Overview
What is XenServer?
XenServer (formerly Citrix Hypervisor) is a virtualization management platform optimized for application, desktop and server virtualization infrastructures.
Citrix Hypervisor: Empowering Efficient Virtualization and Disaster Recovery.
Citrix Hypervisor Review
A Decent Choice
Virtualization is easy with Citrix
Citrix Hypervisor was built for Citrix VDI
XenServer and modern virtualization
XenServer is Awesome!
Open source hypervisor, free license and advanced features
XenServer: room for improvement
XenServer reviewed by an avid Citrix and VDI engineer
XenServer Vs ?
Popular Features
- Live virtual machine migration (11)9.090%
- Live virtual machine backup (10)8.080%
- Management console (11)5.050%
- Virtual machine automated provisioning (10)2.020%
Reviewer Pros & Cons
Pricing
What is XenServer?
XenServer (formerly Citrix Hypervisor) is a virtualization management platform optimized for application, desktop and server virtualization infrastructures.
Entry-level set up fee?
- No setup fee
Offerings
- Free Trial
- Free/Freemium Version
- Premium Consulting/Integration Services
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Alternatives Pricing
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Proxmox Virtual Environment is an open source server virtualization management solution based on QEMU/KVM and LXC. Users can manage virtual machines, containers, highly available clusters, storage and networks via a web interface or CLI. Proxmox VE code is licensed under the GNU Affero General…
Features
Server Virtualization
Server virtualization allows multiple operating systems to be run completely independently on a single server
- 2Virtual machine automated provisioning(10) Ratings
Automation of virtual machine provisioning through use of vm templates
- 5Management console(11) Ratings
Management console for central administration of vm environment
- 8Live virtual machine backup(10) Ratings
Ability to backup vms without interrupting service
- 9Live virtual machine migration(11) Ratings
Downtime minimization by migrating live vms between hosts and across clusters
- 9Hypervisor-level security(10) Ratings
Hypervisor-level security including antivirus and anti-malware
Product Details
- About
- Tech Details
- FAQs
What is XenServer?
XenServer Technical Details
Operating Systems | Unspecified |
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Mobile Application | No |
Frequently Asked Questions
Comparisons
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Reviews and Ratings
(74)Community Insights
- Business Problems Solved
- Recommendations
Organizations have found XenServer to be a valuable alternative to VMWare ESXi, allowing them to consolidate their physical servers and manage their environment efficiently with XoA. Users have reported improved speed and delivery of IT services by utilizing individual servers for each department. Additionally, XenServer is widely used as a host for VDI infrastructure, enabling the creation and management of virtual desktop environments.
XenServer addresses various business problems, including server consolidation, flexibility and scalability, disaster recovery, and cost reduction. The scope of use cases for XenServer can range from small-scale deployments for individual departments or teams to large-scale enterprise deployments spanning multiple data centers. For example, the University of Sao Paulo and other public institutes in Brazil rely on XenServer as the principal hypervisor for their private cloud, offering infrastructure as a service to the academic community.
Citrix Hypervisor, another name for XenServer, is often used as the sole hypervisor in entire Citrix environments, reducing hardware expenses and providing virtualization for production servers. It allows organizations to leverage their hardware resources efficiently by running multiple virtual machines on each physical server, resulting in cost savings related to licensing, hardware, and power needs. Users appreciate the ease of use and straightforwardness when creating new VMs with XenServer.
In addition to these use cases, Citrix Hypervisor offers scalability and a combination of remote desktop services and web interface servers. However, it is important to note that implementing and managing this product require long-term vision, planning, and a competent team. Nonetheless, XenServer has proven beneficial for teaching virtualization classes and setting up workloads for clients encompassing IT labs, VDI environments, and server workloads.
