Xen Orchestra 5.104

Release Feb 28, 2025

This month at Vates, we’re bringing you a wave of updates across the board! Our virtualization stack is now validated for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9, and we’ve announced a strategic partnership with VyOS to enhance networking capabilities in Vates VMS. We’re also fine-tuning XOA on AWS, expanding REST API functionalities, and rolling out new DevOps tools like a Pulumi provider and a Go SDK for Xen Orchestra. Plus, our Xen Winter Meetup recap is here, and we’re gearing up for CloudFest 2025!

👨‍🚀 Project & Community

This month, Vates continues to expand its ecosystem and strengthen its enterprise-grade solutions while preparing for upcoming key events.

Vates Virtualization Management Stack validated for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9

Vates Virtualization Management Stack (VMS) is now officially recognized as a partner-validated product for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 as a guest operating system. This validation, now listed in the Red Hat Ecosystem Catalog, marks a key milestone in our commitment to delivering enterprise-grade, reliable virtualization solutions.

CloudFest 2025

We’re heading to CloudFest 2025, the premier event for the cloud and internet infrastructure industry! Once again, you’ll find us at the iconic Europa Park in Rust, Germany, from March 17 to 20. Join us there to discuss virtualization, cloud solutions, and the future of open infrastructure.

Xen Winter Meetup recap

In late January, we hosted our first Xen Winter Meetup in Grenoble, our home city nestled in the French Alps. It was an incredible experience, bringing together key members of the Xen Project ecosystem for in-depth discussions, technical presentations, and community networking. With so much positive feedback, we’re already brainstorming ideas for the next edition! If you missed it, don’t worry—we’ve put together a full recap, covering the event’s highlights, discussions, and plenty of great photos.

Vates & VyOS partnership

We’re excited to announce a strategic partnership with VyOS Networks, a leader in open-source network operating systems. Together, we’re working to develop an advanced network solution for Vates VMS, integrating VyOS’s network expertise with our virtualization technology. This collaboration will bring cutting-edge networking capabilities—similar to VMware NSX—directly into the Vates stack, offering our customers a seamless, enterprise-ready alternative.

2025 Partner Program

Vates is rolling out its 2025 Partner Program, designed to provide stronger benefits, tailored incentives, and new growth opportunities for MSPs, Resellers, Cloud Service Providers, and Order Takers. With 250+ partners across 60 countries our Partners network is growing more than ever.

XCP-ng Windows PV Tools released with Rust-based Xen guest agent

XCP-ng has released version 9.0.9030 of its Windows PV drivers, introducing significant improvements and new features.

This update brings a Rust-based Xen Guest Agent for enhanced resource and IP address reporting, along with the XenBootFix tool designed to repair boot issues in VMs affected by various Xen drivers. While this release includes multiple stability fixes and improved installation safety checks, it is intended for testing purposes only and requires enabling testsigning mode.

XCP-ng Windows PV tools 9.0.9030 Testsign released: now with Rust-based Xen Guest Agent

Hello all, Version 9.0.9030 of the new Windows PV drivers has been released. This release brings multiple driver stability fixes, a new Rust-based Xen Guest…

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Breaking the 2TiB limitation - Alpha 2

We're releasing the second alpha phase of our improvements to remove the 2TiB limitation. This update fixes corruption issues during live coalescing of Qcow2, reintroduces LVMSR support for Qcow2, and adds compatibility with VHD. It also enhances storage performance and integrates a new coalescing approach for Qcow2 in blktap. As this is still an alpha, we welcome your feedback.

Full details is available here:

February brings new enhancements across the Vates ecosystem, from UI improvements to API upgrades and expanded cloud integration. Let’s dive into what’s new in this month’s release!

🥝 Core UI

CoreUI is our new component framework and design system, built to power both XO Lite and XO 6.

Improved translation system

We’ve simplified the translation system by merging the separate translation files from XO 6, XO Lite, and Web Core into a single location. This makes Weblate much easier to use for managing and updating translations.

If you’d like to help translate Xen Orchestra or improve existing translations, feel free to contribute here!

🔭 XO Lite

XO Lite receives monthly updates, and this month, we focused on improving the network panel. Your XO Lite instance will automatically update to the latest version.

Show PIF information in the side panel

You can now see detailed information about physical interface (PIF) devices directly in the side panel. This improvement provides quick access to essential network interface details.

