Xen Project User Summit - Xen, XenServer,
and XAPI: What’s the Difference?
Russell Pavlicek
Xen Project Evangelist
[email protected]
James Bulpin
XenServer CTO
[email protected]
@RCPavlicek
@JamesBulpin
About the Speakers...
Russ
• Linux author/evangelist/speaker since 1995
• Formerly FOSS columnist for Infoworld,
Processor, panelist on The Linux Show
webcast, speaker at ~50 FOSS conferences
• Xen Project Evangelist hired by Citrix in
January 2013
James
• Xen user/admin/integrator/ tester since
2004
• XenSource startup veteran
• Leads Citrix XenServer technical strategy
The Problem: Everyone Knows What Xen Is...
• …until you ask them
• Some days, it seems there is more confusion about the
naming conventions than about the software
• When some people talk about “Xen”, they mean “Xen
Project”, but others mean “XenServer”, and yet others
“XAPI”
• It is time to clear up the confusion
What is the Xen Project?
•
•
•
•
•
The Leading Open Source Hypervisor
Open Source – now and always!
A Linux Foundation Collaborative Project since April 2013
Celebrating its 10th anniversary
Home for several subproject teams
Xen Project: A Short History
The Xen Project Subproject Teams
• The Xen Hypervisor: the main game
• PVOPS: (not technically a subproject, but…) allows Linux to
run paravirtualized on a hypervisor (Xen, VMware VMI, …)
• The Xen ARM Hypervisor: branching into new architecture
• XAPI Project: more on this later
• Mirage OS: focused appliances built on a specialized library
operating system (in incubation)
Xen Hypervisor: The Crux of the Xen Project
• Type 1 Hypervisor: Does not run in
the kernel
• VMs compete with other VMs for
resources, not with processes
• Architecture emphasizes security
• Uses toolstacks for Control Domain
to talk to Hypervisor
• Default is XL (improved on XM)
• Libvirt/VIRSH option
• No native GUI
Xen Project Corporate Members
Is your company listed here? Should it be?
If you are heavily invested in Xen, consider project membership.
XenProject.org: The Hub of Information
•
•
•
•
Nexus of information regarding the Xen Project
Newly revamped and revised in April 2013
Access to Articles, Blogs, Wiki, Q&A, Mailing Lists, etc.
New monthly newsletter with highlights from the
community
• Sign up for the website and newsletter today, if you
haven’t already!
Xen Project Mascot
Because a cute panda is a terrible thing to waste
If That’s Xen, What is XenServer?
• A distribution of Xen, the XAPI toolstack, Linux and other
components
• A “shrink-wrapped”, ready to run, virtualization platform
• Builds on basic Xen virtualization to provide high level
management:
Networking
Storage
User accounts
High availability
Cluster management
Performance monitoring
XenServer – a brief history
• Started as “XenEnterprise”, a product of XenSource Inc.
– First released in 2006
– Initially a proprietary product built on top of the open-source
Xen hypervisor
• Evolved into XenServer, a product of Citrix
– Now up to version 6.2 (released June 2013)
• Became an open-source project in 2013
XenServer – previously
Key:
Transfer VM
Qemu
XenServer
Tools (PV
drivers)
Proprietary
OSS, public dev
OSS, non-public dev
CentOS 5.x
CIM Server
AD Integration
Linux Kernel
XAPI
Xen
Storage
Manager
HA
XenCenter
XenServer – after open sourcing
Key:
Transfer VM
Qemu
CentOS 5.x
XenServer
Tools (PV
drivers)
Proprietary
OSS
CIM Server
AD Integration
Linux Kernel
XAPI
Xen
Storage
Manager
HA
XenCenter
XenServer.org – the open-source project
• A Citrix-led project
• Removing barriers to collaboration
• Roadmaps, designs and architectural plans discussed in the
open
• All code is public; contributions via mailing list and Github
pull requests
• More efficient ecosystem through access to design, code
and developers
XenServer.org – two parts to it
#1 a set of components
–
–
–
–
–
XenCenter UI
Windows PV drivers
HA daemon
vncterm
…
#2 an integration/distribution of
components
–
–
–
–
–
Choice of component versions
Backporting of patches
Configuration and tuning
Packaging
…
But Xen and XAPI are Xen Project
components so XenServer developers
contribute to those projects and the results
are integrated and packaged into XenServer
Citrix XenServer
• Citrix’s product release from the
Open Source project code
• Made available to all for free
• Optional commercial support offering
from Citrix
So What is XAPI?
