Comments on: Is Citrix XenServer cheaper than VMware ESX Server?

By: Tim Holum

Tim Holum — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 07:32:00 +0000

Its not “Official” or “Supported” but there are plenty of scripts out there to back up xenserver, my favorite is http://couleetechlink.com/xenbackup.php

By: Tim Holum

Tim Holum — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 02:02:00 +0000

There are plenty of good backup solutions out there though. My personal favorite is http://couleetechlink.com/xenbackup.php It allow’s you to back up large vm’s to muliple small esata or usb drive’s as well as if you only have one it supports that as well

By: warning

warning — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:45:02 +0000

Be careful with XENSERVER i use it! Very stable, but no supported consolidated backup solution available, snapshot functionality is useless and citrix recently released updates with terrible bugs. I would definitely say tco is cheaper though!

By: warning

warning — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 08:45:02 +0000

By: kchandra

kchandra — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 13:05:13 +0000

Interesting comments. I have been trying to compare the free Xen offering from Citrix and the latest SMB bundle that actually includes the VMware management server license as well. With smaller staff, support is a big concern for me. Incident based support from Citrix can become expensive compared to annual subscription based support from VMware! As much as I am convinced that Xen may be a better choice, the 'support' factor makes me lean towards VMware. I welcome any feedback. Thanks.

By: cargom98

cargom98 — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 17:07:15 +0000

Anyway , Citrix Xen is still cheaper and with a lot more features than ESXi. In addition, you have to remember that Vmware VC requires an additional Windows Server (HW or VM with Licenses cost) while Citrix Xen management is distributed in all the nodes (pretty cool..right).

By: rbrambley

rbrambley — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 18:22:55 +0000

pedershk

I checked your link and the current table of free XenServer features does not include HA. In fact, if you go to the Citrix Essentials page at http://www.citrix.com/English/ps2/products/feat… you'll see the high availability features there. You have to pay for Citrix Essentials. BTW, Citrix includes dynamic load balancing (VMware's DRS equal) in with their HA features too.

By: pedershk

pedershk — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 18:03:39 +0000

It is. XenMotion and HA is included in the free version. http://www.citrix.com/English/ps2/products/feat…

Free ESXi is essentially “just” the Hypervisor. XenServer is the full product except StorageLink and Dynamic Provisioning. Storagelink, although excellent if you have a NetApp or Equallogic SAN/filer isn't really neccessary. iSCSI, Fibre Channel, and NFS are all still supported on the free XenServer.