We are proud to announce the next release of XenServer 7.1, a significant step in the product’s evolution, and which will be made generally available later in Q1.
This latest XenServer release introduces new industry-unique features, and with tighter Citrix XenApp/XenDesktop alignment, it sets itself apart from every other hypervisor platform. From simpler deployment options to the easiest and most flexible hypervisor management and support capabilities, XenServer 7.1 represents the best hypervisor choice for XenApp and XenDesktop deployments.
Maximum 10-year support: Only with XenServer
For the first time, XenServer is a long-term service release (LTSR), and is the only hypervisor to offer the option of a full 10 years of support, with its product lifecycle dates fully aligned with XenApp/XenDeskop. A full Citrix stack simplifies customer infrastructure maintenance with a single end-of-maintenance, end-of-life date.
The release of XenServer 7.1 with Long Term Support clearly shows the industry that XenServer is a strategic technology for Citrix foundation for innovation that spans the Citrix stack, such as the unique PVS-Accelerator functionality, as well as for competitive differentiation and for driving important partnerships like HPE, Nutanix, and others. — Calvin Hsu, vice president, Product Marketing
Unique integrated image provisioning
Provisioning Services’ image management and deployment is hugely popular with enterprises for application and desktop virtualization, and in XenServer 7.1 it has been more deeply integrated than ever before. The introduction of PVS-Accelerator, a unique host-level cache, results in up to 98% lower network bandwidth requirements per XenServer host, and with a huge improvement in VM boot up times.
Existing PVS customers will be pleased to hear that this integration not only comes at no additional cost, but it has the added benefit of simplifying the PVS architecture, and potentially reducing the number of PVS servers required to simultaneously boot the same number of desktops.
Live patching
Minimizing infrastructure outages is always key for major cloud and large enterprise customers managing infrastructure at scale, however there are often planned outages that require the need to shut down VMs, or migrate them to other infrastructure hosts.
XenServer 7.1 introduces an industry-first live patching capability, enabling IT admins to update their XenServer hypervisors without the need for any VM migrations or shutdowns. This unique capability radically reduces the impact of infrastructure maintenance.
Avoiding the vTax with Hyper-Converged Infrastructure (HCI)
Citrix and Nutanix recently announced XenServer support for Nutanix’s Enterprise Cloud HCI appliances, the use of which entitles Nutanix customers free access to XenServer’s advanced features for Citrix XenApp or XenDesktop use cases. Features include PVS integration, Direct Inspect security APIs, live patching and NVIDIA GRID vGPU for enhanced graphics to name a few.
Customers looking to deploy VDI need affordable, easy to deploy infrastructure that can easily scale from pilot to production and beyond, but are often faced with two woefully inadequate choices: legacy compute and storage technologies that are difficult to deploy and manage and VDI-targeted hyperconverged offerings that fall short of promises. With the recently announced Citrix XenServer support, our customers can get all the benefits of the Nutanix Enterprise Cloud Platform, together with XenServer features such as NVIDIA vGPU and live patching, significantly easing the burden of VDI deployments. — Venugopal Pai, vice president of strategic alliances and business development, Nutanix
Look out for further announcements about the exact release date, and be sure to check out the XenServer product pages for further information.
