Citrix Hypervisor

Introduction

Citrix Hypervisor, formerly known as XenServer, is an enterprise-class virtualization platform developed by Citrix Systems. It allows organizations to create and manage virtualized environments for running multiple virtual machines (VMs) on a single physical server, thereby optimizing the use of hardware resources.

Key Features of Citrix Hypervisor

High Performance
Citrix Hypervisor is designed to deliver high performance for virtualized workloads, including server, desktop, and cloud environments. It supports a wide range of guest operating systems, including Windows, Linux, and various Unix distributions. It supports GPU pass-through, allowing virtual machines to directly access GPU resources. It also supports GPU virtualization, enabling multiple VMs to share GPU resources. This is particularly useful for graphics-intensive applications.

Management and Automation
Citrix Hypervisor Management Console (XenCenter) provides a centralized interface for managing multiple Citrix Hypervisor hosts and the virtual machines running on them. It offers tools for creating, configuring, and monitoring VMs, as well as managing storage and networking. Citrix Hypervisor supports features like VM snapshots, live VM migration, and high availability (HA) to ensure business continuity. It also integrates with backup solutions to protect data.

Scalability and Flexibility Citrix Hypervisor allows administrators to group multiple Citrix Hypervisor hosts into resource pools, enabling load balancing and resource optimization across the pool. It supports various storage types, including local storage, shared SAN storage, and NAS. It also provides features like thin provisioning, storage motion (for moving VMs between storage devices), and storage-level snapshots.

Security
Administrators can define roles and permissions to control access to virtual machines and other resources within the environment.It supports UEFI Secure Boot, ensuring that only trusted software is executed during the boot process. It also supports VM disk encryption for protecting data at rest.

Integration with Citrix Ecosystem Citrix Hypervisor is tightly integrated with Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops (formerly XenApp and XenDesktop), making it an ideal platform for delivering virtual desktops and applications.It works seamlessly with Citrix ADC (formerly NetScaler) and other networking solutions to provide secure, optimized connectivity for virtualized environments.

Open Source Foundation Citrix Hypervisor is built on the open-source Xen Project hypervisor, known for its robust and secure architecture. Citrix adds enterprise-grade features, support, and integration on top of the open-source base.

Use Cases

• Server Virtualization: Consolidating physical servers into virtual machines to reduce hardware costs, improve resource utilization, and simplify management.

• Desktop Virtualization: Hosting virtual desktops in a centralized data center, enabling secure and efficient delivery of desktops to end-users.

• Cloud Infrastructure: Building private or hybrid cloud environments with the ability to scale resources up or down as needed.

• Development and Testing: Creating isolated environments for development and testing without the need for additional physical hardware.

Key Benefits

• Cost-Effective : The free version provides a powerful virtualization solution at no cost, with the option to upgrade to a paid version for additional features.

• Integration : Seamlessly integrates with other Citrix products and third-party solutions, making it a versatile choice for organizations already using Citrix technologies.

• Enterprise-Grade: Offers robust features for high availability, disaster recovery, and security, making it suitable for enterprise environments.

Here are the key discovery components available in Citrix Hypervisor environment:

1. Physical Hosts (Servers): Citrix Hypervisor can discover all the physical servers (hosts) running the hypervisor software. These are the physical machines on which virtual machines (VMs) are deployed.

2. Virtual Machines (VMs): Citrix Hypervisor discovers all virtual machines running on each host. It identifies VMs by their names, configurations, operating systems, and resource allocations (CPU, memory, storage, etc.).

3. Networking Resources: Citrix Hypervisor discovers the virtual networks configured on the hypervisor, including virtual switches (vSwitches) and VLANs. These networks enable communication between VMs and with external networks.

4. Storage Resources: Citrix Hypervisor discovers storage repositories where VM disks and other data are stored. These can be local disks, shared storage systems (like SANs), or network-attached storage (NAS).

Supported Target Versions

Hierarchy of Citrix Hypervisor

The application can discover the following Citrix Hypervisor related resources.

• Citrix Hypervisor Pool
  • Citrix Hypervisor Host
    • Citrix Hypervisor Storage Repository
    • Citrix Hypervisor Network Interface
    • Citrix Hypervisor Virtual Machine
      • Citrix Hypervisor Virtual Interface
      • Citrix Hypervisor Virtual Block Device
        • Citrix Hypervisor Virtual Disk

Integration Version History