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Our pursuit of interoperability and portability for virtual infrastructure has pased a new milestone: The Tech Preview of the free XenConvert 2.0 utility is now available for free download. We'd love to get your feedback on its features.
For starters, XenConvert 2.0 supports direct import of VMware VMDK virtual hard disks into XenServer, including all v2v operations. It has also productized the Citrix Project Kensho implementation of the DMTF portable application packaging format, OVF (Open Virtual machine Format), which Citrix has helped to develop and standardize. OVF virtual appliance packages will now directly import in to XenServer to instantiate a complex virtualized application stack, together with all of its relevant infrastructure resource requirements.
XenConvert's v2v capabilities mean that even VMware dependent OVFs will be able to be imported into XenServer, which in turn means zero switching cost to XenServer. Since XenServer itself is also free, my guess is XenConvert 2.0 puts you well into the black on your next virtualization project. Finally, any VM you import into VHD files for use by XenServer can also be used in our provisioning services engine (the artist formerly known as Citrix Provisioning Server for Data Centers) to allow you to dynamically stream a VM onto any hypervisor and even bare metal!
Here are some other nifty features that the XenConvert team have added :
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- Offline conversion of VMware VMDK into OVF/VHD for future import into XenServer via XenConvert or Hyper-V via Project Kensho
- P2V conversion of native workloads into OVF/VHD for direct or offline import into XenServer via XenConvert or Hyper-V via Project Kensho
- XVA (XenServer internal runtime format) to OVF/VHD for direct or offline import into XenServer via XenConvert or Hyper-V via Project Kensho
- Substantially improved import transfer time of OVF/VHD files into any XenServer SR
- OVF Signing for security and to check that packages have not been tampered with since creation
XenConvert is rapidly becoming a vital component in our tool bag because it offers customers portability between virtualization platforms, native and clouds. It offers the industry a powerful answer to proprietary virtualization solutions. More cool features will be included when XenConvert 2.0 ships for real, likely within the next 90 days. Give it a whirl and give us your feedback.
Comments (6)
Apr 18, 2009
Anonymous says:
Very good Citrix is slowly catching up, but remember, VMware does it for a year...Very good Citrix is slowly catching up, but remember, VMware does it for a years.
VMware Converter does everything you mention from some time already, it is free, and it supports converting XenServer machines (as well many, many other obscure formats).
Jun 08
Anonymous says:
Tech preview??? Only now? Citrix just came to late to conversion train...Tech preview??? Only now?
Citrix just came to late to conversion train...
Jun 14
Anonymous says:
Comments like those are sorta useless. You can endlessly replay remarks like tha...Comments like those are sorta useless. You can endlessly replay remarks like that when a new guy enters the competition, and that's usually not going to change for awhile unless the old player in the field starts to get lazy. Guess what? The new guys keep them from getting lazy.
VMware has done lots of things that others haven't for awhile now - but they don't make a huge chunk of their primary offering free, either. It wasn't always free, but when you look at the scope of what a person can do without having to shell out money immediately, XenServer is an attractive option these days. What they're counting on is for this to bring the money home when people like me (who are just using this at home) recommend trying it at the workplace, particularly when a test implementation can be done without having to begin negotiating with a sales team.
(disclaimer: we use VMWare ESX at my workplace and that is not likely to change, but you never know where your next job will take you, and I'd probably go the Xen route for a proof of concept if I had to do a VM rollout from scratch)
Jun 14
Anonymous says:
Whoops, better clarify that before everyone jumps on something I mis-phrased. I ...Whoops, better clarify that before everyone jumps on something I mis-phrased. I meant to say "primary enterprise offering" - VirtualCenter/vCenter, as opposed to ESX itself, which I know is free.
Sep 22
Anonymous says:
I am unable to download the xenconvert software.... Please help...I am unable to download the xenconvert software.... Please help...
Oct 21
Gary Chan says:
XenConvert 2.1 Technology Preview can be found here.XenConvert 2.1 Technology Preview can be found here.
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