XCP-ng 8.3 public alpha 🚀

Louis

I consider setting up an XCP-ng server .... or perhaps a xen-server
(for private use), since I like the concept!

The problem is that the actual 8.2.1 release is over a year old ...
Looking at XEN that release 4.17 is much more recent ...

So I consider 8.3 .... however ... it is alpha which sounds as ^still a long way to go^ / not stable. I also think I would need to update from 8.2 since there is no 8.3 snapshot.iso available

So I wonder what the expected 8.3 timeline is, and to which extend XEN 4.17 is included in the 8.2 / 8.3 release.

olivierlambert

@Louis what's the issue with 8.2.1? It's an LTS, so it's normal to use mature versions of Xen and such. It's not a contest on getting latest versions, especially since XCP-ng is very stable. What do you want to achieve?

Louis

@stormi

The latest versions tend to have fixes, security updates and probably added features. For those reasons I always prefer to use the latest versions the more at the moment I start a new system.

So, I am not saying 8.2 is bad / not ok, but on the other hand I am surprised to see that 8.2.1 is over a year old. And at the same time I note that there is a xen-server release november 2022.

I assume that XCP-ng is based on xen-server. But on which version !??

Of course there have been security updates, but never the less. But I have no idea what has changed since the original 8.2.1 release. As far as I am aware there is no change log.

olivierlambert

The latest versions tend to have fixes, security updates

Not true. All security fixes are backported. Do you really think we'll leave an LTS version of XCP-ng without any security fix since 2020?

Probably added features

Which features in Xen 4.17 you need you don't have in 4.13?

I am surprised to see that 8.2.1 is over a year old

This is not a toy project but a serious distro meant to run in a stable fashion in datacenters, at scale. Especially as an LTS version, that is expect to be maintained between 5 and 10 years.

I assume that XCP-ng is based on xen-server. But on which version !??

It's XenServer. Take a guess, XCP-ng 8.2 is based on which XenServer edition?

Of course there have been security updates, but never the less.

Never the less? That's the most important thing, to backport the sec patches.

As far as I am aware there is no change log.

You should really look at the documentation. Each XCP-ng release is covered by a change log, and each update is also documented with at least a dedicated blog post. You can start here: https://docs.xcp-ng.org/releases/ (to read what's an LTS and why we don't add features in an LTS) and there: https://xcp-ng.org/blog/ for all the blog posts on our almost monthly updates.

Louis

@stormi

Yep I agree that security fixes are the most important ones. And I know that security patches are provided (as I wrote in my mail).

Since I am new to XCP-ng, and I did not study the changes related to 8.3, I do not know the improvements, but I assume there are!

olivierlambert

As I said previously, you should really take a look at the doc and the blog...

https://xcp-ng.org/blog/2022/11/18/xcp-ng-8-3-alpha/

And posted very recently: https://xcp-ng.org/blog/2023/02/27/news-about-8-3-alpha/

Louis

@stormi

Olivier thanks for the links. But it only confirms my idea that I should go for the latest releases as far as possible!

IPV6 support is important to me (should work!)
all security fixes (not only the most important ones)
better hardware support ( I do have e.g. 2.5 g interfaces)
newer python
better update management

olivierlambert

You should really start to work on 8.2 LTS first and see what you really need in real life. If it's not enterprise production, then go for 8.3.

ajpri1998

@Louis
XCP-ng gets security updates about monthly. @Andrew also has custom isos that already have the 2.5GBe drivers included.

XCP-ng/XO are well maintained projects.

rRobbie

Summary: upgrade from 8.3alpha to 8.3alpha2 broke my installation.

Yesterday I tried to upgrade my Intel NUC11 from the original 8.3alpha (very stable so far) to the 8.3alpha2.

The upgrade process concluded without errors, however upon restart while the host was accessible via SSH, all the rest disappeared (no XOALite, no VM and obviously no XOA).

I tried to list the vm with "xe vm-list" resulting in "Error: Connection refused (calling connect)". Then I tried to restart with "xe-toolstack-restart" but without success.

Right now using the installer I reverted to previous installation... indeed a useful function

Your insights is welcome, I can make any test you might be interested in.

Thanks

RaHu

@olivierlambert

Hi There,
Just to mention, my personal hopes are for the future, that whatever kernel will be used, RPM packages will still be supported to install.

Usecase:
I am using Dell / Quest DR-Appliances for Backups. They've implemented RapidCIFS and RapidNFS in order to do kind of CBT enhancement on these protocols. So when backing up - only delta is copied.

However, as usual, they provide this driver officially only for Windows and RHEL. Therefore I could install the RPM on the XCP-Hosts, and benefit from this. It's running amazingliy smooth.

I would assume that there might be more of such use cases, and keeping support for RHEL packages could be wise in oder to keep a foot into the "enterprise door".

Thanks, for your work!

Regards,
RaHu

olivierlambert

Thanks for your feedback @RaHu

olivierlambert

@rRobbie I'm not sure it was even guarantee in the first place. Asking @stormi

rRobbie

@olivierlambert

Thank you, appreciated

I followed - maybe bluntly - this reassuring sentence but I guess it meant from 8.2!

Screenshot from 2023-02-28 09-48-32.png

https://xcp-ng.org/blog/2022/11/18/xcp-ng-8-3-alpha/

stormi

@rRobbie Yes, it meant from 8.2

stormi

@gskger Thanks! For shorter logs, could you run ./xtf-runner -aqq --host rather than ./xtf-runner -aq --host in the future? We don't need the full list of successful tests. Only skipped and failed ones.

gskger

@stormi Of course! Picked up that habit from other posts. Should I correct my post to improve readability?

stormi

@gskger No, only future ones

theAeon

root@lenovo150
--------------
OS: XCP-ng release 8.2.1 (xenenterprise) x86_64
Host: ThinkServer TS150 70LUS00C00
Kernel: 4.19.0+1
Uptime: 7 mins
Packages: 551 (rpm)
Shell: bash 4.2.46
Terminal: /dev/pts/13
CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1275 v5 (8) @ 3.600GHz
GPU: Intel HD Graphics P530
Memory: 560MiB / 2498MiB

note: only on 8.2.1 because I don't feel like even potentially breaking anything right now out of sheer laziness but its been rock solid so far

[19:51 lenovo150 xtf]# ./xtf-runner selftest -q --host
Combined test results:
test-hvm32-selftest                      SUCCESS
test-hvm32pae-selftest                   SUCCESS
test-hvm32pse-selftest                   SUCCESS
test-hvm64-selftest                      SUCCESS
test-pv64-selftest                       SUCCESS

and

[19:52 lenovo150 xtf]# ./xtf-runner -aqq --host
Combined test results:
test-hvm32-umip                          SKIP
test-hvm64-umip                          SKIP
test-pv64-xsa-167                        SKIP
test-pv64-xsa-182                        SKIP

and of course

[20:00 lenovo150 ~]# /usr/libexec/xen/bin/test-cpu-policy
CPU Policy unit tests
Testing CPU vendor identification:
Testing CPUID serialise success:
Testing CPUID deserialise failure:
Testing CPUID out-of-range clearing:
Testing MSR serialise success:
Testing MSR deserialise failure:
Testing policy compatibility success:
Testing policy compatibility failure:

ajpri1998

I have a minor feature request…
Can we get the xen-cmdline (/opt/xensource/libexec/xen-cmdline) added to the default PATH? I don’t use it too often but having it would save me a google remembering? I’ve also added to my bashrc with the name xcl.