I am trying to identify what learning materials we need to make Xen more approachable by new users. If you or someone in your organization tried to learn Xen in the past year or so, how did you do it? What pages did you use? Documents? Videos? Slides? Training? Anything else? What material couldn''t you find that you wished you could find? What material would have been more useful if it was more complete or more current? Thanks, Russ Pavlicek Xen Project Evangelist
On 6/17/13 9:39 PM, Russ Pavlicek wrote:> I am trying to identify what learning materials we need to make Xen > more approachable by new users. > > If you or someone in your organization tried to learn Xen in the past > year or so, how did you do it? > > What pages did you use? > Documents? > Videos? > Slides? > Training? > Anything else? > > What material couldn''t you find that you wished you could find? > What material would have been more useful if it was more complete or > more current? > > Thanks, > > Russ Pavlicek > Xen Project EvangelistThe materials I found most helpful in the wiki were the step-by-step examples. Some general information about ease of installation given the appropriate distribution could be helpful as well, since I''m going to guess others like myself were scared away in the past by the need to compile your own kernel and whatnot. Obviously that''s not necessarily the case in many situations, but I think there is a perception that Xen is difficult to get running. I first really dug into it last year to virtualize my MythTV system (complete with capture cards) and other environments (web apps, e-mail). I ended up bailing out after a few months due disk corruption issues that I couldn''t resolve but have been paying close attention to this list and the project hoping that 4.3 and a newer distribution can resolve my previous headaches. -Robert
On Mon, Jun 17, 2013 at 10:39:22PM -0400, Russ Pavlicek wrote:> I am trying to identify what learning materials we need to make Xen > more approachable by new users. > > If you or someone in your organization tried to learn Xen in the past > year or so, how did you do it? > > What pages did you use? > Documents? > Videos? > Slides? > Training? > Anything else? > > What material couldn''t you find that you wished you could find? > What material would have been more useful if it was more complete or > more current? > > Thanks, > > Russ Pavlicek > Xen Project Evangelist >One thing that I found was a bit of a stumbling block was bootloaders. Granted, I was (and still am) running ArchLinux, so the archwiki was where I looked to for the most help. However, if I search "grub" on the xen wiki or google "xen grub", I can''t easily find a clear instruction page on how to make Xen behave with Grub. Seeing as Grub is probably the most common bootloader, that should probably be addressed. In the case of Arch, (and maybe other distro packages), there is now a grub.d file that auto-generates the necessary grub config lines. Also, I''ve seen a lot of chatter recently on UEFI. As I understad it (I have not had the opportunity to play with it myself), it''s a pretty complex undertaking that is still being worked on. Some more documentation on that would probably be of help, even if it''s just a warning that you''re treading into potentially untested waters. I''ve also been thinking about doing a write-up on my current system for using LVM to make quick duplicates / snapshots of domains. It''s fairly simple, but concrete examples of how to do something seem more appealing to newbies than more abstract / general documentation. --Sean
The wiki was useful for me for certain things, the mailing list was my best resource, though some things in my experience are quite dated. Also the various interfaces and mechanisms have changed so significantly during the time from xenlinux->pv_ops, xm->xl, that it can really be tough. I know a few people I spoke highly of Xen and tried to set it up found it extremely frustrating figuring out what information was actually accurate and all the little quirks that vary from version to version and distro to distro just my 2 cents chris On Mon, Jun 17, 2013 at 10:39 PM, Russ Pavlicek < russell.pavlicek@xenproject.org> wrote:> I am trying to identify what learning materials we need to make Xen > more approachable by new users. > > If you or someone in your organization tried to learn Xen in the past > year or so, how did you do it? > > What pages did you use? > Documents? > Videos? > Slides? > Training? > Anything else? > > What material couldn''t you find that you wished you could find? > What material would have been more useful if it was more complete or > more current? > > Thanks, > > Russ Pavlicek > Xen Project Evangelist > > _______________________________________________ > Xen-users mailing list > Xen-users@lists.xen.org > http://lists.xen.org/xen-users >_______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xen.org http://lists.xen.org/xen-users
Determining if the information I can find on the wiki (or web in general) applies to MY version was/is my biggest problem. Obviously this is a hard problem to tackle, but the use of a wiki to deliver information may not be best. For example, a number of people might be stuck using the xm toolstack for a while so converting the documentation the xl toolstack may not be best. The documentation needs to be linked to the version, but who the hell wants to maintain multiple sets of documentation. I also found the wiki went from trivial easy to way over my head very quickly. The wiki and web helped me get a basic dom0 and domU up and running, but doing slightly more difficult things (e.g., networking, vga passthrough) got technical quickly. From: xen-users-bounces@lists.xen.org [mailto:xen-users-bounces@lists.xen.org] On Behalf Of chris Sent: Tuesday, June 18, 2013 5:39 PM To: Russ Pavlicek Cc: xen-users Subject: Re: [Xen-users] Strengthening The Xen On-Ramp The wiki was useful for me for certain things, the mailing list was my best resource, though some things in my experience are quite dated. Also the various interfaces and mechanisms have changed so significantly during the time from xenlinux->pv_ops, xm->xl, that it can really be tough. I know a few people I spoke highly of Xen and tried to set it up found it extremely frustrating figuring out what information was actually accurate and all the little quirks that vary from version to version and distro to distro just my 2 cents chris On Mon, Jun 17, 2013 at 10:39 PM, Russ Pavlicek <russell.pavlicek@xenproject.org<mailto:russell.pavlicek@xenproject.org>> wrote: I am trying to identify what learning materials we need to make Xen more approachable by new users. If you or someone in your organization tried to learn Xen in the past year or so, how did you do it? What pages did you use? Documents? Videos? Slides? Training? Anything else? What material couldn''t you find that you wished you could find? What material would have been more useful if it was more complete or more current? Thanks, Russ Pavlicek Xen Project Evangelist _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xen.org<mailto:Xen-users@lists.xen.org> http://lists.xen.org/xen-users This message and any attachment are intended solely for the addressee and may contain confidential information. If you have received this message in error, please send it back to me, and immediately delete it. Please do not use, copy or disclose the information contained in this message or in any attachment. Any views or opinions expressed by the author of this email do not necessarily reflect the views of the University of Nottingham. This message has been checked for viruses but the contents of an attachment may still contain software viruses which could damage your computer system, you are advised to perform your own checks. Email communications with the University of Nottingham may be monitored as permitted by UK legislation. _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xen.org http://lists.xen.org/xen-users