On a clean install of XenServer 6.0 or later, the detailed partition does not appear for XenServer boot disk when you run the command, fdisk –l.

On XenServer 6.0 or later and running the fdisk –l command, following shows the output and does not display any partition details of the booting disk.

Prior to XenServer 6.0, when running fdisk –l command, the following output displayed with detailed information about the partition.

WARNING! If this version is XenServer 6.0 or later and was upgraded from 5.6 performing a clean install, it will cause the GUID Partition Table (GPT) to overwrite the Master Boot Record (MBR) data on the disk making the local storage repository inaccessible without data recovery procedures. If a clean install is required in this situation export, move, or backup the virtual machines residing on the local storage repository before proceeding.

XenServer dom0 provides partition tools gdisk and partx, which can be used with GPT partitions.

1. Run the command gdisk –l <device path> or partx <device path>.

2. Following is the output of the command:

   

   Note: With non-HP physical server, the booting disk device name is sda, or sdb. instead of cciss/c0d0. Replace it accordingly in the commands. For example: gdisk –l /dev/sda.

The booting disk is still partitioned into three partitions. First two partitions are XenServer dom0 active and backup partitions. The third partition, which takes the remaining space of booting disk is the local storage repository.

Problem Cause

From XenServer version 6.0, GPT (GUID Partition Table) partition has replaced traditional MBR (Master boot record) to make dom0 more scalable. The traditional command fdisk does not work with GPT partitions.

This change only applies to a clean install of XenServer 6.0 or later. The command fdisk -l can be used on an upgraded XenServer 6.0. This change does not affect any secondary and shared storage machines, which have a mandatory initial partition that must be preserved, such as the Dell Utility Partition.