Citrix XenServer Reviews

A virtualization platform that was easy to maintain for our staff's level of expertise and allowed for inexpensive licensing when support was required.

Allowed us to maintain the desired level of high availability between our XenServer farms. Our response time to backend errors was faster than when we had a physical server farm.

All features of the product are valuable, depends on the situation. I have used all of the features at one time or another.

Integrated workload balancing and virtual switch management that doesn't require another virtual appliance to control.

More than 15 years.

Rock Solid for the most part, of course, as with any technology there are software patches required for specific issues.

I haven't encountered any scalability issues yet. I have built multiple XenServer pools (simple HA pairs for SMB to large Enterprise deployments of 8-20 physical hosts).

Customer Service:

Provided you can get past the tier 1 support personnel quickly, it is great.

Technical Support:

All of the Citrix Engineers that I have worked with have been very knowledgable and helpful.

VMWare was the previous solution, we switched to lower our licensing costs and support costs.

Installation is very straightforward and can be completed in less than 5 minutes.

In-House team; I tested from the beginning and moved the platform into production.

N/A - not able to discuss

Cannot answer this question; but the product is free, you only need to purchase a license if you want commercial level support from Citrix.

At the time, there were really only a couple of companies providing virtualization platform technologies. I had found XenSource and started testing the solution.

Test, Test, Test as with any product, make sure it will accomplish what you expect. Citrix XenServer is not marketed out there so most of the people, I talk to, only are aware of VMWare and Hyper-V. XenServer fits right in the middle (in my opinion) of those two products.

We primarily use the solution for application delivery that is centralized on-premises and hosted on data centers. For example, net applications. All the net applications I have published using the Citrix Hypervisor are there. On top of the Citrix Hypervisor, I position the Citrix application delivery infrastructure, and I have published all my applications that way. I'm just publishing and providing this application to my business users, as per their demand. It offers completely secure accessibility, and centralized access management.

The solution is extremely user friendly.

It's quite scalable.

We've found the solution to be very stable.

The product is working as per our expectations, and, it's giving us optimal performance in terms of connectivity for my end users. 

The licensing costs are too high on the solution. They should work to make the costs more reasonable.

It is not easy to adopt this quantitative footprint. It could be helpful if we could have some sort of optimum licensing model to make the adoption of this product easier. 

The integration with all products needs a bit of work. There should not be any kind of limitation for cross-areas, for example, you should be able to use Linux, and any other operating system you choose.

If I want to assign more than two TB of line, it is currently not supporting this. They should, however, because in some cases, you'd be required to have more than two TB of space. They should work to offer much more space than they do.

Our organization has been using the solution for six months so far.

However, for my part, I've been working with it for more than 14 years. 

In my environment, I am using Citrix Hypervisor for my XenApp virtual apps and desktop. We are using seven XenApps around 13 IDS app. It's very a stable product, and I have never faced any kind of problem over the last six months. There aren't bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash. It's reliable.

The solution is very scalable. If an organization needs to expand, this solution will be able to handle the process. It's quite good. The scalability is one of it's greatest aspects.

We haven't had any issues with technical support. They've been very good. We're satisfied with their level of support.

The initial setup is very straightforward. There is not any complexity to worry about.

The licensing model is very expensive at the moment.

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten.

As of now, in this COVID-19 paramedic situation, it's very remote-friendly product. It's great for IT and business processes if teams are planning to work from home remotely. This platform is quite good, in terms of publicity planning, remote connectivity, product flexibility, and user demands. Companies that want that kind of flexibility and freedom should explore this tool. It's quite useful.

We use the solution for VDI technology. 

There's no complexity in using the tool, especially with the VBI integration. It works very well and has proven to be a stable platform. I have experienced attacks, such as ransomware, but my Citrix Hypervisor virtual machines were protected. This is due to its hardened operating system and DNS, which successfully protected the virtual machines on that platform.

The tool's most valuable features are high availability and load balancing. If one hardware server goes out of service in a multiple-host cluster, my workload automatically starts on another hardware host. Load balancing adjusts based on the load on a particular virtual machine or hardware, automatically balancing the load across multiple hosts. This ensures I get optimal performance from my resources.

