Support
We provide Technical Support services to customers with a XenServer Premium Edition or Standard Edition license. To access this support, you can open a Support Case online or contact the support center by phone if you experience technical difficulties. For more information, see the XenServer support page.
- If you are using a preview feature in XenServer, you cannot access this support, but we do value your feedback. For more information, see Support for preview features.
- If you are using XenServer Trial Edition (unlicensed), you cannot access this support, but we do value your feedback. For more information, see Provide feedback for XenServer and XenCenter.
Frequent updates
XenServer 8 uses a frequent update model that delivers features, fixes, and improvements to your hosts. We expect you to consume all outstanding updates within six months of their release to remain in support. If the update level of your pool is older than six months, we might ask you to reproduce the issue on the latest update level as part of our investigation.
Note:
Applying updates is only assured to work when the previous state of the pool is less than six months old. If you haven’t applied updates for more than six months, updating to the latest update level is not tested and might not work.
Support checklist
This section guides you through possible actions to take when you experience an issue in your XenServer environment. By completing as many of these steps as you can, you help us troubleshoot your issue faster.
First steps
When first experiencing the issue, complete these steps:
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Before carrying out any recovery steps, capture any logs that you can from the environment:
- If the issue relates to XenServer, capture a server status report (SSR) of the host or pool where the issue was seen. Go to the XenCenter Tools menu then Server Status Report.
- If the issue relates to XenCenter:
- Get the application log files by going to the XenCenter Help menu then View XenCenter Log Files.
- Capture screenshots of the relevant displays.
- If the issue relates to a VM, gather any relevant logs from the VM operating system.
For more information about getting log information, see Gather logs.
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Make a note of the synchronization date, synchronization checksum, and update checksum for your host or pool. For more information, see View pending tasks.
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If necessary, attempt to recover your environment to a working state.
Self-help
We provide information and guidance that can help you diagnose and resolve issues you might experience.
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Check this documentation for help:
- Known Issues: This article lists known issues in XenServer and, if applicable, any workarounds you can apply.
- Early Access and Normal: These articles list available updates to XenServer. A fix for your issue might have recently been released.
- Troubleshooting: This article is an entrypoint into the troubleshooting information provided in the documentation.
- Review the section of the documentation related to the feature that is showing the issue. There might be constraints to this feature that are causing the issue or configuration options that can help fix it.
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The Citrix Knowledge Center contains many articles written by our Technical Support team that describe solutions to previously seen issues with XenServer.
If you take any diagnostic action or change your environment configuration as a result of this information, make a note of it and let us know if you do contact support.
Update to the latest version
If you are already using the latest version of all your XenServer components, skip to Capture logs.
If you are not running the latest XenServer, XenCenter, or related component, the fix for your issue might be included in the latest version or update level. We recommend that you update your environment to the latest version, if possible.
- Update your pool to the latest update.
- Update XenCenter to the latest version.
- If the issue relates to a Windows VM, update the XenServer VM Tools for Windows to the latest version.
- If the issue relates to a Linux VM, ensure the latest version of the XenServer VM Tools for Linux is installed. These tools are available on https://xenserver.com/downloads.
- If the issue relates to Workload Balancing or the XenServer Conversion Manager, ensure you are using the latest version available on https://xenserver.com/downloads.
Reproduce the issue on the latest version
If you updated any of the components in your environment since you encountered the issue, attempt to reproduce the issue now.
Capture logs
- If the issue relates to XenServer, capture a server status report (SSR) of the host or pool where the issue was encountered. Go to the XenCenter Tools menu then Server Status Report.
- If the issue relates to XenCenter:
- Get the application log files by going to the XenCenter Help menu then View XenCenter Log Files.
- Capture screenshots of the relevant displays.
- If the issue relates to a VM, gather any relevant logs from the VM operating system.
Contact support
For methods of getting in touch with us, see the XenServer support page.
Provide the following information to support:
- Date and time when the issue was encountered
- Pool update channel (Early Access or Normal)
- Pool coordinator’s name
- Date and time when the pool was last synchronized
- Synchronization checksum for the pool coordinator
- Date and time when the pool was last updated
- Update checksum for all hosts in the pool
- Any relevant screenshots to help to describe the issue
- Any change or event that might have triggered the issue
- Any known workaround
- Any diagnostic steps that you’ve already taken
- The SSR for the problem pool
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If applicable, the XenCenter logs
Note:
If you are unable to reproduce the issue on an up-to-date pool, attach the SSR that you captured when the issue first happened and explain why you were unable to apply all updates.
Support for preview features
Note:
Preview features can be changed or removed with minimal notice. Preview features are not guaranteed to be delivered to production support.
Public previews
Some updates include preview features, which give you an early look at capabilities that might be included in the product later. These preview features can be deployed in a production environment, but are not supported for production use.
The status of a preview feature can be indicated in the following ways:
- In the Updates View of XenCenter, the feature is listed as a Preview Feature.
- In product documentation for the feature, it is noted as (Preview).
- If the feature can be used through XenCenter, the UI text might note that it is a preview.
Some preview features might require you to set a flag in your environment to use the feature. For more information, see the product documentation for the feature.
If you have feedback about or encounter an issue with a preview feature, reach out to us at feedback@xenserver.com. Do not contact Technical Support for preview features.
Private previews
Sometimes, we provide preview features to a select set of customers as a private preview. If you are interested in working with us to try out features you might like to see in XenServer in future, get in touch at feedback@xenserver.com.
Private previews are not supported in your production environment.
Provide feedback for XenServer and XenCenter
Help us to improve our product by providing feedback on the features and usability of our new release. To provide feedback, do not contact Technical Support but instead submit a feedback email. Trial Edition users can report a bug through the bugs portal.
Submit a feedback email
Email any feedback and queries to feedback@xenserver.com. To help us understand the full context of your situation, ensure that you include the following information in your feedback email:
- Your full name
- Your company or business
- Your geographical location
- Your license type
- The number of hosts in your production deployment
- The guest OS where the issue occurred (Windows or Linux)
Do not use this email address to request Technical Support.
Report a bug (Trial Edition users)
Note:
If you are a Premium Edition or Standard Edition customer, don’t use the bugs portal to request assistance. Your issue is addressed faster by getting in touch with Technical Support. For more information, see the XenServer support page.
To report a bug, submit a ticket by using the XenServer 8 Bugs portal.
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Create an account on the XenServer 8 Bugs portal. When creating your account, ensure that you use a valid contactable email. Although we aim to respond to you on the ticket, sometimes it might be necessary for us to contact you directly by email.
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Log a bug on the XenServer 8 Bugs portal by clicking Report an issue on XenServer.
Issues raised through the XenServer 8 Bugs portal are triaged and you might be contacted if the issue merits investigation.