Citrix Xen Server Virtualisation

Introducing Xen

Xen is a unique open source technology invented by a team led by Ian Pratt at Cambridge University (who subsequently founded XenSource) and developed cooperatively by the world’s best engineers at over 20 of the most innovative data centre solution vendors.

With Xen virtualisation, a thin software layer (known as the Xen hypervisor) is installed directly on the hardware, or “bare metal,” and is thereby inserted between the server’s hardware and the operating system. This provides an abstraction layer that allows each physical server to run one or more “virtual
servers,” effectively decoupling the operating system and its applications from the underlying physical server. Xen’s paravirtualisation technology is widely acknowledged as the fastest and most secure virtualisation software in the industry, and is enhanced by taking full advantage of the latest Intel VT and AMD-V hardware virtualisation assist capabilities. Xen is exceptionally lean, less than 50,000 lines of code – which translates to extremely low overhead and near-native performance for guests.

Introducing Citrix XenServer v4

The inventors and lead developers of Xen, with the rest of the Citrix XenServer product team, take this powerful virtualisation engine and build out a full managed virtualisation platform around it, designed for efficient management of Windows and Linux virtual machines.

Citrix XenServer v4 is a native 64-bit virtualisation platform, designed to assure the scalability required by business-critical applications. A combination of the highest host and guest CPU and memory limits available, coupled with finegrained resource controls for CPU, network and disk, enable Citrix XenServer v4to deliver optimal quality of service and performance.

Through using our Citrix XenServer v4 virtualisation solutions, businesses can increase server and storage utilisation whilst reducing costs of equipment, power, cooling, and real estate. By combining servers and storage into resource pools which can be apportioned to the applications with the highest business need, IT operations can be aligned to changing demand and business priorities. With XenMotion, running virtual machines can be migrated to new servers with no service interruption, allowing essential workloads to get needed resources and enable zero-downtime maintenance.

Citrix XenServer v4 products run directly on our servers, requiring no dedicated host operating system. Open command-line (CLI) and programming (API) interfaces make it easy for users to integrate XenServer virtualisation with existing processes and management tools, rather than requiring rip-and-replace reimplementation

Citrix XenServer uses a unique architecture to take advantage of the wide range
of devices supported by Linux drivers while delivering high-performance I/O.

Performance & Scalability

Leading virtual machine performance-Through implementing the ultra thin Xen Hypervisor layer, virtual machine client operating systems benefit from the full processing power available from the physical hardware.
Built to scale
Citrix XenServer is built from the ground up with 64-bit support and enterpriseclass CPU and memory limits for virtualization. It can handle up to 32 processors and up to 128 GB of RAM and, with the resource pooling features of the enterprise editions, Xen is easily scaled to meet the demands of the most demanding installations.
32GB RAM for virtual machines
Citrix XenServer allows for up to 32GB of memory to be assigned to each virtual machine making Xen the ideal choice for installations which have high memory demands. Flexible shared infrastructure

Flexible shared infrastructure

Pooled server and storage resources (Enterprise Edition only)-Citrix XenServer resource pools allow IT organisations to view multiple servers and their connected deployment of virtual machines based on their resource needs and business priorities.
Live migration via XenMotion (Enterprise Edition only)-Virtual machines can be moved from server to server within a Citrix XenServer resource pool without service interruption, making zero-downtime server maintenance possible, and enabling administrators to move resource-hungry running applications to take advantage of available compute power.
Pool-based configuration (Enterprise Edition only)-Common settings for many components, such as physical and virtual NICs and virtual switches, can be set on a poolwide basis, and are applied automatically to all servers in the
pool, simplifying reconfiguration.

On Demand Deployment of VMs

Templates-Virtual machines can be converted into templates and used for rapid provisioning of multiple like systems on a server (or, with Enterprise Edition,within repositories), or other storage systems supporting advanced capabilities via the storage management API, thin provisioning can make new cloned guests available in seconds.
Import/export-Virtual machines can be backed up, copied or transported into XenServer export
format using any management interface (XenCenter, “xe” CLI, or XenAPI), copied or transported to remote locations, archived, used as a basis for disaster recovery sites, and restored via import. In addition, the import operation can be used with a format that is supported by many virtual appliance vendors and tools.
Virtual Machine Migration Tool-Citrix makes available to XenServer users an evolving tool that can be used to convert many VMware and Microsoft virtual machines to XenServer format.

XenCenter Management

Easy to use-XenCenter provides a single point of management for all Citrix XenServer editions.
Whether systems are managed one at a time (Express Edition), as pools of servers and storage (Enterprise Edition), the same tool can be used, protecting training investment.
Full VM lifecycle management-With XenCenter administrators can create, start, stop, reboot,
suspend, resume, migrate, and uninstall virtual machines in addition to being able to reboot and shut down physical servers securely from any location.
Performance monitoring-Administrators can access real-time and trended performance
information of virtual machine and server performance metrics
for CPU, memory, disk and network utilization.

