Posts tagged ‘XenServer’
Citrix Synergy 2010 San Francisco Day 2 Keynote Summary
After we already summarized the first keynote of Citrix Synergy 2010 San Francisco today you get a summary of the second keynote from yesterday. The second keynote was focused on virtualization and the data center. Again we’re focusing on the technical content of the keynote and try to leave out the marketing stuff as much as we can.
Keynote speakers were Mark Templton (Citrix), Michael Dell (Dell) and Frank Gens (IDC).
Frank Gens kicked of the keynote by talking about the five game changers in the enterprise IT: cloud computing, pervasive mobility, social computing, the embedded Internet of things, and the ubiquitous analytics. If you want to know more just watch the recording of the first part of the keynote.
After Frank Gens, Mark Templeton came up on stage and talked about NetScaler and XenServer.
NetScaler
Citrix NetScaler is currently available for the most virtualization platforms (XenServer, ESX) and as hardware appliances as well. Citrix added some new, very powerful hardware appliance called NetScaler MPX 17500, 19500 and 21500. These models support throughput from 20 to 50 Gbps. In a matter of fact all three new models are based on the same hardware and the additional throughput is unlocked by a license key. Citrix calls this “pay-as-you-grow”. The NetScaler MPX family support throughput from 1 Gbps to 50 Gbps and you only have to buy a new hardware appliance if you want so switch from 1 – 3 Gbps to 5 – 15 Gbps or from 5 – 15 Gbps to 20 – 50 Gbps. Of course you could also jump from 1 to 50 Gbps as well. These appliances are already available.
Citrix also announced the PayGrow Burst Pack. You can buy a PayGrow Burst Pack licenses and if you need more throughput then you have currently licensed you just break open your Burst Pack when you need it and then you have more throughput 90 days. The PayGrow Burst Packs will be available in June this year.
The last announcement on NetScaler was the NetScaler VPX for Hyper-V appliance. With this announcement Citrix now supports every major virtualization platform for their NetScaler VPX virtual appliances.
Additionally with the release of NetScaler VPX for Hyper-V there will be a full integration of NetScaler in Microsoft System Center and also the support (through AppExpert templates) to use NetScaler with Microsoft applications like SharePoint and Exchange 2010. The VPX for Hyper-V and the tight Microsoft integration will be available in summer this year.
By the way, did you know that 75% of the internet users passing NetScaler systems every day? No wonder because Google and Amazon, for example, are using NetScaler.
XenServer
In the second keynote XenServer 5.6 was announced and will be available on May 28. XenServer 5.6 is powered by the following new features:
- Better density and scale
- Faster network performance
- Memory optimization (memory over-commitment)
- Host power management
- Role based administration
- Snapshot & revert
- Self service user portal
Also XenServer 5.6 will be available in four versions: free, advanced (1000$), enterprise (2500$) and platinum (5000$). More information on the XenServer release can be found in the official press release.
Mark T. also presented, together with Brad Anderson (Microsoft), the next version of Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) with full XenServer integration. Brad A. demonstrated some really cool features like the VMM design studio where you can manage the roll out for your new servers/applications through drag and drop. This is possible by using stuff like single image management, virtualizing server services with App-V and so on.
After Marks session Michael Dell came up on stage and talked about the future of the desktop and gave a sneak preview of the new Dell “streak” device which will available next month.
If you want to watch all three keynote session just visit citrix.com/tv or access the keynotes directly by using one of the following links:
Synergy Keynote May 2010 Day 2 – The Five Game Changers in Enterprise IT
Synergy Keynote May 2010 Day 2 – Virtualization and the Datacenter
Synergy Keynote May 2010 Day 2 – Dell and Citrix Systems
How to add an additional local disk to your XenServer 5.5 host
After I described how to convert an existing local XenServer storage repository to support thin provisioning I’m now going to show you how you can add an additional local disk to your XenServer host.
Actually that’s pretty straight forward and the first thing you have to do is to add a new physical hard drive in your host. After that you boot up your XenServer again and go to the CLI.
[Side note: Red marked entries have to be changed with your own parameters or can differ from my entries. Also the command you have to enter on the CLI are marked bold.]
On the XenServer CLI you have to list your physical disk with fdisk.
fdisk -l
Disk /dev/sda: 250.0 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 499 4008186 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 500 998 4008217+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda3 999 30401 236179597+ 83 Linux
Disk /dev/sdb: 250.0 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk /dev/sdb doesn't contain a valid partition table
There you can see your new hard drive. In my case it shows up as /dev/sdb. For integrating the hard disk into your XenServer you first have to reveal the UUID of your host. This is done by the following command. More…
How to enable thin provisioning on a local XenServer 5.5 storage repository
Today I rebuild my personal XenServer lab using the new Update 2 release. While doing this it came to my mind if it is possible to fit some more virtual machines on the local drive of my XenServer. And yes it is possible – it’s called thin provisioning. Actually there are two ways for enabling thin provisioning, which I will show you in a second.
But why you should do this? For example if you want to install Windows 7 you need at least 10GB of disk space. So you create a VM with a 10GB HDD. That’s fine if you just want to use Windows 7 without any application. But what if you want to add some applications? Then you’re in trouble. First you have to extend the virtual disk of your VM and then you have to extend your Windows partition inside the VM. While this is really easy using Windows 7, it’s kind of tricky with older versions of Windows like XP or 2003. With thin provisioning enabled you can actually create a very large disk, let’s say 100GB. This disk then only allocates the space which is really needed by the OS inside of the VM. So if you install Windows 7 on this 100GB VM it only allocates 5GB of local disk space on your XenServer host and not the whole 100GB. You see the benefit? Additionally you can now use fast cloning if thin provisioning is enabled. If you clone a VM it doesn’t clone the whole VM instead only a delta virtual disk is created for the VM clone. More…