It would be very helpful if I could browse the data store directly in the GUI, similar to VMware and Hyper-V. This feature would be particularly useful when something goes wrong with a virtual machine or virtual disk.

I have been working with the product for 12 years.

I have seen environments where we started with a two-node or three-node cluster and scaled up to eight nodes. My company has 35 users. 

Citrix Hypervisor's initial deployment is simple. We update it every six months to one year. Except for major releases or patch updates, the solution doesn't require much maintenance. It does not require many resources regarding people or trained personnel. It is easy to maintain, and if I place a person to understand the Hypervisor or the patching process, he or she can manage it easily. 

The solution offers value for money. 

We are currently working on a policy within our organization to identify areas where we can optimize resources. For instance, in troubleshooting, we get repeated calls from certain areas. Suppose we can automate tasks like upgrades, monitoring of IT infrastructure, and monitoring of logs and security infrastructure. In that case, we aim to integrate AI into these areas so that repetitive tasks can be managed by AI or similar solutions.

When I look at backup solutions like Commvault, I see that these companies support Citrix Hypervisor. However, a limited number of software companies or solution providers in IT directly integrate with Citrix Hypervisor. If that ecosystem can be expanded, it would help us increase our installed base on Citrix Hypervisor.

VMware has changed its policy and is not providing certain licensing to enterprise customers. So, in that case, customers have to buy the entire package, even if they only want the Hypervisor. Hyper-V and Citrix Hypervisor are very good solutions for those cases.

If you have a test and development system or a production system, or if you want to deploy a disaster recovery setup cost-effectively and with no complexity in various integrations, Citrix Hypervisor can be the best choice.

I rate the tool a seven out of ten. 

Our primary use case for this product is that it serves as the main computing platform for our enterprise software. Our ERP system and our SQL Servers run on top of that and all the applications that we deploy are essentially virtualized.

Server consolidation has saved us a lot of money over the years. Being a non-profit that is a very big consideration for us.

The feature that is most valuable to us is the XenMotion (live migration) feature. It is critical for us, especially when doing maintenance work. That is a must-have feature. Also Storage XenMotion. The ability to move a VM while it is still running and continue doing maintenance on that is a big advantage.

The third-party integration is not very advanced. I don't know if it's a lack of interest by developers. Compared with VMware, Xenserver doesn't have a lot of third-party add-ons. Maybe in some way that can be improved.

The number one feature that would make it a more robust product is a backup solution. Right now we have to buy Xen Orchestra as a separate solution to manage the tasks a little bit better. If it was integrated within the product, that would be good. Maybe Citrix should just buy Xen Orchestra and improve on it. It is a very good product. It does everything we want to do, but it's a separate product which means we have to pay another license in addition to the ones for XenServer. So I really would want to see improvements in the backup arena and a more robust clean-up job after some tasks such as snapshots fail to complete.

I have been using the product since 2011, so I have been using it eight years or more.

As far as stability, we have never had any problems that we've not been able to overcome. The only thing we have experienced is that sometimes when you are doing your backups or you are creating a snapshot, you get orphaned images or other unnecessary files that the system fails to auto clean. But this is not really any failure of the system as far as stability. 

We have 16 licenses at the moment and we run it on four Dell R910 machines with four CPUs in each, and each is eight-core. 

It is easy to scale up. You can grow as you wish.

The technical support is quite quick and responsive. Whenever we have a problem, they are able to log in and check on the issue for us. Technical support has been good for us. We do pay for annual tech support. They are quite good.

Initially, I would say the setup was straightforward. When we consulted with Citrix about our plan for implementation we created our design diagrams, then we sent them the diagrams so they could check whether the design was going to work or not. When they looked at our diagram, they confirmed that it was a good design in terms of fail-over at both hardware level (host pools and storage) as well as physical network design. So we just deployed the product the way we had planned and it was straight forward after the plan was confirmed.

I would advise that with this setup, you are better off also taking up the paid support. The Tech support with these guys is fantastic. They will call you within minutes of logging the issue and with you to resolve the problem. If you provide access to the host they will log in and troubleshoot with you and show you which commands were run to solve the problem. 10/10 score on Technical support.

