Abstract

This document contains release notes for the changes in the QVD from version 3.4 to 3.5.0.

1. What’s New

QVD 3.5.0 provides various enhancements and bug fixes from 3.4.

  • The Layer 7 Router (L7R) has been removed as a standalone component of their QVD. Instead it is launched by the House Keeping Daemon as and when required.

  • QVD client internationalization.

  • overlayfs is now the default union mount filesystem

  • Parse dates using the local timezone

  • Improved debugging capabilities

1.1. Changes to the Layer 7 Router (L7R)

The L7R master daemon has been removed from QVD 3.5. The House Keeping Daemon listens for remote connections and starts and an L7R instance when a connection is initiated.

1.2. QVD Client internationalization

The client has been translated to Spanish and will use the user’s locale settings at launch to change to Spanish where appropriate.

1.3. Overlayfs as Default

QVD now uses overlayfs as the default union mount filesystem. Previous versions of QVD defaulted to aufs but now use overlayfs which has been included on the stock Linux kernel since version 3.18 and offers improved stability and performance.

1.4. Dates Use the Local Timezone

QVD now uses the local timezone on the database node and not that on each individual node.

1.5. Improved debugging capabilities

QVD 3.5 provides improved debugging messages in the logs.

2. Database Schema Upgrade

QVD 3.5.0 incorporates modifications to the database schema. Installations running 3.3 and above must update the database in order to upgrade to 3.5.0, which can be accomplished by running the provided perl script qvd-upgrade-db after updating the QVD packages.

In the table vm_runtimes the column 7r_host has been renamed l7r_host_id.

All changes to the schema can be viewed in the SQL file found at /usr/lib/qvd/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.14.2/QVD/DB/Upgrade/sql/upgrade-to-3.5.0.sql

3. Availability

QVD 3.5.0 is packaged for Ubuntu 14.04 (Trusty) and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 11 Service Pack 3. Execute the following lines in a root shell to add the sources for your appropriate distribution:

Ubuntu:

# wget -qO - https://www.theqvd.com/packages/key/public.key | sudo apt-key add -
# echo "deb http://theqvd.com/packages/ubuntu-trusty QVD-3.5.0 main" > \
/etc/apt/sources.list.d/qvd-35list
# apt-get update

SLES:

# rpm --import https://www.theqvd.com/packages/key/public.key
# zypper ar http://theqvd.com/packages/sles/11SP3/stable QVD
# zypper ref
Note Please ensure you remove any historical QVD sources if you are upgrading from a previous release.

Source code can be obtained from GitHub:

Note The QVD node is supported only on 64 bit architectures due to memory limitations of 32 bit.

4. Installation

Please refer to the QVD Installation Guide for installation instructions.

5. Upgrading from 3.4.x

The upgrade from 3.4.x is an easy process. It is strongly recommended that it is done in the following order.

First, stop the HKD:

# /etc/init.d/qvd-hkd stop

Amend the package manager sources as per the previous section and upgrade QVD. For Ubuntu, use apt:

# apt-get update
# apt-get upgrade

For a SUSE install, zypper:

# zypper ref
# zypper up

This will upgrade the QVD packages to version 3.5.0.

Now it is time to invoke the upgrade script. Note that as a safety precaution running the script on its own will not make any changes to the database. For that to happen the flag --i-am-brave must be used in conjunction with the script. Thus, call the script as follows to upgrade the schema:

# /usr/lib/qvd/bin/qvd-upgrade-db --i-am-brave

This will make the necessary changes to the QVD database. Finally, restart the QVD services:

# /etc/init.d/qvd-hkd start