Key Features to XenServer

XenMotion
Get your weekends back by managing and maintaining your physical hardware during business hours. The live migration functionality of XenMotion can migrate virtual machines to other physical hardware, with zero downtime, allowing you to patch and update your machines without your users ever knowing.

Integrated storage architecture
Unlike other virtualization products that are built on closed proprietary systems, the open storage APIs in XenServer allow customers to leverage advanced functions such as snapshotting, cloning, replication, de-duplication and provisioning in their existing storage systems. This unique approach allows customers to fully leverage all the capabilities of their existing datacenter infrastructure rather than deploying and managing an entirely new set of tools and people that apply only to their virtual servers.

Easy setup and administration
Citrix XenServer can be installed and ready to run virtualized workloads in just a few minutes (the ten minutes to Xen experience). It has a unique management architecture that eliminates single points of failure. IT staff can manage hundreds of virtual machines easily with the included XenCenter centralized management console that installs on any Windows desktop with only four megabytes of storage.

XenCenter centralized management
XenCenter delivers scalable setup and administration to XenServer environments, with intuitive controls and easy-to-use wizards for advanced network and storage configuration. Unlike other management consoles, XenCenter distributes management data across servers in a resource pool to ensure there is no single point of management failure.

Upgrade to Citrix Essentials
XenServer can be upgraded in place to take advantage of the advanced virtualization management capabilities of Citrix Essentials. IT organizations can enhance their operations and application delivery dramatically with the addition of capabilities such as:

• Automated lab management
• Advanced storage integration
• Dynamic provisioning services
• Workflow orchestration
• High availability

New XenServer 5.5 Raises the Bar on Free Virtualization

Citrix changed the game in virtualization with a groundbreaking new release of XenServer that made enterprise-class virtualization free of charge to anyone. This move set an entirely new standard for free virtualization by including powerful features like centralized multi-node management, multi-server resource sharing and full live motion.

With the new XenServer 5.5 release, Citrix is raising the bar once again, adding a wide range of new features to the free XenServer product that enable easier virtualization management and broader integration with enterprise systems.

New features include:

Consolidated Backup allows third-party backup vendors to interface directly with XenServer to provide full and incremental, in-guest, file and image backups of virtual machines. The new consolidated backup capabilities in XenServer also provide customers with the ability to execute full GUI-based snapshots directly from the XenCenter central management console.

Enhanced Conversion Tools make it easy to convert virtual machines created in the VMDK format (commonly used by VMware) into the VHD format (commonly used by Citrix XenServer and Microsoft Hyper-V). The new XenConvert tools also make it easy to seamlessly convert between any of the common open virtualization format packages, including OVF (open virtualization format), OVA (open virtual appliance) and XVA (XenServer virtual appliance).

Enhanced Search enables customers to view and manage XenServer environments by a range of criteria including VM name, resource pool, location, server, storage repository, snapshot time, and network name – all from a single location. It also provides the ability to create custom views or folders.

Active Directory Integration makes it easy for customers to use their AD credentials to mange XenServer hosts as well as log and audit user activity.

Expanded Guest Support adds SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11, Debian 5.0 and RedHat/CentOS/Oracle 5.3 to a growing list of supported guests that includes virtually every version of the Windows and Linux operating systems.

Citrix Essentials for Hyper-V

Citrix introduces a new solution called Citrix Essentials for Microsoft Hyper-V, offering advanced virtualization management capabilities for Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V to help customers create highly scalable, manageable and agile virtual infrastructures. The new solution will extend the enterprise management capabilities of Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V and System Center in the areas of storage management, provisioning services and lab automation.

Citrix Essentials for Hyper-V includes:

Automated lab management enables Hyper-V customers to develop, test and deliver applications faster by automating and simplifying the entire virtual machine lifecycle, including movement across virtualization platforms.

Advanced storage integration using Citrix StorageLink technology makes it easy for Hyper-V and Microsoft System Center customers to fully leverage all the native power of their existing array-based storage systems.

Dynamic provisioning services lets customers centrally manage a common set of master images which can be streamed on-demand into Hyper-V virtual machines or physical servers.

Hypervisor interoperability makes it easy for customers to manage virtual machines across heterogeneous Hyper-V and XenServer environments.