Back in the Summer, I wrote about a hidden gem included in your XenApp/XenDesktop software license and maintenance contracts. That gem? Your Citrix XenServer entitlement to power your infrastructure; at no additional charge!
With XenServer 7 workload virtualization has never been easier!
Every edition of XenApp and XenDesktop entitles customers to use XenServer. And this XenServer entitlement isn’t to a specific XenServer edition either—all XenServer advanced features can be leveraged:
GPU Virtualization (NVIDIA GRID vGPU & Intel GVT-g) for enhanced graphics- Direct Inspect APIs for secure VM protection against malware, hacking and viruses
- Automated XenTools driver and agent updates via Microsoft Windows Update
- VMware vSphere to XenServer conversion utilities to simplify migrations
- Dynamic Workload Balancing (WLB) for automatic load balancing and reporting
This all sounds pretty good, right? But how do you get started?
The first step is to download the XenServer 7 ISO file from the Citrix.com website. To enable XenServer 7, just point your XenServer host(s) (or resource pools) to your existing XenApp/XenDesktop product licenses on the Citrix License Server – as with other Citrix components. For more operationally-oriented details there is Quick Start Guide and an Administrator’s Guide.
Next, view the short video we’ve put together that walks you through the base installation. The video includes pre-requisites, tips, recommendations on server configuration and background on the various installation options.
With XenServer 7, you will find you have a highly capable, scalable and performant hypervisor to build upon. Amongst the many new features and capabilities, three stand out: our continued leadership and enhancements in GPU Virtualization with NVIDIA GRID and Intel GVT-g; second, our tighter Microsoft integration with automated Windows VM Driver Updates; third, and probably the most significant, Direct Inspect APIs – which coupled with 3rd party security software such as Bitdefender’s Hypervisor Introspection software, provide real-time attack detection and remediation for your XenApp VMs.
On the right, you can see the new host maximums with XenServer 7. The Installation guide also has the maximums for VMs and Pools – both equally impressive in scale and performance.
Remember, if you are a XenApp or XenDesktop customer, XenServer 7 features and support are free! So, if you’re tired of paying the vtax, use your entitlement to XenServer, and enjoy all the features above and more.
