Citrix XenServer 6.1 is a virtualization platform optimized for enterprise, desktop, and cloud workloads. The key highlights include: - Citrix being placed in the leaders quadrant in Gartner's Magic Quadrant report for x86 server virtualization. - 1&1 Internet choosing XenServer for their public cloud offering due to its product maturity, open source code base, flexible pricing, and Citrix support. - New features in 6.1 including updated guest support, Dom-0 vCPU enhancements, performance monitoring improvements, and an automated hardware test kit.

1. XenServer 6.1
November 2012
Christian Ferber
Sr. Systems Engineer Cloud Infrastructure

2. Gartner Magic Quadrant Report
Citrix placed in the leaders quadrant
“The competitive market for
x86 server virtualization
infrastructure has matured,
leading more enterprises to
reconsider their choices,
and, instead, consider
multiple virtualization
infrastructures.”*
*Gartner references extracted from “Magic Quadrant for x86 Server Virtualization Infrastructure” published June 11,
2012
© 2012 Citrix

3. Customer Example: 1&1 Internet
• Leading global Web Hosting provider
ᵒ 5 data centers with 70,000 servers in Europe and USA
ᵒ Over 11 million customers on paid services
ᵒ Manage over 18 million domain names
• Searching for best solution for its public cloud offering,
Dynamic Cloud Server
• XenServer chosen for cloud platform due to:
ᵒ product maturity
ᵒ open source code-base
ᵒ flexible pricing model
ᵒ Citrix worldwide support and services
• Looking at other Citrix offerings
ᵒ Evaluating Citrix CloudPlatform for cloud orchestration layer
© 2012 Citrix

4. XenServer Meets All Virtualization Needs
• High performance, resilient virtualization platform
Enterprise
• Simple deployment and management model
Data Center • Host based licensing to control CAPEX
Desktop • Optimized for high performance desktop workloads
Virtualization • Storage optimizations to control VDI CAPEX
• Platform for IaaS and Cloud Service Providers
Cloud • Powers the NetScaler SDX platform
Infrastructure • Fully supports Software Defined Networking
• Enhanced integrations with Citrix CloudPlatform
© 2012 Citrix

5. XenServer
Optimized Hypervisor for Enterprise, Desktops
and Cloud

6. Workload Balancing
• Automated guest start-up and
management based on defined
policy
• Guests automatically migrate from
one host to another based on
resource usage
• Power-on/off hosts as needed
• Report on utilization of pool
resources – by VM, by host, etc.
© 2012 Citrix

7. Delegated Web Based Administration
• Enables:
ᵒ IT delegation for administrators
ᵒ VM level administration for end users
• Support for multiple pools
• Active Directory enabled
ᵒ Leverages XenServer RBAC
• XenVNC and RDP console access
© 2012 Citrix

8. Integrated Site Recovery
• Supports LVM SRs
• Replication/mirroring setup outside
scope of solution
ᵒ Follow vendor instructions
ᵒ Breaking of replication/mirror also manual
• Works with every iSCSI and FC
array on HCL
• Supports active-active DR
© 2012 Citrix

9. Supporting High Performance Graphics
• Feature name: GPU pass-through
• Enables high-end graphics in VDI
deployments with HDX 3D Pro
• Optimal CAD application support
with XenDesktop
• More powerful than RemoteFX,
virtual GPUs, or other general
purpose graphics solutions
© 2012 Citrix

10. Controlling Shared Storage Costs – IntelliCache
• Caching of XenDesktop 5 images
• Leverages local storage
• Reduce IOPS on shared storage
• Supported since XenServer 5.6 SP2
© 2012 Citrix

11. Distributed Virtual Network Switching
• Virtual Switch VM
ᵒ Open source: www.openvswitch.org
ᵒ Provides a rich layer 2 feature set
ᵒ Cross host internal networks VM
ᵒ Rich traffic monitoring options
• DVS Controller
ᵒ Virtual appliance
ᵒ
VM
Web-based GUI
ᵒ Can manage multiple pools VM
ᵒ Can exist within pool it manages
VM
© 2012 Citrix

12. XenServer 6.1 News

13. Updated Guest support
• Ubuntu 12.04
• CentOS 5.7, 6.0, 6.1, 6.2
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.7, 6.1, 6.2
• Oracle Enterprise Linux 5.7, 6.1, 6.2
• Windows 8 / 2012 experimental
© 2012 Citrix

14. Dom-0 vCPU
• Dom-0 vCPUs can be enhanced as required (up to 8)
• http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX134738
• Change settings
ᵒ Default: /etc/init.d/tune-vcpus start min
ᵒ Maximum: /etc/init.d/tune-vcpus start max
• Indication for overloaded Dom-0
ᵒ XenCenter performance graph for „Control Domain Load“ (to be added manually)
ᵒ If load is permanently higher than number of Dom-0 vCPUs, increasing Dom-0 vCPUs
should be considered
© 2012 Citrix

15. Performance Monitoring Enhancements
• New performance counters through performance monitoring supplemental
• http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX135033
© 2012 Citrix

16. Automated Hardware Test Kit
• Automated Server Hardware Test Kit
• Reduces the time spent running certification tests
• http://www.citrix.com/partner-programs/citrix-ready/test.html
• Available as supplemental pack
• Requires 2 servers, 2 NICs each, VLAN on switch and storage attached
© 2012 Citrix

