Canonical’s release of Ubuntu Server 12.04 LTS now includes support for the Xen Hypervisor (version 4.1.2), Xen Cloud Platform (XCP) packages and XCP OpenStack plug-ins. The inclusion of the Xen Cloud Platform packages into Ubuntu Server 12.04 LTS makes Xen more easily accessible to Ubuntu users and adds a wealth of enterprise virtualization functionality.
XCP Benefits for Ubuntu Users:
- Ubuntu users can get started with Xen and stay up-to-date through the native Ubuntu package management system and update service
- Ubuntu users are now able to make use of enterprise virtualization functionality such as Host Pools, Storage Repositories, Performance Monitoring, Host Plugins, Guest VM Templates and Open vSwitch integration (for a detailed list see the XCP feature matrix).
- Ubuntu users can interact with Xen through the powerful Xen API (XAPI), with its host of integrations and tools.
- Ubuntu users can now customize XCP to their needs, whereas traditionally XCP appliances only utilized pre-defined configurations. For example users can now choose the latest versions of the Xen Hypervisor, Open vSwitch, Python other software in their Ubuntu Dom 0.
For more information see the XCP-API package and documentation. This is just the beginning: XCP in Ubuntu will evolve with the help of our user and developer communities. You can influence the direction of XCP in Ubuntu by attending the XCP design and Xen design session at Ubuntu Developer Summit – Q.
Supporting Quotes:
“The inclusion of XCP into Ubuntu lets users keep up to date with Xen with a single command.” said Paul Oh, Director of Business Development at Canonical. “The combination of Xen and Ubuntu offers a compelling combination of performance and security for the Cloud that Ubuntu users will find very compelling.”
“The collaboration between the Xen and Ubuntu communities was a great example of the power of open source. XCP-XAPI packages in Ubuntu will enable Ubuntu users to build Xen based clouds more easily.“ said Mark Heath, VP of Products for XenServer at Citrix. “As we continue to integrate and optimize Xen and XCP with Ubuntu, we look forward to meeting our users needs and helping to evolve better solutions for cloud.â€
“I am pleased that project Kronos, which was started five months ago, has delivered XCP into Ubuntu Server 12.04 LTS. Until now, it was only possible to use XCP in Linux appliances within a tightly controlled environment. In Ubuntu Server 12.04 LTS we changed how users interact with XCP, providing much more flexibility and enabling anybody to use Ubuntu as a XCP Dom0 kernel.†said Lars Kurth, Community Manager, Xen.org. “I am also very excited about the possibilities this opens to build CloudStack, Eucalyptus, OpenNebula and OpenStack powered clouds on Ubuntu and XCP-XAPI.“