Xen Document Days/TODO

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Requested Documentation

Icon Info.png Feel free to comment on items using the following convention: 
* {{Comment|~~~~:}} your comment

Feel free to add new workitems using the following convention: 

==== Workitem ====
~~~~: work-item description


Bootloader & Console Configuration

Surprisingly little on these two topics, which should be added to Category:Host_Configuration

(IMPORTANT) XenAPI OpenStack Documentation

See related blueprint

(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:


Xen 4.4 Documentation

Need to flesh out Xen_4.4_Release_Notes

Need to flesh out Xen_4.4_Feature_List

Need to flesh out Xen_4.4_Man_Pages

Need to flesh out Xen_4.4_Acknowledgements

Xen 4.3 Documentation

Spice Config Example for upstream QEMU

Take this thread and convert into an Example

In progress (some just need double checking whether finished)

Restructure XCP Related Categories

Latest revision Your text

  • 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


Update Xen Repositories

Xen Repositories references Xen 4.2 as the latest.

Pictogram voting comment 15px.png Rcpavlicek 23:59, 27 January 2014 (UTC): Updated reference to 4.3, but needs a developer to verify that nothing else is needed.

Would be useful to also talk about qemu and other repos (e.g. seabios, ovmf) and the branches they use.

For qemu see http://lists.xen.org/archives/html/xen-users/2014-01/msg00049.html

Pictogram voting comment 15px.png Ijc 15:59, 27 January 2014 (UTC): Updated it a bit, now links to more of the repos, but could do with some more work.

Easy tasks for Beginners

You may want 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

Review Categorization

Pages With Comments or Improvement Suggestions

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

Pictogram voting comment 15px.png Double-p 09:55, 25 February 2013 (UTC): There are a gazillion Template-Whatever including a TODO, really needed? Pictogram voting comment 15px.png 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

Documentation on lib(xen)vchan

The header has some stuff, but a more complete guide would be useful.

The usage of the example code is also not documented. http://lists.xen.org/archives/html/xen-users/2014-01/msg00162.html has some (incomplete) info.

Manpages for xe command

Write manpages for xe and its 430 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

  • Pictogram voting comment 15px.png Lars.kurth 10:35, 27 March 2012 (UTC): Is pypxeboot popular at all?
  • Pictogram voting comment 15px.png 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.
  • Pictogram voting comment 15px.png 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.
  • Pictogram voting comment 15px.png Fheigl: How could it be popular given the state of documentation. <= Key issue to the left of this sentence.
  • Pictogram voting comment 15px.png Lars.kurth 16:03, 19 September 2012 (UTC): wondering whether this video contains what is needed


Visually distinguish Xen, XAPI, MirageOS and Community Documentation better

Pictogram voting comment 15px.png 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.

Pictogram voting comment 15px.png 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

Sidebar rendering in Chrome (broken again)

See [1]

Special:WantedPages broken

Issue 1: Pages that need translation are spamming the list
  • Solution: fix language templates and mark with {{Stub translation}}
  • Pictogram voting comment 15px.png 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.
  • Pictogram voting comment 15px.png Lars.kurth 23:28, 11 February 2013 (UTC): Fixed language template issues by removing most languages from the templates
  • Pictogram voting comment 15px.png Lars.kurth 18:03, 25 March 2013 (UTC): Started marking pages with {{Stub translation}}
Issue 2: Missing templates are spamming the list
Issue 3: Missing categories are spamming the list

Categories & Indexes

  • Pictogram voting comment 15px.png 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

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

A Xen Performance Tuning Guide

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)


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)

  • Pictogram voting comment 15px.png 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

Categories are not returned in search

  • Pictogram voting comment 15px.png 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
  • Pictogram voting comment 15px.png 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.

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.

  • Pictogram voting comment 15px.png 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.
  • Pictogram voting comment 15px.png 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.
  • Pictogram voting comment 15px.png Lars.kurth 12:48, 22 January 2013 (UTC): Is this done?
  • Pictogram voting comment 15px.png Ijc 16:39, 25 January 2013 (UTC): I think we also need to cover compatibility confusion about 3.x vs 4.x.
  • Pictogram voting comment 15px.png 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?

Security related docs

George Dunlap: Revamped Driver_Domain and Securing_Xen

cpupools intro / howto

George Dunlap: See Cpupools_Howto

Clear up Xen TODO List

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).

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.

  • Pictogram voting comment 15px.png Ijc 12:12, 28 January 2013 (UTC): Done. Made a bunch of other cleanups too.
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