Users frequently recommend Citrix Hypervisor as a reliable alternative to VMWare for Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktop. They find it well-suited for small and medium-scale deployments, making it a cost-effective choice. It is also recommended to thoroughly check compatibility with other programs before implementing Citrix Hypervisor to ensure seamless integration and avoid any potential glitches. Additionally, Citrix Hypervisor is praised for its ease of deployment and setup, particularly suitable for small businesses. Users also suggest considering Citrix Hypervisor for organizations with remote or mobile staff, as it enables convenient access to tools from home or on the go. Finally, Citrix XenServer is mentioned as a good choice for in-house use, contributing to reducing infrastructure costs.
Attribute Ratings
- 10Likelihood to Renew3 ratings
- 5.5Availability1 rating
- 6.4Performance1 rating
- 6.1Usability2 ratings
- 6.4Support Rating1 rating
- 2.7In-Person Training1 rating
- 7.3Implementation Rating1 rating
- 5.5Configurability1 rating
- 6.4Product Scalability1 rating
- 5.5Ease of integration1 rating
- 8.2Vendor pre-sale1 rating
- 8.2Vendor post-sale1 rating
Reviews
(1-4 of 4)XenServer and modern virtualization
- Resource Monitoring is a good and I am able to monitor my entire infrastructure whether I'm using my iPhone remotely or while on any company-issued laptop to ensure our services run at peak efficiency.
- CLI - the command line is not hard to use. It can take a little time to get used to the commands but once you have them down managing the environment from the GUI or CLI is pretty easy.
- Backups are very easy to start and manage with XenCenter or XoA. Keeping business DR scenarios achievable.
- Better support for USB devices (which is a weak point of most Hypervisors)
- More native iPhone/Android apps to monitor the environment
- Better reports for an insight of how healthy the environment is
- Virtual machine automated provisioning
- 90%9.0
- Management console
- 90%9.0
- Live virtual machine backup
- 90%9.0
- Live virtual machine migration
- 100%10.0
- Hypervisor-level security
- 90%9.0
- The best positive impact XenServer had on our business was the fact we didn't have to purchase a room full of physical servers to handle our workloads. This alone saved us thousands of dollars on hardware and software purchases, the cooling cost went down, power cost went down and management for the environment was centralized and easier to maintain.
- Virtual Machine DR/BR
- Consolidation
- Reduction in repair times for most issues due to only having to manage fewer servers.
- We were able to utlize RDP to let slower, older donated laptops remote in and breathe life into aging hardware.
- The speed in which we can reboot servers was reduced from minutes to seconds
- Being able to take my virtual machine and go to another different site and transfer it with little effort.
- For VDI
- Price
- Product Features
- Product Usability
Open source hypervisor, free license and advanced features
- Free advanced resources: Live migration, live storage migration, snapshots, open switch/vxlan. Others hypervisors offer the same but are paid.
- It is fully compatible with CloudStack and OpenStack.
- Supports paravirtualization (PVM) and hardware virtual machines (HVM).
- It is open-source and easy to troubleshoot.
- The snapshots management still presents problems, especially in environments with several virtual machines.
- The virtual memory management is still weak if compared with other hypervisors.
- There isn't a central server for the management of physical hosts. XenCenter is a client that is not good because it demands so much memory and CPU to execute simple tasks in environments with several VMs.
- Virtual machine automated provisioning
- 100%10.0
- Management console
- 70%7.0
- Live virtual machine backup
- 70%7.0
- Live virtual machine migration
- 90%9.0
- Hypervisor-level security
- 90%9.0
- Xenserver is easy to learn. We paid for support only for installation and deployment in the first three years, and now our team has the knowledge to solve most problems.
- Low CAPEX if you have a team that uses open source software day by day.
- But paid support is necessary to solve critical problems. The open source community is not enough. Actually, we have difficulty solving some bugs without paying for support.
- Medium OPEX if you have a team that uses open source software day by day.
- Scientific processing
- Optimization of IT resource usage
- Agility in the IT resource allocation process
- Provide virtual desktops in the cloud computing
XenServer: room for improvement
- Create virtual machine
- Xenmotion
- Config/installation of XenServer
- Lacks management tool equivalent to vCenter server. XenCenter is a client-side app only.
