Todd Myrick Web 2.0 Blog

DLINK DNS-321 and CITRIX XENSERVER 5.5 Storage Repository Setup

This is my first technical post.

Back in February 2010 I decided I needed some hands-on outside of work to catch up to all the changes in the Virtualization world.

I am a regular reader on http://www.xenappblog.com so I used this post as a basis for building my home training lab.

Couple of notes:

• ASUS M4A78-EM is now out of stock.  I picked up 3 of these (One on Amazon as Used)
• AMD X4 9650 CPU is out of Stock so I picked up the  AMD X4 9750  (Note you need to also by a 92mm CPU FAN as well)
• Corsair 8GB (4×2GB) has jumped in price and is now $99.00 USD per 4GB
• I also added a larger Maxtor Internal Drive and DVD.

I also wanted to test XENMOTION and use Provisioning Server so I figured I would need a cheap NAS solution.  I reviewed several methods for standing up a old PC as a NAS, but determined I wanted something smaller with low power requirements.  

I already had a small Buffalo CIFS NAS so I set that up as a CIFS .ISO storage repository in XENCENTER (Note: I had to use the option to specify using different credentials and specify “Guest”) 

My initial research of cheap NAS solutions on Newegg lead me to believe the cheapest enclosure that supported NFS was the Patriot Valkyrie 2 . It was advertised sporting a fast processor, NFS support, lifetime warranty, and didn’t have any negative reviews.  It seemed better then any of the other NAS solutions at that price.  Once I got the device I discovered that the current firmware doesn’t have NFS or AFP support , the software has a number of issues reported on Patriot forums, and after running the drives for 24 hours discovered case doesn’t provide enough cooling for the drives (The drives were so hot, I could barely touch them).  You can read my review on Newegg for more information of the problems.  The device has potential, but the promised firmware hasn’t been released yet and I got tired of waiting.   I did some additional research and discovered the DLINK DNS-321 is a more mature cheap NAS solution, so I bought one and when I got it set it up and updated to the latest firmware so it would support my 2x2TB drives. 

My initial attempts to setup a NFS Storage Repository didn’t work through XENCENTER though. 

What I discovered after a lot of trial and research was that when setting up the NFS Share on the NAS, I needed to specify the host as 192.168.1.0/24 .  This will setup the etc/exports file to allow all nodes on my subnet access to the NAS.  Also you need to enable read and write access (of course). 

The other trick I learned about the DNS-321 is that the default Volume_1 is not the actual path.  I was specifying <NAS IP>:/Volume_1 as the path and scanning and it didn’t work.  While researching on CITRIX’s forums, I discovered some post related to the Error 32 in the XENCENTER Application log that recommended running Telnet or SSH against the device and then doing the ether of the following commands.

• CAT /etc/exports
• MORE /etc/exports

When one of these commands are ran, it will list the NFS shares.  This is what has to be entered on the Storage Repository path.  The problem is the DNS-321 doesn’t have TELNET or SSH enabled by default.  A little more research revealed that the device can be hacked pretty easily using Fun_Plug modifications.  Just download and copy over the Volume_1 the Fun_Plug file and Fun_Plug.tgz files and reboot SAN device.  After a few minutes you can TELNET into the host using Putty and run the commands at the top to list the NFS Shares.

The NFS Share for the DNS-321 is /mnt/HD_a2 .  So you really don’t need to Telnet or SSH though to figure that out since it is listed on the NFS Sharing page, it is just a little misleading.  I assume you can also modify the /etc/exports file on the NAS to specify different paths if you wanted to as well.  So messing around with Fun_Plug is not a bad thing.

Once I got NAS working, I created a 2008 Console Only VM, Installed the XENSERVER Tools manually, then did a XENMOTION.  It worked, but it took some time for it to complete and the XENCENTER Console lost communication with the XENSERVER initially in the process. 

Summary:

• DLINK DNS-321 with latest firmware works with XENSERVER 5.5
• Setting up NAS NFS Share specify Host as 192.168.1.0/24 and Make it R/W
• Setting up XENCENTER SR specify <SAN IP>:/mnt/HD_a2
• Troubleshooting XENCENTER [Error 32] TELNET or SSH into NAS and list the /etc/exports file to determine correct NFS share paths.

Haircut

So I went to get a haircut and take Scarlet to the lake yesterday.  Unfortunately when I got to the barber I noticed the temperature was 75 degrees.  I didn’t think it was safe to keep Scarlet in the car at that temperature, so was forced to bring her to the barber. 

I pondered what to do with her while getting my hair cut, and ultimately decided to just have her sit on my lap.  She did great, she squirmed a little, but she managed to just hang out and catch bits of hair that fell her way.

After the cut, we got a slice of Pizza and ended our outing with a walk around the lake.  I think Today I am going to see if I can walk to Lake Elkhorn from the trail we were on Friday.

Muddy Shoes

I took Scarlet for a walk yesterday and went by a stream near my house.  As I got to an area where there was construction, I thought I was going to be able to jump to a a paved but muddy part of the path… it turns out that “path” was a big pit of mud.  Poor Scarlet was up to her knees in it as well.  We managed to get back to path and head home, but along the way I remembered my first day of Kindergarten. 

My kindergarten class was in the afternoon and my mom worked the afternoon shift.  She got me ready then went off to get herself ready.  I went to the back yard and started to play near some rocks we had back there.  I started to hunt for worms, so I turned over the rocks and my shoes and pants got muddy in the process.

My poor mother had to then clean me up again, but unfortunately she didn’t have enough time to clean my shoes so I had to go to school with muddy shoes.

As I walked home with Scarlet I took joy having muddy shoes again.  Scarlet didn’t seem to care, she just enjoyed going for a long walk, and on the way home we detoured through a few more puddles… just cause we could!

When I arrived home, I gave Scarlet a nice warm bath, and then proceeded to clean my shoes… not too clean though… I wanted the memory of the first school day to last a bit longer.

A little while later, my mother called telling me she and my father made it to Florida and their friends place.   She requested that I keep her updated when Scarlet gets fixed on Monday.  I told her I loved her, but kept the experience to myself… until now.

Enjoy the beginning of Spring and get your shoes muddy!