It's been a few weeks since I've sent one out, so please send updates!
This information will be mirrored on the Xen 4.3 Roadmap wiki page:
http://wiki.xen.org/wiki/Xen_Roadmap/4.3
= Timeline =
We are planning on a 9-month release cycle. Based on that, below are
our estimated dates:
* Feature Freeze: 25 March 2013
* First RC: 6 May 2013
* Release: 17 June 2013
The RCs and release will of course depend on stability and bugs, and
will therefore be fairly unpredictable. The feature freeze may be
slipped for especially important features which are near completion.
= Feature tracking =
Below is a list of features we're tracking for this release. Please
respond to this mail with any updates to the status.
There are a number of items whose owners are marked as "?". If you
are working on this, or know who is working on it, please respond and
let me know. Alternately, if you would *like* to work on it, please
let me know as well.
And if there is something you're working on you'd like tracked, please
respond, and I will add it to the list.
NB: Several of the items on this list are from external projects:
linux, qemu, and libvirt. These are not part of the Xen tree, but are
directly related to our users' experience (e.g., work in Linux or
qemu) or to integration with other important projects (e.g., libvirt
bindings). Since all of these are part of the Xen community work, and
comes from the same pool of labor, it makes sense to track the
progress here, even though they won't explicitly be released as part
of 4.3.
== Completed ==
* Serial console improvements
-EHCI debug port
* Default to QEMU upstream (partial)
- pci pass-thru (external)
- enable dirtybit tracking during migration (external)
* CPUID-based idle (don't rely on ACPI info f/ dom0)
== Bugs ==
* xl, compat mode, and older kernels
owner: ?
Many older 32-bit PV kernels that can run on a 64-bit hypervisor with
xend do not work when started with xl. The following work-around seems to
work:
xl create -p lightning.cfg
xenstore-write /local/domain/$(xl domid
lightning)/device/vbd/51713/protocol x86_32-abi
xl unpause lightning
This node is normally written by the guest kernel, but for older kernels
seems not to be. xend must have a work-around; port this work-around to
xl.
== Not yet complete ==
* PVH mode (w/ Linux)
owner: mukesh@oracle
status (Linux): 3rd draft patches posted.
status (Xen): Patches being cleaned up for submission
* Event channel scalability
owner: attilio@citrix
status: initial design proposed
Increase limit on event channels (currently 1024 for 32-bit guests,
4096 for 64-bit guests)
* ARM server port
owner: ijc@citrix
status: Core hypervisor patches accepted; Linux paches pending
* NUMA scheduler affinity
critical
owner: dario@citrix
status: Patches posted
* NUMA Memory migration
owner: dario@citrix
status: ?
* blktap3
owner: thanos@citrix
status: RFCs posted
* Default to QEMU upstream
> Add "intel-hda" to xmexample file, since it works with 64-bit Win7/8
- qemu-based stubdom (Linux or BSD libc)
owner: anthony@citrix
status: in progress
qemu-upstream needs a more fully-featured libc than exists in
mini-os. Either work on a minimalist linux-based stubdom with
glibc, or port one of the BSD libcs to minios.
- xl cd-{insert,eject} (external)
status: intilal implementation submitted
* Persistent grants for blk (external)
owner: roger.pau@citrix
status: Initial implementation posted
* Persistent grants for net
owner: annie.li@citrix
status: Initial implementation posted
* Multi-page blk rings (external)
- blkback in kernel (konrad@oracle, ?@intel)
- qemu blkback
status: Not started.
* Multi-page net protocol (external)
owner: ijc@citrix or annie.li@oracle
status: Initial patches posted (by Wei Liu)
expand the network ring protocol to allow multiple pages for
increased throughput
* Scalability: 16TiB of RAM
owner: jan@suse
status: Not started
* vTPM updates
owner: Matthew Fioravante @ Johns Hopkins
status: some patches submitted, more in progress
- Allow all vTPM components to run in stub domains for increased security
- Update vtpm to 0.7.1 from 0.5.x
* libvirt/libxl integration (external)
- Migration
owner: cyliu@suse (?)
status: first draft implemented, not yet submitted
- Itemize other things that need work
To begin with, we need someone to go and make some lists:
- Features available in libvirt/KVM not available in libvirt/libxl
See http://libvirt.org/hvsupport.html
- Features available in xl/Xen but not available in libvirt/Xen
* V4V: Inter-domain communication
owner (Xen): jean.guyader@citrix.com
status (Xen): patches submitted
owner (Linux driver): stefano.panella@citrix
status (Linux driver): in progress
* Wait queues for mm
owner: ?
status: Draft posted Feb 2012; more work to do.
* xl vm-{export,import}
owner: ?
status: ?
