Zabbix killed XenServer

[nibb]

Does someone installed a Zabbix agent on a XenServer VM?

I ask this because i just did the terrible mystake of that. After hitting the make button to compile the agent the whole server crashed.

It will not boot back up and died completely.

Im not blaming the agent for it but it could be gcc too. I needed to install gcc before compiling so i did and then runned ./configure then make and bye bye VM.

I think it broked something on the XenTools that comes installed with the VMs since XenTools is for getting CPU and other metrics from each VM so i think it made some conflic since Xentools shows now as not installed anymore.

It killed the VM completely. I did installed Zabbix server on another VM and no problem but this was my fist server with XenServer i tried to put only the agent on it.

This did happened to others? This is very, very serious, this server is down and the data possible lost for ever since i cant access it anymore.

[Alexei]

Well, it is Xen server (or hardware) you should blame, not Zabbix or any other software you are running on the VM.

[nibb]

Is this a confirmed bug then?

I have reported this to Citrix as well. This a CRITICAL bug on XenServer then.

Here is the reply i got from a tech that looked my issue, (Not Citrix), I still waiting then to reply:

Hello,

The OS for the VM node is damaged beyond repair. It appears that /etc/rc.d is missing or damaged. I attempted to install the xentools, however, the VM is unable to boot into the OS to get the tools installed. Additionally I have checked to see if there were any available backups from which to restore this VM.

Unfortunately at this time it appears you will need to destroy this VM and build a new one from scratch. I would also recommend that you make a back of all your VM's on a regularly scheduled basis. This will ensure you can restore a VM back to a running state should the VM experience issues.

Please let us know if you have any further questions.

[nibb]

Just to be sure. I want to replicate the error soon. Can someone tell me if the steps i do for installing the agent are correct? Just to avoid any steps im missing. Im going to try this again and see if it breaks.

To install the agent. I downloaded the full zabbix code since I did not found an agent download only.

Then I followed the manual and:

./configure --enable-agent

make

Is this correct?


The only think I did on this server was something before because gcc was missing.

"yum install gcc" and then runned the above commands again. I think that was my big mystake.

[nibb]

Well the Xen provider washed hands off.

Im really excite to recreate now this on lab and see what caused this. Xen or Zabbix.

The reply:

There isn't any difference between a Xen VM and a full dedicated server running CentOS. The issue you are reporting (specifically the error) tends to mean that the OS was tampered with and files either deleted or modified in ways that the OS will not boot. This would not be an issue with Xen. If you were to attempt the install exactly as you did on a non-VM machine, you would end up with the same errors. Xen makes no major modifications to the OS itself, just to a small portion of the kernel

I still dont understand what the agent did to the installation. I think it was actually gcc and not the agent. But then again im have the suspects that the agent uses something very similar to XenTools and it conflicts or broke it that making the vm completely corrupted to the way of not booting anymore.

Now what he says is true. Xen works exactly like a standalone server. I had never had any problems or conflicts with any software. It behaves exactly like a physicial server even with configuration.

[krimson]

If you honestly think that the Zabbix agent, or the installation of gcc, is the problem here I suggest you read up a bit on the workings of the linux operating system and compilers.

In other words, something is wrong with Xen, the sanity of your OS installation, or your hardware. Neither has anything to do with Zabbix.

[nibb]

If you honestly think that the Zabbix agent, or the installation of gcc, is the problem here I suggest you read up a bit on the workings of the linux operating system and compilers.

In other words, something is wrong with Xen, the sanity of your OS installation, or your hardware. Neither has anything to do with Zabbix.

Well its a mystery what happened. Im recreate the whole VM server and the services are running again. Im going to create another test or clone this one and then try to do the same steps i did.

The hardware is not the problem. It runs ok, several hard tests passed ok and it also runs others VMs without any problem.

The OS I used the default Cent OS options when installing. That means I used the default partitions setup. I selected the server only option and only used base install leaving all other services out which i dont needed.

So it was all default here. Thats why it did not had gcc as well. I only install then running as server mode and then when i need something i install it on them.

I installed gcc but I remember yum updating something on the xenserver install. I did not rebooted after this and just proceded to make config and make. I think that broke it.