Course Overview

In the Citrix XenServer 6.0 course, students get a solid foundation to successfully install, configure, manage, and troubleshoot XenServer 6.0. They'll also dive into setting up a Provisioning Services 6.0 host and learn how to create and manage vDisks within a XenServer environment. With hands-on labs, students will pick up the essential skills to configure the Distributed Virtual Switch (DVS) and Workload Balancing (WLB). Plus, they'll have the opportunity to create and manage Windows virtual machines along with the resource pools where these machines will reside.

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A basic overall knowledge of virtualization technology

An understanding of computing architecture, including network and storage devices, device drivers and operating systems

Basic experience installing and administering Microsoft Windows Server 2003 or Windows Server 2008

Basic experience installing and administering Linux variants

Intermediate knowledge of network devices and site architecture, including configuring VLANs

6, Basic knowledge of storage terminology and technologies, including partitions, SANs, LUNs, iSCSI, NFS, and CIFS file shares

Module 1: An Introduction to XenServer

Module 2: How to Install and Configure XenServer

Module 3: Understanding XenServer Networking

Module 4: Exploring XenServer Storage Repositories

Module 5: Creating and Managing Your Virtual Machines- Module

Module 6: Installing and Setting Up Provisioning Services

Module 7: Managing vDisks and Target Devices

Module 8: Implementing Resource Pools

Module 9: Getting to Know Distributed Virtual Switching

Module 10: Workload Balancing Techniques

Module 11: Configuring High Availability

Module 12: Managing and Troubleshooting XenServer

1. Why are cloud providers turning to XenServer to power their clouds?

Well, it all comes down to scalability. XenServer boasts a fully replicated architecture across all hosts in an environment, which means there's no need for a management server to oversee a specific number of hosts. If the master host in a pool happens to fail, any other host can step up to take its place without any loss of functionality or configuration. In practical terms, this allows cloud providers to cluster hosts as needed without adding any extra complexity in terms of configuration or management, regardless of the cluster size.

Cost is another crucial factor for companies to keep in mind, especially when considering licensing for hundreds or even thousands of hosts. With both the open-source version of XenServer and the premium version included in your CloudPlatform entitlement, cloud providers can access the virtualization layer of their cloud without any cost. These savings can then be reinvested into creating unique service offerings or simply passed on as savings to their end users. Other benefits include an open-source foundation, flexibility, high VM density, and strong tenant isolation.

2. Now, what about XenMotion? Is it free?

A handy tip for finding the equivalent feature in XenServer is to swap out “v” for “Xeon.” XenMotion is our live migration feature that lets you move VMs from one host in a pool to another, as long as the pool has shared storage attached. This feature has been available in our free version since 2009.

On the other hand, Storage XenMotion is a brand-new feature we introduced with XenServer 6.1. This allows you to move VMs between hosts without needing shared storage, which reduces hardware requirements and costs for cloud providers using commodity hardware, as well as for SMBs with smaller setups. Storage XenMotion is available in our advanced version of XenServer.

3. Is there an easy way to get support for my environment, even if I’m running on free?

   For those of you running a premium edition of XenServer (Advanced, Enterprise and Platinum) we recently changed our support model to offer unlimited, 24×7 support for paid editions of XenServer at about 7% of license cost. What does this mean to the free users out there? Well, it means you can no longer purchase support from Citrix for your XenServer environment. That being said, in addition to the incredible support you can get on the forums, we’ve also introduced a new Citrix Auto Support toolthat can do a sanity check of your environment. Simply upload a log file and we’ll check for any issues that we recognize including missing patches, known bugs or configuration errors. This tool can be used for both free or paid editions, so try it out for yourself at http://taas.citrix.com.