<![CDATA[XCP-ng 8.1 Release Candidate now available!]]>Hello to everyone.

The Release Candidate (RC) release of XCP-ng 8.1 is available right now 🚀 .

This post is a mostly a copy-paste from the beta release announcement, with additions regarding the RC release.

Stability status

Good as far as we call tell from our tests and beta feedback. I would personally use it in production (actually we probably will very soon at Vates). The main unknown is how well the new coalesce algorithm will perform. Now is the time for as large testing as possible before the final release.

What changed

Here's what changes from XCP-ng 8.0. Changes since the 8.1 beta are in bold characters.

Non-exhaustive list:

  • Based on Citrix Hypervisor 8.1 (https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/citrix-hypervisor/whats-new.html).
  • Same base version of CentOS (7.5)
  • Same base version of kernel (4.19, with more patches of course)
    • Latest kernel hotfix from CH 8.1 included in the RC release.
  • Xen 4.13
  • UEFI support for guests is not experimental anymore
  • Support for Secure Boot is NOT INCLUDED because it relies on Proprietary packages. We're raising the issue with the Xen community to see how to provide a FOSS implementation.
  • Citrix announces:
    • "Improved performance for VM imports and exports that use the XVA format" thanks to the use of a very efficient hash algorithm
    • "Storage performance improvements"
    • "New Windows I/O drivers with improved performance"
    • (From https://bugs.xenserver.org/browse/XSO-951) The next update (apparently not published yet as of 2020-01-27) of the Windows Drivers through Windows Update should at last be compatible with non-english locales!
  • chrony replaces ntp
  • Support for PV guests is now deprecated
    • templates for creating PV guests have been removed
    • existing guests will still run
    • it is advised to convert them to HVM guests
    • a compatibility layer should be provided in the future for PV guests that really can't be converted. But really anyone who can convert to HVM, should
    • due to how 32-bit PV guests work, keeping it functioning on newer hardware with newer features comes with an increasing performance cost, and the linux kernel is about to drop support for 32-bit PV guests
  • Support for AMD EPYC 7xx2(P) added
  • Dynamic Memory Control (DMC) is deprecated and will be removed in the future.
  • VSS and quiesced snapshots support is removed, because it never worked correctly and caused more harm than good.
    • For backups, we are working on support for backups that include the guest RAM to replace the need for quiesced snapshots.
    • Note that Windows guest tools version 9 (the default for recent versions of Windows if you install through Windows Update) already removed VSS support, even for older versions of CH / XCP-ng
  • For new local storage repositories using the EXT filesystem, it now defaults to ext4.
    • The transition from our experimental ext4 storage driver is not automatic.
    • Instructions for transitioning written in specific section below.
    • sm-additional-drivers package updated to refuse to create new experimental ext4 SRs since ext4 is already the default with the ext driver.
  • Status of our specific packages:
    • Experimental support for XFS in local storage repository still available through the sm-additional-drivers package.
    • ZFS still available as an additional package and updated to 0.8.3.
    • Alternate kernel now available, version 4.19.102 (probable update to 4.19.108 before final release). Installing it now automatically adds a new boot entry in grub's configuration, to make testing easier. Default entry remains that of the main kernel.
    • netdata RPMs are now ready
      • @r1 contributed a fix to netdata project to bring support for Xen 4.13
      • @stormi made netdata cache be RAM-only to workaround an upstream bug that could make the disk cache grow forever
  • Plans are laid out for simpler installation and maintenance of Windows guest tools. Unfortunately, we haven't found resources yet to implement them so the current state remains that of 8.0. If you're a developer on the Windows platforms, we're hiring! (full time or part time, contracts or hires) - Contact us.
  • Installer improvements in 8.1 RC: see section below.
  • New leaf coalesce logic of VDIs with dynamic limits: see section below.
  • Fixed VM Autostart issues in 8.1 beta when updated from 8.0 through yum (upstream bug https://bugs.xenserver.org/browse/XSO-978)
  • Fixed netxtreme drivers (bnx2x module) that crashed with some models
  • Updated zstd to 1.4.4. Possibly even better perfs according to upstream. Still no import/export comparative benchmarks to 8.0. Does anyone volunteer?

