After three years since the formation of the 7.x branch, Citrix platform release () , designed to manage the infrastructure of virtualization servers based on the Xen hypervisor. XenServer allows you to quickly deploy a server and workstation virtualization system, offering tools for centralized management of an unlimited number of servers and virtual machines.
Prior to the release of 7.4, XenServer was distributed as an open source project, but then the publication of new code was limited and the project was transformed into a proprietary Citrix Hypervisor product with the delivery of a free version of Express Edition, in terms of functionality and accessibility after registration. For example, the Express Edition cluster size is limited to 3 nodes, and does not include tools for failover, Active Directory integration, role-based access control (RBAC), dynamic memory management (DMC, D), hot patching, automatic updates , live storage migrations, forwarding and GPU virtualization.
At the same time, a number of XenServer components individually continue to be developed with . In response to the changing nature of the product, the community founded the project , within which a free replacement for XenServer that brings back features that were excluded from the free version of XenServer.
Among the features of XenServer: the ability to combine multiple servers into a pool (cluster), high availability tools (High Availability), support for snapshots, sharing shared resources using XenMotion technology. Supports live migration of virtual machines between cluster hosts and between different clusters/individual hosts (without shared storage), as well as live migration of VM disks between storages. The platform can work with a large number of information storage systems and is distinguished by the presence of a simple and intuitive interface for installation and administration. You can use XenCenter (DotNet), the command line, or OpenXenManager (Python) to manage the system.
All Xen Server 8:
- Install images updated to CentOS 7.5 package base. Linux 4.19 kernel and hypervisor involved ;
- memory allocation algorithm for the control domain (Dom0): by default, 1 GB + 5% of the available RAM is now allocated, but no more than 8 GB;
- Added templates for use on the guest side of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15, SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15, CentOS 7.6, Oracle Linux 7.6, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.6, Scientific Linux 7.6, CentOS 6.10, Oracle Linux 6.10, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.10 distributions , Scientific Linux 6.10 and Windows Server 2019;
- Removed support for guest templates: Debian 6 Squeeze,
Ubuntu 12.04, Asianux Server 4.2, 4.4, 4.5, NeoKylin Linux Security OS 5, Linx Linux 6, Linx Linux 8, GreatTurbo Enterprise Server 12, Yinhe Kylin 4 and older versions of Windows; - Updated drivers and extended supported hardware. Including added support for Xeon 82xx, 62xx, 52xx, 42xx, 32xx CascadeLake-SP processors;
- experimental support for booting guests in UEFI mode;
- The Premium Edition adds the ability to create virtual disk images (VDI) larger than 2TB and supports disk and RAM snapshots for virtual machines with vGPU.
Source: opennet.ru