🪐 XOA

We're enhancing Xen Orchestra Appliance (XOA) to be more versatile and adaptable, supporting diverse use cases like edge deployments and hybrid cloud infrastructure.

Try XOA on AWS

As we mentioned last month, we’ve been working on dedicated XOA instances for AWS, designed specifically for users managing hybrid cloud environments. This is part of our efforts to make it easier for you to handle both on-premises and cloud infrastructures together.

This month, we’ve been focusing on stabilizing XOA on AWS EC2 and fine-tuning the image build process. We now have a beta XOA image available for you to test.

If you're interested, just reach out to us, and we’ll help you get set up. More updates are coming as we continue to refine things!

🖥️ XO CLI

XO CLI offers a powerful way to manage Xen Orchestra from the command line. This month, we’ve documented file restoration from VHD backups, making large recoveries easier without relying on the UI.

File restoration from VHD backups—Now documented

We’ve just added step-by-step instructions on how to restore files from VHD backups using the fuse-vhd CLI.

If you’re dealing with large files or folders that can’t be restored through the UI (because it fails on big recoveries), this CLI method is the way to go.

You’ll find everything you need to get started in the fuse-vhd README.

📡 REST API

We've been making significant improvements to the REST API, focusing on better automation, enhanced integration capabilities, and a more structured approach to development. From expanded user and group management to a gradual migration to Swagger for improved consistency, these updates lay the foundation for a more powerful and developer-friendly API.

Manage users and groups

The REST API now gives you full control over user and group management. You can create and delete users and groups programmatically, making it easier to automate access control, integrate with external identity management systems, or sync permissions with your organization's policies. This means you no longer have to rely on the web UI for these tasks—everything can be handled through API calls, which is a real time-saver, especially in larger environments.

However, please note that the new endpoints for managing users and groups are not yet available through Swagger (OpenAPI). They’ve been added to the REST API, but the documentation for these endpoints is still being worked on.

If you want to get started, here are some example requests:

// Create group
POST /rest/v0/groups
request body: {name: string}

// Update group name
PATCH rest/v0/groups/:id
request body :
{
  name?: string
}

// Add user in a group
PUT rest/v0/groups/:id/users/:id

// Remove user from a group
DELETE rest/v0/groups/:id/users/:id

// Delete group
DELETE /rest/v0/groups/<id>

// Create user
POST rest/v0/users
request body :
{
  email: string,
  password: string,
  permission?: string
}

// Delete user
DELETE rest/v0/users/:id

// Update user information
PATCH rest/v0/users/:id
request body :
{
  name?: string,
  password?: string,
  permission?: string,
  preferences?: object
}

Swagger and OpenAPI Integration: A big step forward

We've made a major move by integrating Swagger (OpenAPI) into our REST API. This is the foundation for a full rewrite using TypeScript and the TSOA framework, and it’s not just about improving documentation—this is a complete overhaul aimed at making the API more reliable, consistent, and ready for future development.

Why this matters

This integration brings major improvements to the way the API is built and maintained. By adopting Swagger, we now have endpoints that follow a clear, predictable structure, making it easier for developers to work with them—especially those building integrations. The Swagger docs are generated directly from the code, ensuring they’re always accurate and up to date, so you’ll never run into outdated references again. And the best part? You can explore and test the endpoints straight from the Swagger UI, which makes things much more interactive and developer-friendly.

On top of that, with a more structured API and the power of TypeScript’s strong typing, we can minimize bugs and speed up the development of new features down the road. Integrating with Xen Orchestra has also become smoother, as Swagger now supports automatic client library generation, making third-party integrations much easier.

Taking it one step at a time

We’re not rushing the migration. A full API rewrite takes time, and we want to ensure everything works perfectly for you along the way. That’s why we’re migrating endpoints gradually. The existing REST API is still up and running as usual, and we're doing everything to keep it that way. You can continue using the same endpoints, parameters, and return values you’re already familiar with, so there won’t be any surprises.

Both versions of the API are now accessible at /rest/v0, but here's the twist: only the endpoints that have been migrated to the new Swagger setup will show up in the documentation at /rest/v0/docs. As we continue migrating, the documentation will grow and evolve, with the plan being that once everything’s transitioned, /rest/v0 will automatically redirect to the docs.

Looking ahead

This rewrite isn't just about cleaning things up—it's about laying the groundwork for faster, more flexible development. In the future, this will allow us to roll out new features quicker, like better user management, real-time data updates, and advanced API capabilities.

