Date Archives: January 2015

Citrix has announced XenServer 6.5, their newest release of the company’s commercial virtualization platform based on the open-source Xen Project hypervisor. With the update, XenServer now offers a full 64-bit kernel architecture, which allows customers to leverage the latest hardware and OS platforms, and supports enterprise-grade networking, storage and workload management.

As of today all UK Servers customers can opt to have XenServer 6.5 pre-installed on their dedicated server, the new 64-bit kernel architecture features significant improvements in networking and storage performance, providing customers with a virtualization platform for running new and existing workloads in their workspace and datacenter environments. The new release also re-introduces enterprise-class features for workload balancing (WLB) and distributed virtual switch controllers (DVSC).

Official update notes are as follows:

XenServer 6.5 introduces many architectural improvements which aim to improve overall performance and removes a number of scalability limitations in XenServer 6.2.

• 64-bit Control Domain Linux Kernel
  • The new 64-bit Control Domain (Dom0) enables XenServer to accommodate many more PCI devices per host (NICs, GPUs, and so on), and allows the use of devices that are 64-bit only (including many Solid State Drive solutions).
• New Xen Project Hypervisor v4.4
  • XenServer 6.5 includes the latest Xen Project hypervisor available; v4.4 delivers many improvements. It vastly increases the number of virtual event channels available for Dom0, from 1023 to 131071, which translates into a correspondingly larger number of attached virtual devices.
• Re-introduction and Improvements to Workload Balancing
  • XenServer 6.5 sees the return of the WorkLoad Balancing (WLB) virtual appliance. WLB gives system administrators deep insight into system performance, allowing infrastructure optimization.
• Distribute Virtual Switch Controller – new version included and deprecation rescinded
  • The Distributed Virtual Switch Controller (DVSC) is fully supported within XenServer 6.5 and the deprecation notice issued at 6.2 is rescinded.
• Newly Supported Guests
  • Support is added for the following new guests:
  • Ubuntu 14.04
  • SLES 11 SP3 and SLES 12
  • CentOS 5.10, 5.11, 6.5, and 7.0
  • RedHat 5.10, 5.11, 6.5, and 7.0
  • Oracle Linux 5.10, 5.11, 6.5, and 7.0
  • Oracle UEK 6.x

XenServer 6.5 Full Release Notes

XenServer 6.5 Product Page

We have today re-launched an updated and improved version of our online dedicated server ordering quote tool.  When ordering dedicated servers customers can now fully customise a server to their specification with the ability to customise hard disks, RAID cards, memory and operating system.

The customised quote tool can provide upto 4,000 different server configurations however if you have a hardware requirement in mind that is not listed then please don’t hesitate to contact us and I am sure we will be able to help out!  To customise any server simply click the order now button on any of our product pages and continue to configure