• A toolstack for managing Xen system
– The xapi daemon and its friends; the “xe” CLI
• Works at a higher level than the Xen Project toolstack
– Clustering, storage/network management, host setup, …
• Open-sourced by Citrix in 2009
• Now part of the Xen Project in the Linux Foundation
• Useful for Xen users who want richer API-driven
management (such as under OpenStack clouds)
What is XCP?
“Xen Cloud Platform” – an overloaded term
• Meaning 1: a synonym for XAPI (particularly for packaged
versions)
• Meaning 2: XenServer-like binary ISOs
– Built to provide a distribution for xapi without non-FOSS
XenServer pieces
– Provided a wider feature set than the free edition of Citrix
XenServer which had certain features disabled
XCP (the ISO) is no more
• XCP and open-source XenServer will merge
– XenServer no longer disables features for non-paying users
• Users of XCP v1.6 are able to upgrade to XenServer
• XCP users will be getting a better deal than they had before
– No more delays to XCP releases
– Timely hotfixes that can be easily installed,
– A product that's even more open than it was before.
And Now It Is QUIZ TIME!
And you thought this talk would be easy… ;)
Question: Xen, XenServer, or XAPI?
Answer: Xen (Xen Project Mascot)
Question: Xen, XenServer, or XAPI?
Answer: XenServer (XenCenter)
Question: Xen, XenCenter, or XAPI?
Answer: XenServer
Question: Xen, XenCenter, or XAPI?
Answer: Xen and XAPI
Question: Xen, XenServer, or XAPI?
$ xe vdi-create
\
name-label=LogDisk
\
sr-uuid=6021e2b0-c72e-6e9e-01cc-ba3ed4f68be9 \
virtual-size=10GiB type=user
$ xe vbd-create device=2 type=Disk
\
vm-uuid=d2f6e2cd-8a98-7e1c-7a46-f4dcff3b56ce \
vdi-uuid=cdd63557-89ad-4011-b638-e063f8b08298
$ xe vm-start vm=MyDHCPServer
Answer: XAPI (xe CLI)
$ xe vdi-create
\
name-label=LogDisk
\
sr-uuid=6021e2b0-c72e-6e9e-01cc-ba3ed4f68be9 \
virtual-size=10GiB type=user
$ xe vbd-create device=2 type=Disk
\
vm-uuid=d2f6e2cd-8a98-7e1c-7a46-f4dcff3b56ce \
vdi-uuid=cdd63557-89ad-4011-b638-e063f8b08298
$ xe vm-start vm=MyDHCPServer
Question: Xen, XenServer, or XAPI?
# xl create -c /etc/xen/wheezy64
# xen-create-image \
--genpass=0 --memory=1024M --noswap --dhcp \
--password="xenroot" --pygrub --size=8G \
--vcpus=2 --arch=amd64 --bridge=virbr0 \
--hostname=wheezy64 --lvm=vms \
--mirror=http://cdn.debian.net/debian \
--install-method=debootstrap \
--dist=wheezy
Answer: Xen (xl and command line utility)
# xl create -c /etc/xen/wheezy64
# xen-create-image \
--genpass=0 --memory=1024M --noswap --dhcp \
--password="xenroot" --pygrub --size=8G \
--vcpus=2 --arch=amd64 --bridge=virbr0 \
--hostname=wheezy64 --lvm=vms \
--mirror=http://cdn.debian.net/debian \
--install-method=debootstrap \
--dist=wheezy
Extra Credit: Xen, XenServer, or XAPI?
Answer: Trick Question!
Used by Xen and XenServer, but a separate
project entirely!
• News: blog.XenProject.org
• Web: XenProject.org / www.XenServer.org
– Help for IRC, Lists, …
– Stackoverflow-like Q&A
• Wiki: wiki.XenProject.org
• Presentations: slideshare.net/xen_com_mgr
• Videos: vimeo.com/channels/xen
Thank You!
@RCPavlicek
@JamesBulpin
@Xen_Org
Slides available under CC-BY-SA 3.0
From www.slideshare.net/xen_com_mgr