[CentOS-virt] Xen-kernel: Update to 4.14 or 4.19?

Sarah Newman

srn at prgmr.com
Thu Mar 7 18:42:40 UTC 2019


On 3/7/19 10:30 AM, Akemi Yagi wrote:
> On Thu, Mar 7, 2019 at 9:42 AM George Dunlap <dunlapg at umich.edu> wrote:
>>
>> Hey all,
>>
>> We've been on 4.9 for some time now, and while it's still supported, I
>> think it's time to start thinking about upgrading, and I'd like input
>> from the community about which version to move up to.
>>
>> 4.19 has been out for almost 5 months now.  It will include PVH domU
>> support, and PVH dom0 support in what _is believed_ to be the final
>> form; so when the Virt SIG moves to a version of Xen that supports PVH
>> dom0, the kernel will already be in place with no need to upgrade.
>>
>> The other option would be to move to 4.14: Probably more stable (as
>> it's been out for over a year now), but doesn't have either PVH domU
>> or PVH dom0 support.
>>
>> I'd suggest 4.19. Any other opinions?
>>
>>  -George
> 
> You may also want to consider each version's EOL:
> 
> 4.9   Jan, 2023
> 4.14   Jan, 2020
> 4.19   Dec, 2020

Regardless of EOL date, I think it's worth trying to upgrade when Xen has stable PVH dom0 support.

I am pretty sure historically that there have been difficulties backporting some of the side channel mitigations as they can be quite invasive. That
may be another reason to upgrade sooner rather than later.

--Sarah



More information about the CentOS-virt mailing list