TrustRadius: an HG Insights company

XenServer

Score8.2 out of 10

76 Reviews and Ratings

Get a Demo

What is XenServer?

XenServer (formerly Citrix Hypervisor) is a virtualization management platform optimized for application, desktop and server virtualization infrastructures.

Categories & Use Cases

Key Features

Learn about the best (and worst!) features XenServer has to offer, as determined by TrustRadius' reviewers.
Based on 76 ratings of XenServer's features
View all features

Top Performing Features

  • Live virtual machine backup

    Ability to backup vms without interrupting service

    Category average: 7.7

  • Live virtual machine migration

    Downtime minimization by migrating live vms between hosts and across clusters

    Category average: 7.7

  • Hypervisor-level security

    Hypervisor-level security including antivirus and anti-malware

    Category average: 8.2

Areas for Improvement

  • Virtual machine automated provisioning

    Automation of virtual machine provisioning through use of vm templates

    Category average: 7.6

  • Management console

    Management console for central administration of vm environment

    Category average: 7.9

Reviews

What users are saying about XenServer.
View all reviews

A cost effective host for your Citrix environment!

Incentivized
Verified User
Engineer in Information Technology (201-500 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use XenServer as the hostserver for our Citrix VM's. We use XenServer instead of VMware for these machines because XenServer allows us to use GPU's without extra licensing costs. Other than that it also makes sure all of the Citrix resource load is on our Xen farm instead of VMware farm.

Pros

  • Free use of GPU's
  • Integrates well with the other Citrix products

Cons

  • Logging of tasks and events
  • Performance overview history

Return on Investment

  • Positive: It is cost effective, no extra costs for GPU and probably free to use with the Citrix licenses you already have
  • Negative: It is harder te troubleshoot, so it can take more time

Usability

Alternatives Considered

VMware ESXi

Other Software Used

Microsoft Intune, Microsoft Edge, KeePass

Citrix Hypervisor: Empowering Efficient Virtualization and Disaster Recovery.

Incentivized
Arvind KumarView profile
System Specialist in Information Technology at Admiral India (201-500 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We are using VDI infrastructure which is hosted on Citrix XenServer. All of our Virtual Desktop environments are being created and managed on Citrix hypervisors. The business problems it addresses: Server Consolidation, Flexibility & Scalability, Disaster Recovery, Cost Reduction, etc. The scope of the use case may vary depending on the organization's specific requirements. It can range from small-scale deployments for individual departments or teams to large-scale enterprise deployments spanning multiple data centers.

Pros

  • Host Virtual Desktops.
  • Application Virtualization is much easier.
  • Scalability & Flexibility.

Cons

  • Resource pools are not reliable.
  • No provision for automated desktop creation.

Return on Investment

  • Saved Cost.
  • Highly Scalable.
  • VDI roles & permissions management is easy.

Alternatives Considered

VMware ESXi

Other Software Used

VMware ESXi, VMware vCenter Server, ManageEngine ADAudit Plus, ManageEngine ADManager Plus

Citrix Hypervisor was built for Citrix VDI

Incentivized
Scott McGeeView profile
Information Technology Manager in Information Technology at Hampden Township (51-200 employees employees)

Pros

  • The install is incredibly easy. Even version upgrades require minimal effort to accomplish.
  • The dynamic storage capabilities are great. If a server runs low on disk space we can increase the drive space in minutes instead of waiting days for new drives to arrive and the time to physically shut down the server to add them.

Cons

  • A lot of software vendors only support VMWare and Hyper-V as acceptable hypervisors for their products.
  • It lacks the ability to truly upscale memory in a live environment.

Return on Investment

  • We noticed a true ROI within the first 2 years of implementation. The longer hardware refresh cycles save organizations like ours a lot of money each year.

Alternatives Considered

VMware ESXi and Hyper-V

Other Software Used

Laserfiche, ArcGIS

Citrix Hypervisor Review

Incentivized
Verified User
Manager in Information Technology (51-200 employees employees)

Pros

  • Citrix hypervisor does price very well for small organizations. It is free.
  • Since this product is open source it does not have any type of vendor lockdown issues.
  • Allows live migration of VM's so you can keep systems up and running when changes are needed to the hardware in the background.
  • The GUI management tools are quite easy to learn.
  • Has Snapshot capability which is a great way to protect against malware as well as do risk-free upgrades.

Cons

  • Although part of this is free the free solution has limitations that make the purchase of the paid version a requirement for most medium and large enterprises.
  • Support for USB devices is lacking vs. its competitors.
  • Technical support is somewhat limited especially the free "Google browsing" type since the product is used much less vs. Hyper-V or VMWARE.
  • In a related issue to tech support, finding local IT support who have used the product is also challenging.
  • Networking/virtual networks are less stable than they should be.

Return on Investment

  • We use the free version to host a small test bed of virtual boxes. Not having to pay for a solution is a great benefit.
  • We are a Citrix shop (Xenapp/Virtual apps) so having another Citrix product is not an issue for our technical skill set.
  • The ability to live migrate servers between nodes allows us to do patching without downtime. This feature is a great benefit to both lower user notifications and IT off hours time.

Alternatives Considered

Hyper-V and VMware vSphere Data Protection Advanced

Other Software Used

Hyper-V, vSphere, Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365), Lucidpress, WordPress, Veeam Backup & Replication, Windows Server Failover Clustering, Microsoft Exchange

XenServer and modern virtualization

Incentivized
Kristopher LeslieView profile
IT Director in Information Technology at The Dannon Project (51-200 employees employees)

Pros

  • 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.

Cons

  • 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

Return on Investment

  • 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.

Alternatives Considered

VMware ESXi

Other Software Used

QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions