Citrix Offers Free XenServer, Embraces Microsoft Hyper-V

server virtualization software

The moves come on the eve of VMworld Europe, one of two annual events sponsored primarily by VMware.

Citrix on Monday unveiled a revamped version of its virtualization platform, XenServer, which will be available for free to any user for unlimited production deployment.

Microsoft Hyper-V is currently available as part of Windows Server 2008 Standard, Enterprise and Datacenter editions, as well as a stand-alone hypervisor Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008.

Citrix has been saying for years that it supports both its own XenServer and Microsoft's Hyper-V technologies equally, and that this is even more evident with the new free version of XenServer, said John Humphreys, senior director of marketing at Citrix.

"If customers want Hyper-V, they get Hyper-V," Humphreys said. "If they want XenServer, they get XenServer. We're not religious about it."

For Citrix, the revenue opportunity from a free XenServer is selling its new Citrix Essentials tool, which manages virtual servers created with either XenServer or Hyper-V, Humphreys said.

While basic hypervisors have been free for years, most have had limited practical use in real-world environments. However, the new XenServer product differs in that it has advanced features approaching those of VMware's ESX offering, including live virtual machine motion, resource pooling and multinode management.

The most important of these, and the key feature cited by solution providers as missing from XenServer, is XenMotion.

Like VMware's VMotion, XenMotion allows the live migration of virtual servers from one physical server to another, a key part of a high-availability environment, Humphreys said.

"About 60 percent to 70 percent of customers have live migration as an absolute requirement in their RFPs (request for proposals)," he said. "VMware offers it only in the enterprise edition of its technology, which costs over $5,000."

XenServer's resource pooling feature also allows users to create a pool of up to 32 physical server hosts to which virtual machines can be dynamically migrated. For instance, Humphreys said, a customer could have an engineering pool and a finance pool, or separate pools for different geographies.

With multinode management, customers can centrally manage, query, provision and monitor all their virtual servers. This capability is free of charge from Citrix, but would require VMware users to purchase vCenter, which costs about $5,000, Humphreys said.

"vCenter includes a physical server, which is a single point of failure," he said. "Ours runs across all hosts so it's redundant, fault-tolerant and free."

The free Citrix XenServer will be available for download from the Citrix Web site and other download portals by the end of March.

The Citrix Essentials offering was developed to boost the enterprise management capabilities of Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V and System Center in storage management, provisioning services and lab automation. It is also intended to help make virtualization environments more scalable, manageable and agile, Citrix said.

Citrix Essentials comes in two primary versions. Citrix Essentials for XenServer manages virtual machines created using XenServer, while Citrix Essentials for Microsoft Hyper-V, also known as "Project Encore," does the same for Microsoft's technology, Humphreys said.

It includes Automated Lab Management, which streamlines the process of building, testing, sharing and delivering applications on-demand throughout the full application lifecycle, from development labs to production servers.

Also included is Citrix's StorageLink technology, which leverages the native capabilities of third-party, array-based storage systems to ease the management of customers' existing storage infrastructures from their virtualized environments.

Citrix Essentials also includes Dynamic Provisioning Services, which helps customers cut costs by letting them centrally manage common sets of master server images and stream them on-demand to either virtual machines or physical servers.

It also has high-availability features, such as automatic restart if there is a host or virtual machine failure.

Versions of Citrix Essentials for both XenServer and Hyper-V will be available through channel partners on April 7, with a suggested retail price of between $1,500 to $5,000 per physical server, Humphreys said.

Both will be available in an enterprise edition, which includes all the features except Automated Lab Management, and a platinum addition, which includes the Automated Lab Management, he said.

In an effort to promote the product, Citrix is making Essentials for Microsoft Hyper-V available to both Citrix and Microsoft resellers worldwide, and the company will collaborate with Microsoft on marketing and training.

New Suit - Privacy

Australia v Pakistan: third Test, day one – as it happened

Key events

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And what a day it was. It looked early like Australia might win it in six sessions, ploughing through Pakistan. Hazlewood and Starc were both running hot, then Cummins got into the wickets. But Rizwan started the resistance, Salman continued it, and Jamal finished it off in style with Hamza as the taciturn sidekick. We’ve seen a wonderful display of Test cricket, and not a drop of rain fell.

