[Xen-devel] Xen 4.3 development update, 18 March

[George Dunlap <George.Dunlap@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

This information will be mirrored on the Xen 4.3 Roadmap wiki page:
 http://wiki.xen.org/wiki/Xen_Roadmap/4.3

A couple of notes:

- I have updated the timeline to include a description of my proposed
criteria for accepting patches going forward.  Feedback is welcome.

- As we focus on getting a release for the 4.3 codebase, I have
removed items from the list that are either "not for 4.3" or are
purely external (e.g., Linux kernel or libvirt).

- Please start suggesting bug reports to put on this list.

= Timeline =

We are planning on a 9-month release cycle.  Based on that, below are
our estimated dates:
* Feature freeze: 25 March 2013
* Code freezing point: 8 April 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.  Each new feature will be
considered on a case-by-case basis; but the general rule will be as
follows:

* Between feature freeze and code freeze, only features which have had
a v1 posted before the feature freeze, or are on this list, will be
considered for inclusion.

* Between the "code freezing point" and the first RC, any new code
will need to be justified, and it will become progressively more
difficult to get non-bugfix patches accepted.  Critera will include
the size of the patch, the importance of the codepath, whether it's
new functionality being added or existing functionality being changed,
and so on.

Last updated: 18 March January 2013

= 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.

Meanings of prognoses:
- Excellent: It would be very unlikely for this not to be finished in time.
- Good: Everything is on track, and is likely to make it.
- Fair: A pretty good chance of making it, but not as certain
- Poor: Likely not to make it unless intervention is made
- Not for 4.3: Self-explanatory

== Completed ==

* Serial console improvements
  -EHCI debug port

* Default to QEMU upstream (partial)
 - pci pass-thru (external)
 - enable dirtybit tracking during migration (external)
 - xl cd-{insert,eject} (external)

* CPUID-based idle (don't rely on ACPI info f/ dom0)

* Persistent grants for blk (external)
 - Linux
 - qemu

* Allow XSM to override IS_PRIV checks in the hypervisor

* Scalability: 16TiB of RAM

* xl QXL Spice support

== 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.

* AMD NPT performance regression after c/s 24770:7f79475d3de7
  owner: ?
  Reference: http://marc.info/?l=xen-devel&m=135075376805215

* qemu-upstream: cd-insert and cd-eject not working
  http://marc.info/?l=xen-devel&m=135850249808960

* Install into /usr/local by default
  owner: Ian Campbell

== Not yet complete ==

* PVH mode (w/ Linux)
  owner: mukesh@oracle
  status (Linux): 3rd draft patches posted.
  status (Xen): RFC submitted
  prognosis: Tech preview only

* Event channel scalability
  owner: wei@citrix
  status: RFC v5 submitted
  prognosis: Good
  Increase limit on event channels (currently 1024 for 32-bit guests,
  4096 for 64-bit guests)

* ARM v7 server port
  owner: ijc@citrix
  prognosis: Excellent
  status: Core hypervisor and Linux patches accepted.  Tools patches submitted.

* ARM v8 server port (tech preview)
  owner: ijc@citrix
  status: ?
  prognosis: Tech preview only

* NUMA scheduler affinity
  critical
  owner: dario@citrix
  status: Patches posted
  prognosis: Excellent

* NUMA Memory migration
  owner: dario@citrix
  status: in progress
  prognosis: Fair

* 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
   prognosis: ?
   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.

* Multi-vector PCI MSI (support at least for Dom0)
  owner: jan@suse
  status: not started
  prognosis: Fair

* vTPM updates
  owner: Matthew Fioravante @ Johns Hopkins
  status: some patches submitted, more in progress
  prognosis: Good
  - Allow all vTPM components to run in stub domains for increased security
  - Update vtpm to 0.7.4
  - Remove dom0-based vtpmd

* V4V: Inter-domain communication
  owner (Xen): dominic.curran@xxxxxxxxxx
  status (Xen): patches submitted
  prognosis: Fair
  owner (Linux driver):  stefano.panella@citrix
  status (Linux driver): in progress

* xl PVUSB pass-through for PV guests
* xl PVUSB pass-through for HVM guests
  owner: George
  status: ?
  prognosis: Fair
  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: George
  status: Config file pass-through submitted.
  prognosis: Good
  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: passing more defaults in configuration in xl.conf
  owner: ?
  There are a number of options for which it might be useful to pass a
  default in xl.conf.  For example, if we could have a default
  "backend" parameter for vifs, then it would be easy to switch back
  and forth between a backend in a driver domain and a backend in dom0.

* Remove hardcoded mobprobe's in xencommons
  owner: ?
  status: ?
  prognosis: Poor.

* openvswitch toostack integration
  owner: ?
  prognosis: Poor
  status: Sample script posted by Bastian ("[RFC] openvswitch support script")
  - See if we can engage Bastian to do a more fully-featured script?

* Rationalized backend scripts
  owner: roger@citrix
  status: libxl hotplug sumbmitted.  Protocol still needs to be finalized.
  prognosis: Good

* Scripts for driver domains (depends on backend scripts)
  owner: roger@citrix
  status:
  prognosis: Fair

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