logs

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The XenAPI (xe) can be used to troubleshoot storage issues too

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See and verify mount point of VHD SR

full provision VHD SR

Check VHD architecture

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Problems if you do not enable multipath

What is multipath.conf vs multipath-enabled.conf

DMP vs. MPP multipathing

Always start at the hardware

Clearing the device mappings via CMD line

How do we determine optimal VM density for a host?

Host Machine (Hardware)

for DomU total Dom0

There are two common ways to monitor performance in XenServer

XenCenter Performance Tab XenServer Command Line Interface

# top # Provides a dynamic real-time view of a running system.

Tasks: 68 total, 2 running, 65 sleeping, 0 stopped, 1 zombie

PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND

Performance monitoring commands

What if I need to increase my VM-density-per-host?

We can tune XenServer to increase VM density.

This was achieved by making two key configuration changes to a

Both the scalability study and instructions for increasing

Troubleshooting commands - Storage

Troubleshooting commands - Network

# netstat # Display network interface statistics

TIP: You can always type man followed by

Common performance related issues inside the VM:

Identify offending Thread (s)

ProcessExplorer can be used for live stack-trace viewing!

Next generation performance monitoring from Microsoft

ICA test run where problem occurred

Drilling into the calls of wfica32.exe, lead to the Windows function

User dumps contain a snapshot of a process memory

Configure a default post-mortem debugger:

How to Set the NT Symbolic Debugger as a Default Windows

How to Set WinDbg as a Default Windows Postmortem

Use Task Manager for manual dumps

Small Memory Dump