Xen Document Days/TODO: Difference between revisions
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Write manpages for xe and its 430 subcommands. |
Write manpages for xe and its 430 subcommands. |
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* A team led by [[user:GrantMcWilliams|Grant McWilliams]] and including [[user:Matthew.Spah|Matthew Spah]], [[user:Lisa.Nguyen|Lisa Nguyen]] and [[user:MRWebberOne|Mike Webber]] is currently working on documenting the xe command and will continue to do so until completed. Moving the source repo to xen-org has been [[http://lists.xen.org/archives/html/xen-api/2012-09/msg00053.html proposed]]. |
* A team led by [[user:GrantMcWilliams|Grant McWilliams]] and including [[user:Matthew.Spah|Matthew Spah]], [[user:Lisa.Nguyen|Lisa Nguyen]] and [[user:MRWebberOne|Mike Webber]] is currently working on documenting the xe command and will continue to do so until completed. Moving the source repo to xen-org has been [[http://lists.xen.org/archives/html/xen-api/2012-09/msg00053.html proposed]]. |
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* As of September 2013, the Xenapi Admin Project team is currently automating the manpage creation process for all xe subcommands. |
* As of September 2013, the [http://xenapiadmin.com Xenapi Admin Project] team is currently automating the manpage creation process for all xe subcommands. |
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==== Describe the different ways, and necessary components, to create PVs using xl ==== |
==== Describe the different ways, and necessary components, to create PVs using xl ==== |
Revision as of 14:54, 30 September 2013
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Go back to Xen Document Days
Requested Documentation
(IMPORTANT) XenAPI OpenStack Documentation
(IMPORTANT) Linux Distros
It seems that the list of Linux Distros which support Xen is a lot larger than listed on this wiki.
The following pages need updating and new categories need to be created:
- Dom0_Kernels_for_Xen
- DomU_Support_for_Xen
- Template:Distro_Resources
- Add categories
(IMPORTANT) Lose ends for transition from Mercurial to Git
Pages that need fixing
Lars.kurth 13:46, 29 January 2013 (UTC):
- Compiling Xen From Source ✓
- Submitting Xen Patches ✓
- Submitting_Xen_Patches_with_Git has been created
- Marked pages with TODO's
Restructure XCP Related Categories
- This is executing the proposal http://lists.xenproject.org/archives/html/xen-api/2013-06/msg00109.html [Proposal for input] Disentangling XAPI, XAPI packages and XCP on wiki.xenproject.org]. In a nutshell:
- Category XCP : only use for content specific to the XCP ISO
- New Category XAPI Project : this is basically a category for developers
- New Category XAPI Users : this is basically for users of XAPI, XAPI packages in distro and other flavours of XAPI (e.g. XCP ISO when not specific to the ISO)
- Move content into those locations
Xen 4.3 Documentation
Xen 4.3 Release Notes
Need to flesh out Xen_4.3_Release_Notes (also see Xen_4.2_Release_Notes)
Spice Config Example for upstream QEMU
Take this thread and convert into an Example
In progress (some just need double checking whether finished)
Better XCP Overview Documentation
- Lars.kurth 08:02, 25 September 2012 (UTC): See XCP Overview & XCP Release Features - these need a little bit more work
Easy tasks for Beginners
You may weant to read Wiki Help if you do not have an account.
Migrate useful blog posts to wiki
Sift through blog.xen.org and copy useful posts to wiki. This will mainly be a reformatting exercise. Before you copy an article, perform a search on the wiki (headline or key word) to see whether the post exists already. If in doubt, ask on the IRC channel.
Fix articles that need attention
- Category:Contains_Needs_Formatting - Pages that need formatting
- Category:Contains_Needs_Action - Pages that need fixing. Go through these, and if you get stuck ask people on the IRC channel for help, or go to the next page.
- Category:Contains_TODO - Pages that have a TODO item on the page. Go through these, and if you get stuck ask people on the IRC channel for help, or go to the next page.
