Citrix XenServer Users

[Ric_]

So do we have any?

I have a little problem and can't be bothered going into detail unless somebody might have a clue.

[Geoff]

Hi. :P

[Netman]

Hello! Xenserver Express here....

[Ric_]

And has anyone upgraded to 5.0 yet?

[Geoff]

Nope. Not here. No need to afaik.

[Netman]

Not here either - 4.1.0 still...

[ghannahuk]

Hi,

I work for Precedence Technologies, a Citrix Silver Partner, and we ar elooking to offer a package for XenServer to address the need for zero downtime as a disaster recover solution.

I am very interested to hear of your stories and the benefits that XenServer has brough to your school. Have you had a major hardware issue that XenServer made easier to address? Do you have SANs for your virtual images? If not, what do you use?

Is your SLT aware of the solution is place and appreciates what it can do?

We are working directly with Citrix in positioning the Citrix portfolio to be more applicable to schools and I will be very grateful for your feedback.

George

[dhicks]

we are looking to offer a package for XenServer to address the need for zero downtime as a disaster recover solution.

Okay, so what advantages does the paid-for XenServer offer over the open source version?

Do you have SANs for your virtual images?

No.

If not, what do you use?

DRBD. See this other thread:

More virtualisation questions :)

--
David Hicks

[ghannahuk]

Hi David,

<quote> Okay, so what advantages does the paid-for XenServer offer over the open source version? </quote>

For the different editions, click on the following link:
Citrix Systems XenServer Editions

Basically, the key differences from the Express to the chargeable licenses are:

Multiple Server Support
VLAN Support
XenMotion (live migrations)
Unlimited CPUs (handy for support on Quad processors)

<quote> If not, what do you use? DRBD. See this other thread </quote>

Many thanks for that, I will certainly go through this.

Have you had any episodes where XenServer saved your network from being down for more than an hour? Or, are you using XenServer to save on server hardware (or both)?

George

[dhicks]

Multiple Server Support

In what way? We have multiple Xen-based servers on our network. We don't have a decent management solution at the moment (just my own Python script), but Enomalism defiantly looks worth a look.

VLAN Support

Okay, in what way would I use VLANs with Xen?

XenMotion (live migrations)

I can already do this with the open source version of Xen that we use. Is the paid-for version better in some way?

Unlimited CPUs (handy for support on Quad processors)

Curses - is the open source version of Xen limited to just two cores, then?

--
David Hicks

[armadillo]

Hi guys,
we just started asking for quotes to replace the servers, switches, PCs with thin clients and some newer desktops. we were quoted £23K to have Citrix on the network which will have 4 HP servers and a blade system with VMWare. The question is why does Citrix cost so much and is it really needed/worth the money on a school network with 4 servers, SAN a blade server?

Your replies are appreciated and thank you in advance.

[sammy]

Hi Ric,

we are a Citrix Gold Partner, drop me a message and i will get one of my technical guys to answer it for you.

[K.C.Leblanc]

Can someone give me rough idea of licensing cost for Xen Server.

[powdarrmonkey]

Curses - is the open source version of Xen limited to just two cores, then?

Yes. Each guest has limits and you can only have two guests running at a time IIRC. We have five licenses because of this limitation.

[CyberNerd]

Originally Posted by dhicks View Post
Curses - is the open source version of Xen limited to just two cores, then?

Yes. Each guest has limits and you can only have two guests running at a time IIRC. We have five licenses because of this limitation.

I think Citrix have muddied the waters here.
Xen is being sold by Redhat as an enterprise virtualisation solution, it is also available free from other distros
Citrix also have a free version of xen called express which they have crippled to try and get us to pay for the 'full' version.

.