XenServer Training

8/6/2019 XenServer Training

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Introducing XenServer



� What is server virtualization?

� What benefits does it have?

� Citrix XenServer in detail

� Taking a look at the feature list

Agenda



Server virtualization enablesmultiple virtual machines to run

on a single physical server.



Almost any oper ating system you want.Q. What can you run as a vir tual machine?

� Windows (XP, Vista, 7, 2000, 2003, 2008«)

� Linux (RHEL, SLES, Debian, Centos, Or acle«)� Many more community supported guests



� CPU, Memor y

� Disks (stor age)

� Networ ks

What does a vir tual machine need?

Pool

Shared Stor age



Non Virtual

zzz

zzz



Virtualization



� Server consolidation

� Failure recover y

� Security and sandboxing

� Resource balancing

� Backup, restore and clone

� Simple management

Benef its of Vir tualization





� Server power consumption

� Server cooling costs

� Space requirements

� Hardware maintenance costs





� High availability

� Snapshot and restore





� Malicious code

� Legacy testing

� Upgr ade preview





� Consolidate in periods of low demand

� Spread out for periods of high demand

� Monitor and adapt to changing requirements





� Rapid deployment of new setups

� Extend existing capabilities

� Simplif y staging to production tr ansition





� Manage wor kloads from a single console

� Organizational tools

� At a glance status reports












Citrix XenServer is a complete server virtualization platform, optimized for both Windows and Linux virtual servers, with all the capabilities required to create andmanage a virtual infr astructure.

� XenServer is, essentially, a control progr am or hypervisor, that runs on the physical or host server

to provide a simulated computer environment.

� XenServer lets you create virtual machines (VMs), take VM disk snapshots, and manage VM wor kloads.

� XenServer runs directly on server hardware without requiring an additional under lying oper atingsystem. This results in a ver y efficient and scalable system.

� XenServer can be managed through XenCenter, a Windows administr ation tool, or via a

command line interf ace (CLI) running on Linux or Windows.

XenServer





� XenSearch: searching, sorting, filtering, and grouping, using folders, tags and custom fields.

� Complete resource pool management.

� High availability configur ation.

� A

ctive Director y integr ation, for user authentication and revocation.� Wor kload Balancing, for pool-wide load balancing recommendations.

� Wor kload Reports, giving performance views over time and across the datacenter.

� Performance metrics display (in XenCenter).

Major XenServer featur es (cont.)



� Citrix XenServer (Fr ee). Citrix XenServer is a free, downloadable virtualization platform thatincludes features like live migr ation, VM disk snapshots, AD integr ation, shared stor age support,centr alized multi-server management plus P2V and V2V conversion tools.

� Citrix XenServer Advanced Edition: This edition includes specific administr ation features withinXenCenter, including High Availability, advanced alerting and performance histor y, and dynamic

memor y control.

� Citrix XenServer Enterprise Edition: This edition adds Role-Based Access Control (RB AC),integr ated Stor ageLink configur ation, Stor ageLink Gateway, live memor y snapshots, automatedWor kload Balancing and remote power management to the set of available features.

� Citrix XenServer Platinum Edition: This edition adds features whose administr ation isperformed outside of XenServer, such as Provisioning Services and the Stor ageLink SiteRecover y, LabManager and StageManager.

XenServer Editions



XenServer Document Guides



Citrix XenServer in detail

Single oper ating system that hasdirect access to the under lyinghardware.

Normal Server

Host OS has access to the hardwareand runs a hypervisor which managesthe VMs.

� E.g. VMWare Server

� Security and performance tr ade off

Type 2 Hypervisor

Hypervisor controls access to thehardware for all guests VMs.

� E.g. XenServer, VMWare ESXi

� µBare metal¶ performance

Type 1 Hypervisor

Hardware Hardware

OS Hypervisor

Hardware

Hypervisor



Citrix XenServer in detail

� Open source Xen / Open source XenServer

� Privileged VM called Domain 0

� Gives commands to the hypervisor

� Coordinates networ king/stor age

� Communicates with external clients

� XenCenter, Wor kload Balancing Server, ActiveDirector y e.t.c



Citrix XenServer compar ed to Vmwar e ESXi

� Established server virtualization company

� Extr a server to manage database (Single POF)

� Binar y tr anslation performance cost

� Mature feature list

� High cost

ESXi

vCenter

ESXi ESXi



Citrix XenServer compar ed to Vmwar e ESXi

� Each server keeps a copy of the database

� Any server elected as master

� Free, pay only for enterprise features

� Free, stateless thin management client

XenServer

XenServer

XenServer

Master



� Gr aphical interf ace

� VM console access

� Component integr ation

� Plugins and SDKs

XenCenter management console



� XML-RPC based

� Libr aries and examples for Java, C#, C, Python, PowerShell

� XenCenter uses C# bindings

� http://community.citrix.com/display/xs/Download+SDKs

� Open source licensing

� Backwards compatible

Softwar e development kit f or XenServer



� 24 hour project using C# XenServer bindings

� Ask the VMs politely to turn off

� Knock them out if they don¶t

� Turn off all slaves first before the master

� Allow the user to set which VMs should wake

SleepyLabs example



Messageboardexample



Hello wor ldexample



What else might you need?



� Safety while you sleep

� Automatically migr ates VMs

� Guar antees protection

� Master f ailover

High availability



� Specif y a memor y r ange for VMs� Squeezes and inf lates memor y

� Overcommit to run more VMs

Dynamic memory control



� Monitors VM resource use

� Recommends VM migr ations� Maximum performance

� Maximum density

� Automatic or manual

Workload balancing



� Integr ates with active director y

� Specif y a role per user

� Roles restrict users feature access

Role based access control



� Snapshot disks and memor y� Revert to any point in tree

� Running VM

Snapshot and r ever t



Summar y



� Save money: power, space, maintenance cost� Simple management: XenCenter � Live migr ation: resource management, maintenance� Easy deployment: templates, cloning� Develop: SDK, open source

Free!

� High availability for VMs during server f ailures� Dynamic memor y control

� Performance alerts with long term reporting

$1k /

XenServer

� Wor kload balancing� Role based access control

� Live memor y snapshots� More...

$2.5k /

XenServer



Citrix Tshirts, come see me afterwards Also free...



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