Review Categorization
- Sometimes new pages on the wiki are not created with categories. You can find these by going to Special:UncategorizedPages. Documentation about which category is used where can be found in Categories for Authors. If in doubt ask on IRC.
Pages With Comments or Improvement Suggestions
- We ask users to highlight issues using talk pages, following the conventions outlined in Help:Talk Pages. Comments made using these conventions can be identified using the Category:Pages with comments.
Missing Pages
- Special:WantedPages - You can find missing pages by going to this link. There are several courses of actoin that can be taken:
- The page is needed : Add
{{TODO|With a comment}}
to the top of the page - The page is not needed : Remove the reference to the page (follow the link in the bracket besides the page)
- Note that the list of Wanted pages contains lots of needed translations and categories, which you can ignore
- If in doubt, ask for help on the IRC channel
- The page is needed : Add
Double-p 09:55, 25 February 2013 (UTC): There are a gazillion Template-Whatever including a TODO, really needed? Lars.kurth 17:40, 25 March 2013 (UTC): See #Special:WantedPages_broken
Xen : Open work items
UEFI Secure Boot
Write a document on how to sign the xen binary for UEFI Secure Boot. Potential reference here: Dealing With Secure Boot
Manpages for xe command
Write manpages for xe and its 430 subcommands.
- A team led by Grant McWilliams and including Matthew Spah, Lisa Nguyen and Mike Webber is currently working on documenting the xe command and will continue to do so until completed. Moving the source repo to xen-org has been [proposed].
- As of September 2013, the Xenapi Admin Project team is currently automating the manpage creation process for all xe subcommands.
Describe the different ways, and necessary components, to create PVs using xl
Raised by mail by Matthias Blankenhaus (who is prepared to take the lead, but needs help): This document would describe the different ways, and necessary components that each way requires, to create PVs using xl. Right now there are at least the following cases:
- loopbacked vhds
- single partition format
- disk format
- qemu backed vhds
- qcow / qcow2
- LVS backed image
This is not a complete list. Also the mileage of each case differs depending on the kernel features enabled in dom0/domu and also depending on the Xen version. Furthermore, certain format require additional infrastructure like the tap device.
All in all, this a complex topic that needs clarification. Doing this based on the lowest common denominator, xl, would clarify many things. In addition, baseline performance data on all of the above would help a great deal. Matthias volunteered to run the majority of needed perf tests
Review and Update: xenpm usage recommendations
There is Xen power management and Xenpm command which may all be outdated. These should probably be reviewed and updated.
HOWTO : using xm trigger to poweroff or firing off NMIs
Howto on using xm trigger to poweroff or firing off NMIs.
HOWTO : How to Set Up Nested Virtualization
See this thread
HOWTO: Chain pypxeboot and pygrub
How to chain pypxeboot and pygrub
- Lars.kurth 10:35, 27 March 2012 (UTC): Is pypxeboot popular at all?
- Fheigl: I added that. It is somewhat common, OVM 2 and OVM 3 rely on it for PXE installs. I'm not sure if xenpvnetboot is the same, or works. The use case is "you want to use the same installation server for Xen VMs and phys. servers. You want to be able to reinstall them based on PXE reply.
- Fheigl: There is documentation for pypxeboot, but there is no (afaik) documentation for how pygrub is used as a fallback loader. We wasted many days just to get some hack that can't even load a newer kernel. Which sucks, in the end you spend more time/money making PV PXE boot work than you save by using virtualized servers.
- Fheigl: How could it be popular given the state of documentation. <= Key issue to the left of this sentence.
- Lars.kurth 16:03, 19 September 2012 (UTC): wondering whether this video contains what is needed
Openvswitch
Network Configuration Examples (Xen 4.1+) for Openvswitch systems. How to configure guests. Xen_Networking updates. Perhaps a standalone page.
XCP : Open work items
XCP Beginners Guide
Lars.kurth 15:32, 28 January 2013 (UTC): We are missing the equivalent of the Xen Beginners Guide for XCP.