We’ll be back tomorrow, with Angus Fontaine to start day two and me for the second half.

In the meantime, here is a wrap of the first day at the SCG and Warner’s gripping cameo right before stumps:

Updated at 01.59 EST

1st over: Australia 4-0 (Warner 4, Khawaja 0) Warner starts with a boundary! Of course he does. Loosener from Sajid, short and wide, cut away. The sun breaks through the clouds for a moment, sending shadows across the ground, and Warner tucks two through midwicket. Adjusts his helmet, gloves, gets settled again. Defends coming forward.

Then again… and nearly bowled! The ball creeps through under the bat, bounces off the pitch, and just clears middle stump! Another block, and that is the day.

And Sajid Khan will bowl! The off-spinner. Interesting move.

Warner will face. Khawaja walks to the far end.

Here comes Warner, to a huge cheer. Khawaja hugs him on the boundary line, then hangs well back to let Warner run out alone. And the Pakistan players form a guard of honour. Shan Masood shakes his hand and the others pat him on the back as he goes through. Nice touch. Now they’ll try to get him out.

Dreadful over rate again. Take away two for the change of innings and there are still ten overs left to bowled, and it’s five minutes until the end of the extra half hour.

David Warner ran off the field as that last wicket fell to get ready. Pakistan will probably get one over in.

77.1 overs: Pakistan 313-10 (Hamza 7) An incredible performance from Jamal and Hamza, dragging Pakistan from 227 for 9 all the way up to 313 all out. Both openers made second-ball ducks, remember. The score was 96 for 5 when Shan Masood was out. But Rizwan clouted 88, Agha Salman batted really well for 53, then Jamal swung blindly at first but built into his innings with increasing confidence, and put on most of the 86 runs for the last partnership.

That’s one run short of Pakistan’s biggest stand for the last wicket against Australia, when Asif Iqbal and Iqbal Qasim added 87 in Adelaide in 1976.

We’ve seen something special today.

The fun is over. Jamal goes to the well one more time, striking Lyon out over deep midwicket. There’s plenty on it, but this time not quite the distance, and the placement isn’t into the gap but towards Starc at a wide long on. The fast bowler’s dependable hands hold onto the catch.

But what a performance.

77th over: Pakistan 313-9 (Jamal 82, Hamza 7) It’s also Pakistan’s 6th-biggest partnership for the 10th wicket. Incredible. Travis Head is on for a bowl. Off spin, if you don’t know. Turns one in and hits Jamal in front, but the umpire says going down leg and Australia have no reviews. Jamal advances to strike one out to deep midwicket, bouncing in front of the fielder, and takes a run with two balls left.

Hamza does his bit. He’s faced 43 balls.

76th over: Pakistan 312-9 (Jamal 81, Hamza 7) Absolutely smashed! Huge hit from Jamal, way over midwicket and clean as a whistle for six. Lyon is getting tonked. And again, straight over his head for four! Amazing batting. Turns away a single. Hamza defends. Here’s one partnership stat for you.

75th over: Pakistan 301-9 (Jamal 70, Hamza 7) Again Jamal takes a run off the third ball against Cummins, pulling, and again Hamza gets through the rest.

We’re getting into ‘looking up record 10th-wicket partnerships’ territory. Not that this one is near the top yet, but to see where it stands.

74th over: Pakistan 300-9 (Jamal 69, Hamza 7) Been a bit quiet, hasn’t it? Time for another Jamal hit? Yep! Belts Lyon out into the deep, between Starc at long on and Smith at deep midwicket, and picks the gap to perfection.

Not content with that, it’s time for a switch hit! Shapes up left-handed, has Lyon’s stock ball turning into him, and wallops it over deep point for six. Goodness me, what a strike. The Australians have allowed him to build into this innings, and now it is flourishing. What a performance.

A last-wicket partnership of 73 has taken Pakistan to 300, as a conventional sweep for one turns over the strike with two balls to go. Hamza faces balls 36 and 37 of his innings to push this pair into another over.

73rd over: Pakistan 289-9 (Jamal 58, Hamza 7) Cummins to Jamal, then. Surely the Australian captain is the one to break up this party. Slip, gully, cover, midwicket up closer, the rest are back. Cummins bowls length anyway. Again Jamal takes a run third ball. That feels a tad early, even with Hamza doing well. Cummins goes around the wicket to the left-hander, brings in the two catchers under the lid. Straight to short leg but off the pad, crowd goes up but the players don’t. Hamza plays the next down well, past Head at short leg. And defends the last.

