Mr.Charles-H. Schulz comments on CentOS and the future of XCP-NG

ricardowec

I just read Insider #12 and the related article.
It is my opinion, with all due respect, that the CentOS issue must be taken with a different approach.
XCP-NG is relaying on the fact that it will be supported until 2024 and this means time to decide and take action. Not so sure.
CentOS is already falling behind other distros such as Debian and so is XCP-NG compared to other Debian based products.
More so, the community is already feeling this situation. New hardware is coming out in which XCP does not run out of the box. I just had an issue with a new Intel 10 based machine in which in spite of hours of dedication I had to give up and switch to a different product.
Just the Idea of CentOS dying will keep new users coming on the XCP boat so a clear future has to be decided soon and action taken.

olivierlambert

I think you are misguided on what's XCP-ng.

We are using CentOS 7, not even CentOS 8.
We aren't using CentOS kernel nor CentOS Xen, but ours/Citrix. Also XAPI and storage stack isn't bundled or related to CentOS project.

So we "only" use CentOS for the rest, which is less critical (and we decide which package to use at which version).

If you have hardware issues, please report them, it's up to us to fix it, it's not a CentOS issue (could be a Xen issue or a dom0 kernel, stuff we integrate ourselves outside any CentOS process).

jgibbons

@ricardowec I completely second @olivierlambert here. Although there is potential for security issues with an OS that loses support, a hypervisor should be treated with extreme caution anyway. I personally never expose a hypervisor in any capacity directly to the internet (for inbound traffic anyway ). This practice alongside using very specific and often highly customised software packages should keep everything running smooth.

On top of all this, the underlying kernel, storage systems and such are all custom, so there is nothing really to worry about

I will be completely open when I admin that I am very new to XCP-NG, but the team seem to be really responsive if you have an issue. I have never seen such fast reply's, even from an unnamed big brand competitor who charge us $$$ for support.