- Double-p 09:39, 25 March 2013 (UTC): see XCP Beginners Guide for review/additions
Make titles of XCP and XAPI documentation consistent
Lars.kurth 13:09, 28 January 2013 (UTC): Often XCP related docs do not have XCP in the title, this makes it hard to find XCP related documents in titles. This is really hurting XCP users. Maybe this needs to be followed through in page categorisation also. Here is my proposal:
- XCP related user documents should start with
XCP:
- Design documents - these are design documents should probably be labelled
Component-Name:
, e.g.XAPI:
, etc. - Lars.kurth 16:36, 28 January 2013 (UTC): Would need to take the next item into account. In other words using XCP:..., XCP:XAPI:..., etc. would make more sense and would allow implementing namespaces later.
Also see:
Visually distinguish Xen, XCP and Community Documentation better
Lars.kurth 15:32, 28 January 2013 (UTC): Users are getting confused when looking at wiki pages. If there was a visual way to distinguish Xen, XCP and Other content better, this would help. We could use colors and skinning when it comes to various elements, as well as masocts/logos:
- For example: Help:Contents has a different feel (and colour scheme)
- This could be replicated in trail boxes and other elements
- We can also use mascots (note we don't have an XCP mascot)
But first, I need to investigate what is possible.
Lars.kurth 16:14, 28 January 2013 (UTC): Looks as if the only way this can be done is via Custom Namespaces. The only way to do this properly is to
- Have different namespaces for Xen, XCP, ... and Community stuff and keep all the common stuff in Xen
- The name spaces could then be styled differently, for example the Help namespace includes the ns-12 style into the body attributes, whereas the Main (default) namespace uses the ns-14 style.
- Custom namespaces can be created by changing the config and are linked to custom styles
- The styles are then defined in MediaWiki:Common.css
Implications of using custom namespaces:
- Search: Pages in a custom namespace do not show up in default search results. So if we had a custom XCP namespace, it would mean that search results for XCP would not show up. One would need to go to Advanced Search and select XCP
- Rename: Renaming pages is possible and as straightforward as renaming pages
- Xen Namespace: The Xen namespace exists already, this may need to be renamed
- Categories and Namespaces: Categories cross namespaces. In other words, Category:XXX would go across all namespaces. As an example, see Category:Wiki_Management
Mediwiki Issues
Special:WantedPages broken
Issue 1: Pages that need translation are spamming the list
- Solution: fix language templates and mark with {{Stub translation}}
- Lars.kurth 16:48, 28 January 2013 (UTC): There is something wrong with the language templates, essentially spamming the wanted pages. Do ignore these instructions until fixed.
- Lars.kurth 23:28, 11 February 2013 (UTC): Fixed language template issues by removing most languages from the templates
- Lars.kurth 18:03, 25 March 2013 (UTC): Started marking pages with {{Stub translation}}
Issue 2: Missing templates are spamming the list
- Solution: mark missing templates with {{Undefined Template}}
- Lars.kurth 17:27, 25 March 2013 (UTC): Started marking all missing templates with {{Undefined Template}}
Issue 3: Missing categories are spamming the list
- Solution: mark with {{Stub category}}
- Lars.kurth 18:03, 25 March 2013 (UTC): Started marking pages with {{Stub category}}
Categories & Indexes
- Lars.kurth 13:54, 29 January 2013 (UTC): Combined categories such as list all XCP FAQs have been asked for sevceral times
- Investigate plug-ins
Developer Docs
Docs that need attention or are missing
- Make XAPI docs (built from source) available on xen.org
- PVOPS portal on xen.org - Konrad volunteered
- some more xenstore docs (i.e. recent python bindings that were sent to the -users list
- Using libxenstat python bindings (imo they're broken)
- More PV protocol docs (see recent patches to blkif.h for example)
- Document xenstore paths used by guests and toolstack etc
- Ijc 16:10, 26 November 2012 (UTC): This is now in tree: http://xenbits.xen.org/docs/unstable/misc/xenstore-paths.html
Done Recently
Xen 4.3 new features that need documentation
Need to make a HOWTO for openvswitch, link it to 4.3 test day and 4.3 release notes wiki pages.
