XenServer (free version) - moving vms from a downed host server cleanly?

[pete]

I'm asking because my test setup only has one xen host and I'm unwilling to test this on production kit.

 

Say a host server dies and won't be back for a while, with running vms, what's the best way to go about seizing those vms and shifting them to an alternate host while minimizing downtime and chances of data corruption? Storage is shared.

 

Is it the same as ESXi (import vm from shared storage, power on and check it thoroughly after import)?

 

I'm not adverse to paying for DR/HA if that's my only reliable option. A weekend of fixing broken stuff soon mitigates the licence cost.

Edited September 22, 2009 by pete

[Phillip1983]

hi

 

i have xenserver and the best practise is to have 2 xenserver's running with a storage SAN/NAS.

 

providing both servers are the same add them both to 1 pool and add the storage to the pool, i use NFS, but you can use iSCSI etc...

 

create your VMs and use the storage device as the harddrive,

 

then you shouod be able to move VMs from one server to the other "Live" and still use the VM server while downing the physical server....

 

please email/PM me if you need more help as i have finished my testing of Xenserver and am building a production enviroment of 4 xenservers and 2 storage devices 900GB each using Openfiler.