Installer improvements in 8.1 RC

Our installer now offers two new installation options. In BIOS mode, access them with F2 when offered the choice. In UEFI mode, see the added boot menu entries.

  • First new option: boot the installer with a 2G RAM limit instead of the 8G default. This is a workaround for installation issues on hardware with Ryzen CPUs. Though those are Desktop-class CPUs and not supported officially in the HCL, we tried to make it easier to workaround the infamous "installer crashes on Ryzen" issue.
  • Second new option: boot the installer with our alternate kernel (kernel-alt). That kernel, built and maintained by @r1 for the team, is based on the main kernel, with all upstream kernel.org patches from the LTS 4.19 branch applied. It should be very stable by construction but it receives less testing. That option is there for cases when the main kernel and drivers have issues, so that you can quickly test if kernel.org patches have fixed it already. It will also install the alternate kernel in addition to the main kernel as a convenience. If kernel-alt fixes issues for you, the most important thing to do is to tell us so that we may fix the main kernel!

Announcement about our former experimental ext4 SR driver

It is now deprecated in 8.1. For a good reason: in XCP-ng 8.1 and above, following upstream changes, the ext driver now formats new SRs as EXT4. Existing SRs are untouched (so remain formatted to EXT3).

There is no easy way to convert an existing SR created with our driver, so those using it will need to move the VDIs out (to another SR or to export them), destroy the SR and create an EXT SR instead. Make sure to do this on XCP-ng 8.1.

The sm-additional-drivers package remains available in XCP-ng 8.1 in order to ease the transition. However I've broken the sr-create command on purpose. Any attempt to create a SR of type ext4 will result in an error with a message that explains that you need to use the ext type instead.

Our experimental driver will be completely removed in a later release, possibly XCP-ng 8.2. Unless someone convinces me to delay the removal for a good reason. I will accept reasons such as "I know I shouldn't have used the experimental driver in production, but I did and need more time to convert my SR while at the same time I really need feature xxx from XCP-ng 8.2", but I really would prefer to drop it in 8.2.

Feedback from people doing the transition is welcome to make sure we document the transition in the best way possible.

New leaf coalesce logic with dynamic limits

I have backported patches from sm's master branch, that implement a new, smarter, logic for leaf coalescing.

Those interested in the patches, see https://github.com/xcp-ng-rpms/sm/commit/ed1a55d727846cf5777c8258e6a8f3b068e8a35b (python code).

Feedback wanted.

Documentation

At this stage you should already be aware that our main documentation is in our wiki and you should also know that you can all take part in completing it. It's improving continuously and still has room for improvement.

How to upgrade from XCP-ng 8.1 beta

Just use yum update or Xen Orchestra as if you were installing updates to a stable release.

How to upgrade from previous releases

Since XCP-ng 8.1.0 is a minor release, both upgrade methods are supported:

  • From the installation ISO
  • From command line using yum (from XCP-ng 8.0 only!)

Refer to the upgrade howto: https://github.com/xcp-ng/xcp/wiki/Upgrade-Howto

Downloads:

If your browser tells you that the page is redirected in a way that prevents from loading the page correctly, this is a known issue. Long story short, it's caused by a wrong security header sent by the forum software, which impacts all non HTTPS requests to the xcp-ng.org domain. Try in Private Navigation mode or use curl or wget.

It's a good habit to check your downloaded ISO against the SHA256 sum and for better security also check the signature of those sums. Although our mirror redirector does try to detect file changes on mirrors, it's should always be envisioned that a mirror (or in the worst case our source mirror) gets hacked and managed to provide both fake ISOs and SHA256 sums. But they can't fake the signature. See https://github.com/xcp-ng/xcp/wiki/How-to-check-the-authenticity-of-files-downloaded-from-XCP-mirrors.

Stay up to date

Run yum update regularly. We'll fix bugs that are detected regularly until the final release. Subscribe to this thread (and make sure to activate mail notifications in the forum parameters if you need them): we'll announce every important update to the RC here.

