Moderator Note
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Download Page
Download
Why Open Source Xen
Much of XenServer already was open source, leveraging packages from the Xen Project, Linux kernel and the XAPI Project. We believe that open source plays a strategic role in the future of virtualization and cloud technology and that only open source offers the opportunities for collaborative, open innovation and the economies of scale that these markets demand. By open sourcing XenServer, customers, partners and developers gain full public visibility into the ongoing development and future of XenServer and can directly engage with us to contribute new XenServer functionality, build deeper integrations and steer the architectural direction of the platform.
Are these ISOs the Same Ones as on Citrix.com?
Yes! There is only one binary ISO of XenServer, available for download on xenserver.org and citrix.com. Wherever you download it from, it's free and fully open source.
XenServer Features
XenServer is an enterprise-class, cloud-proven virtualization platform that delivers all of the critical features needed for any server and datacenter virtualization implementation—scalability for any size business, support for Windows® and Linux OSs and complex storage needs, centralized multi-server management, live virtual machine migration, and much more.
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XenServer.org and the Xen Project – blog.xen.org
Should make things interesting with ESXi.
Edit: Added a Xenserver features matrix list: http://www.citrix.com/content/dam/c...ions/citrix-xenserver-core-feature-matrix.pdf
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Download Page
Download
Why Open Source Xen
Much of XenServer already was open source, leveraging packages from the Xen Project, Linux kernel and the XAPI Project. We believe that open source plays a strategic role in the future of virtualization and cloud technology and that only open source offers the opportunities for collaborative, open innovation and the economies of scale that these markets demand. By open sourcing XenServer, customers, partners and developers gain full public visibility into the ongoing development and future of XenServer and can directly engage with us to contribute new XenServer functionality, build deeper integrations and steer the architectural direction of the platform.
Are these ISOs the Same Ones as on Citrix.com?
Yes! There is only one binary ISO of XenServer, available for download on xenserver.org and citrix.com. Wherever you download it from, it's free and fully open source.
XenServer Features
XenServer is an enterprise-class, cloud-proven virtualization platform that delivers all of the critical features needed for any server and datacenter virtualization implementation—scalability for any size business, support for Windows® and Linux OSs and complex storage needs, centralized multi-server management, live virtual machine migration, and much more.
Xen
XenServer is based on the Xen Project[SUP]TM[/SUP] hypervisor that utilizes a 64-bit architecture to provide near native application performance and unmatched density.
XenMotion
XenMotion eliminates the need for planned downtime by enabling active virtual machines to be moved to a new host with no application outages or downtime.
Xen StorageMotion
Move live running virtual machines and their associated virtual disk image within and across resource pools leveraging local and shared storage. This enables users to move a VM and its VDI from a development to production environment, move between tiers of storage when a VM is limited by storage capacity, and perform maintenance and upgrades with zero downtime.
XenCenter Multi-Server Management
XenCenter provides all the virtual machine management, monitoring and general administration, and general administration functions in a single interface. Administrators can easily manage hundreds of virtual machines from a centralized, highly available management console that installs on any Windows® desktop. The Resilient Distributed Management Architecture distributes server management data across the servers in a resource pool to ensure that there is no single point of management failure.
Site Recovery
Provides site-to-site disaster recovery planning and services for virtual environments. Site recovery is easy to set up, fast to recover, and has the ability to frequently test to ensure disaster recovery plans remain valid.
High Availability
Automatically restart virtual machines if a failure occurs at the VM, hypervisor or server level. Link Aggregation bonds network interfaces for network redundancy and increased throughput.
Host Power Management
Takes advantage of embedded hardware features to lower datacenter electricity consumption by dynamically consolidating VMs on fewer systems and then powering off underutilized servers as demand for services fluctuates.
VM Snapshots
Create snapshots of virtual machines to capture disk and metadata settings for backups, archives and configuration changes.
Memory Optimization
Reduces costs and improves application performance and protection by sharing unused server memory between VMs on the host server.
Intellicache
XenServer is optimized to reduce the overall costs and improve performance of a virtual desktop installation. By using local storage as a repository for boot images and non-persistent or temporary data, XenServer can reduce virtual desktop boot times, decrease network volume and traffic, and save on total storage costs for a XenDesktop installation.
XenServer Conversion Manager
Automate the process of converting VMware virtual machines into XenServer virtual machines with this simple batch conversion
Heterogeneous Pools
Enables resource pools to contain servers with different processor types, and support full XenMotion, high availability, workload balancing, and shared storage functionality.
Role-based Administration
Role-based administration improves security and enables delegated access, control, and usage of XenServer pools by maintaining a tiered access structure with varying levels of permissions.
Performance Reporting and Alerting
Receive immediate notification with historical reporting of VM performance to enable the rapid identification and diagnosis of fault or failure in the virtual infrastructure.
XenServer is based on the Xen Project[SUP]TM[/SUP] hypervisor that utilizes a 64-bit architecture to provide near native application performance and unmatched density.
XenMotion
XenMotion eliminates the need for planned downtime by enabling active virtual machines to be moved to a new host with no application outages or downtime.
Xen StorageMotion
Move live running virtual machines and their associated virtual disk image within and across resource pools leveraging local and shared storage. This enables users to move a VM and its VDI from a development to production environment, move between tiers of storage when a VM is limited by storage capacity, and perform maintenance and upgrades with zero downtime.
XenCenter Multi-Server Management
XenCenter provides all the virtual machine management, monitoring and general administration, and general administration functions in a single interface. Administrators can easily manage hundreds of virtual machines from a centralized, highly available management console that installs on any Windows® desktop. The Resilient Distributed Management Architecture distributes server management data across the servers in a resource pool to ensure that there is no single point of management failure.
Site Recovery
Provides site-to-site disaster recovery planning and services for virtual environments. Site recovery is easy to set up, fast to recover, and has the ability to frequently test to ensure disaster recovery plans remain valid.
High Availability
Automatically restart virtual machines if a failure occurs at the VM, hypervisor or server level. Link Aggregation bonds network interfaces for network redundancy and increased throughput.
Host Power Management
Takes advantage of embedded hardware features to lower datacenter electricity consumption by dynamically consolidating VMs on fewer systems and then powering off underutilized servers as demand for services fluctuates.
VM Snapshots
Create snapshots of virtual machines to capture disk and metadata settings for backups, archives and configuration changes.
Memory Optimization
Reduces costs and improves application performance and protection by sharing unused server memory between VMs on the host server.
Intellicache
XenServer is optimized to reduce the overall costs and improve performance of a virtual desktop installation. By using local storage as a repository for boot images and non-persistent or temporary data, XenServer can reduce virtual desktop boot times, decrease network volume and traffic, and save on total storage costs for a XenDesktop installation.
XenServer Conversion Manager
Automate the process of converting VMware virtual machines into XenServer virtual machines with this simple batch conversion
Heterogeneous Pools
Enables resource pools to contain servers with different processor types, and support full XenMotion, high availability, workload balancing, and shared storage functionality.
Role-based Administration
Role-based administration improves security and enables delegated access, control, and usage of XenServer pools by maintaining a tiered access structure with varying levels of permissions.
Performance Reporting and Alerting
Receive immediate notification with historical reporting of VM performance to enable the rapid identification and diagnosis of fault or failure in the virtual infrastructure.
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XenServer.org and the Xen Project – blog.xen.org
Should make things interesting with ESXi.
Edit: Added a Xenserver features matrix list: http://www.citrix.com/content/dam/c...ions/citrix-xenserver-core-feature-matrix.pdf
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