What is Citrix XenServer?

What is Citrix XenServer anyways? XenServer is one among the recently developed vitalization platforms available in the market. You might again ask what exactly is vitalization. Virtualization of a system applies to the method of virtually splitting a physical system into multiple independent computers, which can be used as if they were two or more different computers. This concept is used in the hosting companies which virtualize almost all of their servers in order to get a seamless hardware independent environment upon which the customer’s data is hosted. The clients who request a private or dedicated kind of service get a virtual system allotted for them, which they can use or alter any time they want. The best thing about this kind of virtualization is the fact that the users are given a chance to install third party and custom software upon the system that they are given. With the help of multiple virtual servers one can have two websites running, one being the live one and other one with which the user can play around and watch the results. Every other virtual system can be allotted a specific amount of disk space and bandwidth usage and hence making sure that the usage of adjacent client does not interfere with the usage of data of someone else.

Citrix XenServer is basically new to the arena of Virtualization. We say this mainly because virtualization is not a new or cutting edge topic. Microsoft came out with its virtualizaiton platform in the year 2004 itself. Microsoft’s Virtual Private Server is one among the recognized platforms used everywhere. XenServer is the platform developed by Citrix Technologies, the same company which has developed famous products like GoToMyPC. XenServer is most importantly clouding proven. Now that is what makes it stand aside from any of the virtualization platforms available in the market. Cloud technology is the one which is still under research and Google has been developing the same since ages. For the same reason if XenServer is capable of supporting Cloud computing, there is no doubt that it is going to be the technology of tomorrow. Whats more to brag about Citrix XenServer is that its basic edition is absolutely free. And talking about the enterprise edition, the package seems to be way cheaper than its competitor VMSphere.

There are lot of benefits of using the XenServer compared any other alternative. XenServer offers the best virtualization value, as far as it proposes. This seems trustful with its low price tag of the enterprise edition. The budget that remains could be invested upon another aspect of hosting. XenServer has 64 bits bare metal hyperviser which can’t be seen in any other virtualization platforms. Once it installed you can configure unlimited number of virtual machines and servers, and reportedly you can also have an unlimited amount of memory. Another great feature delivered by the XenServer is Enterprise class features, one among them is the centralized multi server management. Many of the virtualization platforms available today offer the solutions to make multiple servers but very few offer the right and efficient tools to, in fact, handle and manage them. But XenServer goes a step ahead by providing a centralized management center from where you can manage every other virtual server that you might have created. Many virtualized servers face the problem of downtime, and the customers are the one who get affected worst by it. XenMotion is the technology built into XenServer which makes sure that the system is always up and running with optimized resource utilization. XenServer has been awarded by the best innovation in virtualization in the year 2008. Keeping that apart, what really gets you is the time that it takes to get installed and configured. It requires only 10 minutes to install the entire XenServer platform. The console of XenServer occupies only 4 mb.

Now let’s talk about what’s new in the 5.5 release. They talk about the expanded storage integration. It uses the StorageLink technology originally developed by Citrix only, which basically makes sure that Hyper-V and XenServer are made to work together for every infrastructure offered by the third parties. In fact, combination of XenServer along with the Hyper-V has been certified by almost 20 leading vendors in the storage devices. 5.5 release also offers Automated Stage Management. This technology makes it a piece of pie to install or build new technology and test it. It makes sure that every life cycle of the production cycle is given good care. The final and most important feature introduced is the Dynamic workload balancing. Now you don’t have to worry if your systems are simply wasting the bandwidth when there is no need to. The system will take care of the factors.

All in all, XenServers should definitely be given a chance and a try. Especially when it is being given for free. You don’t loose a penny!