Linux/Mono Prototype

[necouchman]

This is kind of a wish-list sort of item, and would probably take considerable effort, but it would be really nice to make XenCenter cross-platform capable. I'm not sure if the DotNet components that it relies upon are available in the DotNet Core released for Linux and MacOS, which might make it easier. If not, those components could be swapped out with something else, use a cross-platform GUI framework (QT comes to mind), etc., so that it can be compiled and run on Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Of course, none of this is to take away from the great work @olivierlambert is doing on XenOrchestra - having a Web UI is definitely preferable to a thick client like XenCenter, but sometimes for initial configuration of a cluster from scratch and some of the other one-time items it is nice to have the XenCenter GUI. I just don't like to be tied to Windows for that.

[borzel]

I just don't like to be tied to Windows for that.

Me too!

But this is a BIG item and for long term.

[necouchman]

But this is a BIG item and for long term.

Yes, definitely - I just wanted to go ahead and get it on the list. Maybe someone out there will see it, fork the repo, and start working on it :-).

[gangsterrapper22]

An Java XenCenter would be nice, because Java runs on the most platform and then you have only to compile one release and not per platform, but I thnk then we have to from scratch to make this possible.

[olivierlambert]

BTW @necouchman you can install Xen Orchestra on your computer, Windows/Mac or Linux. XOA is in a VM for the sake of easy deploy, but you can install it whenever you need 😉

[necouchman]

BTW @necouchman you can install Xen Orchestra on your computer, Windows/Mac or Linux.

Good to know, thanks!

[borzel]

Some reading material: xenserver#3 Make XenCenter compile / run with mono

[zemzema]

There is also openxenmanager, there is Linux and Windows version.

[borzel]

I did some tests on Ubuntu 16.04 with MonoDelevop. I got it to the state where i can compile an exe.
But it throws exceptions after the first couple of initialisations.

[borzel]

First I had to convert all png files in folder /XenAdmin/Images

find -name "*.png" | xargs -I{} pngcrush -ow -c 6 {}
(https://stackoverflow.com/questions/22745076/libpng-warning-iccp-known-incorrect-srgb-profile)

Now the ressource file generation went trough and i could see the first paintings of the main "window" :-)

[borzel]

It's not pretty and not stable, but first connection is made ;-)

[johnbester]

I have not had a look at this for quite some time, but maybe I can give some input on how to proceed. If you search for DllImport throughout the project, you'll find that dll's are imported in 10 or more files. What you need to do is to identify the various calls, abstract them to a "NativeCalls" abstract class or interface and then subclass it as NativeCallsWindows and NativeCallsLinux. Move the various DllImports into NativeCallsWindows and use it in stead of the DllImported methods scattered all over the place by accessing a static method such as NativeCalls.getInstance().doSomeCall(...). In the NativeCallsLinux class you can start off by having dummy implementations of the various functions and work your way through implementing them. NativeCalls.getInstance() initializes the proper delegate (if it was not done before) by checking the current OS. If you can get this refactoring into the master branch, you are set for a multi-operating system solution.

[eangulus]

I would also like a cross-platform XenCenter, but (and I know that this crosses over with XenOrchestra) but how about a XenCenter that will work remotely where I only have to forward some ports thru the router firewall. Citrix version never allowed XenCenter unless on the same network.

[olivierlambert]

The difference is Xen Orchestra can run inside the same network of your XS/XCP-ng hosts, while you can access it from outside (unlike XenCenter).

[borzel]

We should collect all infos here: https://github.com/xcp-ng/xenadmin/wiki/Cross-Platform-Vision

[borzel]

First Prototype here: https://github.com/borzel/xenadmin/releases/tag/v7.4.0-Linux-alpha

Please test and report!

[borzel]

I did a PR against upstream for building dotnet-packages on mono/linux: xenserver/dotnet-packages#69

[borzel]

Here are the nightly builds of the linux/mono prototype: https://builds.schulzalex.de/xcp-ng_linux-prototype

[gangsterrapper22]

I tried to run this on OS X with mono but there it doesn't work. Maybe I can try to compile your source code on OS X with mono. Maybe it works then. I also attached an Error Log. Maybe we can also create an own Issue to make it also work on OS X.
error_xcp_mono.txt

[borzel]

To run it on OS X it need's additional work, which I can not do. I don't own an apple device :-)

[borzel]

After several problems with gui elements from winforms I try to run XCP-ng Center against a debug build of mono... maybe I find something...

[olivierlambert]

@kallisti5 No worries, I know it's not about discrediting. I just feel there is probably a lack of understanding on XO project :)

Xen Orchestra (on XAPI) exists since... 2013! There is a dedicated team working on it (6 ppl, full time). And it's fully Open Source - aGPLv3- (all issues are on GitHub, unlike XenCenter, which is only developed by Citrix) with a reasonably sized community (forum, users, community scripts etc.)

Just check the pulse/stats on the repo: https://github.com/vatesfr/xen-orchestra/pulse/monthly

Also, XO has a far more broader scope: it's not "just" an admin tool, but it's able to do auto patching, streaming VMs on any pool, backup, incremental delta backup, ACLs, self service with quotas, advanced stats and much more. There is also an API, and a CLI! It could also act as a proxy to only expose one XO and not all the XAPI behind a firewall.

That's why I'm convinced there is already a de facto cross platform solution, and contributing to it directly seems to be less a dead-end than tinkering/bending an app to make it work on Linux despite there is no effort from the Citrix core-contributors to make it real (and on a far more limited features scope).

What I meant in the end: your time could be used instead to create tickets on XO tracker about a feature you'd like to have in XO that you like in XenCenter (or you'd like to have in XenCenter in the first place). A simple real recent example? In this ticket someone asked for pause/unpause feature exposed in XCP-ng Center. One week later, it was available in the next XO release. I think it speaks for itself about what you can expect for it.

