[libvirt-users] libvirt (and qemu) and RHEL 6.3, 6.4, ...

[Eric Blake]

On 03/06/2013 03:23 PM, Skardal, Harald wrote:
> Is there any information available that describes which versions of RHEL
> 6.X are supported by the different libvirt releases, and also qemu
> releases?
> 
> For instance, can you install libvirt 1.0.2 and qemu 1.4 on the newly
> released RHEL 6.4?

In general, both upstream qemu and upstream libvirt strive to be
compiled out-of-the-box on as many platforms as possible; I'm not sure
whether modern qemu would compile on RHEL 5, but I regularly test that
upstream libvirt builds on RHEL 5.

On the other hand, the moment you install self-built binaries instead of
the version shipped by the distro, you no longer get support from the
distro.  If that's a risk you're willing to take, then using newer
versions is fine; but you may want to think twice about using your
support contract to ask Red Hat to backport a particular feature you
want into the distro where it would be fully supported, instead of
taking on the support burden onto your own shoulders.

> 
> I read that to mean that libvirt 1.0.3 is tested with the most recent
> RHEL 5.X releases? Together with a matching qemu?

When I do my own testing of upstream libvirt on random platforms (and
this includes RHEL 5 and RHEL 6.4), I target things against the platform
qemu rather than the latest qemu release.  In fact, that's one of the
goals of libvirt - to provide a stable interface so that things using
the libvirt interface behave the same regardless of the underlying
differences between the distro backports of older versions, vs. the
bleeding edge of upstream versions.  But generally, if you are going to
install a self-built binary to get a feature that the distro was
unwilling to backport, you might as well install all of the virt stack.

Also, while new libvirt with old qemu is supposed to work, old libvirt
mixed with new qemu is liable to have problems.  So upgrading qemu in
isolation without upgrading libvirt is riskier than upgrading libvirt in
isolation without upgrading qemu.

-- 
Eric Blake   eblake redhat com    +1-919-301-3266
Libvirt virtualization library http://libvirt.org

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