Citrix XenServerTechnical OverviewCitrix XenServerTechnical Overview

Marc Trouard-RiolleSystems Engineer, XenServer EMEAMarc Trouard-RiolleSystems Engineer, XenServer EMEA

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• Leverages x64 Intel VT or AMD-V processors• Supports broad range of servers• Even runs on desktops and notebooks

• Quick product installer• CD- and network-based install• Quite literally “10 minutes to Xen”

• Broad hardware support• Uses industry-standard Linux drivers

Simple Deployment and Installation

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Extensive Storage Support

• Supports broad range storage• IDE

• SATA

• SCSI

• SAS

• DAS

• Fibre Channel

• iSCSI

• NFS

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Networking Capabilities

• Physical networking• Uses standard Linux network drivers

• Packets move between guests and drivers quickly

• Virtual networking• XenServer acts as “virtual” L2 switch

• Supports multiple virtual network interfaces per guest

• Support both internal and external networks

• VLAN and QoS

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XenCenter Console

• Single point of administration

• Manage VMs from anywhere

• Multiple servers• Included with

XenServer (no charge)

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Server Provisioning

Store the virtual workload image on network storageStore

Store

Store the virtual imageon network storage

Stream the workload image on-demand to virtual and bare-metal serversStream

Stream

Stream the virtual imageto servers

A

Create a virtual image of a server’s workload: operating system, application engine and applicationVirtualize

Virtualize

Virtualize server workload image

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Silo One

Silo Two

Silo Three

Servers are configured for network boot. Disks optionally removed.

Networkstorage

A

C

B

Provisioning Server(streaming service)

How Provisioning Changes the Model

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Silo One

Silo Two

Silo Three

Servers are rebooted. OS and workloads are streamed from a service on the network.

Networkstorage

A

C

B

How Provisioning Changes the Model

Provisioning Server(streaming service)

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With provisioning only a small number of images are required

Provisioning Server (streaming service)

Network Storage

Provision Physical and Virtual Servers

OS and workloads are streamed from network storage

Xen Hypervisor

B

A

Virtualized ServerVirtualized Server

Physical ServerPhysical Server

Xen HypervisorXen Hypervisor

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Where does come from?

• Xen community led by Citrix

• Fastest time to market for new hardware and new features

• Major active contributors: IBM, Intel, HP, AMD, RedHat, and Novell

Citrix/XenSource

IBM

Intel

# of check-ins

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What’s so great about

• It’s robust• Native 64-bit hypervisor

• Runs on bare metal

• Best performing virtualization

• It’s widely-deployed• Tens of thousands of organizations have deployed Xen

• It’s advanced• Optimized for hardware-assisted virtualization and paravirtualization

• It’s trusted• Open, resilient Xen security framework

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Understanding vs. XenServer

• XenServer incorporates open source Xen hypervisor

• Enhancements by Citrix go back into the community

• Xen and XenServer are constantly evolving

XenServer ArchitectureXenServer Architecture

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Legacy Virtualization Architectures

UserAppsUserApps

UserAppsUserApps

HardwareHardware

HALT SAFE HALT

Legacy Hypervisor

Slow, expensive software emulation layer

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UserAppsUserApps

HardwareHardware

XenServer

Paravirtualized guests makes high-speed calls

directly to the hypervisor

Paravirtualization

• Relies on “enlightened” operating systems

• Kernel and I/O paths know they are being virtualized

• Cooperation provides best performance

UserAppsUserApps

HALTHYPERCALL

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Hardware-Assisted Virtualization

UserAppsUserApps

UserAppsUserApps

HardwareHardware

HALTHYPERCALL

HALT

XenServer

VT/AMD-V

Other guests benefit from hardware-accelerated call

translation

• Hardware-assist allows high performance without emulation

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Understanding the Hardware Component

Hardware layer contains the physical server components, including memory, CPU and storage

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Understanding the Hypervisor Component

Xen hypervisor is a thin layer of software that runs right on top of the hardware

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Understanding the Domain 0 Component

Domain 0 is a Linux VM that manages the network and storage I/O of all guest VMs

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Understanding Architectural Components

The Xen hypervisor and Domain 0 manage physical server resources among virtual machines

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Understanding the Linux VM Component

Linux VMs include paravirtualized kernels and drivers

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Understanding the Windows VM Component

Windows VMs use paravirtualized drivers to access storage and network resources through Domain 0

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Next Steps

• Download XenServer Express Edition for free

• Download XenServer Enterprise Edition 30-day Trial

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