XCP-ng 8.3 updates announcements and testing

[gleh]

New maintenance update candidates for XCP-ng 8.3 LTS

This batch of updates focuses on storage bug fixes and performance improvements.

What changed

Storage

• blktap:
  When CBT is enabled, an issue occurred where tapdisk opened cbtlog instead of the primary QCOW2 image. This previously caused commit operations (ENOTSUPP) and leaf-coalesce routines to fail, resulting in excessive storage consumption on the SR. Tapdisk now correctly bypasses the cbtlog image to allow proper coalescing.

• sm: Fix a bug where the coalesce on a secondary host of a QCOW2 VDI on LVMSR could corrupt LVM metadata and would need manual intervention to restore them.

• xapi:
  - Migration speeds are now improved for sparse QCOW2-backed VDIs, as empty sectors are no longer transferred.
  - Preserve VDI tags on migration. This is a foundational fix for kubernetes integration.

Versions

• blktap: 3.55.5-9.3.xcpng8.3 -> 3.55.5-9.4.xcpng8.3
• sm: 3.2.12-23.4.xcpng8.3 -> 3.2.12-23.5.xcpng8.3
• xapi: 26.1.16-1.1.xcpng8.3 -> 26.1.16-1.2.xcpng8.3

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.

What to test

As usual, normal use and anything else you want to test.

Test window before official release of the updates

~24 hrs

We would like to thank users who shared feedback since our last call for testing: @Andrew, @JeffBerntsen, @MajorP93, @XCP-ng-JustGreat, @acebmxer, @bufanda, @flakpyro