[Pkg-xen-devel] Xen status in lenny?

[Bastian Blank]

On Thu, Jul 10, 2008 at 09:53:25PM +0200, Lucas Nussbaum wrote:
> What are the plans for Xen for lenny? Is this situation likely to change
> before the release?

As we have seen, there is no real plan. So lets summarize the
possibilities:

Option 1: Use alternatives
==========================
Well, I don't know any real alternative.

There are some other virtualization techniques, but the decision which
one may be usable needs an evaluation of the actual usecase.

Option 2: Stick to Etch
=======================
Ask the users to stick to Etch until we can get a kernel into Lenny
which supports this type of operation. 

Contra:
- No new software for Xen users.
- May hit the end of the security support for Etch.
Needed work: Documentation.

Option 3: Lenny with Etch kernel
================================
Ask the users to use the old Etch kernel with a Lenny userland.

Pro:
- New software.
Contra:
- May hit the end of the security support for Etch.
Needed work: Some documentation how to do this.

Option 4: 2.6.18 kernel in Lenny, until Lenny+1/2
=================================================
Push a (Xen-only) 2.6.18 kernel into Lenny. Either with the Etch or
preferably a newer Xen patch. This kernel will be supported until
Lenny+1/2 hopefully pushs a kernel with the necessary support into the
stable release, but at most until the Lenny+1 release. It may be
possible that this will also need a Xen update to work with the new
kernels.

Pro:
- New software.
- Full support for the beginning.
Contra:
- We have to overwrite the decision to support only one Linux kernel in
  a stable release.
- Dropping support of a package during the lifetime of a stable release
  was always a last resort solution. So this needs a fat warning in the
  release notes.[1]
Needed work for kernel/security team[2]:
- Until end of Etch support: Push the same update in oldstable-security
  and stable-security.
- After end of Etch support: Continue the support for this old kernel.
  Lets hope that this will not take too long.
Needed work for other teams: Documentation.

Option 5: 2.6.18 kernel in Lenny
================================
Push a (Xen-only) 2.6.18 kernel into Lenny. Either with the Etch or
preferably a newer Xen patch. This kernel will be supported until the
normal end of the normal support.

Pro:
- New software.
- Full support.
Contra:
- We have to overwrite the decision to support only one Linux kernel in
  a stable release.
Needed work for kernel/security team:
- Until end of Etch support: Push the same update in oldstable-security
  and stable-security.
- After end of Etch support: Continue the support for this old kernel.

For further, not applicable options, see
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/XenPvops.

Conclusion
==========
Xen got a often used technique in the last two years. All of the large
distributions got some sort of support for it. Debian Etch have full
support for it. There was several requests of various people so I think
not providing at least a minimal support in Lenny is wrong.

I think option 4 would be the solution which produces the least amount
of extra work and provides our users with support for there systems. I
would provide the necessary packages but I want an okay for that
solution from the security and the release team.

Bastian, with his kernel and Xen hat on

[1]: Maybe it would be possible to replace the not-longer supported
packages with a critical warning in preinst. This package would never
allow themself to be configured.
[2]: Kernel security support is mostly done by Dann Frazier, who does it
as member of the kernel team.
-- 
Is truth not truth for all?
		-- Natira, "For the World is Hollow and I have Touched
		   the Sky", stardate 5476.4.
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