Guest operating system support
When installing VMs and allocating resources such as memory and disk space, follow the guidelines of the operating system and any relevant applications.
| Operating System | Minimum RAM | Maximum RAM | Minimum Disk Space |
|---|---|---|---|
| Windows 10 (64-bit) | 2 GB | 1.5 TB | 32 GB (40 GB or more recommended) |
| Windows 11 (64-bit) | 4 GB | 1.5 TB | 32 GB (40 GB or more recommended) |
| Windows Server 2016, Windows Server Core 2016 | 1 GB | 1.5 TB | 32 GB (40 GB or more recommended) |
| Windows Server 2019, Windows Server Core 2019 | 1 GB | 1.5 TB | 32 GB (40 GB or more recommended) |
| Windows Server 2022, Windows Server Core 2022 | 1 GB | 1.5 TB | 32 GB (40 GB or more recommended) |
| Windows Server 2025, Windows Server Core 2025 (preview) (see note 2 and 3) | 2 GB | 1.5 TB | 64 GB (64 GB or more recommended) |
| CentOS 7 (64-bit) | 2 GB | 1.5 TB | 10 GB |
| CentOS Stream 9 (64-bit) (see note 1) | 2 GB | 1.5 TB | 10 GB |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 (64-bit) | 2 GB | 1.5 TB | 10 GB |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 (64-bit) | 2 GB | 1.5 TB | 10 GB |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 (64-bit) (see note 1) | 2 GB | 1.5 TB | 10 GB |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP5 (64-bit) | 1 GB | 1.5 TB | 8 GB |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP1, 15 SP2, 15 SP3, 15 SP4, 15 SP5 (64-bit) | 1 GB | 1.5 TB | 8 GB |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15 SP4, 15 SP5 (64-bit) | 1 GB | 1.5 TB | 8 GB |
| Oracle Linux 7 (64-bit) | 2 GB | 1.5 TB | 10 GB |
| Oracle Linux 8 (64-bit) | 2 GB | 1.5 TB | 10 GB |
| Scientific Linux 7 (64-bit) | 2 GB | 1.5 TB | 10 GB |
| Debian Buster 10 (64-bit) | 512 MB | 1.5 TB | 10 GB |
| Debian Bullseye 11 (64-bit) | 512 MB | 1.5 TB | 10 GB |
| Debian Bookworm 12 (64-bit) (see note 1) | 1 GB | 1.5 TB | 10 GB |
| Ubuntu 20.04 (64-bit) | 512 MB | 1.5 TB | 10 GB |
| Ubuntu 22.04 (64-bit) | 1 GB | 1.5 TB | 10 GB |
| Ubuntu 24.04 (64-bit) (preview) | 1 GB | 1.5 TB | 10 GB |
| NeoKylin Linux Advanced Server 7.2 (64-bit) | 1 GB | 1.5 TB | 10 GB |
| Gooroom 2 (64-bit) | 1 GB | 1.5 TB | 10 GB |
| Rocky Linux 8 (64-bit) | 1 GB | 1.5 TB | 10 GB |
| Rocky Linux 9 (64-bit) (see note 1) | 2 GB | 1.5 TB | 15 GB |
Notes:
- Customers who wish to use this guest OS must also install XenServer VM Tools for Linux v8.3.1-1 or later, available to download from the XenServer product downloads page.
- When installing Windows Server 2025 VMs, having two disks attached might cause the VM to hang during boot. To avoid this issue, complete the installation with a single disk. Next, install VM Tools for Windows on the VM and reboot to finalize the installation. Once complete, you can safely attach the second disk.
- If you boot a large number of Windows Server 2025 VMs on a single host, some might fail to start.
-
XenServer VM Tools for Linux is only supported on the Linux guest operating systems listed above.
-
All supported operating systems run in HVM mode.
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Individual versions of the operating systems can also impose their own maximum limits on the amount of memory supported (for example, for licensing reasons).
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When configuring guest memory, do not to exceed the maximum amount of physical memory that your operating system can address. Setting a memory maximum that is greater than the operating system supported limit might lead to stability problems within your guest.
- To create a VM of a newer minor version of RHEL than is listed in the preceding table, use the following method:
- Install the VM from the latest supported media for the major version
- Use
yum updateto update the VM to the newer minor version
This approach also applies to RHEL-based operating systems such as CentOS and Oracle Linux.
- XenServer supports all SKUs (editions) for the listed versions of Windows.
Long-term guest support
XenServer includes a long-term guest support (LTS) policy for Linux VMs. The LTS policy enables you to consume minor version updates by one of the following methods:
- Installing from new guest media
- Upgrading from an existing supported guest
Out-of-support operating systems
The list of supported guest operating systems can contain operating systems that were supported by their vendors at the time this version of XenServer was released, but are now no longer supported by their vendors.
We no longer offer support for these operating systems (even if they remain listed in the table of supported guests or their templates remain available on your XenServer hosts). While attempting to address and resolve a reported issue, we assess if the issue directly relates to an out-of-support operating system on a VM. To assist in making that determination, we might ask you to attempt to reproduce an issue using a supported version of the guest operating system. If the issue seems to be related to the out-of-support operating system, we will not investigate the issue further.
Note:
Windows versions that are supported by Microsoft as part of an LTSB branch are supported by XenServer. Windows versions that are out of support, but part of an Extended Security Updates (ESU) agreement are not supported by XenServer.