I think the biggest issue that I've seen that scares off a lot of potential customers is that they think it is complicated to set up. There are not many people who have deployed the product compared to other products. I think new clients should start small and gain confidence. There is no harm in having a mixed environment where they can at least try it out. If they like it they can continue to roll out the deployment. 

For us, the attraction has been that the licensing is straight forward. You don't have to think about what it will cost for add on features. It's really straightforward in that you pay for the number of CPU cores you have and that is if you want Technical Support. It is very easy for us to predict our costs. With other products, it is really difficult to know how much it's going to cost from year-to-year. With this product, we are able to say for sure what the cost will be.

On a scale from one to ten, with one being the worst and ten being the best, I would rate this product as a nine. It is not a ten only because I don't have an easy way to do replication and backup. We had to learn to use the command line just to do that. But other than that, it's a very stable product. We have never had trouble, in addition, the hypervisor has a very small footprint on the host.

Citrix Hypervisor is used for tracing any database application and AD file server, but most people are using public XenApp or XenDesktop for client virtualization.

What I find most valuable in Citrix Hypervisor is its licensing policy, because you'll get it for free if you buy a Citrix XenDesktop license. You don't need to spend additional money on the Citrix Hypervisor because you can manage both the Citrix XenDesktop and the Citrix Hypervisor with just one license, so you can save on cost.

I also like that the solution is good support-wise. Hardware support is also faster compared to other solutions.

Citrix Hypervisor is expensive if you get it as a stand-alone product, so this is one area for improvement. Its price could be cheaper.

We also found other areas for improvement in Citrix Hypervisor, for example, we can't use SCIM provisioning, and there are limitations to the size of the HDD.

Another area for improvement is the pass-through storage, in particular the removable storage, because that also has limitations where you can't connect to the drive if it is more than one TB.

There are no issues with the stability of Citrix Hypervisor. It's good, and even the process of upgrading it is straightforward.

Citrix Hypervisor is easy to scale. Scaling it is straightforward.

Citrix Hypervisor has good support.

Installing Citrix Hypervisor is a very fast and straightforward process. Installation is faster than any other hypervisor because it is not a hyper-converged solution. People should still have some knowledge about the product to make the installation process very easy. It took less than a day to complete the installation of Citrix Hypervisor.

Citrix Hypervisor is a licensed product, and customers who buy the Citrix XenDesktop get Citrix Hypervisor for free. If they don't buy the license for Citrix XenDesktop, they'll need to pay for Citrix Hypervisor and its price is high. Pricing is even higher than VMware.

The licensing policy for Citrix Hypervisor is good. It's straightforward. The only issue is the price because it's an expensive product.

I provide Citrix Hypervisor to customers.

My company has many customers for Citrix Hypervisor, particularly more than ten customers. The product is good, but my company is slowly ruling it out. Customers are being moved to another solution because Citrix Hypervisor clusters need external storage and people nowadays are eliminating that type of technology.

I'm recommending Citrix Hypervisor to others looking into implementing it, specifically if they already have licensed client virtualization solutions such as Citrix XenApp and Citrix XenDesktop, because they could get Citrix Hypervisor for free. They could save on the cost of paying additional for hypervisors. Similarly, they could also save on cost if they get Microsoft hypervisors.

I'm rating Citrix Hypervisor nine out of ten.

We use Citrix Hypervisor to have greater control over our infrastructure. For example, file services, domain controllers, databases, and the entire active directories within it.

We are able to easily manage our infrastructure with the use of Citrix Hypervisor.

Citrix Hypervisor integrates easily and I can manage the infrastructure better. If I need to take a machine down to expand the hard drive, I do not have to physically be here. I do not need to order new equipment or new hard drives. I can shut it down, increase the drive space and bring it back up. I find that hypervisor updates are extremely easy to do.

I find that the features in Citrix Hypervisor are not as rich as with VMware. It would be a benefit if they had some of the other features VMware has, such as the ability to expand a drive on the fly. You do not have to take down the machine to do it but in Citrix you do.

In a future release, Citrix Hypervisor should update its features to provide as many features as VMware does.

