How do I set up a VM on Citrix XenServer to run on a Raid0 partition?

Question

I have a dedicated server from a hosting provider that I got with Citrix XenServer 6.2 installed. I've installed XenCenter, and gotten connected. Everything seems easy enough until I try to create a new VM.

The server has 2x120G drives on it, and is installed by the provider with a primary partition of 5G + a 512MB swap, leaving apx 115G free. This is my only choice during installation, I cannot configure this.

When I get to the 'Storage' configuration of a new VM, I can create a virtual disk up to 103GB. How, and at what step can I make that unpartitioned space into Raid0 so that I can run a 200G storage?

In fact, I'd be happy if everything is Raid0 - If I could just have a 240G disk right from the start - I care more about the speed of the setup when it is running, than I do about recovering it if a drive fails.

Answer 1

You need to login to the CLI via SSH and examine how the provider has setup the disks. XenServer is a "normal" CentOS system underneath so if you're familiar with RedHat/CentOS then you should be fairly comfortable.

If the provider has setup the disks in RAID-1, then you're stuck. You'll need to liaise with them to reinstall it how you need it.

If they've installed XenServer on 1 disk and left the other one unused, then you can add that as a new Local SR (http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX121313). Once that's done, you can create 2 disks for the VM in XenCenter (one on each disk) and combine them into 1 RAID-0 device within the VM.

I'm not sure what impact that setup will have on performance, but I don't think there's any other way if XenServer is already installed on 1 disk since you can't convert that into a RAID-0 array at the XenServer level without a reinstall.