- {{Comment|--Lars.kurth 16:04, 24 June 2013 (UTC)} These existed before. Linked to from [[Xen 4.3 Feature List]
Xen 4.3 Man Pages
Need to flesh out Xen_4.3_Man_Pages (also see Xen_4.2_Man_Pages)
Xen PV Architecture Documentation
Something like a SDM for Xen PV "processors".
Add pages to Category:Paravirtualised Architecture
- X86 Paravirtualised Memory Management
- Needs OS specifics adding (e.g. Linux paravirt_ops)
- Grant Tables
- Event Channels
- I/O (blk in OK shape, net could catch up)
- ...
- Lars.kurth 14:03, 29 January 2013 (UTC): Event Channel Internals was added
- Lars.kurth 14:03, 29 January 2013 (UTC): Not sure how complete
- --Lars.kurth 10:58, 24 June 2013 (UTC) Enough of this has been done
A Xen Performance Tuning Guide
- Which workloads work for which virt mode. Network considerations. NUMA. VCPU Pinning. Etc.
- Examples from the KVM world: Guest perf tuning, KVM options affecting performance, Comprehensive guide covering pinning, caching, memory, huge pages, etc.
- Lars.kurth 19:50, 25 June 2012 (UTC): Work has been done on Tuning. Not sure whether more needs to be done.
- Stefano 30 June 2012: The guide is in a decent state but I will keep improving it during the next doc days.
- Lars.kurth 15:54, 19 September 2012 (UTC): Needs a quick sanity check for Xen 4.2
- Lars.kurth 12:48, 22 January 2013 (UTC): Is this done?
- --Lars.kurth 09:55, 24 June 2013 (UTC) Looks like it. But rename document
Update Xen Release Features for Xen 4.3
Add Xen 4.3 to Xen_Release_Features and create Xen 4.3 Feature List (also see Xen 4.2 Feature List)
- Lars.kurth 16:36, 29 April 2013 (UTC): Xen_Release_Features has been done based on Xen_Roadmap/4.3
- Lars.kurth 16:41, 29 April 2013 (UTC): Created boilerplate for Xen 4.3 Feature List
Xen 4.3 Test Day Instructions
Need to flesh out Xen_4.3_RC1_test_instructions (also see XCP_1.6_test_instructions and Xen 4.2 RC2 test instructions)
- Lars.kurth 16:36, 29 April 2013 (UTC): Has been done. ARM support needs adding. Also george had some ideas.
A Xen Security Guide
The different options in Xen for Security, trade-offs, how to set them up, how to test Xen for security and how to optimize for different scenarios
- Lars.kurth 09:48, 27 March 2012 (UTC): Category:Security contains some security related docs
- Lars.kurth 11:01, 4 April 2012 (UTC): It would be good if we could document a) XSM, b) Introspection API, c) Xen and SELinux in Dom0, d) Memory Access API (introduced in 4.1)
- User Docs that where migrating content would make sense and update such as (we can attach PDF's to the wiki now for starters, or we can use a conversion tool
- Lars.kurth 15:59, 19 September 2012 (UTC): Some good articles came out of XenSummit NA (these can be built upon).
- Lars.kurth 14:01, 29 January 2013 (UTC): Changes to Securing Xen & Driver Domain
- Lars.kurth 14:01, 29 January 2013 (UTC): Got funding to document XSM; contract in place, but contractor is currently ill. This is the main outstanding issues.
- --Lars.kurth 07:57, 24 June 2013 (UTC) --Lars.kurth 07:57, 24 June 2013 (UTC)Xen_Security_Modules_:_XSM-FLASK has been added and I added an overview and removed the TODO
Categories are not returned in search
- Lars.kurth 13:54, 29 January 2013 (UTC): Categories do not get returned when searching. To find a category, once has to go to Advanced, click Categories and search for say security.
