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General |
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Central Management
Details
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Yes (XenCenter)
XenCenter is the central Windows-based multi-server management application (client) for XenServer hosts (including the open source version).
It is different to other management apps (e.g. SCVMM or vCenter) which typically have a management server/management client architecture where the management server holds centralized configuration information (typically in a 3rd party DB). Unlike these management consoles, XenCenter distributes management data across XenServer servers (hosts) in a resource pool to ensure there is no single point of management failure. If a management server (host) should fail, any other server in the pool can take over the management role. XenCenter is essentially only the client.
License administration is done using a separate web interface.
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=BW20
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Yes - OVM Manager & Oracle Enterprise Manager 12c Cloud Control
Oracle offers Oracle Enterprise Manager 12c Cloud Control in addition to Oracle VM Manager for Central Management. OEM12c Cloud Control extends Oracle VM Manager with Cloud Capabilities. More info on: http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E50245_01/E50250/html/index.html and http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E24628_01/doc.121/e28814/cloud_iaas_setup.htm#CEGFJIHI
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Virtual and Physical
Details
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No
XenCenter focusses on managing the virtual infrastructure (XenServer host and the associated virtual machines).
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=BW21
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Yes - Oracle Enterprise Manager 12c Cloud Control
Oracle offers Oracle Enterprise Manager 12c Cloud Control to provision and manage Virtual Guests, Oracle VM Hosts and Physical Servers. More info on: http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E24628_01/em.121/e27046/host_overview.htm#CEGEBEBI
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RBAC / AD-Integration
Details
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Yes (hosts/XenCenter)
XenServer 5.6 introduced Role Based Access Control by allowing the mapping of a user (or a group of users) to defined roles (a named set of permissions), which in turn have the ability to perform certain operations. RBAC depends on Active Directory for authentication services. Specifically, XenServer keeps a list of authorized users based on Active Directory user and group accounts. As a result, you must join the pool to the domain and add Active Directory accounts before you can assign roles.
There are 6 default roles: Pool Admin, Pool Operator, VM Power Admin, VM Admin, VM Operator and Read Only - which can be listed and modified using the xe CLI.
Details here: http://bit.ly/2d8uA7C
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=BW22
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Yes - Oracle Enterprise Manager 12c Cloud Control
Oracle offers Oracle Enterprise Manager 12c Cloud Control to provide RBAC/ AD-Integration or LDAP-compliant director server. More info on: http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E24628_01/doc.121/e36415/sec_features.htm#sthref70 and http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E24628_01/doc.121/e36415/sec_features.htm#CJADDBGA
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Cross-Vendor Mgmt
Details
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No (native)
Yes (Vendor Add-On: CloudPlatform)
XenCenter only manages Citrix XenServer hosts.
Comments:
- Citrixs Desktop Virtualization product (XenDesktop, fee based add-on) supports multiple hypervisors (ESX, XenServer, Hyper-V)
- The Citrix XenServer Conversion Manager in 6.1 now enables batch import of VMs created with VMware products into a XenServer pool to reduce costs of converting to a XenServer environment).
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=BW23
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No
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Browser Based Mgmt
Details
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No (Web Self Service: retired)
Web Self Service (retired with the launch of XenServer 6.2) was a lightweight portal which allowed individuals to operate their own virtual machines without having administrator credentials to the XenServer host. For large infrastructures, OpenStack is a full orchestration product with far greater capability; for a lightweight alternative, xvpsource.org offers a free open source product.
Related Citrix products have browser based access, for example Storefront (next generation of Web Interface)
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Yes - Enhanced Web Client (with enhanced SSO), No BDE
No vSphere Big Data Extensions (BDE) supported with this edition!
vSphere 5 introduced a web based (Adobe Flex based) vSphere client interface which makes the access to vCenter platform-independent.
VMware positioned the web client as the core management interface since vSphere 5.1 - largely matching and in many cases superseding functionality of the legacy client (many new features will only be accessible through the web client). If you e.g. want to create one of the new large 62TB vmdks, you can only do that from the web client.
vSphere 5.5. maintains both the legacy and web client (confirming continued use of the legacy client) and has further enhanced the capabilities of the web client itself, as well as the Single Sign On that enables central authentication.
vSphere 5.5 web client enhancements:
- full client support for Mac OS X
- Drag and drop (e.g. drag and drop vm on to hosts)
- new filters and dynamically updated object lists based on those filters
- new recent-items navigation aid
The initial vCenter Single Sign On (SSO) has been improved in 5.5:
- Simplified deployment (single installation model for customers of all sizes)
- Enhanced Microsoft Active Directory integration - The addition of native Active Directory support enables cross-domain authentication with one- and two-way trusts common in multi-domain environments.
