The future of XCP-ng LTS

Long-term support (LTS) versions of XCP-ng provide stability and predictability for organizations that rely on a solid and well-maintained virtualization stack. Currently, XCP-ng 8.2.1 is our official LTS release, with support guaranteed until June 25, 2025. But as that date approaches, it's time to look ahead at what’s coming next.

Introducing our next LTS version

With no more mysteries, we are happy to say that the next LTS release will be XCP-ng 8.3 LTS!

As already announced in the release notes, XCP-ng 8.3, after an initial phase during which it will continue receiving feature updates, will transition to the LTS support model. This means more conservative updates, not excluding the occasional new feature—as long as it does not compromise the stability of your production hosts.

The LTS release will also be an occasion to release updated installation media for XCP-ng 8.3

But before we officially designate it as an LTS, we are committed to refining and improving it significantly.

Here are some of the features and changes you can expect being part of the next LTS:

• XOSTOR (our hyperconvergence solution), officially supported, with a transition path from XCP-ng 8.2.1.
• No more disk size limitations – Thanks to our qcow2 implementation, currently in its second alpha phase, disk size constraints will no longer be an issue. This feature might actually arrive after the LTS release, with all due precautions and testing.
• Stability, hardware handling, and performance improvements, notably including adjustments to hardware vulnerability mitigations that reduce the performance overhead of previous security patches.

And the usual bug fixes and security fixes.

While we don’t yet have an exact release date for XCP-ng 8.3 LTS, we target a release before XCP-ng 8.2.1 reaches its end of life!

In addition to this, to ensure a smooth transition, we will maintain a 3 months overlap period between the two LTS versions. In other words, XCP-ng 8.2.1 will remain fully supported until at least 3 months after the moment when XCP-ng 8.3 becomes a LTS.

What to expect

1. XCP-ng 8.3 will be refined before becoming an LTS – We are committed to making XCP-ng 8.3 as polished and feature-rich as possible before it enters the LTS cycle.
2. Guaranteed overlap period – There will be at least three months where both XCP-ng 8.2.1 and XCP-ng 8.3 LTS will be supported simultaneously, ensuring organizations can transition smoothly.
3. Easy upgrade path – Our team is working to make the migration path from XCP-ng 8.2 to XCP-ng 8.3 as straightforward as possible, so you can expect a technically simple upgrade process. As for the migration from XCP-ng 8.3 to XCP-ng 8.3 LTS? Actually, it is the same release. The current XCP-ng 8.3 will simply enter a more conservative support phase the day it becomes LTS.

We will share more details as we finalize the roadmap, but rest assured, our commitment to providing a reliable and long-term supported version of XCP-ng remains strong. Stay tuned for further updates as we refine XCP-ng 8.3 and prepare it for its future as our next LTS release.