XenCenter allows administrators to manage server pools, VMs, networking,
storage and many other settings from a single, intuitive management package

XenServer Virtualisation Solutions - Entry Level

FENWAYVX10804T3
	FW-IVX10804T3	FW-AVX10804T3
CPU included	Intel Xeon Quad Core (45nm)	AMD Opteron Quad Core
Chipset	Intel 5000P	nVidia MCP55 Pro
Bus Type/Speed	Intel FSB 1333MHz	AMD Hypertransport 1000MHz
Memory	4GB Standard	4GB Standard
RAID	Hardware RAID (RAID 0, 1, 5)	Hardware RAID (RAID 0, 1, 5)
HDDs	2 x 500GB SATA (RAID 1)	2 x 500GB SATA (RAID 1)
Network	2 x Gigabit Ethernet (Copper)	2 x Gigabit Ethernet (Copper)
IPMI	IPMI with Console Redirection	IPMI with Console Redirection
PSU	Dual Redundant 650W (Hot Swap)	Dual Redundant 650W (Hot Swap)
Xen Software	Citrix® XenServer™ Express	Citrix® XenServer™ Express

Software Options
	FW-IVX10804T3	FW-AVX10804T3
XenServer Express	Supplied FOC	Supplied FOC
XenServer Standard	Available	Available
XenServer Enterprise	Available	Available

Hardware Uprade Options
	FW-IVX10804T3	FW-AVX10804T3
Additional Xeon CPU	Available (2 CPUs Max)	-
Additional Opteron CPU	-	Available (2 CPUs Max)
Additional 500GB HDD	Available (4 HDDs Max)	Available (4 HDDs Max)
Additional 4GB RAM	Available (32GB Max)	Available (32GB Max)
IPMI Module with KVM	Available	Available
BBU for RAID Controller	Available	Available

XenServer Virtualisation Solutions - Mainstream

FENWAYVX20808T3
	FW-IVX20808T3	FW-AVX20808T3
CPU included	Dual Intel Xeon Quad Core (45nm)	Dual AMD Opteron Quad Core
Chipset	Intel 5400	nVidia MCP55 Pro
Bus Type/Speed	Intel FSB 1600MHz	AMD Hypertransport 1000MHz
Memory	16GB Standard	16GB Standard
RAID	Hardware RAID (RAID 0, 1, 5, 10)	Hardware RAID (RAID 0, 1, 5, 10)
HDDs	4 x 500GB SATA (RAID 5 or 10)	x 500GB SATA (RAID 5 or 10)
Network	2 x Gigabit Ethernet (Copper)	2 x Gigabit Ethernet (Copper)
IPMI	IPMI with Graphical Redirection	IPMI with Graphical Redirection
PSU	Dual Redundant 700W (Hot Swap)	Dual Redundant 700W (Hot Swap)
Xen Software	Citrix® XenServer™ Standard	Citrix® XenServer™ Standard

Software Options
	FW-IVX20808T3	FW-AVX20808T3
XenServer Express	N/A	N/A
XenServer Standard	Supplied as Standard	Supplied as Standard
XenServer Enterprise	Available	Available

Hardware Upgrade Options
	FW-IVX20808T3	FW-AVX20808T3
Additional Xeon CPU	-	-
Additional Opteron CPU	-	-
Additional 500GB HDD	Available (8 HDDs Max)	Available (8 HDDs Max)
Additional RAM	Available (8 HDDs Max)	Available (8 HDDs Max)
IPMI Module with KVM	Provided as Standard	Provided as Standard
BBU for RAID Controller	Provided as Standard	Provided as Standard

XenServer Virtualisation Solutions - Enterprise Level

FENWAYIVX416053
	FW-IVX416053
CPU Included	Quad Intel Xeon Quad Core
Chipset	Intel 7300
Bus Type/Speed	Intel FSB 1066MHz FSB
Memory	32GB Standard
RAID	Hardware RAID (RAID 0, 1, 5, 10)
HDDs	4 x 300GB SAS Disks (RAID 5/10)
Network	4 x Gigabit Ethernet (Copper)
IPMI	IPMI with Graphical Redirection
PSU	Dual Redundant 1200W
Xen Software	Citrix® XenServer™ Standard

Software Options
	FW-IVX20808T3
XenServer Express	N/A
XenServer Standard	Supplied as Standard
XenServer Enterprise	Available

Hardware Upgrade Options
FW-IVX416053
Additional Xeon CPU	-
Additional Opteron CPU	-
Additional 300GB HDD	Available (5 or 10 HDDs Max)
Additional RAM	Available (128GB Max)
IPMI Module with KVM	Provided as Standard
BBU for RAID Controller	Provided as Standard
Additional 5 HDD Bays	Available

FENWAYIVX416053
	FW-IVX416053
CPU Included	Quad AMD Opteron Quad Core
Chipset	nVidia MCP55 Pro
Bus Type/Speed	AMD Hypertransport 1000MHz
Memory	32GB Standard
RAID	Hardware RAID (RAID 0, 1, 5, 10)
HDDs	4 x 300GB SAS Disks (RAID 5/10)
Network	4 x Gigabit Ethernet (Copper)
IPMI	IPMI with Graphical Redirection
PSU	Dual Redundant 1200W
Xen Software	Citrix® XenServer™ Standard

Software Options
	FW-IVX20808T3
XenServer Express	N/A
XenServer Standard	Supplied as Standard
XenServer Enterprise	Available

Hardware Upgrade Options
FW-IVX416053
Additional Xeon CPU	-
Additional Opteron CPU	-
Additional 300GB HDD	Available (5 or 10 HDDs Max)
Additional RAM	Available (128GB Max)
IPMI Module with KVM	Provided as Standard
BBU for RAID Controller	Provided as Standard
Additional 5 HDD Bays	Available

More information

For additional information please contact one of our experienced sales or technical staff who will be more than happy to discuss the options with you.