XenServer 7.1 CU2 upgrade to 8.2 LTSR with Boot from SAN

[Ken Donaberger1709160041]

I can't seem to find a straight answer on this but we have everything setup to PXE boot to a rebuild script (pointing to XenServer 7.1.2) if the drive fails to respond.  We have XenServer 7.1 CU2 pools and want to upgrade them.  I assume upgrading with this setup is different and not able to be used with the Rolling Pool Upgrade.  I'm sure the multipath.d conf wouldn't be injected with our build process.  My assumption is to run the upgrade of a pool master manually with an iso attached and then blow out the remaining members and rebuild them with the PXE rebuild process (pointing to XenServer 8.2).  Anyone else in the same boat?

[Alan Lantz]

Sounds like you are on the right track, I do the same thing with VMWare. 

 

--Alan--

 

[Ken Donaberger1709160041]

Alan,

 

Have you ever had an unattended install setup for XenServer using PXE?  Normally we just blow out the OS disk in our shared array for the BfS and it goes through the rebuild using the answer file.  The answer file has sda setup for the primary disk but it installs and then doesn't boot from it.  I've had this issue before and usually just step through sda or sdb.  When I choose sdb it throws an error saying it can't find the file or directory (I'm assuming because sdb mount doesn't exist.)  Is there a way to control which order these drives are mounted in XenServer so the unattended install is more consistent?

[Alan Lantz]

Nope, I never had enough servers to make learning the unattended install route.

 

--Alan--

 

[Ken Donaberger1709160041]

Ok, seems something changed with the unattended install for 8.2.  I switched it back to 7.1.2 and it installs correctly.

[Ken Donaberger1709160041]

I have a case opened with Citrix on this as 8.2 unattended install attempts to pull down the ftp files but does so at a snails pace...eventually timing out and failing and 8.2 CU1 just says file/directory not found.  It's probably enic/fnic (Cisco) drivers but I'm unsure how to inject them in to the unattended installation process.  The 7.1.2 unattended install works just fine.

[Mark Syms]

As far as I know (but I'll go and check) there's nothing in Multipath Boot from SAN which precludes using the Rolling Pool Upgrade wizard. If there is that IMO that's a bug and we should fix it.