XPDS16: Xen Development Update
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The document outlines the Xen release process for updates and new developments, highlighting a reduced release cycle of six months with four months for development and two for freeze. It details the responsibilities of the release manager and contributors, including monthly updates and engagement in feature tracking and bug statuses. Key improvements and planned tests for Xen 4.8, as well as bug fixes and enhancements across various platforms, are also discussed.
XPDS16: Xen Development Update
- 1. Wei Liu Release Manager, Committer liuw Presented by Lars Kurth & George Dunlap
- 2. Refresher: Xen Release process Xen 4.7 Update Xen 4.8 Development Update
- 4. Reduce release cycle length to 6 months: – 4 months development – 2 months freeze, with earlier creation of release branch based on risk assessment – Xen 4.7 was longer to support future June / December releases Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec
- 5. Master branch on xen.git Feature Development Feature Freeze point Wait period to clear test pushgate RC’s Release Announcement RELEASE-4.7.0 branch on xen.git RELEASE-4.8.0 branch based on risk assessment Last Post Date
- 6. Master/Release branch on xen.git Wait period to clear test pushgate RC’s No new features No Freeze Exceptions Bug fixes are allowed, with approval by Maintainers/Release Manager Release Manager declares that only bug fixes deemed blockers can be accepted Creation of RELEASE-4.8.0 branch based on risk assessment Feature Development This is when patches for the ongoing release need to be submitted for review
- 7. Release Manager: Sends Monthly Xen x.y Development Update email on xen-devel@ Contributors: Expected to reply if they are working on a feature that is not on the list of tracked features Expected to provide Status updates on features & bugs on the list Not engaging with the process may lead to removal or downgrading Release Manager: Sends first Xen x.y Development Update email on xen-devel@ Deferred features from previous release, Timetable, etc. Contributors: Expected to reply if they are working on a feature that is not on the list of tracked features and tracked bugs Release Manager: RC Announcements, Test Days Contributors: Expected to provide Status updates on tracked bugs on the list Release Manager: Release Announcement
- 8. Xen code base Hypervisor: general, x86 and ARM Toolstack Others upcoming things Test lab / Testing Guest OS support
- 10. First fixed term release actually 9 months cycle Development start: 9 September 2015 (branched early; 4.6 released Oct 5th) Freeze: 8 April 2016 Release date: 20 June 2016 Goals: predictable releases But take into account exceptional situations Several XSAs Wanted to include LivePatching 2 weeks overdue, but still acceptable
- 11. KConfig support … Improved Virtual Machine Introspection subsystem … Credit2 scheduler improvement … RTDS scheduler improvement converted to event-driven model support per-vcpu parameter Per-cpu reader-writer lock to improve performance
- 12. Hypervisor live patching … CPUID leveling PV guest memory limit bumped to TB range Intel VT-d Posted Interrupt Intel Code and Data Prioritization Intel VMX TSC Scaling Intel XSave/Xrtors support Intel Memory Protection Keys
- 13. Server Base Boot Requirement compliance PSCI 1.0 compatibility ARM vGICv3 support Support getting wallclock directly from Xen Bug fixes for existing platforms
- 14. PVUSB support Hot-plugging of QEMU-backed disks Soft-reset support Building and migrating large PV domain libxenctrl broken into a set of stable libraries Coarse-grained Lock-stepping Xen part upstreamed
- 15. Added lines: +86378 Removed lines: -28012 Lines of changes: +58366 Changes/month 230 Changesets (Patches) 1887 Series (=Features) 1025 Review Comments: 11628 1.84 patches per series 11.3 comments per series
- 16. Xen 4.8 first short fixed term release 6 months cycle Jun Jul Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec Jun 6 Last Posting Date Sept 16 Code Freeze Sept 304.7 4.8
- 17. PVHv2/HVMLite DomU and Dom0 Livepatching for ARM … IOREQ server for XenGT Loading arbitrary firmware blob via toolstack vNVDIMM support … Libxl PVSCSI support Depriviledged QEMU Mini-OS balloon driver support Mini-OS PVHv2/HVMLite mode support Restartable Dom0 and more ...
- 18. Removal of Blktap2 Cleanup of COPYING files (and other license related cleanup)
- 19. ARM 64 Bit Machines 2x Softiron Overdrive 3000 2x Gigabyte R150-T61 (if we can get them in time) OSSTEST Work to integrate XTF into OSSTest underway Work to improve OSSTest throughput underway
- 20. Linux Experimental support in Xen for ACPI on ARM64 machines Xen wallclock support in Xen and Linux on ARM and ARM64 Xen stolen ticks support in Xen and Linux on ARM and ARM64 Many GICv2 and GICv3 correctness improvements in Xen Netback dynamic multicast control support Blkback multiqueue support Dozens other fixes and minor improvements
- 21. FreeBSD Netfront multiqueue support Blkback support for hotplug scripts Fixes for clock skew during suspend / resume Netfront packet forwarding fixes Mini-OS Ballooning support Build system fixes and cleanup
- 22. It relies on YOU engaging with the Release Process