@AlexanderK said:

@abudef this causes some vms not to boot

You mean that when you enable Nested virtualization in the VM settings under the Advanced tab, the VM then fails to boot?

@MajorP93 Overall it works, Windows VMs run more or less reliably, but I wasn’t able to resolve the nested host crashing when starting Debian. That’s why I put the free version of ESXi underneath the nested XCP-ng hosts, and that works reliably.

@MajorP93 Sure I did

You can enable it in the VM configuration simply by clicking a button in Xen Orchestra:

or use this command:
xe vm-param-set platform:nested_virt=true uuid=<VM UUID> mistake here, see below

Nested virtualization doesn’t work very well in Xen. For example, when I set up a small test playground, I had XCP-ng 8.3 as the primary host and another XCP-ng running on it as a nested host. When I then booted Debian 12 on the nested host, it caused the entire nested host to crash and reboot. On the other hand, Windows VMs on the nested host run quite well.

Later, when I was preparing a test lab, I installed ESXi 8.0U3e on a Dell server and then deployed four virtualized XCP-ng 8.3 hosts on top of it. A number of Linux and Windows VMs run on them without any issues.

@gduperrey Of course, the order matters. Now everything seems to be clear.

In my case, I gave the command to shut down all hosts, and the master "made it" first. The other hosts then got "stuck" at this point for a very long time:

EDIT: Apparently waiting for umount:

@gduperrey Restart happens normally, without any noticeable delay, but shutdown takes a long time. Which logs should I specifically check?

(It's not a real issue, but I just needed to move servers in the lab and had to shut them down, so I noticed it.)

Hi, it seems that shutting down the host is taking an extremely long time now. I tried it in two different environments; the shutdown process starts but gets stuck on the splash screen for several minutes before finally completing. There were no active virtual machines on the hosts being shut down.

Does anyone have the possibility to test this in a lab? Thanks!

Hi,
I’m afraid I’ve encountered the same problem:

• Xen Orchestra, commit 0b52a
  

• v6
  

I was thinking more of updating the entire set of the agent and drivers, similar to how XenServer VM Tools for Windows have it implemented. Using a scheduled job, they regularly check whether an update is available, and if so, they carry out the update of both the agent and the drivers themselves.

Can we look forward to automatic updates arriving in the future as well?

@dinhngtu I would prefer some standardized OS information for Windows systems, similar to this info:

Get-ComputerInfo | Select-Object OsName, OsVersion, OsBuildNumber, OsArchitecture
      
OsName                                            OsVersion  OsBuildNumber OsArchitecture
------                                            ---------  ------------- --------------
Microsoft Windows Server 2025 Standard Evaluation 10.0.26100 26100         64-bit

@dinhngtu said in XCP-ng Windows PV tools announcements:

@abudef Got it, the agent was not changed since the last version so the build number was not bumped. I'll keep that in mind for the next release.

Hi, the agent still identifies as version 9.0.9065-44. It would be great if it identified with the same version as the drivers, so it would be clear at first glance which version it's running.

@kagbasi-ngc Hi, thanks for your thoughts.

I get on well with Linux myself - I’m using XO from source following the documentation, and actually, Ronivay’s script, as you mentioned, makes it all even handier. Still, I can’t help but think - your average home user, a total amateur, is just going to land on the XCP-ng host homepage and click "Deploy XOA". And then they’ve no backup, outside of the trial period. But sure, if XOA is aimed squarely at business and enterprise users with paid licences, fair enough that makes perfect sense.

I just feel like backup isn’t really a purely business or enterprise feature, unlike, say, proxy instances or hyper-converged storage. It's something even home users would genuinely benefit from.

But as it is mentioned above, that’s just how it’s set up - and like you said yourself, everyone’s got the chance to learn something new. And sure, in the age of AI chatbots, there’s really no excuse not to manage it

Hi,
congratulations on another milestone, XOA 5.108! A massive thanks to all the developers, and I’m really rooting for you - may both Vates and our whole community continue to grow strong.

I’d love to ask someone from Vates how they see the position of XOA compared to the self-compiled version of XO. As most folks know, XOA is incredibly easy and elegant to install on an XCP-ng server - even a complete beginner with no experience can manage it without much bother.

But there is one key limitation in XOA that affects all casual users once the trial period ends - the integrated Backup tool is no longer available. Sure, if you compile XO from source, the Backup functionality is there. But even though we have a detailed guide, getting XO from source up and running can be a bit of a tough nut to crack for users with no Linux experience. Even using the pre-made scripts (like XenOrchestraInstallerUpdater, and the like), which seem to be the preferred method among the tech-savvy YouTubers promoting XCP-ng/XO(A), still calls for at least a bit of Linux know-how.

Now, things like XOSTOR or Proxies - a home user probably won’t need them. But Backup? That’s something that could really be made available in XOA for the everyday user.

What’s your take on that, Vates?

I also see it in my lab

The array was created later after installation manually using unused disks. And then it was connected in the normal way as a local SR using XO.

It would be nice if it would also handle the state of other mdamd RAID arrays. After all, the All mdadm RAID are healthy message kind of predetermines it

Yeah, that's it, thanks.

device = '/dev/md0'