What to test

Everything and Anything!

Report or ask anything as replies to this thread.

A community effort to list things to be tested has been started at https://github.com/xcp-ng/xcp/wiki/Test-XCP

Feedback is welcome both about successes and failures.

0 stormi committed to xcp-ng-rpms/sm 
New leaf coalesce logic with dynamic limits

Patches backported from master
]]>https://xcp-ng.org/forum/topic/2703/xcp-ng-8-1-release-candidate-now-availableRSS for NodeMon, 09 Mar 2026 23:44:35 GMTFri, 06 Mar 2020 15:53:44 GMT60<![CDATA[Reply to XCP-ng 8.1 Release Candidate now available! on Thu, 14 May 2020 13:52:51 GMT]]>I'm not sure Unitrends is supporting XCP-ng. Please refer to your backup vendor.

Current backup solutions claming to support XCP-ng: https://xcp-ng.org/docs/backup.html

]]>https://xcp-ng.org/forum/post/26575https://xcp-ng.org/forum/post/26575Thu, 14 May 2020 13:52:51 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to XCP-ng 8.1 Release Candidate now available! on Thu, 14 May 2020 13:43:02 GMT]]>@olivierlambert Unitrends back-up for XenServer.

]]>https://xcp-ng.org/forum/post/26571https://xcp-ng.org/forum/post/26571Thu, 14 May 2020 13:43:02 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to XCP-ng 8.1 Release Candidate now available! on Thu, 14 May 2020 13:38:12 GMT]]>Also @kadir what's your backup program? This doesn't affect Xen Orchestra.

]]>https://xcp-ng.org/forum/post/26568https://xcp-ng.org/forum/post/26568Thu, 14 May 2020 13:38:12 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to XCP-ng 8.1 Release Candidate now available! on Thu, 14 May 2020 12:48:13 GMT]]>@kadir @tanonl

Since 8.1, 2 fields have added to VBD creation: currently_attached and device.
This field should not be used unless the VBD is created on a VM in the Suspended power_state.

Do you know how the VBD creation is done?

]]>https://xcp-ng.org/forum/post/26567https://xcp-ng.org/forum/post/26567Thu, 14 May 2020 12:48:13 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to XCP-ng 8.1 Release Candidate now available! on Thu, 14 May 2020 12:37:09 GMT]]>We also get an error when restoring a VM through an external backup program. With 8.0 we did not have this.

Error message is: Failure: ['VM_BAD_POWER_STATE', 'Plugged VBD creation only allowed for suspended VM']

]]>https://xcp-ng.org/forum/post/26565https://xcp-ng.org/forum/post/26565Thu, 14 May 2020 12:37:09 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to XCP-ng 8.1 Release Candidate now available! on Fri, 08 May 2020 16:50:17 GMT]]>What are you doing exactly? Please provide more details/context 🙂

]]>https://xcp-ng.org/forum/post/26344https://xcp-ng.org/forum/post/26344Fri, 08 May 2020 16:50:17 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to XCP-ng 8.1 Release Candidate now available! on Fri, 08 May 2020 15:11:56 GMT]]>We are still getting this error when trying to create a VBD using XENAPI

raise Failure(result['ErrorDescription'])
Failure: ['VM_BAD_POWER_STATE', 'Plugged VBD creation only allowed for suspended VM']

This is on XCP-ng 8.1
We tried to update using but same issue

yum makecache
yum update
]]>https://xcp-ng.org/forum/post/26341https://xcp-ng.org/forum/post/26341Fri, 08 May 2020 15:11:56 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to XCP-ng 8.1 Release Candidate now available! on Mon, 30 Mar 2020 20:17:14 GMT]]>Feedback/tests is REALLY vital for the community 🙂 We might have spotted this, or not. So we spared bundling another ISO/upgrade after the release 😛 Thanks again!