At least it should answer the "there is no HTML5 admin console for XCP-ng and it's a BIG blocker", right?

[borzel]

please continue the XO discussion in a separate thread elsewhere...

Here I want just content for linux xenadmin :-)

[derrickmehaffy]

@borzel I agree with you, this thread should remain only about linu xenadmin. @olivierlambert not basing you or anything, XO is a great tool. Many of us just like the layout of xenadmin better. The structure is a bit more "admin focused".

[olivierlambert]

@derrickmehaffy I'd like to have your input about "more admin focused", because I'm an admin myself and I'm not sure to get it. We'd be happy to improve XO to go in the way you like.

[sammcj]

Really keen to see this work out, if anyone needs someone to test a build against a cluster let me know and I'll see what I can do.

[borzel]

@BlackCentipede @cocoon here is the new branch where we sum up all linux/mono-releated results

https://github.com/xcp-ng/xenadmin/tree/feature-linux-8.0

How do we start? Should I put all my current code into it?

[ghost]

Yep, put all code you have so far into it and we can figure out the milestones together on what each of us need to do from this point on.

[borzel]

ok, sounds good. I try to do this ASAP, but I'm on vacation from Feb 10 (Sunday) till Feb 13 (Wednesday)

[cocoon]

I have seen you removed the "feature-linux-8.0" again (oh and you did many! other changes and additions ^^) but I have seen these:

master-linux-dev-borzel
master-linux-dev
master-linux

So I will wait until you have the startable prototype branch ready and give a go?

I reactivated and updated my Ubuntu 16 + Mono Development VM (MonoDevelop v7.6 build 711).

Just some thoughts:

Do we want to have the same environment?
Then you could tell the used environment and needed packages and version numbers to document it.

And maybe I can then create a wiki entry about it and later automate building an development VM/Appliance with packer, that could make it easier for others to jump in and try to fix something.

[ghost]

We also need a mode of communication to actively discuss on this, do we need to discuss it here or do we move it to chat program like Slack, Discordapp, or anything?

[borzel]

@cocoon @BlackCentipede

I would prefer IRC for communication, I've already set up a quassel server. That works very well.

You can just join #xcp-ng-dev on irc.freenode.net - my quassel server is always online and I read every day through the chat. There we can discuss the future and open a separate channel... do you know how to do that on IRC? :-) name should be something like xcp-ng-xenadmin-dev

yes, I did some tidy up to get started. Now we have a real master branch with all current changes in it as a base. My plan is to fill master-linux-dev-borzel with my current state of the port which is here: https://github.com/borzel/xenadmin/tree/linux-7.4

That should happen till next weekend... maybe ;-) You can also create your own branch and play around... thats always my best source of ideas.

Environment:

• Ubuntu 18.04 (optional)
• latest mono-dev you can get
• latest monodevelop you can get

I documented the steps to get it running: https://github.com/xcp-ng/xenadmin/wiki/Cross-Platform-Vision#first-hack-by-borzel
You can start there and try to follow it and add up as you do it.

See you in the IRC!

[borzel]

Some more info from my dev system:

# mono -V
Mono JIT compiler version 5.16.0.220 (tarball Mon Nov 26 17:17:59 UTC 2018)
Copyright (C) 2002-2014 Novell, Inc, Xamarin Inc and Contributors. www.mono-project.com
	TLS:           __thread
	SIGSEGV:       altstack
	Notifications: epoll
	Architecture:  amd64
	Disabled:      none
	Misc:          softdebug 
	Interpreter:   yes
	LLVM:          yes(3.6.0svn-mono-/)
	GC:            sgen (concurrent by default)

[ghost]

Yep, I'll come on this weekend to talk more on what we should do from here.

[borzel]

For all who just want to run XCP-ng Center on Linux:
xenserver#3 (comment)

[carragom]

Hi @borzel, I was wondering if with the arrival of WindowsForms in .netcore 3.1 it would make more sense to try and port the project to .netcore instead of mono.

[olivierlambert]

@carragom FYI:

• XO 6 will bring a UI more similar to XCP-ng Center
• we have some plans for a basic/simple XO directly embed in XCP-ng

So if there's a reason left for using XCP-ng Center, let me know. Ideally, I'd like to get completely rid of it to reduce number of XAPI clients to maintain.

[carragom]

@olivierlambert
I stated the reasons why I prefer XCP-ng Center here. IMO I would love to see XO as an electron app that I could carry around in my laptop where all I have to do to connect to a new pool is add a server.

Having XO embedded into XCP is a really good step forward. But still use cases remain. For example cross pool VM movement. How would I go about moving a VM across different pools in this embedded scenario?

[borzel]

@carragom Hey! So good it sounds, xenadmin / XenCenter / XCP-ng Center don't use only Winforms, most of the UI elements are drawn from scratch.

Big pain. Not worth it :-(

[carragom]

@borzel I see. But do you still think it would be easier to port all that to mono instead .netcore ? If you say yes I believe you. Just wanted your opinion on the matter.

[borzel]

actually I don't have any opinion ... no real spare time to do anything :-(

[carragom]

don't worry and thanks for the great work

[olivierlambert]

@carragom no problem to add other pool as the app will run in your browser. However, it will be likely not saved (or we need to store some info in your browser itself). I think this is doable :)

[carragom]

@olivierlambert great to know, I'll keep an eye on the project and give a try when available

[mimi89999]

I have an issue with XCP 8.0.0. It is crashing on the splash screen. Would it be possible to add an option to disable splash?

[cocoon]

You could run XenCenterMain.exe instead, that would avoid the splash?

[borzel]

As I have no spare time I close this :-(