I have been using Citrix Hypervisor for nearly two years.

Citrix Hypervisor has been very stable. I have been impressed with updating of the hosts. For example, in the interface, you will be notified when there are updates and to perform the updates is quite simple.

The solution is scalable. If you need additional resources, you could add hosts. When I started at my current company we had three hosts and now we have five. We have increased the number of servers that we have, along with memory, and could then provide additional offerings because we have the resources to do so.

We have approximately 130 to 150 users using the solution in my company.

Citrix Hypervisor's technical support is very good. They provide high-level support and are very responsive. Once you are in contact with the support, they will remote into your system, and take a look at how the system is operating internally. They usually resolve any issues relatively fast.

I have previously used VMware.

The installation of Citrix Hypervisor is simple once you get used to it. My background was more with VMware, but when I joined this organization, they used Citrix. Once you learn the intricacies it is simple. There are some elements of the installations that are complex that could be simplified. If you have used a similar solution before this one it not too hard to figure out.

I am the only one in the company that does the maintenance of the solution.

The solution virtualizes the environment which saves on environmental and hardware costs.

There is a license required to use this solution. You need a license on every server, but the license is more for support than anything else. The cost is not expensive, it is a fraction of the cost of VMware. When you look at the cost overall and features, Citrix Hypervisor has a very attractive offering.

I rate Citrix Hypervisor an eight out of ten.

My company is an integrator that provides services for other companies. Our current client use Citrix Hypervisor's virtual desktop solution to allow third parties to access their system. It's all technical people that access this platform to provide services within SAP or whatever product they're using.

Citrix Hypervisor is quick to deploy and easy to manage.

Citrix could provide more tools to help the client manage the solution because we need to build our own tools in some cases. Everything is available through PowerShell, but then you need to build your own scripts to do the more advanced work.

I've used Citrix Hypervisor for six years.

Citrix is highly stable.

Citrix is scalable enough for our needs, but we don't manage tens of thousands of VDIs. It's easy to grow and add more hosts when needed, so the scalability is good for us.

Citrix support is good. We've never had significant issues that required us to open complex tickets, but they were responsive when we needed them.

We have provided VMware for some clients. However, many clients prefer Citrix because it's cheaper.

Deploying Citrix Hypervisor was straightforward.

I don't manage the the licensing. I know generally that Citrix is cheaper than VMware, but I don't know by how much.

I rate Citrix Hypervisor 10 out of 10. It's working fine. 

We use it for different VDI scenarios and application publishing.

I've found the following features to be the most valuable: user personalization layer, app layering, provisioning, and notification services for integration between different domains.

There are several areas that need improvement including the stability of the networking stack and networking management.

Storage monitoring also needs to be improved because at the moment, we cannot monitor GFS2 partitions on Citrix Hypervisor. This means that we need to find third party solutions.

I've been using it for 16 years.

Overall, the stability is good. However, when there are problems in some areas, such as networking, it results in problems overall with the stability of Citrix Hypervisor.

The scalability is okay for small- and medium-sized businesses. However, additional features like site recovery for multi-domains and multi-data center deployment scenarios will be useful for different customers.

As for technical support, sometimes we spend a lot of time explaining what we need to do, what we do, etc. with a lot of emails, conversations, and chats that are not very efficient. Then at other times, we have really perfect and amazing conversations with support engineers, and they quickly provide solutions and resolve our problems.

Overall, however, I've seen a decrease in the expertise of Hypervisor vendors. Previously, the time for resolution from vendor support was less than it is now.

We have used RDS, VMware, and Parellels. We switched to Citrix Hypervisor because of its scalability, management, and stability. CVAD was also a factor.

The initial setup is really easy. If you have basic knowledge of IT technology, deployment is not really difficult. However, additional components like provisioning require more knowledge and expertise, but they can be handled by mid-range admins.

Depending on the case, deployment can take from two hours to several days.

You should try Citrix Hypervisor. You may have pain points sometimes, but if you build it and tune it well for your requirements, this solution can help you do your job in different scenarios without any problems. It's all about business continuity and the stability of your solution.

Overall, I would rate Citrix Hypervisor at seven on a scale from one to ten.