]]>https://xcp-ng.org/forum/post/24152https://xcp-ng.org/forum/post/24152Mon, 30 Mar 2020 20:17:14 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to XCP-ng 8.1 Release Candidate now available! on Mon, 30 Mar 2020 20:16:27 GMT]]>@stormi Nice to do something useful and give a little back, other than buying a XCP-ng cushion for my office! 🙂

]]>https://xcp-ng.org/forum/post/24151https://xcp-ng.org/forum/post/24151Mon, 30 Mar 2020 20:16:27 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to XCP-ng 8.1 Release Candidate now available! on Mon, 30 Mar 2020 17:55:39 GMT]]>👍 thanks!

]]>https://xcp-ng.org/forum/post/24146https://xcp-ng.org/forum/post/24146Mon, 30 Mar 2020 17:55:39 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to XCP-ng 8.1 Release Candidate now available! on Mon, 30 Mar 2020 17:55:18 GMT]]>@olivierlambert yep after a

yum makecache
yum update

everything appears to be good

]]>https://xcp-ng.org/forum/post/24145https://xcp-ng.org/forum/post/24145Mon, 30 Mar 2020 17:55:18 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to XCP-ng 8.1 Release Candidate now available! on Mon, 30 Mar 2020 16:19:44 GMT]]>Fixed to me. @jmccoy555 can you try again after updating?

]]>https://xcp-ng.org/forum/post/24134https://xcp-ng.org/forum/post/24134Mon, 30 Mar 2020 16:19:44 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to XCP-ng 8.1 Release Candidate now available! on Mon, 30 Mar 2020 16:03:50 GMT]]>They are now available in xcp-ng-testing for XCP-ng 8.1.

yum update --enablerepo=xcp-ng-testing
]]>https://xcp-ng.org/forum/post/24131https://xcp-ng.org/forum/post/24131Mon, 30 Mar 2020 16:03:50 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to XCP-ng 8.1 Release Candidate now available! on Mon, 30 Mar 2020 15:42:04 GMT]]>Fixed packages will be available shortly. Thanks for finding this important regression.

]]>https://xcp-ng.org/forum/post/24130https://xcp-ng.org/forum/post/24130Mon, 30 Mar 2020 15:42:04 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to XCP-ng 8.1 Release Candidate now available! on Mon, 30 Mar 2020 14:42:04 GMT]]>@Danp

rpm -q xapi-core xapi-xe xapi-tests
xapi-core-1.214.1-2.4.xcpng8.1.x86_64
xapi-xe-1.214.1-2.4.xcpng8.1.x86_64
xapi-tests-1.214.1-2.4.xcpng8.1.x86_64

on my other physical host and that is causing me issues. Guess I'll have to do a reinstall back to RC1.

yum downgrade xapi-core-1.214.1-2.2.xcpng8.1.x86_64 xapi-xe-1.214.1-2.2.xcpng8.1.x86_64 xapi-tests-1.214.1-2.2.xcpng8.1.x86_64
Loaded plugins: fastestmirror
Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
Excluding mirror: updates.xcp-ng.org
 * xcp-ng-base: mirrors.xcp-ng.org
Excluding mirror: updates.xcp-ng.org
 * xcp-ng-updates: mirrors.xcp-ng.org
No package xapi-core-1.214.1-2.2.xcpng8.1.x86_64 available.
No package xapi-xe-1.214.1-2.2.xcpng8.1.x86_64 available.
No package xapi-tests-1.214.1-2.2.xcpng8.1.x86_64 available.
Error: Nothing to do

https://updates.xcp-ng.org/8/8.1/base/x86_64/Packages/ only has the latest versions.

]]>https://xcp-ng.org/forum/post/24129https://xcp-ng.org/forum/post/24129Mon, 30 Mar 2020 14:42:04 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to XCP-ng 8.1 Release Candidate now available! on Mon, 30 Mar 2020 14:31:55 GMT]]>@jmccoy555 You could try the following (untested!) --

yum downgrade xapi-core-1.214.1-2.4.xcpng8.1.x86_64 xapi-xe-1.214.1-2.4.xcpng8.1.x86_64 xapi-tests-1.214.1-2.4.xcpng8.1.x86_64

Not sure if there are other packages that would need rolled back as well.