Allow xl to import and export VMs to other formats; particularly
ovf, perhaps the XenServer format, or more.
* xl PVUSB pass-through for both PV and HVM guests
owner: ?
status: ?
xm/xend supports PVUSB pass-through to guests with PVUSB drivers (both PV
and HVM guests).
- port the xm/xend functionality to xl.
- this PVUSB feature does not require support or emulation from Qemu.
- upstream the Linux frontend/backend drivers. Current work-in-progress
versions are in Konrad's git tree.
- James Harper's GPLPV drivers for Windows include PVUSB frontend drivers.
* xl USB pass-through for HVM guests using Qemu USB emulation
owner: ?
status: ?
xm/xend with qemu-traditional supports USB passthrough to HVM guests
using the Qemu emulated USB controller.
The HVM guest does not need any special drivers for this feature.
So basicly the qemu cmdline needs to have:
-usb -usbdevice host:xxxx:yyyy
- port the xm/xend functionality to xl.
- make sure USB passthrough with xl works with both qemu-traditional and
qemu-upstream.
* xl QXL Spice support
owner: Zhou Peng
status: Patches against 4.3-unstable posted, awaiting approval
* openvswitch toostack integration
owner: roger@citrix
status: Sample script posted by Bastian ("[RFC] openvswitch support
script")
* Rationalized backend scripts (incl. driver domains)
owner: roger@citrix
status: ?
* Serial console improvements
owner: ?
status: Stalled (see below)
-xHCI debug port (Needs hardware)
-Firewire (needs hardware)
* Remove hardcoded mobprobe's in xencommons
owner: ?
status: ?
* Make storage migration possible
owner: ?
status: ?
There needs to be a way, either via command-line or via some hooks,
that someone can build a "storage migration" feature on top of libxl
or xl.
* Full-VM snapshotting
owner: ?
status: ?
Have a way of coordinating the taking and restoring of VM memory and
disk snapshots. This would involve some investigation into the best
way to accomplish this.
* VM Cloning
owner: ?
status: May need review
Again, a way of coordinating the memory and disk aspects. Research
into the best way to do this would probably go along with the
snapshotting feature.
* Memory: Replace PoD with paging mechanism
owner: george@citrix
status: May need review
* PV audio (audio for stubdom qemu)
owner: stefano.panella@citrix
status: ?
* IllumOS support
owner: Igor Kozhukov
status: In progress
* Managed domains?
This information will be mirrored on the Xen 4.3 Roadmap wiki page:
http://wiki.xen.org/wiki/Xen_Roadmap/4.3
= Timeline =
We are planning on a 9-month release cycle. Based on that, below are
our estimated dates:
* Feature Freeze: 25 March 2013
* First RC: 6 May 2013
* Release: 17 June 2013
The RCs and release will of course depend on stability and bugs, and
will therefore be fairly unpredictable. The feature freeze may be
slipped for especially important features which are near completion.
= Feature tracking =
Below is a list of features we're tracking for this release. Please
respond to this mail with any updates to the status.
There are a number of items whose owners are marked as "?". If you
are working on this, or know who is working on it, please respond and
let me know. Alternately, if you would *like* to work on it, please
let me know as well.
And if there is something you're working on you'd like tracked, please
respond, and I will add it to the list.
NB: Several of the items on this list are from external projects:
linux, qemu, and libvirt. These are not part of the Xen tree, but are
directly related to our users' experience (e.g., work in Linux or
qemu) or to integration with other important projects (e.g., libvirt
bindings). Since all of these are part of the Xen community work, and
comes from the same pool of labor, it makes sense to track the
progress here, even though they won't explicitly be released as part
of 4.3.
== Completed ==
* Serial console improvements
-EHCI debug port
* Default to QEMU upstream (partial)
- pci pass-thru (external)
- enable dirtybit tracking during migration (external)
* CPUID-based idle (don't rely on ACPI info f/ dom0)
== Bugs ==
* xl, compat mode, and older kernels
owner: ?
Many older 32-bit PV kernels that can run on a 64-bit hypervisor with
xend do not work when started with xl. The following work-around seems to
work:
xl create -p lightning.cfg
xenstore-write /local/domain/$(xl domid
lightning)/device/vbd/51713/protocol x86_32-abi
xl unpause lightning
This node is normally written by the guest kernel, but for older kernels
seems not to be. xend must have a work-around; port this work-around to
xl.
== Not yet complete ==
* PVH mode (w/ Linux)
owner: mukesh@oracle
status (Linux): 3rd draft patches posted.
status (Xen): Patches being cleaned up for submission
* Event channel scalability
owner: attilio@citrix
status: initial design proposed
Increase limit on event channels (currently 1024 for 32-bit guests,
4096 for 64-bit guests)
* ARM server port
owner: ijc@citrix
status: Core hypervisor patches accepted; Linux paches pending
* NUMA scheduler affinity
critical
owner: dario@citrix
status: Patches posted
* NUMA Memory migration
owner: dario@citrix
status: ?
