XCP-ng Windows PV tools announcements

[dinhngtu]

@dom0 Yes, the Vates tools are our recommended guest tools for XCP-ng going forward.

[probain]

Would it be possible to either have direct links to the exe's without them being zipped? Or list the version number of the xen-guest-agent.exe?

I'm installing these through Ansible (see code below). And it would be way cleaner if either of those two wishes could be true.

    - name: Install Xen Guest tools on Windows hosts
      when: ansible_system == "Win32NT"
      tags: xcp_ng
      block:
        - name: Install Xen Guest Tools
          when: ansible_virtualization_type == "xen"
          block:
            - name: Copy over Latest Xen PV drivers
              ansible.windows.win_copy:
                src: "XenTools-x64_{{ xen_guest_agent_version }}.msi"
                dest: "C:\\Users\\{{ ansible_user }}\\Downloads\\XenDrivers-x64.msi"
                force: true

            - name: Install XenDrivers if the version isnt already created
              ansible.windows.win_package:
                path: "C:\\Users\\{{ ansible_user }}\\Downloads\\XenDrivers-x64.msi"
                creates_path: C:\Program Files\XCP-ng\Windows PV Drivers\XenGuestAgent\xen-guest-agent.exe
                creates_version: "{{ xen_guest_agent_version }}"
                arguments:
                  - /quiet

[dinhngtu]

@probain The canonical way is to check the product_id instead https://docs.ansible.com/projects/ansible/latest/collections/ansible/windows/win_package_module.html#parameter-product_id The ProductCode changes every time a new version of XCP-ng Windows PV tools is released, and you can get it from each release's MSI:

[abudef]

Can we look forward to automatic updates arriving in the future as well?

[olivierlambert]

We reserved a PCI ID (if I remember correctly), so it's more about asking Microsoft to put it in their update system. I have no idea if it's feasible for us.

[abudef]

I was thinking more of updating the entire set of the agent and drivers, similar to how XenServer VM Tools for Windows have it implemented. Using a scheduled job, they regularly check whether an update is available, and if so, they carry out the update of both the agent and the drivers themselves.

[probain]

@dinhngtu said in XCP-ng Windows PV tools announcements:

@probain The canonical way is to check the product_id instead https://docs.ansible.com/projects/ansible/latest/collections/ansible/windows/win_package_module.html#parameter-product_id The ProductCode changes every time a new version of XCP-ng Windows PV tools is released, and you can get it from each release's MSI:

No problem... If you ever decide to have the .exe-file as a separate item. Not bundled within the zip-file. Then I would be even happier. But until then, thanks for everything!

[Johny]

Management Agent not installed in XCP-ng Center v20.04.1 and 25.4.0

Hi team,

Both versions of XCP-ng Center are returning a Management Agent not installed error under the Used Memory column when using the 9.1 driver (this was also an issue with the previous 9.0 version).

Although, XOA does show that it's installed. Is this a known issue?

XCP-ng Center:

XOA:

VM using XenServer's version, for comparison:
Management agent 9.4.2-178

[olivierlambert]

@Johny said in XCP-ng Windows PV tools announcements:

Although, XOA does show that it's installed. Is this a known issue?

Yes it's a known issue, only cosmetic and the next driver update will fix it

[Johny]

@olivierlambert thanks for the quick reply!

[dinhngtu]

@probain said in XCP-ng Windows PV tools announcements:

No problem... If you ever decide to have the .exe-file as a separate item. Not bundled within the zip-file. Then I would be even happier. But until then, thanks for everything!

The guest agent EXE is just one part of the tools package (and actually may not have the same version as the MSI file), therefore I don't think it should be relied upon for versioning. I recommend using the product_id method instead.

@Johny said in XCP-ng Windows PV tools announcements:

Both versions of XCP-ng Center are returning a Management Agent not installed error under the Used Memory column when using the 9.1 driver (this was also an issue with the previous 9.0 version).

Although, XOA does show that it's installed. Is this a known issue?

Looks like XCP-ng Center decided to detect the guest agent in a different way, namely checking for the feature "feature-static-ip-setting" which is XenServer specific (and, as indicated by the name, should not be used for management agent version checking). Please open an issue on the XCP-ng Center repo for this.

The cosmetic issue about management agent version disappearing after migration/resume has already been fixed in 9.1.100.

[Johny]

@dinhngtu Seems like an issue for this already exists: https://github.com/xcp-ng/xenadmin/issues/260

Added what I wrote above as a comment.

Gnggi created this issue in xcp-ng/xenadmin

open Showing wrong Virtualization state for VMs with Management agent 9.1.100 #260