XCP-ng 8.2.1 (maintenance update) - ready for testing

Andrew

@stormi I'll say no consequences because I don't use FCoE. It looks like a timing issue with exactly when the script runs and the status of the ethernet interfaces. As I was looking at the code and the error vanished so now runs correctly (without changes).

stormi

Update! New ISOs, and various updates to the previous 8.2.1 test packages.

Hello dear testers.

It's the final sprint (~1 week!)

I have uploaded new installation ISO images to https://updates.xcp-ng.org/tmp/

Changes since last time

kernel-alt updated to 4.19.227

@r1 has updated our alternate kernel to a much more recent maintenance release of kernel.org's 4.19 branch.
To test: installation on real hardware using the alternate kernel (check the docs for instructions). Booting and using the installed system with the alternate kernel ( it's not the default boot entry).

xcp-ng-xapi-plugins: regressions fixed

Issues reported by @Andrew were fixed.

Includes the latest security fixes we released to XCP-ng 8.2

Nothing to add about it. Check the blog.

UEFI: uefistored was updated

This component necessary for UEFI support and Secure Boot was updated with minor fixes: logs used to contain error messages that brought nothing useful but pollution to the logs. They have been removed.

net-install now available

You can find the netinstall ISO at https://updates.xcp-ng.org/tmp/

xcp-ng-release-config

Fixed the cipher list in SSH configuration for people updating from an already up to date XCP-ng 8.2 (a bug in Citrix' patching of the configuration files. Reported upstream too.)
Fixed a systemd symlink that was not updated properly in previous 8.2.1 packages. Nothing to do for you, just update.

How to test

If you already have an XCP-ng 8.2.1 from previous testing, just run yum update --enablerepo=xcp-ng-staging and reboot.

Else refer to the original post.

What to test

As usual, anything that you need XCP-ng for.

We also would like you to give special focus to the following items:

UEFI VMs, without Secure Boot
UEFI VMs, with Secure Boot (check the docs. There's a manual command to run once on the pool, to download and install the certificates from Microsoft.)
On Windows installed from a not too recent image (otherwise the test is impossible), installation of update KB4535680, which updates the list of revocated certificates for Secure Boot. Should work without Secure Boot on, but we had reports of failures in this situation so I'm interested in finding a way to reproduce. Should also work with Secure Boot on.
Log rotation if you have a way to trigger very verbose logs.
The installer (installation, upgrade, backup restore...).
Active Directory connectivity, if you know how to make it work
The alternate kernel. Having it tested on a large variety of hardware would be good.
Like @Andrew in this very thread, keeping an eye on new error messages in XCP-ng logs and XOA logs can also be useful.

Time window before final release

~ one week according to my latest estimates.

nikade

Hi everyone,

I just installed this 8.2.1 a Dell R630 and the installer was very smooth.
We chose to make a new installation since the host was running XS 7.2 and we wanted a fresh install, with that came the opportunity to leverage EXT and thin provisioning which seems to work just as it should.

We're also mounting a NFS SR for VM disks which works fine as well. I'll have to wait and see, but hopefully the problem with /var/log/snmpd.log is resolved now and no more alerts regarding disk usage

olivierlambert

Thanks a lot @nikade for your feedback! (also I love your avatar!)

nikade

@olivierlambert said in XCP-ng 8.2.1 (maintenance update) - ready for testing:

Thanks a lot @nikade for your feedback! (also I love your avatar!)

Yeah, I gotta have my suit on my tux

I wanted to inform that I've tried iSCSI with multipathing as well and it works fine.
So far everything we need in our general production-environment seems to be working as it should.

Andrew

I ran the 8.2.1-test5 full installer booted by Ventoy-1.0.69 from USB on a nice ThinkPad T430 laptop to install to another USB SSD Stick. I then built XO from source on Bullseye as a VM. Devices (except wifi/BT/TPM) work fine on the old machine and performance is as expected. If you need a test "server", the old T430 can be dual or quad core and 16G memory with two SATA internal drives (supports intel VT).

I also have 8.2.1 (updated with staging) on all my other servers.

@stormi New error report: I do get a logged ERROR several times a minute in Dom0 on all host servers. There is more than enough free memory in Dom0:

xcp-rrdd-plugins.log:Feb 17 14:01:29 xcp-ng-rncjnand xcp-rrdd-gpumon: [error||0 ||xcp-rrdd-gpumon] Unexpected error (Failure "not enough memory"), sleeping for 10 seconds...

stormi

@Andrew said in XCP-ng 8.2.1 (maintenance update) - ready for testing:

@stormi New error report: I do get a logged ERROR several times a minute in Dom0 on all host servers. There is more than enough free memory in Dom0:
xcp-rrdd-plugins.log:Feb 17 14:01:29 xcp-ng-rncjnand xcp-rrdd-gpumon: [error||0 ||xcp-rrdd-gpumon] Unexpected error (Failure "not enough memory"), sleeping for 10 seconds...

Luckily, this one is not a new error. It's an unfortunate but benign side effect of building a stub version of Citrix' gpumon, which would require a proprietary nVIDIA toolkit to build properly.

apz

@stormi I installed a fresh host from 8.2.1 Test 5 full CD image in my homelab. This host has software RAID1 which was problematic with the last installer, now it went without issues.

Now that I've installed a newer version than what's in the repos, will this work correctly in the future regarding to updates?

stormi

@apz Yes

stormi

This discussion now continues here: https://xcp-ng.org/forum/topic/5594/xcp-ng-8-2-1-maintenance-update-final-testing-sprint