We’re only just getting started, and while it’ll take time, we’re confident this is the right move toward a more developer-friendly Xen Orchestra API.

Big thanks to everyone at Vates who helped bring this to life. Your contributions make this all possible!

Migrate VM Retrieval Endpoints to Swagger

We’ve started moving VM retrieval endpoints (get and getId) over to the new Swagger-based API. These endpoints are now fully documented and easier to use. Everything follows the OpenAPI spec, making the API clearer and more predictable.

This is part of our ongoing effort to modernize the REST API, and it’s just the beginning. As we continue migrating more endpoints, the API will become even more structured, easier to maintain, and faster to develop.

Get host and VM metrics

Looking for real-time performance insights on your hosts and VMs? The REST API now provides direct access to RRD (Round-Robin Database) metrics, allowing you to retrieve key stats like CPU usage, memory consumption, and network activity—no need to rely on the web UI.

This update makes it easier to integrate Xen Orchestra with your monitoring tools or build custom dashboards, giving you greater control over how you track and analyze your infrastructure’s performance.

You can access the endpoints here:

VM stats: /rest/v0/vms/<vm-id>/stats
Host stats: /rest/v0/hosts/<host-id>/stats

☸️ DevOps Tools

With our dedicated DevOps team, we’re expanding automation capabilities across the Vates ecosystem. This month, we’re introducing official support for the Pulumi provider and the first release of the Xen Orchestra Go SDK, making infrastructure management even more seamless.

New Pulumi provider

We now commit to support the Pulumi Provider for Xen Orchestra! Pulumi provider was originally created by DESY (Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron) and is now supported by the Vates DevOps team.

With this provider, you can manage your Xen Orchestra infrastructure as code using Pulumi. It supports Node.js (JavaScript and TypeScript), Python, and Go, and SDKs are available for each language:

This is a great example of open-source collaboration in action. Thanks to the community’s work, automating and scaling your Xen Orchestra setup is now smoother than ever.

Introducing the Go Xen Orchestra API client

The first release of the Xen Orchestra Go SDK is here! This new Golang client lets you interact with the Xen Orchestra JSON-RPC API, making it easier to integrate Xen Orchestra into your Go projects.

By the way, this SDK is used by the Terraform provider, one of the most popular tools for Infrastructure as code!

Contributions are welcome, so feel free to dive in and contribute!

🆕 Misc

This month’s miscellaneous updates bring several quality-of-life improvements to Xen Orchestra. While much of our focus remains on XO Lite, XO 6, and API enhancements, we’ve also streamlined VM disk cloning, expanded self-service capabilities, improved Smart Reboot, and updated translations—small but impactful changes to enhance your experience.

Streamlined disk cloning during VM creation

When creating a VM, Xen Orchestra now speeds up the disk cloning process by eliminating unnecessary steps. During cloning, the system checks for existing virtual disk images (VDIs) and selects a storage repository (SR) to copy from, giving priority to either the first VDI or the largest disk.

If it finds a valid SR, the process switches to a copy operation instead of a clone, even if the clone flag is set. This prevents duplicating disks that are already on the selected SR.

In addition, the system now only uses moveVdifor disks that are not on the SR being used for cloning, making the process more efficient and reducing overhead during VM creation.

Self-service users can now attach disks to their VMs

Until now, self-service users could detach disks from their VMs but couldn’t attach them—a frustrating limitation. That's fixed! If your users have the proper ACLs on an SR, they'll be able to see and attach VDIs hosted on that SR to their VMs.

While we usually suggest keeping self-service and ACLs separate, this can be a handy workaround if you’re dedicating an SR to your users and want to give them more freedom while staying within the self-service system.

Smart Reboot Enhancements

We've made Smart Reboot more robust by adding checks to ensure VMs can be suspended before proceeding. If a VM can't be suspended—perhaps due to PCI passthrough devices—you'll get a heads-up and the option to bypass this check if needed. Plus, if suspending a VM fails during the reboot process, we'll now attempt to gracefully shut it down as a fallback, ensuring the host reboot continues smoothly.

Updated translations for the interface

The translations in Xen Orchestra's interface have been improved to make the platform more accessible and easier to use for non-English speakers. By providing translations in more languages, we ensure that users can navigate and interact with Xen Orchestra in their native language, making the experience feel more natural and reducing the chance of misunderstandings.

Languages that have been updated include French, Spanish, Czech, and Swedish.