Xen-API Community Project

Several community members have contacted me recently about the Xen-API utilities. I looked into this and discovered a great opportunity for community members looking for a project to contribute to. So, I am announcing a new community effort to complete the development of the Xen-API utilities. If you are interested in working on the Xen-API project please email me at stephen.spector@xen.org and I will call a meeting in mid-May with all people interested to get the project underway.

NOTE - This interface is not to be seen as a replacement for the existing XML-RPC interface and people should not infer anything by this project.

Here are some thoughts on the importance of the Xen-API if you are considering joining this community effort:

  • Xen-API cleans up a lot of the cruft of the older APIs
  • Authentication aspect to the Xen-API allows the API to be used off-box securely
  • Xen-API’s event registration / dispatch piece is much better than the old API, making it much easier to build web GUIs or health monitors
  • The Xen-API has two mechanisms, one for synchronous task invocation, and a congruent one for asynchronous tasks. This means, for example, that you can reboot a VM, and either block waiting for it to complete, or get a task handle and poll back later. This gives application developers the freedom to choose how they interact with Xend
  • Xend will get a code update from this project and will give developers a chance to learn more about xm as well as Xend (Xend is written in Python)
  • Xen-API already has C and Python bindings in the Xen tree; Ruby bindings are also rumored to exist

Available information on Xen-API:

Filed under: Community, Xen Development by Stephen Spector

3 Responses to “Xen-API Community Project”

  1. deshantm, on April 28th, 2008 at 10:47 am Said:

    What is the current relationship between libvirt and Xen-API?

    Quoting from the XenApi wik page, it says that this is the goal:

    “Behind [the XenApi] interface, we would then be free to improve Xend, and at the same time we give a solid foundation for third-party tools (in particular libvirt-based applications), GUIs, and so on. The API becomes effectively part of the “guarantees” of the Xen project.”

    I am also wondering if active collaboration with libvirt developers is also intended? Or is that a separate issue?

    I would be interested in learning more about this, since I have an idea for a simple app to help users setup networking. The Xen-API or libvirt is probably the best place for it (if it doesn’t exist already)

  2. Stephen Spector, on April 28th, 2008 at 12:33 pm Said:

    Thanks for the comment. At this time, my intention is to get a group of people willing to work on completing the existing Xen-API specification. Once it is complete, the community can then decide the next steps in terms of integration with libvirt or other tools.

  3. Projet Xen-API | Virtualisation_News, on April 28th, 2008 at 4:55 pm Said:

    […] Spector, dans un récent billet, fait appel à la communauté Open Source pour le développement d’une API destinée à la […]

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