I heard some concerning news from my vendor about Citrix XenServer licenses. When I tried to renew my licenses, which are expiring soon, my CDW rep mentioned that standalone XenServer licenses are no longer sold, and now the solution only supports hosting Citrix workloads. It seems like the only way to get licensing is by purchasing Citrix VDI licensing. This is quite troubling for us since we only use XenServer for basic pool/cluster management for running Windows and Linux VMs – no VDI or specific Citrix workloads, just standard virtualization. Has anyone else experienced this? Is this true or might our vendor be mistaken? Also, what are other organizations doing if they're facing the same issue? I'm considering alternatives like Proxmox, but this policy change seems significant and could impact many users. Would appreciate any insights!
5 Answers
I noticed that we, too, have had worse experiences with XenServer compared to using VMware. Even with a VDI setup, it hasn't been easy. If you can, consider moving away from XenServer; there are better options out there now.
Honestly, after XenServer 6.5, it felt like Citrix was squeezing users for more money. I ended up moving some of my workloads to Hyper-V and also tried Proxmox – both have worked pretty well for me. If they’re making these changes, it might be time to switch to a different platform altogether.
Totally agree! It seems like a short-sighted move on Citrix's part. Looking into Proxmox sounds like a solid plan for us.
You might want to check out XCP-ng along with Xen Orchestra. If you liked XenServer, you'll find that XCP-ng has many more features. It's essentially the same basis as Xen, just upgraded!
I haven't looked into them yet, but I'll definitely give it a shot. Thanks!
Yeah, it's true that standalone XenServer licensing is gone. Citrix has shifted to a subscription model, and now it's only available with a Citrix subscription. I migrated to Hyper-V since we found better options there.
Thanks for the heads up! I’ll check out Hyper-V too.
I've noticed the same trend. They seem to be pushing users towards Citrix's ecosystem. If you're looking for alternatives, I've found Proxmox to be a solid option. It's open source and you can play around with it on a test machine. Plus, they offer enterprise support if you need it.
I've tried Proxmox for personal projects, and it worked great. Really considering it for professional use too.
I agree with you. We've had decent stability over the years with Xen, but the product support has definitely declined.