XCP-ng 8.3 updates announcements and testing

[stormi]

@marcoi said in XCP-ng 8.3 updates announcements and testing:

also noticed a new issue- seems like changes i had in the /etc/xensource/usb-policy.conf file for usb was lost during the upgrade.

I have some usb comm devices i use with a home assistant VM and they were gone post the upgrade.

anyway to make those change last post upgrade? Maybe make then options in gui so a config file can always be reflective of gui settings?

This one is known. I had opened an issue about it, but it didn't get much traction yet. We also have a related item in our backlog, but it's a matter of finding resources to handle it.

https://github.com/xapi-project/xen-api/issues/4935

stormi created this issue in xapi-project/xen-api

open Packaging: xapi-core RPM updates overwrite custom user config in usb-policy.conf #4935

[shorian]

@stormi https://xcp-ng.org/forum/post/101015 V kind, thanks

[olivierlambert]

@stormi Yes, I'm also affected in here, due to an USB device that's disabled by default.

[gb.123]

@olivierlambert

I did post an alternative script here:
https://xcp-ng.org/forum/topic/8620/usb-passthrough-override-script-to-ensure-usb-policy-conf-consistency

But it was later removed due to request by @stormi .

I'm currently using my script which basically backs up your settings and overrides the default one (after backing it up on first install) on every boot. I know its a crude way to handle but it was only meant to be temporary till you guys find a solution.

I have reposted it.

Please note : Issues caused by this script (if any) shall not be covered by the XCP-NG Support Team 

[stormi]

@gb.123 Please mention in your post that any issue caused by this script will not be covered by official support. The concerns I voiced then still hold.

[gb.123]

@stormi

Great Idea!
Post updated !

Update: I also added 'Automatic Backup' which backs up your original file in case something goes wrong.

[gduperrey]

New security and maintenance update candidates for you to test!

Security vulnerabilities have been detected and fixed for xen and varstored. We also publish other non-urgent updates which we had in the pipe for the next update release.

Security updates:

• xen:

  • XSA-477 / VSA-2026-001: A buffer overflow in the Xen shadow tracing code could allow a DomU virtual machine to crash Xen, or potentially escalate privileges.
  • XSA-479 / VSA-2026-003: Some Xen optimizations to avoid clearing internal CPU buffers when not required could allow one guest to leak data of another guest. A mitigation can be applied without the fix by rebooting vulnerable Xen with "spec-ctrl=ibpb-entry=hvm,ibpb-entry=pv" on the Xen command line at the cost of decreased performances.

• varstored:

  • XSA-478 / VSA-2026-002: Within varstored, there were insufficient compiler barriers, creating TOCTOU issues with data in the shared buffer. An attacker with kernel level access in a VM can escalate privilege via gaining code execution within varstored.

Maintenance updates:

• guest-templates-json:

  • Update VM template labels
  • Sync RHEL10 template with XenServer's

• intel-microcode:

  • Update to publicly released microcode-20251111
  • Updates for multiple functional issues

• kernel: Bug fixes in the NFS and NBD stacks for various deadlocks and other race conditions.

• qemu: Backport for CVE-2021-3929, fixing a DMA reentrancy flaw in NVMe emulation, that could lead to use-after-free from a malicious guest and potential arbitrary code execution.

• smartmontools: Update to minor release 7.5

• swtpm: Synchronize with release 0.7.3-12 from XenServer. No functional changes.

• xapi: Fix regression on dynamic memory management during live migration, causing VMs not to balloon down before the migration.

• xcp-ng-release: Prevent remote syslog from being overwritten by system updates.

XOSTOR
In addition to the changes in common packages, the following XOSTOR-specific packages received updates:

• drbd: Reduces the I/O load and time during resync.
• drbd-reactor: Misc improvements regarding drbd-reactor and events
• linstor:
  • Resource delete: Fixed rare race condition where a delayed DRBD event causes "resource not found" ErrorReports
  • Misc changes to robustify LINSTOR API calls and checks

If you are using Xostor, please refer to our documentation for the update method.

Test on XCP-ng 8.3

yum clean metadata --enablerepo=xcp-ng-testing,xcp-ng-candidates
yum update --enablerepo=xcp-ng-testing,xcp-ng-candidates
reboot

The usual update rules apply: pool coordinator first, etc.

Versions:

• guest-templates-json: 2.0.15-1.1.xcpng8.3
• intel-microcode: 20251029-1.xcpng8.3
• kernel: 4.19.19-8.0.44.1.xcpng8.3
• qemu: 4.2.1-5.2.15.2.xcpng8.3
• smartmontools: 7.5-1.xcpng8.3
• swtpm: 0.7.3-12.xcpng8.3
• xapi: 25.33.1-2.3.xcpng8.3
• xcp-ng-release: 8.3.0-36
• xcp-python-libs: 3.0.10-1.1.xcpng8.3
• xen: 4.17.5-23.2.xcpng8.3
• varstored: 1.2.0-3.5.xcpng8.3

XOSTOR

• drbd: 9.33.0-1.el7_9
• drbd-reactor: 1.9.0-1
• kmod-drbd: 9.2.16-1.0.xcpng8.3
• linstor: 1.33.0~rc.2-1.el8
• linstor-client: 1.27.0-1.xcpng8.3
• python-linstor: 1.27.0-1.xcpng8.3
• xcp-ng-linstor: 1.2-4.xcpng8.3

What to test

Normal use and anything else you want to test.

Test window before official release of the updates

2 days max.

[flakpyro]

Installed on my usual selection of hosts. (A mixture of AMD and Intel hosts, SuperMicro, Asus, and Minisforum). No issues after a reboot, PCI Passthru, backups, etc continue to work smoothly

[Andrew]

@gduperrey Standard XCP 8.3 pools updated and running.

[gduperrey]

Thank you everyone for your tests and your feedback!

The updates are live now: https://xcp-ng.org/blog/2026/01/29/january-2026-security-and-maintenance-updates-for-xcp-ng-8-3-lts/