- Architecture - Built from the ground up, this architecture removes the requirement of a database and now delivers a multi-master authentication solution with built-in replication and support for multiple tenants.
vSphere Big Data Extensions (BDE) is a new addition in vSphere 5.5 for vSphere Enterprise and Enterprise Plus Editions. BDE is available as a plug-in for the vSphere Web Client.
BDE is a tool that enables administrators to deploy and manage Hadoop clusters on vSphere. It simplifies the provisioning of the infrastructure and software services required for multi-node Hadoop clusters.
It performs the following functions on the virtual Hadoop clusters it manages:
- Creates, deletes, starts, stops and resizes clusters
- Controls resource usage of Hadoop clusters
- Specifies physical server topology information
- Manages the Hadoop distributions available to BDE users
- Automatically scales clusters based on available resources and in response to other workloads on the vSphere cluster
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Yes - OVM Manager & Oracle Enterprise Manager 12c Cloud Control
Both Oracle VM Manager and Oracle Enterprise Manager 12c Cloud Control are HTML Browser Based Mgmt. More info on: http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E50245_01/E50250/html/index.html and http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E24628_01/doc.121/e28814/cloud_iaas_setup.htm#CEGFJIHI
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Adv. Operation Management
Details
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No
There is no advanced operations management tool included with XenServer.
Additional Info:
XenServers Integration Suite Supplemental Pack allows inter-operation with Systems Center Operations Manager (SCOM). SCOM enables monitoring of host performance when installed on a XenServer host.
Both of these tools can be integrated with your XenServer pool by installing the Integration Suite Supplemental Pack on each of your XenServer hosts.
For virtual desktop environments Citrix EdgeSight is a performance and availability management solution for XenDesktop, XenApp and endpoint systems. EdgeSight monitors applications, devices, sessions, license usage, and the network in real time, allowing users to quickly analyze, resolve, and proactively prevent problems.
EdgeSight is a separate products not included with the XenServer license.
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=BW25
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Yes - Oracle Enterprise Manager 12c Cloud Control
Oracle offers Oracle Enterprise Manager 12c Cloud Control for Advanced Operation Management. More info on: http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E50245_01/E50250/html/index.html and http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E24628_01/doc.121/e28814/cloud_iaas_setup.htm#CEGFJIHI
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Updates and Backup |
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Hypervisor Upgrades
Details
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The XenCenter released with XenServer 7.0 allows updates to be applied to all versions of XenServer (commercial and free)
NEW
With XenServer 7.0 patching and updating via the XenCenter management console (enabling automated GUI driven patch application and upgrades) is supported with the comercial and free XenServer versions.
XenServer 6 introduced the Rolling Pool Upgrade Wizard. The Wizard simplifies upgrades to XenServer 6.x by performing pre-checks with a step-by-step process that blocks unsupported upgrades. You can choose between automated or semi-automated, where automated can use a network based XenServer update repository (which you have to create) while semi-automated requires local install media. There are still manual steps required for both approaches and no scheduling functionality or online repository is integrated.
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=BW38
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Yes
Oracle VM provides the capability to upgrade the OVM Servers by the usage of Oracle VM Manager or Oracle Enterprise Manager 12 Cloud Control with Zero Downtime, Migrating (Live) the VMs to other Hosts in the Cluster/Server Pool. More info on: http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E50245_01/index.html
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No
There is no integrated update engine for guest OS of the virtual machines within Standard Edition of XenServer7.0
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=BW39
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Yes
Oracle provides Oracle Enterprise Manager 12 Cloud Control for Linux Patching. More info on: http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E24628_01/em.121/e27046/pat_linux_patch.htm#BABCJAGH
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yes
You can take regular snapshots, application consistent point-in-time snapshots (requires Microsoft VSS) and snapshots with memory of a running or suspended VM. All snapshot activities (take/delete/revert) can be done while VM is online.
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=BW40
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Yes - Hot Clones
Oracle provides the ability to execute Hot Clones A.K.A Snapshots. More info on: http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E50245_01/index.html
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Backup Integration API
Details
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Limited
There is no specific backup framework for integration of 3rd party backup solutions as such however the XenServer API allows for scripting (e.g. utilizing XenServer snapshots) and basic integration with 3rd party backup products and scripting (e.g. utilizing XenServer snapshots) e.g. Unitrends Enterprise Backup
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=BW41
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Yes
Is possible to perform classic backup using agents in the guests and due to the REST API for both OVM Manager and EM12c Cloud Control any time soon there will be integration on the Hypervisor Level
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