* blktap3
owner: thanos@citrix
status: RFCs posted
* Default to QEMU upstream
> Add "intel-hda" to xmexample file, since it works with 64-bit Win7/8
- qemu-based stubdom (Linux or BSD libc)
owner: anthony@citrix
status: in progress
qemu-upstream needs a more fully-featured libc than exists in
mini-os. Either work on a minimalist linux-based stubdom with
glibc, or port one of the BSD libcs to minios.
- xl cd-{insert,eject} (external)
status: intilal implementation submitted
* Persistent grants for blk (external)
owner: roger.pau@citrix
status: Initial implementation posted
* Persistent grants for net
owner: annie.li@citrix
status: Initial implementation posted
* Multi-page blk rings (external)
- blkback in kernel (konrad@oracle, ?@intel)
- qemu blkback
status: Not started.
* Multi-page net protocol (external)
owner: ijc@citrix or annie.li@oracle
status: Initial patches posted (by Wei Liu)
expand the network ring protocol to allow multiple pages for
increased throughput
* Scalability: 16TiB of RAM
owner: jan@suse
status: Not started
* vTPM updates
owner: Matthew Fioravante @ Johns Hopkins
status: some patches submitted, more in progress
- Allow all vTPM components to run in stub domains for increased security
- Update vtpm to 0.7.1 from 0.5.x
* libvirt/libxl integration (external)
- Migration
owner: cyliu@suse (?)
status: first draft implemented, not yet submitted
- Itemize other things that need work
To begin with, we need someone to go and make some lists:
- Features available in libvirt/KVM not available in libvirt/libxl
See http://libvirt.org/hvsupport.html
- Features available in xl/Xen but not available in libvirt/Xen
* V4V: Inter-domain communication
owner (Xen): jean.guyader@citrix.com
status (Xen): patches submitted
owner (Linux driver): stefano.panella@citrix
status (Linux driver): in progress
* Wait queues for mm
owner: ?
status: Draft posted Feb 2012; more work to do.
* xl vm-{export,import}
owner: ?
status: ?
Allow xl to import and export VMs to other formats; particularly
ovf, perhaps the XenServer format, or more.
* xl PVUSB pass-through for both PV and HVM guests
owner: ?
status: ?
xm/xend supports PVUSB pass-through to guests with PVUSB drivers (both PV
and HVM guests).
- port the xm/xend functionality to xl.
- this PVUSB feature does not require support or emulation from Qemu.
- upstream the Linux frontend/backend drivers. Current work-in-progress
versions are in Konrad's git tree.
- James Harper's GPLPV drivers for Windows include PVUSB frontend drivers.
* xl USB pass-through for HVM guests using Qemu USB emulation
owner: ?
status: ?
xm/xend with qemu-traditional supports USB passthrough to HVM guests
using the Qemu emulated USB controller.
The HVM guest does not need any special drivers for this feature.
So basicly the qemu cmdline needs to have:
-usb -usbdevice host:xxxx:yyyy
- port the xm/xend functionality to xl.
- make sure USB passthrough with xl works with both qemu-traditional and
qemu-upstream.
* xl QXL Spice support
owner: Zhou Peng
status: Patches against 4.3-unstable posted, awaiting approval
* openvswitch toostack integration
owner: roger@citrix
status: Sample script posted by Bastian ("[RFC] openvswitch support
script")
* Rationalized backend scripts (incl. driver domains)
owner: roger@citrix
status: ?
* Serial console improvements
owner: ?
status: Stalled (see below)
-xHCI debug port (Needs hardware)
-Firewire (needs hardware)
* Remove hardcoded mobprobe's in xencommons
owner: ?
status: ?
* Make storage migration possible
owner: ?
status: ?
There needs to be a way, either via command-line or via some hooks,
that someone can build a "storage migration" feature on top of libxl
or xl.
* Full-VM snapshotting
owner: ?
status: ?
Have a way of coordinating the taking and restoring of VM memory and
disk snapshots. This would involve some investigation into the best
way to accomplish this.
* VM Cloning
owner: ?
status: May need review
Again, a way of coordinating the memory and disk aspects. Research
into the best way to do this would probably go along with the
snapshotting feature.
* Memory: Replace PoD with paging mechanism
owner: george@citrix
status: May need review
* PV audio (audio for stubdom qemu)
owner: stefano.panella@citrix
status: ?
* IllumOS support
owner: Igor Kozhukov
status: In progress
* Managed domains?