17. Networking Enhancements

18. Networking Enhancements
• LACP bonding support App 1 VM 1
• Support for up to 4 NICs per bond
• VLAN scalability improvements App 2 Virtual
interface
(VIF)
NIC 1
• Port locking for cloud providers
Stacked
• IPv6 guest support
LACP Bond Switches
App 1
VM traffic
App 2 Virtual NIC 2
VM 2 interface
(VIF)
© 2012 Citrix

19. Active-Active SLB vs. LACP
Active-Active SLB LACP
• Can be used with any switch • All links can be active regardless of
• No requirement for stacking (6.1) traffic type
• Support up to 4 NICs • Source MAC as well as IP/port
based load balancing
• Load balancing only if multiple MAC
addresses are present • Requires 802.3ad standard on
switch
• Requires switch-side configuration
• All links must be connected to 1
switch/stack switches
© 2012 Citrix

20. LACP Bonding – Mode 1
• Default mode
• Load balancing on source or destination IP
or port
• 1 VM can utilize all ports
• Best option when different applications are
used per VM
© 2012 Citrix

21. LACP Bonding – Mode 2
• Option
• Load balancing based on source MAC
• Best option when multiple VMs are used on
one host
• In case low number of VMs is used
(especially if #VIF < #NICs) not all physicall
NICs will be utilized
© 2012 Citrix

22. Network Port locking
• Locking a virtual NIC to a MAC address and
IP combination –> multi tenancy
• Prevents from
ᵒ Claiming an IP or MAC address other than the ones
the XenServer administrator has specified it can use
ᵒ Intercepting, spoofing, or disrupting the traffic
of other VMs
• Support
ᵒ Supported on bridge and OVS
ᵒ Advanced Edition or higher
ᵒ Not to be used with DVS controller
• Configuration
ᵒ xe vif-param-set uuid=<vif-uuid> locking-mode=locked
ᵒ xe vif-param-set uuid=<vif-uuid> ipv4-allowed=<comma separated list of ipv4-addresses>
© 2012 Citrix

23. Storage Enhancements

24. Optimizing Storage – Integrated StorageLink
Virtualization can hinder the linkage
XenServer between servers and storage, turning
Hosts
expensive storage systems into little
more than “dumb disks”
Citrix StorageLink™ technology lets your
XenServer Storage
StorageLink virtual servers fully leverage all the
Hosts NetApp
Dell Equallogic power of existing storage systems
EMC VNX
© 2012 Citrix

25. Live Storage XenMotion
• Extends standard XenMotion
Live • Migrates VM disks from any
Virtual
Machine storage type to any other
storage type
ᵒ Local, DAS, iSCSI, FC
XenServer Hypervisor
• Supports cross pool migration
ᵒ Requires compatible CPUs
VDI(s) • Encrypted Migration model
• Specify management interface
XenServer Pool
for optimal performance
© 2012 Citrix

26. XenServer Conversion
Manager

27. XenServer Conversion Manager
• Convert VMware virtual machines to
XenServer (vSphere 4.0 & 4.1)
• Convert multiple virtual machines in one
simple wizard
• Map network settings between VMware and
XenServer so your converted virtual machines
will come up with the proper network settings
• Choose the storage location where you would
like your new XenServer virtual machines to
run
© 2012 Citrix

28. XenServer Conversion Manager
VMware XenServer
VDI
VPX xapi
XCM Console VDI
XML RPC
© 2012 Citrix

29. XenServer Pricing and
Packaging

30. XenServer 6.1 – Product Edition Feature Matrix
Feature Free Advanced Enterprise Platinum
64-bit Xen Hypervisor a a a a
Active Directory Integration a a a a
VM Conversion Utilities a a a a
Live VM Migration with XenMotion™ a a a a
Multi-Server Management with XenCenter a a a a
Management Integration with Systems Center VMM a a a a
Automated VM Protection and Recovery a a a
Live Storage Migration with Storage XenMotion™ a a a
Distributed Virtual Switching a a a
Dynamic Memory Control a a a
High Availability a a a
Performance Reporting and Alerting a a a
Mixed Resource Pools with CPU Masking a a a
Dynamic Workload Balancing and Power Management a a
GPU Pass-Through for Desktop Graphics Processing a a
IntelliCache™ for XenDesktop Storage Optimization a a
Live Memory Snapshot and Revert a a
Provisioning Services for Virtual Servers a a
Role-Based Administration and Audit Trail a a
StorageLink™ Advanced Storage Management a a
Monitoring Pack for Systems Center Ops Manager a a
Web Management Console with Delegated Admin a a
Provisioning Services for Physical Servers a
Site Recovery a
© 2012 Citrix
Price Free $1000/server $2500/server $5000/server

31. Support Options
XenServer Support Options Premier Support
Cost 7% of license cost (SRP)
Product Coverage XenServer Advanced, Enterprise and Platinum
Coverage Hours 24x7x365
Incidents Unlimited
Named Contacts Unlimited
Type of Access Phone/Web/Email
Add-on Service Options
Software or Hardware TRM 200 hours/Unlimited incidents/1region $40,000
Additional TRM hours 100 hours $20,000
Fully Dedicated TRM 1600 hours/Unlimited incidents/1 region $325,000
On-site Days On-site technical support service $2,000 per day
Assigned Escalation 200 hours/1 region (must have TRM) $16,000
Fully Dedicated Assigned Escalation 1600 hours $480,000
© 2012 Citrix

32. Work better. Live better.