Xen Cloud PlatformBuild a Cloud Day – May 2013

What is XCP?

XCP = Xen Cloud Platform

Open Source Citrix’s XenServer Announced in 2009 Built from XenServer until XCP 1.5 XenServer 6.1 built from XCP 1.6

Datacenter and cloud-ready API

Complete virtualization stack Automation Resource pooling Event management

Impact of XenServer

• Free XenServer Impact• 1,000,000+ downloads

• 500,000+ servers activated

• 150,000+ unique organizations

• > 50% of Fortune 500 run XenServer

“Look closely at Citrix as an alternative to VMware. [Citrix] offers many of the same features as VMware with more flexibility and a lower price.”

- Info-Tech Research Group, 2011

Magic Quadrant “Leader" – noted for features and price/performance- Gartner, 2011

Leveraging Multiple Hypervisors

Source: Info-Tech Research Group; N = 71

1%3% 7%

31%58%

How many server virtualizationvendors are you using?

5 4 3 2 1

41%

32%

9%

9%

5% 5%

What pair of vendorsare you using?

VMware/CitrixVMware/MicrosoftVMware/OracleMicrosoft/OracleOracle/Red HatMicrosoft/Red Hat

71%

20%

7%

2%What vendor are you using?

VMware

Microsoft

Citrix

Red Hat

• Many organizations leverage a combination of VMware, for advanced management of critical workloads and apps, and Citrix or Microsoft for cost savings in non-critical systems.

• Microsoft can also bring high performance for Microsoft apps like Exchange or SharePoint.

• Citrix XenServer is often utilized to support Citrix’s XenDesktop.

The Benefits

• When possible, ensure one of your solutions can manage the other for day-to-day management tasks like live migration & P2V.

• Microsoft & Citrix can manage VMware and each other.

• VMware is beginning to offer management of Microsoft VMs.

The Challenges

A more open Xen a stronger XenServer

• Xen is a Linux Foundation Collaborative Projectᵒ http://xenproject.org

• Supported by industry pillarsᵒ Amazon, Cisco, Google, Intel

• Why the Linux Foundation?ᵒ Provide a trusted and neutral governance model

• What about XenServer?ᵒ XenServer will see accelerated growthᵒ XenServer continues to power XenDesktop, CloudPlatform and NetScaler

What’s so Great About Xen?

• It’s robustᵒ Native 64-bit hypervisorᵒ Runs on bare metalᵒ Directly leverages CPU hardware for virtualization

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

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

• It’s trustedᵒ Open, resilient Xen security framework

• It’s part of mainline Linux

Understanding Architectural Components

The Xen hypervisor and control domain (dom0) manage physical server resources among virtual machines

Understanding the Domain 0 Component

Domain 0 is a compact specialized Linux VM that manages the network and storage I/O of all guest VMs … and isn’t the XenServer hypervisor

Understanding the Linux VM Component

Linux VMs include paravirtualized kernels and drivers, and Xen is part of Mainline Linux 3.0

Understanding the Windows VM Component

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

Core Management

XenCenter – Simple XCP Management

• Single pane of management glass

• Manage XenServer hostsᵒ Start/Stop VMs

• Manage XenServer resource poolsᵒ Shared storage

ᵒ Shared networking

• Configure advanced featuresᵒ HA, WLB, Reporting, Alerting

• Configure updates

Management Architecture Comparison

“The Other Guys”

Traditional ManagementArchitecture

Single backend management server

Xen Cloud Platform

DistributedManagement Architecture

Clustered management layer

Cloud Centric Features

XenMotion Live VM Migration

XenServerXenServerXenServer

Shared Storage

XenServer Pool

• Migrates VM disks from any storage type to any other storage typeᵒ Local, DAS, iSCSI, FC

• Supports cross pool migrationᵒ Requires compatible CPUs

• Encrypted Migration model

• Specify management interface for optimal performance

Live Storage XenMotion

XenServer Hypervisor

VDI(s)

Live Virtual

Machine

Heterogeneous Resource Pools

Safe Live Migrations

Feature 5

Virtual Machine

Older CPU

Feature 1

Feature 2

Feature 3

Feature 4

XenServer 1

Newer CPU

Feature 1

Feature 2

Feature 3

Feature 4

XenServer 2

Mixed Processor Pools

Memory Overcommit

• Feature name: Dynamic Memory Control

• Ability to over-commit RAM resources

• VMs operate in a compressed or balanced mode within set range

• Allow memory settings to be adjusted while VM is running

• Can increase number of VMs per host

High Availability

• Automatically monitors hosts and VMs

• Easily configured within XenCenter

• Relies on Shared Storageᵒ iSCSI, NFS, HBA

• Reports failure capacity for DR planning purposes

Cost Effective VM Densities

• Supporting VMs with up to:ᵒ 16 vCPU per VMᵒ 128GB Memory per VM

• Supporting hosts with up to:ᵒ 1TB Physical RAMᵒ 160 logical processors

• Yielding up to 150 Desktop images per host

• Cisco Validated Design for XenServer on UCS

Distributed Virtual Network Switching

• Virtual Switchᵒ Open source: www.openvswitch.orgᵒ Provides a rich layer 2 feature setᵒ Cross host internal networksᵒ Rich traffic monitoring optionsᵒ ovs 1.4 compliant

• DVS Controllerᵒ Virtual applianceᵒ Web-based GUIᵒ Can manage multiple poolsᵒ Can exist within pool it manages

VM

VM

VM

VM

VM

Switch Policies and Live Migration

VM

VM

VM

VM

Linux VM1• Allow all traffic

Linux VM2• Allow SSH on eth0• Allow HTTP on eth1

Windows VM• Allow RDP and deny HTTP

Linux VM1• Allow all traffic

Linux VM2• Allow SSH on eth0• Allow HTTP on eth1

Windows VM• Allow RDP and deny HTTP

SAP VM• Allow only SAP traffic• RSPAN to VLAN 26

Windows VM• Allow all traffic

Linux VM• Allow SSH on eth0• Allow HTTP on eth1

Windows VM• Allow all traffic

SAP VM• Allow only SAP traffic• RSPAN to VLAN 26

Linux VM• Allow SSH on eth0• Allow HTTP on eth1

VM

NetScaler SDX – Powered by XenServer

• Complete tenant isolation

• Complete independence

• Partitions within instances

• Optimized network: 50+ Gbps

• Runs default XenServer 6

vSphere 5.1 and XCP 1.6 Quick Comparison

Feature XCP vSphere EditionHypervisor high availability Yes StandardNetFlow Yes Enterprise PlusCentralized network management Yes Enterprise PlusDistributed virtual network switching Yes Enterprise Plus with Cisco Nexus 1000vStorage live migration Yes StandardSerial port aggregation Not Available StandardOptimized for desktop workloads Yes Desktop Edition is repackaged

Enterprise Plus

Licensing Free Processor based

Getting involved with XCP

• Download it and use it

• http://lists.xen.org/xen-api

• https://github.com/xen-org

• https://launchpad.net/xcp

Work better. Live better.