Today Nutanix released AOS 5.0 which is our biggest release to date! Altough we’re adding tons of features in this release there’s one thing that got my attention a little bit more than others… Nutanix and Citrix are extending their relationship as this new release brings XenServer Technical Preview!

Andre Leibovice already posted a 4-part blog series on Acropolis Operating System (AOS) 5.0 right here:

• Nutanix 5.0 Features Overview (Beyond Marketing) – Part 1
• Nutanix 5.0 Features Overview (Beyond Marketing) – Part 2
• Nutanix 5.0 Features Overview (Beyond Marketing) – Part 3
• Nutanix 5.0 Features Overview (Beyond Marketing) – Part 4

One of those features needed a little bit more attention, as per this release we’re introducing XenServer Technical Preview. We already have a few blogs out there on why Nutanix and Citrix XenServer makes such a great combination from a business perspective:

• Putting the Focus on End-users: Citrix XenServer and Nutanix Enterprise Cloud Platform
• Citrix and Nutanix: Managing the Cost and Complexity of App & Desktop Deployments

From a technical perspective, we’re publishing the ‘Citrix XenServer on Nutanix Administration Guide’ which will help you guide you through the initial installation and configuration of Citrix XenServer on Nutanix. The requirements for this installation are mentioned in the document:

• Citrix XenServer 7.0.92
• Foundation 3.6
• AOS 5.0 or later
• A qualified Nutanix platform
• Uplink Xen dom0 to the Top of Rack (TOR) switches that are configured in a native VLAN.

XenServer:

I wanted to highlight that this specific version of XenServer will be used as this version will contain modifications for the storage stack specifically developed for Citrix XenServer on Nutanix, this by itself shows that running this combination is the result of mutual engineering efforts and it’s way more than QA/certification. Engineering effort went in from both parties to ensure the synergy (phun intended) between the products. 

Foundation:

Looking at the deployment process of this solution we can use Foundation 3.6 (Nutanix deployment process) and a typical deployment will install the hypervisor and AOS on all the nodes and create the cluster. In a true Nutanix style you’d see that a cluster deployment will take under an hour to be able to launch the first VMs. 

Use cases:

Nutanix qualified NX (SMC) appliances that are typically deployed within XenApp/XenDesktop environments including hardware that will support NVIDIA newest release of their Maxwell-based GPUs. 

When you’re looking for hosting XenApp/XenDesktop on Nutanix there are three distinctive use cases to go for XenServer:

• GPU Support
• PVS Support
• Costs

This release will add to the choice of our customers and will give another option to avoid unnecessary licensing costs. Also, as AHV has no integration to PVS today XenServer will be an ideal situation for that use case, especially with the newest release of XenServer that supports RAM Cache for PVS images. All in all, it’s another statement on how important the power of choice is with Nutanix: you choose, we adapt to the best solution possible for your environment. 

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Kees Baggerman

Kees Baggerman is a Staff Solutions Architect for End User Computing at Nutanix. Kees has driven numerous Microsoft and Citrix, and RES infrastructures functional/technical designs, migrations, implementations engagements over the years.

Latest posts by Kees Baggerman (see all)

• Nutanix AHV and Citrix MCS: Adding a persistent disk via Powershell – v2 - November 19, 2019
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• Updated: VM Reporting Script for Nutanix with Powershell - July 3, 2019
• Updated (again!): VM Reporting Script for Nutanix AHV/vSphere with Powershell - June 17, 2019