Xenserver 6.5 released

[legen]

Xenserver 6.5 has finally been released, XenServer 6.5 | Citrix Blogs

Have not tested it, but it looks like it has gone from more open source (free) to less open source (enterprise licensing). Seems unclear what differs from their new enterprise license and the free one. 64-bit dom0

Any one tested it yet?

 

[legen]

A good writeup about the new 6.5 version,
Citrix XenServer 6.5 | Poppelgaard - blog about Citrix (Mobility, Security and Cloud)

For feature comparison between the versions,

 

[tjk]

Are they charging again? Didn't they make all versions free last year, and if you wanted support you had to buy a support license? Did they change that model, again?

 

[Atomicslave]

Hmm I wonder if the GPU passthrough has got better, I want to try turning my desktop and HTPC's into vms and running them off one box

 

[PigLover]

64 bit Dom0 means ZoL based AIO is now possible, running ZFS inside Dom0 to maximize IO performance. Could be interesting.

 

[legen]

64 bit Dom0 means ZoL based AIO is now possible, running ZFS inside Dom0 to maximize IO performance. Could be interesting.

I wish they could support Solaris so i can use OmniOS on it

 

[MiniKnight]

Twice a year I think about XenServer. Twice a year I do not.

 

[something_easy]

I have a question if any one knows,

This release of Xenserver states that they are releasing with the 4.4 Xen hypervisor, but from the looks of it, the xen-project is about to release 4.5 with alot of good changes. Is it possible to update the hypervisor alone to the new version or is it like Esxi where you can only update with patchs or release builds?

I would like to test this out and possibly shift my lab over from vmware to xenserver just due to the free xenmotion and pools.

 

[Mike]

It is unlikely that the Xenserver management OS will let you use these new features. If you are willing to go as far as patching the hypervisor yourself you might as well start from scratch by installing it yourself on a distro of your choice.

 

[NotYetRated]

Sorry to revive a near dead thread, just want to comment on XenServer 6.5.

I had been running XenServer 6.2 with
1. Windows 7 VM with ATI graphics card passed through for media server. Got full DTS-HD through it via Plex.
2. Windows 7 VM with ATI graphics card passed through for some bedroom gaming. Passed a USB through, did USB over ethernet to the room then to a powered hub. Worked flawlessly.
3. MineOS(linux) for a small Minecraft server.
4. Windows Server 2008, passed a USB and an LSI HDD card. Ran as media server.

Everything worked flawlessly. Would get a random reboot of the DomU maybe once a month. Never diagnosed, didnt care at that frequency.

Fresh install to 6.5 and the Linux and Media server VM's work fine. Video cards do not properly pass through. Xen formally recognized the fault on their bug tracking site, but no fix for the last month and a half, with no announced timing for a fix.

Really unfortunate. Looking in to alternatives, may just go back down to 6.2. Have waited too long now.

 

[tjk]

Citrix needs to get out of the hypervisor business, and should put all their efforts behind Hyper-V, them and Microsoft have a common enemy. Citrix hasn't done Xen any justice in years, plus their "it's free, no it isn't, yes it is, just joking!" approaching is embarrassing.