Appendix B. Maintenance Procedures

Table of Contents

B.1. Reinstalling from version 4.0 to the current version

B.2. Upgrading from version 3.2 to the current version

B.3. Upgrading from version 3.1 to the current version

B.4. Backing up and restoring XenServer Hosts and VMs

B.4.1. Backing up Virtual Machine metadata
B.4.2. Backing up XenServer Hosts
B.4.3. Backing up VMs

This chapter documents some miscellaneous procedures for maintaining XenServer.

B.1. Reinstalling from version 4.0 to the current version

The following procedure describes how to reinstall the current version of the XenServer Host over an existing installation of XenServer Host 4.0, and preserve settings an VMs. These instructions also apply when upgrading from the XenServer 4.0.0b2 beta release.

When reinstalling your host, be aware that any custom RPMs which you might have installed on the XenServer Host Control Domain will not be preserved.

To reinstall XenServer Host from version 4.0.0b2 or 4.0.1

Perform an orderly shutdown on the VMs hosted on the XenServer Host.
If any of your VMs are in the in the suspended state, resume them first, and then perform an orderly shutdown on them too.
Reboot the XenServer Host, and boot from the new version's Installation CD.
The installation script will identify the version and prompt you whether you want to reinstall over the existing installation and preserve VMs. Select OK to proceed with the installation.
Follow the rest of the installation procedure as described in Section 3.1, “Installing the XenServer Host”.
Run XenCenter and connect to the upgraded XenServer Host.
To upgrade the drivers for a Windows VM, select the "Install Tools" menu option and open its console. Run the xensetup.exe installation program to upgrade your paravirtualized drivers. When finished, reboot the VM.
Repeat for all other Windows VMs.
If using iSCSI, then the host IQN will have been reset to a random value. Set this to the desired value if a fixed IQN is required. If the host IQN is changed, reboot the host to ensure that iSCSI Storage Repositories plug in correctly with the correct IQN, before using the reinstalled host.

If you are upgrading a pooled installation from 4.0.0 beta2, then you will need to perform an additional step when upgrading the slave hosts. After the upgrade has completed, copy your XenEnterprise license file into the control domain at /etc/xensource/license. If you are using Windows, you will need to use a Secure Copy program such as PuTTY or WinSCP for this purpose. Then reboot the XenServer host and verify that it is available for use.