There seems to be some confusion around how backup and restore functionality works in a resource pool, as opposed to a single host.
- Always ensure that you periodically do a xe pool-dump-database on the master. Keep the resulting file in a safe location
- This command should NOT be executed on a slave (member). This is a master-only command
- On pool failure:
- Reinstall the master
- Ensure network, storage etc are set up correctly
- Do a xe pool-restore-database
- Join the pool slaves to the master
See http://docs.xensource.com/XenServer/4.1.0/1.0/en_gb/reference.html#total_pool_failure for more details
