Resizing Storage Repositories in XenServer

Dynamically resize your XenServer 5.5 Fibre Channel SR

Posted by Roger Birong, Jr. in How-To, XenServer on Nov 16th, 2009 | No Comments

While XenServer 5.5 has a pretty decent GUI, there are still a few tasks that we have to use the command line for. Resizing Storage Repositories would be one of those tasks. In my environment, we use a Fibre Channel SR in our main XenServer resource pool, so I can vouch that these steps will work for that type of environment.

Before starting with these steps, make sure you have actually resized the LUN using whatever software provided by your SAN vendor. This process is simply getting XenServer to recognize the change.

  1. Open the console of your XenServer Resource Pool Master.
  2. Run xe sr-list
  3. Find the UUID associated with the name of the SR you wish to resize. Make note of the UUID (I just copy it).
  4. Next, find the device name. To do this, run pvscan | grep <uuid> - The device name will look like /dev/sdb – Make note of this as well.
  5. Run pvresize <devname>
  6. Run xe sr-scan <uuid>
  7. Verify that the SR shows the new size in XenCenter.

It’s a simple process, though I forget how to do it every time. Now it’s written down for all to see!

Hardware Planning Tips for XenDesktop 3.0, Part 1

Posted by Roger Birong, Jr. in How-To, Opinion, Provisioning Services, XenApp, XenDesktop, XenServer on Jul 22nd, 2009 | No Comments

Planning for your new XenDesktop environment can be a tough process. Being a relatively fresh technology, there aren’t too many places to find straight answers regarding scalability. I intend on changing that. Here are a few helpful tips and straight answers to help you decide whether you have the hardware already, or need to purchase new. This will be a multi-part series, only some aspects will be addressed in this initial post.

Assumptions

  • XenDesktop 3.0, Platinum Edition.
  • XenServer 5.5.
  • Provisioning Server 5.1.
  • XenApp 5.0, Platinum Edition.
  • Windows Vista Business (x86)
  • 300 Users, all will use XenDesktop for OS and XenApp for Application Delivery.
  • Endpoints are XP Embedded Thin Clients.
  • Single Location, Single Data Center.
  • Users occasionally want to access the environment from home.
  • Users are “Task Workers”

While this scenario is pretty simple, I’ll be more than happy to help you with your questions in the comments, via Twitter, or e-mail.

In the next post, I’ll discuss Virtual Machine Specifications and choosing the right server specifications for your XenServer hosts.