- Lack official support for work load balancing (the support has been dropped)
- Virtual machine automated provisioning
- 70%7.0
- Management console
- 50%5.0
- Live virtual machine backup
- 50%5.0
- Live virtual machine migration
- 60%6.0
- Hypervisor-level security
- 50%5.0
- Simple one for dev purpose
one with basic concepts of virtualization is even better.
- instructional purpose
- self study
- personal dev environment
- NA
- infrastructure with multiple hypervisors
- Product Features
- Product Usability
- Prior Experience with the Product
- VM creation
- VM life cycle: start, stop, migrate, etc.
- adding repository (i.e., external storage, not local storage of XenServer)
- add/remove node in cluster
- changing IP of XenServer
XenServer reviewed by an avid Citrix and VDI engineer
- Manages upgrades to the pool of hypervisor hosts with relative ease through a console (if licensed).
- Makes it easy to create machine templates and clones and move them around within the pool of hosts.
- Handles failures reasonably well through the use of the pool database copied on each host
- Adding or presenting additional storage to the host can often be a task that is far more involved than competitive products.
- The product can require reboots more frequently than competitors due to the DOM kernel getting "hung up".
- Sometimes when a virtual machine is deleted it still leaves behind orphaned vdisks.
- Recovering from the loss of a host can sometimes cause virtual machines to require lengthy command prompt scripting to fix so they can be powered back on from another host.
The product is less well suited for large enterprise data centers. However, new versions are bringing features to allow the hypervisor to contend. Complex virtual networking environments may not be well suited for XenServer.
- Virtual machine automated provisioning
- 80%8.0
- Management console
- 70%7.0
- Live virtual machine backup
- 60%6.0
- Live virtual machine migration
- 80%8.0
- Hypervisor-level security
- 50%5.0
- Positively, the ability to implement a XenServer pool for VDI workloads is a fast process. Thus a faster project getting into the pilot phase.
- Negatively, XenServer has caused outages at client sites due to the pool master failing and a subsequent member not taking over properly (VDI).
- Negatively, XenServer has failed to allow easy addition of storage or expansion to a SAN drive which required an outage to occur in order to properly see the new free space for growth.
- Virtual Desktop infrastructure
- Server workloads for branch offices
- Server workloads for an entire company
- Disaster Recovery capabilities for failed hardware
- Allow access to GPUs for graphical workloads within a virtual desktop implementation
- Cross site DR through use of SAN replication and some third part tools for backup management
- Creating a lab environment within a production footprint without requiring excessive processing or power for what typically requires dedicated equipment
- Replacing entire data centers
- Replacing all compute within a branch office
- Fast deployment of compute resources for acquisitions or new locations opening
- Price
- Product Usability
- Prior Experience with the Product
- Vendor Reputation
- Existing Relationship with the Vendor
- Third-party Reviews
- Professional services company
- Incompatible hardware, check the HCL but also check with the vendor
- Storage not being visible due to lack of zoning, or correct zoning
- Networks not trunked to the appropriate switch ports for the virtual networks creates an unnecessary delay
- Self-taught
- Managing virtual machines and adjusting the view within the XenCenter console is very easy
- Creating a new virtual machine is easy
- Adding and browsing storage repositories is easy
- Changing or updating storage repositories is very difficult.
- Bringing up a failed hosts virtual machines can occasionally require some cumbersome scripting or command line work.
- It is difficult to manage the virtual switches.
- System Center Operations Manager
- Monitoring Solutions
- Networking Solutions
- File import/export
- Single Signon
- API (e.g. SOAP or REST)
- 64-bit Kernel, drastically improves scalability and performance
- Improved support for vGPU options
- Ability to create VM's with much larger virtual hard disks
- More supported GPU options
- Storage connectivity options improved or augmented (SMB option!)
- Further integration with virtual desktop environments (XenDesktop)