XCP-ng project

Dashrender

Hi there,

You probably heard about XenServer 7.3 release and some of its features removed.

So, I started a GitHub organization called "xcp-ng", hosting all the repo needed to make a XenServer OS from the sources. It's 100% community backed.

I actually hired (part time but still) an former XAPI developer, so it will accelerate the pace soon. I think we'll be able to release something in Q1, without any feature restriction (think vGPU + everything) and turnkey as XenServer itself.

If it works well, the door for including directly extra stuff in the project is opened: our Gluster driver for example (and a Ceph driver too), better compression algorithm, CentOS packages available, community contribution etc.

Obviously, we'll start small (probably re-using bunch of existing RPMs), but then we'll try to build more and more from the sources. But the ultimate goal is to have just a RPM repo to install from a CentOS and then use yum upgrade to stay up-to-date!

All contributions are welcome, if you want to join the GitHub org, feel free to ask!

Way to go! Awesome to see someone use Open Source like Scott keeps bragging about.

momurda

That is awesome. I may be able to help testing stuff, but i am no developer.

mkaliyannan

@olivier Awesome !Thank you so much oliver !. I know programming in python in intermediate level. However, I am full time system administrator with som devops background. I can help for testing

scottalanmiller

I bet that there are some quick advancements to make this leapfrog over XenServer, too. Like moving to XFS or BtrFs or even ZFS.

black3dynamite

@scottalanmiller said in XCP-ng project:

I bet that there are some quick advancements to make this leapfrog over XenServer, too. Like moving to XFS or BtrFs or even ZFS.

Anything to get away from ext3.

olivier

@scottalanmiller Yes, good idea. This would be doable to add ZFS support for local SR. I can do it in a week if I have a week free

Dashrender

@olivier said in XCP-ng project:

@scottalanmiller Yes, good idea. This would be doable to add ZFS support for local SR. I can do it in a week if I have a week free

This alone would crush XenServer.

scottalanmiller

I just want to toot my own horn and say that I first suggested this or something like it fourteen months ago to @olivier .... it just took Citrix' decline for another year to invoke some action

matteo nunziati

@olivier may I suggest to adjust the payload from "XenServer build from the sources" in "XenServer built from the sources"?!

olivier

@scottalanmiller said in XCP-ng project:

I just want to toot my own horn and say that I first suggested this or something like it fourteen months ago to @olivier .... it just took Citrix' decline for another year to invoke some action

Yeah, but without enough incentive to do so, XenServer was more appealing. Now they removed some features, they raised the common interested to do so. And therefore people are more eager to try it now.

scottalanmiller

@olivier said in XCP-ng project:

@scottalanmiller said in XCP-ng project:

I just want to toot my own horn and say that I first suggested this or something like it fourteen months ago to @olivier .... it just took Citrix' decline for another year to invoke some action

Yeah, but without enough incentive to do so, XenServer was more appealing. Now they removed some features, they raised the common interested to do so. And therefore people are more eager to try it now.

Or maybe some of us just say this coming

olivier

@scottalanmiller To be right too early can be a mistake too You just can't invest resources without good reasons.

scottalanmiller

@olivier said in XCP-ng project:

@scottalanmiller To be right too early can be a mistake too You just can't invest resources without good reasons.

That’s why I consider myself a futurist more than anything else.

DustinB3403

Very interesting...

olivier

First PoC is here: https://xcp-ng.github.io/news/2018/01/22/xcp-ng-on-tracks.html

scottalanmiller

@olivier said in XCP-ng project:

First PoC is here: https://xcp-ng.github.io/news/2018/01/22/xcp-ng-on-tracks.html

Awesome, congrats!

travisdh1

@olivier said in XCP-ng project:

First PoC is here: https://xcp-ng.github.io/news/2018/01/22/xcp-ng-on-tracks.html

Great work!

momurda

Good news, and quickly at that!
Question, is your build using the same versions of perl(5 year old release in XS7) and python(nearly 5 years old) as XS7.2?
Is the plan to use more modern versions of these eventually?

DustinB3403

@momurda said in XCP-ng project:

Good news, and quickly at that!
Question, is your build using the same versions of perl(5 year old release in XS7) and python(nearly 5 years old) as XS7.2?
Is the plan to use more modern versions of these eventually?

At the moment, this was directly from 7.2 and just disable the restrictions.

That may come down the pipe based on what I read.

olivier

The short term goal is to have:

the latest XS version with "XenServer" name replaced by XCP-ng
removal of all feature restriction
easy upgrade path from XS to XCP-ng

Mid-term goal:

rely on RPM repo for all operations
validate/authorize more vanilla packages to be used on Dom0 for more integrations within Xen and XAPI

Long-term goal:

contribute directly to mainline (XAPI/drivers)
re-unite XAPI into a mainline without license check