- We need to investigate whether there are better options for search (e.g. additional mediawiki plug-ins) or config options to change this behaviour
- IMPORTANT: This is actually a user preference. To change the default behavior go to Special:Preferences and tick Main, Xen, Help and Category. I will investigate defaults.
- FIX: See $wgNamespacesToBeSearchedDefault
- Lars.kurth 13:59, 3 May 2013 (UTC): Fixed
Help create an htaccess file from xen_org to xenproject_org
We need to create a mapping file from xen_org to xenproject_org. The plan is to archive xen_org to somewhere like http://xenproject.org/archive and to decide which pages in xen_org go to the archives, and which to the new site. I will track information at xen_org to xenproject_org mapping.
Submitting Xen Patches
George Dunlap: Updated Submitting Xen Patches to have recommended workflow for git; moved Mercurial-specifc instructions to Submitting Xen Patches - mercurial .
Document release signing keys and fingerprints etc
We should publish the key ids and fingerprints somewhere.
- Lars.kurth 13:54, 29 January 2013 (UTC): See OpenPGP keys
Better Statements on Compatibility
There seems to be some confusion in the wider Linxu community about XL/XM compatibility. Maybe some specific questions in an FAQ/the release notes. Also migration compatibility comes up often. Any articles related to compatibility should be listed in Category:Compatibility, which I am willing to clean up.
- Anthony 14:33, 26 November 2012 (UTC): I add a bunch of pages to the category, and add few link in the category to upgrade from xend to xl.
- Anthony 17:19, 26 November 2012 (UTC): I also redirect XL in Xen 4.2 to XL as they had both the same content minus few things.
- Lars.kurth 12:48, 22 January 2013 (UTC): Is this done?
- Ijc 16:39, 25 January 2013 (UTC): I think we also need to cover compatibility confusion about 3.x vs 4.x.
- Ijc 15:03, 28 January 2013 (UTC): I've added Xen Version Compatibility and a link from Xen FAW Compatibility. I think this is probably done for now?
George Dunlap: Revamped Driver_Domain and Securing_Xen
cpupools intro / howto
George Dunlap: See Cpupools_Howto
Clear up Xen TODO List
- Setting_boot_order_for_domUs
- XenDevelopmentProjects - although this will need maintaining
- Revamp http://wiki.xen.org/wiki/Xen_PCI_Passthrough. Should be more organized, easier to follow, less verbose, more thorough, and more up-to-date.
- Review and update http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xen - in particular the "Host: Unix-like systems" is out-of-date. The Guest section is too.
- Make Host Install and Guest Install more useful
- Lars.kurth: Note: both pages share Template:Distro_Resources
- Docs for many distros are missing: identify what docs are missing or out of date and put them on the todo list
- Feature Status Doc : Xen_Release_Features
- Xen Overview which explains the top level architectural features and options, trade-offs and links to examples tutorials that show how you set these up
- List i.e. stuff what to test after packaging. This would avoid the current state of affairs where most distros are infact broken w/re to Xen. See Distros
- Installation Guides: How to install on various distros. Tag with Category:Host Install and Category:Guest_Install.
- Tuning
- vcpu pinning (part of Tuning)
Document Policy on Maintenance Releases
Which releases are supported, for how long. Owners. As well as a mechanism for individuals (or vendors) to take ownership of older releases (as is the case for Xen 3.4).
- Ijc 16:07, 26 November 2012 (UTC): Attempt to document current process: http://lists.xen.org/archives/html/xen-devel/2012-11/msg01389.html
- Lars.kurth 12:48, 22 January 2013 (UTC): Is this done, see Xen_Maintenance_Releases?
- Ijc 14:01, 22 January 2013 (UTC): Doc is complete and patches to reference it are in the various trees.
Document {deb,rpm,tar}-pkg targets in kernel
Mainline_Linux_Kernel_Configs talks about the obsolete and Debian specific make-kpkg
tool. Should reference the kernels own foo-pkg
targets instead.
- Ijc 12:12, 28 January 2013 (UTC): Done. Made a bunch of other cleanups too.