Migrating from XCP-ng Windows guest tools to Citrix

bberndt

Hello.,
Some backstory:
Most of out VMs us the 8.2.2. XCP-ng guest tools in Windows. These have been rock solid, probably because there are not updates for it.

Some VMs for whatever reason, depending on the method, and what the Human Admin is used to, end up with the Citrix device drivers. We've noticed that when this happens, and they go to update, it really hoses the VM. Its constantly rebooting several times, and needs a user to log in, get the message that it needs a reboot, and then reboot, at least a couple times. Often its completely offline, and an Admin needs to get on the VPN, log in to XO or XCP-center, and go to the VM console, and reboot, and or put the IP information back in to a new virtual ethernet interface.

In fact this happened last night, despite the Scheduled Task in windows set to disable, and the "get from Windows Update" set to OFF, the Citrix Guest drivers needed an update, and the VM was offline for a while. (the problem being this particular VM is required to be up for the VPN to work. So an Admin had to come to office, and get into the VM console. and reboot several times.)

What might we be missing? why do the Citrix drivers behave so badly at updates?
I see that there are recent updates to the XCP-ng drivers, that are here, and or coming, depending on MS. Thus this brings up my next question, and reason for reaching out.
Im hesitant to migrate to the Citrix drivers because of this. (Or even the newer XCP-ng drivers, if they are going to update the same way) The last thing I need is an Human Admin babysitting 130 VMs every patch Tuesday, or more. Especially when the other Admin is a staunch Hyper-V fan

Any suggestions would be helpful.
thanks.

olivierlambert

Hi!

Question for @dinhngtu when he will be around

dinhngtu

@bberndt Both the Citrix and XCP-ng Windows drivers require several reboots to upgrade because they are stateful and need to keep track of changes in the bus driver. They do have an "autoreboot" feature that will take care of the reboots by themselves based on a registry value. You can refer to our update guide for more details. Though I do hope to find a way to reduce excessive reboots eventually.

Often its completely offline, and an Admin needs to get on the VPN, log in to XO or XCP-center, and go to the VM console, and reboot, and or put the IP information back in to a new virtual ethernet interface.

Static IP loss was a bug and shouldn't happen any more with the new Citrix drivers.

bberndt

@dinhngtu Couple more questions I thought of.

When the setting in XO "get drivers from Windows Update", they are only updated when something is published from Citrix, -and- my normal Windows update procedure takes place? Otherwise, probably the same as what ever i'd installed from a Citrix ISO, or installer, and -that- would have its own update schedule separate from Windows Update?
Presumbly when the XCP-ng guest tools/ device drivers are finally signed (any time frame on that?) they would NOT be getting updates like the previous 8.2.2? Or are they now going to update on some schedule?

thanks.

dinhngtu

@bberndt

So there are 2 parts to be aware of:

The PV I/O drivers which are pulled from/updated by Windows Update;
The management agent which you get from XenServer. This has its own update platform that you can enable at install time.

Confusingly the XenServer management agent also has an option to install PV I/O drivers by itself without going through Windows Update at all. (This is why they state "Customers using Windows Update for I/O driver updates should not select this option)

I'm not sure what you mean by not getting updates? Even our unsigned drivers do get updates, bug fixes etc. and this will continue once a signed version comes out.
For the final signed version, at the moment we're still waiting for authorization from Microsoft (they work extremely slowly and we've run into all sorts of problems with their developer program)