Citrix Xen vs VMware ESXi: Detailed Comparison

Rashmi Bhardwaj | Blog,BUZZ,Cloud & Virtualization
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Introduction: VMware vs XenServer

While picking the hypervisor for your association, contrasting Xen vs VMware is an incredible spot to begin. Picking between Citrix Xen vs VMware vSphere ESXi,  truly relies upon size and sort of business you have and your spending limit.

vSphere of Xen has a lower price than VMware and also does not accompany with maintenance. Whereas, XenServer is free and also provide a maintenance plan.

In regards to cost, the decision also relies upon your IT staff’s skill and budgetary constraints. Overall, XenServer is a free, simple to utilize, enterprise prepared stage. While vSphere has a lot of additional highlights, it is quite difficult to utilize and also costs more. If your condition cannot support vSphere, it is useful or it might be possible that you did not require those extra highlights.

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Most of the small and medium organizations with limited spending plans pick XenServer inc comparison to VMware, which is more qualified for a lot of bigger ventures that have a sizable IT staff, and the assets to take care of expenses.

Related- Basic ESXi Host Configuration: Step-by-Step

Difference Between Citrix Xen & VMware vSphere ESXi

The difference between the two types of hypervisors can be more clearly understood by the below given points of comparison:

  1. Open Source: Xen is an open-source virtualization server whereas VMware is that which provides virtualization software for x86-compatible computers.
  2. Dynamic Resource Allocation: This feature is provided by the VMware whereas Xen does not.
  3. Graphics Support: VMware’s Graphics Support is much less comprehensive than XenServer’s but much more limited.
  4. Pricing and Licensing: XenServer is free and open-source, and also an extremely powerful hypervisor without buying additional features. Moreover, you can purchase a 1-year plan for maintenance license. In addition, Standard and Enterprise are two editions for maintenance. Whereas, VMware needs a proprietary license and is licensed per processor. VMware does offer a free version called ESXi, but it is not nearly as powerful or functional as XenServer’s free offering.
  5. Installation and Configuration: Designed in such a way that the process of installation is quickly done without the need to configure a complex management infrastructure or create a dedicated storage network. Whereas in VMware, provides up to 4GB free disk space to decompress the installation archive and approximately 2GB of these files are deleted after the installation is complete.
  6. Host Server Management: XenServer is an enterprise-ready, cloud-proven virtualization platform with all the capabilities needed to create and manage a virtual infrastructure using the XenCenter management console. In VMware, vSphere’s management kernel is completely custom grown by VMware. It does not use Linux, UNIX, or POSIX. The server management system for VMware uses the BusyBox environment to provide a shell environment for users to work in.
  7. User-Friendly Management: XenServer is typically considered easier to use and manage, and because it is open-source, it is constantly improving features, such as IntelliCache designed to reduce the overall costs and improve performance of a XenDesktop installation. vSphere’s GUI can be a challenge for some. It is designed for Linux, making it more difficult for Windows users to install and use.
  8. Host Server Limits: The maximum limit per host for XenServer is 1000. vSphere’s host server limits are slightly more complicated and updated often.

Comparison Table: Xen vs VMware

Below table summarizes the difference between Xen and VMware:

vsphere vs xenserver

Besides all the points, an important factor for choosing the hypervisor for your organization is the usage or experience. It is also important that the hypervisor’s feature parity, documentation, and the level of community experience is also considered.

Related- VMware switches

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