72nd over: Pakistan 288-9 (Jamal 57, Hamza 7) Jamal’s confidence in Hamza grows, single off the third ball of Lyon’s over flicked out square. Two bat pads, two slips for Hamza. He blocks through the over.

71st over: Pakistan 287-9 (Jamal 56, Hamza 7) Cummins gets himself back on to rough up Hamza, who is every chance to pop one up to short leg here, jumping into the air trying to play the short ball down. Bat-pad catchers both sides of the wicket. He gets the toe of the bat on a ball that stays low, bouncing through to Carey. Then more runs! Defends and it deflects off the straight bat square of gully. They take the second with one ball to come in the over, and Hamza pushes it behind square to stay alive.

70th over: Pakistan 285-9 (Jamal 56, Hamza 5) First run for Hamza! Four of them. And the crowd as anticipated rises to him. That’s nice. Sure, it was an outside edge barely past the hands of gully to the inside, but he deserves some reward. Then he drops a defensive shot away and Jamal is quick to run through and pinch strike. Starc bowls short and he uppercuts him for four!

Magnificent innings, really. Bravery, application, some luck, but from a parlous position he has fought back.

Wickets when they were being bossed in Perth, brave runs under fire in Melbourne as well as contributing with the ball, and an even better innings here. A lot of Pakistan players don’t leave Australia with their reputations enhanced, but in a few days he will be one.

Follows up with a back-foot punch through cover for another four, and ducks a bouncer to close the over. Hamza back on strike. That’s another 13-run over. And the partnership is worth 58.

69th over: Pakistan 272-9 (Jamal 48, Hamza 0) Mir Hamza has faced 21 balls now. Labuschagne is continuing, Jamal slapping him to long on but not running. Still five fielders back. Waits a couple more balls, then skips down, opens his hips up and smacks four straight down the ground. Lifted away. Runs an outside edge to gully. Has one ball to keep strike as the field comes up, and does the next best thing, advancing to flick four through midwicket.

Give Warner a bowl.

68th over: Pakistan 264-9 (Jamal 40, Hamza 0) Yep yep, it’s Mitchell Starc. From the Randwick End, windmilling his arms. Slip, gully, leg gully, short leg, backward point all lurking. Fine leg for the top edge.

Starts too wide and Hamza leaves. On target next ball as he fends over short leg! Head got a touch on that above his namesake body part but it was too high to do anything but parry. Wafts at the third, ducks the fourth. Just seeing a graphic that shows Australia’s quicks have bowled four balls fuller than the designated “short” length in this entire session. Starc continues on trend but Hamza gets behind it. One to survive… and he misses down the leg side. That applies to batter and bowler both.

67th over: Pakistan 264-9 (Jamal 40, Hamza 0) Labuschagne continues with a half-tracker, Jamal cuts to long off. No run. Floats up the next one nicely, defended on the front foot. Blocks a few, might have run himself out while turning back had Marsh not fumbled at point. Reverse attempt at the last ball and misses! No dice on the appeal but that leaves Hamza on strike for the next over. Surely a fast bowler comes on?

66th over: Pakistan 264-9 (Jamal 40, Hamza 0) Warner is wearing two baggy greens now, fielding near the fence. Jamal flicks fine but decides not to try running two. Belts to midwicket and does try it, but good fielding keeps him to one. Four catchers crowd the bat with four balls to bowl to Hamza. Blocks the first, misses the second, straight on past the left-hander’s edge. Leaves the third. Edges the fourth just in front of second slip! Survives. If Hamza gets a run this place will erupt.

65th over: Pakistan 263-9 (Jamal 39, Hamza 0) Australia are turning to Labuschagne to have a bowl! This partnership really has annoyed them. Marnus does get one to turn past the edge, but aside from that it’s the same deal: five balls to Jamal, one run, Hamza blocks one.

64th over: Pakistan 262-9 (Jamal 38, Hamza 0) Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V. Aamer Jamal faces five balls from Lyon, takes a run, and Hamza blocks the last.

