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Building on my previous post about the XenDesktop Hands On Lab training I attended last week, this post is dedicated to the real magic of Citrix XenDesktop. Ardence, a software streaming solution aquired by Citrix in December of 2006, is now Citrix Provisioning Server for Desktops with the amazing ability to deliver desktops from a single disk image. Provisioning Server, coupled with the Desktop Delivery Controller as the VDI Connection Broker, delivers complete Microsoft Windows, SUSE Linux, and Red Hat Linux operating systems images from networked storage. These OS images are quickly brokered to bare metal user’s desktops at Active Directory Domain log on. With VDI, the bare metal desktop happens to be the virtual hardware of virtual machines hosted on either XenServer, ESX Server, or Windows 2008 Server Hyper-V.

The Provisioning Server home page (linked above) explains the advantages achieved with the Ardence technology.

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Last week I participated in a training event hosted by Citrix titled “Citrix Hands On Technical Workshop - XenDesktop“. The training was very beneficial in that I was not only able to walk through some configuration labs but I also heard first hand experiences from various partners around the Southeast that have already implemented XenDesktop. This post is a summary of my notes about Citrix’s solution and it’s key differentiators from other VDI alternatives.

The complete XenDestop solution consists of the following components:

• XenServer (or VMware ESX or Microsoft Hyper-V)
• Provisioning Server
• The Desktop Delivery Controller
• XenApp
• Citrix Access Gateway
• WANScaler
• EdgeSight
• GoToAssist
• EasyCall

Details on each of the pieces can be found on Citrix’s XenDesktop Technology page. Administrators familiar with the Citrix line of products will recognize several traditional components from their Presentation Server solutions. The “How Desktop Delivery Works” screen shot above is also from Citrix’s web page. Click on it for a larger view of the image.

Like VMware’s Virtual Desktop Manager (VDM), XenDesktop’s solution is centered around a connection broker, or The Desktop Delivery Controller (DCC).

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Last week’s post about Dell’s embedded hypervisor options and the Help Me Choose: Hypervisor page sparked some reader discussion about whether XenServer can be used with shared storage. The answer to that question is that it depends on which version of XenServer you order. Dell is offering either XenServer Express or XenServer Enterprise versions as embedded options. Express is a limited version and can not use shared storage while Enterprise is fully featured and capable of using a SAN.

Citrix also offers a XenServer Standard edition, but apparently that version is not an option as an embedded hypervisor when ordering Dell hardware.

updated 05.17.08 - image updated to reflect changes to Citrix’s product comparison page after this post was publihsed and to show the 4 versions of XenServer. The table below has not been updated and does not show the Premium Edition. Click on the image for a larger version.

The image in this post and the following table were copied from the Citrix XenServer v4 web page. They offer a quick overview of the differences between the 3 versions.

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I was researching Dell’s latest announcement, Dell Unveils Virtualization Blockbuster – From Servers and Storage to Software and Services and trying to find definitive proof of the $99 price for embedded ESXi or the $299 price for embedded Citrix XenServer Express as reported by virtualization.info. Although I did not find the pricing in the announcement, I was able to find it by going through the process of using the Dell Online Store to build a R805 server. By clicking the green “customize it” button I was eventually able to see the Optional Virtualization Offerings section with the pricing for the embedded hypervisors. See the screenshot to the right. (click for larger view)What surprised me during this process was the “Help me Choose” link in this section. Clicking that link took me to a Help Me Choose: Hypervisor page from Dell that is basically accurate and helpful for comparing high level features of ESX 3.5, ESXi, Citrix XenServer and Microsoft Hyper-V.

Here is a screenshot of the comparison table from Dell’s page.

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Is the mixed virtualization vendor data center possible? is Virtualization Pro blog that builds upon other discussions about the technical advantages and administrative logistics involved with the possibility of using different virtualization vendors in the same data center. In this post author Adam Trujillo expands on comments from other linked posts on the same topic - what types of applications and services might be best implemented on VMware ESX, Citrix Xenserver, or Microsoft’s Hyper-V, and how all of these virtual hosts could probably be used side by side by the same IT staff.

From Adam’s post:

“I threw out the notion that data center managers might use, for example, Hyper-V for end-user file servers; VMware ESX for apps that require dynamic load balancing, sophisticated disaster recovery and migration, and Xen for commodity Linux boxes.

The idea behind that supposition was to match your enterprise investments to appropriate workloads because, let’s face it, running everything on ESX is going to be expensive compared to other options. Big deal if you don’t get ESX-level features because you may get enterprise level features on silver-medal products.”

This post peaked my interest because I too have had similar discussions about the potential for a multi virtualization vendor data center, and I see it as a reality that architects, consultants, and administrators need to prepare for. My reasoning is not so much based on technical features, but on vendor optimization and support.

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Compared to VMware ESX Enterprise Edition, business continuity and high availability features are lacking when deploying Citrix XenServer “out of the box.” Specifically, XenServer does not have the built in equivalent to VI3’s HA feature. Also missing is a solution similar to VMware’s soon to be released Site Recovery Manager (SRM). However, Marathon Technologies and XenSource (now a division of Citrix) have worked together to develop everRun VM as a enterprise class answer to fault tolerant availability for Windows virtual machines hosted on Citrix XenServer. According to Marathon’s Director of Products, Michael Bilancieri, at a recent Atlanta “Virtualization for the Real World” event, the integrated solution will be generally available sometime in the 2008 Q2/Q3 time frame.

Quoting from the Best of VMworld (more on this award later in this post) white paper downloadable from the everRun link above:

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Try to see it once my way
Everything Zen
Everything Zen
I don’t think so

Bush - Everything Zen

Xen, XenSource, XenServer, and Zen. What are they? Which one do I use to virtualize my servers? What is Citrix’s product and how does it compare to VMware? These are my reasons for writing this post. Frankly, I was confused. After some intense meditation I decided to figure it out. Unfortunately, Lakers coach Phil Jackson was not available to help.

Wikipedia was where I started my journey. At first I was even more confused when I landed on the Xen (disambiguation) page:

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