Great projects have great documentation. Is XCP-ng a great project?

borzel

@stormi Supportplan? Or just Releases?

stormi

Maybe "Releases and support" (with spaces between words... Not everyone is German :P)

borzel

lawrencesystems

In addition to the write ups in the Wiki, would it be ok to link my YouTube tutorial videos that I have made on many aspects of the project?

stormi

Yes, as long as they are clearly identified as third party videos, I think they would be a useful addition.

stormi

I think the main missing piece in current docs is a quickstart guide, as discussed here https://xcp-ng.org/forum/topic/2427/what-to-do-after-install

akurzawa

Hi

I can see repetable questions on this forum, indeed xcp lacks of good documentation. But also I don't think github is the best way to make docs. I think Sphinks is better example here: https://wiki.opnsense.org - what do You think about that?

stormi

github's wiki is not my preferred solution, but it's the most straightforward to let people contribute without first creating an account. In my opinion, that wiki is decent enough and what matters most for now is the contents that is present or missing.

tuxen

@stormi I've just created a github account but it was flagged right after trying to edit the wiki

Is there some sort of permission?

FYI, I couldn't edit the wiki without an account. The edit button only appears after signed in.

stormi

@tuxen There's no permission that I'm aware of. Maybe github has some rule that requires users to wait for a few hours before they are allowed to make edits. Was there an error message? What do you mean with "was flagged"?

By "without creating an account" I meant that many people already have an account so they don't need to create yet another account to edit the wiki. In your case, since you did not already have a github account, this isn't true.

tuxen

@stormi Yes, after trying to save the changes, an error banner appeared with the message "Your account has been flagged". It was indeed a policy for new accounts, according to the github support team. I'll try again, thanks!

stormi

I have rewritten a good part of the page dedicated to guest tools in the wiki: https://github.com/xcp-ng/xcp/wiki/Guest-Tools

Feedback and corrections welcome.

ruskofd

Far better readability, thanks @stormi

borzel

@stormi supercool

Biggen

@stormi The only thing I would add is using the Citrix tools also doesn't display all pertinent information for the VM as I described back in December in this post.

Edit: Well I can't figure out how to link a specific post in a thread. Is there no way with the forum software to link specific post? Any, you can scroll down some to my post where I have pictures depicting missing VM information when using the Citrix tools. Figured it out...

stormi

@Biggen I did add already that Windows Update only installs the optimized drivers, not the management agent.

Forza

I think that the "Management Agent" really needs to have its own headline in there. It is the thing that is so confusing. Coming from Citrix it is all bundled, but it isn't anymore and this is problematic.

stormi

@S-Pam I have made tests with Citrix Hypervisor: the Windows Update feature does not install the management agent there either.

The management agent is already covered in the part dedicated to XCP-ng tools so I don't think a headline is needed for those who follow that path. So it's all about part of the documentation that is dedicated to Citrix tools.

Here's the text. How would you complete or rework it?

Using the Windows guest tools from Citrix

Those are not included in the guest tools ISO distributed with XCP-ng for legal reasons.

If you are using Xen Orchestra, you can switch the "Windows Update tools" advanced parameter on from the "Advanced" tab of the VM view. This will allow you to install the tools directly from Windows Updates.

This will only install the device drivers for optimized I/O. If you need the management agent, you still need to install it, for example from Citrix Hypervisor's installation ISOs where it resides in the client_install directory.

You can also simply not enable that Windows Update feature and fetch the installer from the client_install directory of Citrix Hypervisor's installation ISO.

If your VM already has XCP-ng tools and you wish to switch to Citrix tools, then you need to do the same kind of clean-up as described higher in this document for the opposite situation.

olivierlambert

Agent is bundled with XCP-ng tools. It's just in case you are using Windows Update for getting Citrix driver that you aren't "covered".

Forza

@stormi said in Great projects have great documentation. Is XCP-ng a great project?:

This will allow you to install the tools directly from Windows Updates.

Well, here. this is wrong. The Agent is not included in the Windows Update tools.

Oliver is correct of course. And this should be highlighted in its own section or similar.
Something like:

Windows Agent
The Windows agent is responsibled for communicating guest status to the xcp-ng host/server... blah blah.

The agent can only be installed using the xcp-ng tools.
If you are using Windows Update to to get the citrix tools, the agent cannot be installed. It is also not included in Windows update.
...