63rd over: Pakistan 261-9 (Jamal 37, Hamza 0) It’s become predictable now. Jamal isn’t a comprehensively good enough player to need the whole field back. Surely conventional bowling would challenge him? Here he has licence to swing – and he does so again for six! Strikes Hazlewood over square leg, and that’s not even a normal pull shot, that’s almost off a length. Picked that up beautifully. Slips come back for the fifth ball, Hazlewood bowls channel, and Jamal nearly edges it. One ball left and he plays it smartly, advancing at the bowler to create the shorter length to cut it into the gap at point and keep strike. Might even have run three had they gone hard immediately, but he settles for one. Did well to hit that softly enough that it wouldn’t race to the fence. Drinks.

Updated at 00.53 EST

62nd over: Pakistan 254-9 (Jamal 30, Hamza 0) Hard straight drive from Jamal against Lyon but long on is back. Doesn’t take the single behind squrae either. Five out. Slip, midwicket, mid off and cover within cooee of the bat. Reverse sweep single from the fourth ball. Hamza takes his tally of deliveries faced up to nine.

61st over: Pakistan 253-9 (Jamal 29, Hamza 0) Hazlewood to Jamal, who keeps turning down singles, and makes a couple of errors when the ball is in the channel. How about that. Nearly spoons back a catch, after almost dragging on tohis stumps. Finally from the fifth ball, he pulls a run into miles of open space on the leg side. That’s all too easy. The Australians appeal for a catch off Hamza to short leg, but it was all thigh and no bat.

They’ll be praying for the rain to arrive. There’s a classic Nasty Little Session™ coming any minute.

60th over: Pakistan 252-9 (Jamal 28, Hamza 0) Lyon versus the Flying Jamal. Sweeps square but doesn’t run. Backs away and tries to punch through cover but Lyon gets too much turn into him. Waits and stabs the next one. Reverses a run from the fourth ball and again it will be Hamza x 2. Again, the 11 delivers.

59th over: Pakistan 251-9 (Jamal 27, Hamza 0) Boshed! Hazlewood back for Starc, and Jamal calmly smacks him off a length through backward square for four.Then rocks back and uppercuts but hits it so firmly it goes out in front of point, Khawaja around again. “Uzzie!” screams a guy in the crowd so loudly that I can hear him from the far side of the ground. He’s in the Trumper Stand, we’re in the Bradman. And Hazlewood is in the Members, as Jamal batters him for six! Cross bat again, and finally connects one clean.

Splices the next ball out to midwicket for a run, airborne but safe, and gives Hamza two balls to survive. Hamza does his part. That’s 13 from the over and the 250 up for Pakistan, a great result from where they were. Jamal has done his bit.

58th over: Pakistan 238-9 (Jamal 14, Hamza 0) Cummins decides to try buying a wicket with spin. A wristy clip to midwicket gets nothing. The reverse sweep gets four! Thanks to Hazlewood’s misfield. Jamal wasn’t even trying to run one, he doesn’t want Mir Hamza on strike, but Hazlewood gets his feet tangled while getting to the ball and barely gets fingers on it. Jamal smashes one straight, and Lyon nearly takes a superb rebound catch! Tips it up in the air, spins in his follow through and dives back, but can’t reach the butter-up. Jamal turns over strike with one ball to go, the field comes up, and Hamza defends.

57th over: Pakistan 233-9 (Jamal 9, Hamza 0) A chance for Cummins to get six, as again Jamal plays teeball and doesn’t connect. Wears that one in the armpit. Cummins tries a slower-ball yorker, running is fingers over it, but Jamal spots it and gets forward. Then finally connects with his cross-bat shot, in between two of the leg-side boundary riders for four. Smith couldn’t see it at deep forward square, just holds his palms to the sky. It’s very gloomy out there. The crowd at deep point goes wild as Khawaja starts doing push-ups, clapping between each rep, then he has to race after a ball that Jamal bunts out that way to keep the strike.

56th over: Pakistan 228-9 (Jamal 4, Hamza 0) Starc bowling the bumpers now, and Jamal nearly edges one pulling. Races a single after knocking a fuller one to midwicket. Interesting to read Phil Walker’s interview with Wes Hall, being reminded how the ideal of bouncing tailenders is seen completely differently now.