]]>https://xcp-ng.org/forum/post/24128https://xcp-ng.org/forum/post/24128Mon, 30 Mar 2020 14:31:55 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to XCP-ng 8.1 Release Candidate now available! on Mon, 30 Mar 2020 14:29:26 GMT]]>Don't suppose there's a quick way to rollback is there?

]]>https://xcp-ng.org/forum/post/24127https://xcp-ng.org/forum/post/24127Mon, 30 Mar 2020 14:29:26 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to XCP-ng 8.1 Release Candidate now available! on Mon, 30 Mar 2020 14:28:08 GMT]]>@jmccoy555 said in XCP-ng 8.1 Release Candidate now available!:

xapi-core-1.214.1-2.5.xcpng8.1.x86_64
xapi-xe-1.214.1-2.5.xcpng8.1.x86_64
xapi-tests-1.214.1-2.5.xcpng8.1.x86_64

My server is fully patched (no updates showing in XO). Can someone please explain why these updates aren't showing up for me?

]]>https://xcp-ng.org/forum/post/24126https://xcp-ng.org/forum/post/24126Mon, 30 Mar 2020 14:28:08 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to XCP-ng 8.1 Release Candidate now available! on Mon, 30 Mar 2020 14:19:40 GMT]]>Good news! I'm able to reproduce the issue 👍

]]>https://xcp-ng.org/forum/post/24125https://xcp-ng.org/forum/post/24125Mon, 30 Mar 2020 14:19:40 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to XCP-ng 8.1 Release Candidate now available! on Mon, 30 Mar 2020 14:14:18 GMT]]>Ok thanks!

]]>https://xcp-ng.org/forum/post/24124https://xcp-ng.org/forum/post/24124Mon, 30 Mar 2020 14:14:18 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to XCP-ng 8.1 Release Candidate now available! on Mon, 30 Mar 2020 14:13:15 GMT]]>@BenjiReis 'Backup' and 'Export' from the VM screen in XO.

]]>https://xcp-ng.org/forum/post/24123https://xcp-ng.org/forum/post/24123Mon, 30 Mar 2020 14:13:15 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to XCP-ng 8.1 Release Candidate now available! on Mon, 30 Mar 2020 14:09:55 GMT]]>@jmccoy555 Thanks for the info, can you precise what kind of backup you were using? Delta? continuous replication?

thanks

]]>https://xcp-ng.org/forum/post/24122https://xcp-ng.org/forum/post/24122Mon, 30 Mar 2020 14:09:55 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to XCP-ng 8.1 Release Candidate now available! on Mon, 30 Mar 2020 14:10:24 GMT]]>2020-03-30T13_19_28.603Z - XO.log.txt [0_1585573773406_2020-03-30T13_19_28.603Z - XO.txt.log](Uploading 0%) @stormi

Works - Fresh RC1 install as a VM
xapi-core-1.214.1-2.2.xcpng8.1.x86_64
xapi-xe-1.214.1-2.2.xcpng8.1.x86_64
xapi-tests-1.214.1-2.2.xcpng8.1.x86_64

Fails - The above with patches applied
xapi-core-1.214.1-2.5.xcpng8.1.x86_64
xapi-xe-1.214.1-2.5.xcpng8.1.x86_64
xapi-tests-1.214.1-2.5.xcpng8.1.x86_64

I have tried a restore from a scheduled XO back up.

I also have exported the VM from XO as a .XVA and tried importing with XO and XCP-ng center, both fail but work with 8.1 RC1 before patches.

f0fc686e-074c-4aee-b904-50669675d462-image.png

xo-server 5.57.3
xo-web 5.57.1

dd4cf249-b799-45f6-aa47-a2501379707b-image.png

I'll have to dig the logs out later if still required.[0_1585573752708_2020-03-30T13_19_28.603Z - XO.log](Uploading 0%)

]]>https://xcp-ng.org/forum/post/24121https://xcp-ng.org/forum/post/24121Mon, 30 Mar 2020 14:10:24 GMT