55th over: Pakistan 227-9 (Jamal 3, Hasan 0) Booming pull shot from Jamal facing Cummins, but the only boom is ball onto shoulder into grille. Nearly swings himself off his feet. Gets his helmet checked, says he’ll carry on, and plays the same shot again. Misses totally, but doesn’t get whacked this time. Third time lucky, a bottom edge from his baseball swing and a run to deep backward. Still five out. Those three on the leg side, plus a fly slip and a deep backward point. Then a mid on, square leg, short leg, and gully. Acres of space through cover, anywhere from gully to mid on is open. If he could just flat-bat one in front of point he’d get four all over. But he can’t. Fences at a ball outside the off stump, unsure about the in-between length. The Australians think that he’s nicked it, and use their last review to learn that he hasn’t. Umpire Gough stands vindicated.

But the wicket comes to end the over, Hasan picking up a pull shot from his hip, making decent contact, getting what would be enough of a ride on a lot of grounds, but Starc has heels by the rope at fine leg as he takes it bucket style around his sternum. Cummins has five.

Updated at 00.15 EST

54th over: Pakistan 226-8 (Jamal 1, Hasan 0) Jamal batted well in Melbourne too, in the first innings, but the job here is too big for him. Hasan Ali is nowhere coming out to join him. Fends at his first ball, walks across and tries to a lift a pull shot off his stumps from the next.

Could all be over in seconds now. Five in the deep for Salman Agha, including three on the leg side – forward square, backward square, fine leg. And somehow he punts a pull shot straight to the regulation square leg, the only man within 50 metres of him on the leg side.

Updated at 00.07 EST

53rd over: Pakistan 224-7 (Salman 52, Jamal 1) Cummins looking for three five-fors in a row against Pakistan. Almost gets Aamer Jamal gloving to silly point but it goes past and earns the lower-order man a run. Off the glove, painful, as he ruefully inspects his hand at the non-striker’s end. Salman follows with a lovely dab to deep third, and there are cheers for Warner sliding on his belly to keep it to three, but cheers also for Salman who notches consecutive fifties in Australia. No small feat. And at a rattling rate as well.

That’s daft, but it was always coming. Sajid keeps playing a flash outside off, even with a fly slip there, and gets away with it a couple of times. Then he flaps a short ball straight to square leg and is caught. The whole field is there for cross-bat shots and he plays into the trap.

Updated at 00.00 EST

52nd over: Pakistan 220-6 (Salman 49, Sajid 15) Pulling, but keeping the ball down, is Salman. He goes high to low on those shots and manages to make them safer. Picks off Starc twice in the over, one boundary squarer and one finer.

Updated at 23.53 EST

51st over: Pakistan 211-6 (Salman 41, Sajid 14) More bouncers to the bouncer field from Cummins’ over. Oh Lord, the sky is very grey and menacing over behind the green corrugated roofs of the Ladies Stand.

50th over: Pakistan 209-6 (Salman 39, Sajid 13) Salman is happy to take the single early in the over. It failed spectacularly at the end of the Melbourne Test. Sajid is a better batter than any of those final four, but he’s still facing a fired-up Starc. Hooks a run without much control, turning his head away on impact as it skews to deep backward square. Salman pulls another. Sajid glides a run away, via a deflection from Marsh in the gully, on the bounce. That’s a solid over of collecting.

Updated at 23.45 EST

49th over: Pakistan 204-6 (Salman 37, Sajid 11) Back after tea, and Cummins is gonna keep on bouncing. Salman, first, who pulls a run. Sajid, second, who hops and sizzles like drops on a hot skillet. Then gets one ball pitched up and punches it for four. Through mid off. Cop that, Captain Pat.

Hold me closer, Tiny Trev.

“Gutted Rizwan’s gone, but I have to say I’m a fan of how the players have taken to the Pakistan Way philosophy. It looks good on them!”

It does look good, Rowan Sweeney. It would sit more comfortably if they weren’t still battling to reach 250.

Well, the visitors fought back into the contest in that session, though they lost the key man Rizwan shortly before it ended. Still Australia’s match to boss.

48th over: Pakistan 199-6 (Salman 36, Sajid 7) Marsh continues to Sajid, who is dropped! Khawaja at third slip puts down a flat and fast but gettable chance, knee high. No run there, one later for Sajid off the pads, and that’s tea.

Updated at 23.32 EST