XenServer

Deprecation

The announcements in this article give you advanced notice of platforms, products, and features that are being phased out so that you can make timely business decisions. We monitor customer use and feedback to determine when they are withdrawn. Announcements can change in subsequent releases and might not include every deprecated feature or functionality.

For details about product lifecycle support, see the XenServer lifecycle article.

Deprecations and removals

The following table shows the platforms, products, and features that are deprecated or removed.

Deprecated items are not removed immediately. We continue to support them in the current release, but they will be removed in a future release.

Removed items are either removed, or are no longer supported, in XenServer.

Dates in bold face indicate changes at this release.

Item Deprecation announced in Removed in Alternative
Python 2 scripts in dom0 XenServer 8   We do not recommend installing code in dom0. If you are using Python 2 in dom0 — for example, in custom power-on scripts — update your code to use Python 3.
Python 2 support in the XenServer SDK XenServer 8 XenServer 8 (SDK 24.32.0) If you are using Python 2 with the XenServer SDK, update your code to use Python 3.
Dell DRAC for remote power on XenServer 8 XenServer 8 IPMI, Wake-on-LAN, or a custom script. For more information, see Configuring Host Power On.
VM Recovery Mode XenCenter 2024.2.1 XenCenter 2024.2.1  
Standard Edition license June 3, 2024 Standard Edition licenses issued before this date are supported until their expiry. For ways to get a license, see XenServer website.
BIOS boot mode for XenServer hosts XenServer 8   Install your hosts with UEFI boot mode instead.
XenCenter connections to XenServer hosts that are version 7.x and earlier. XenCenter 2023.3.1 XenCenter 2023.3.1 Upgrade your out-of-support XenServer hosts.
Demo Linux Virtual Appliance XenServer 8 XenServer 8  
Support for 32-bit Windows 10 XenServer 8 XenServer 8  
Support for 32-bit Debian Bullseye 11 8.2 CU1 XenServer 8  
Support for Bromium Secure Platform in Windows VMs 8.2 CU1 8.2 CU1  
Health Check XenCenter 8.2.6 XenCenter 8.2.7  
Upload of server status reports to Citrix Insight Services (CIS) from XenCenter XenCenter 8.2.6 XenCenter 8.2.7 Upload your status reports manually through the CIS website.
PuTTY installed with XenCenter XenCenter 8.2.6 XenCenter 2023.3.1 With future versions of XenCenter, you must install your own instance of PuTTY or OpenSSH on the system where XenCenter is installed.
Localization of XenCenter into Japanese and Simplified Chinese XenCenter 8.2.6 XenCenter 2023.3.1  
Software Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) 8.2 CU1    
AMD MxGPU 8.2 CU1 XenServer 8  
Intel GVT-g 8.2 CU1 XenServer 8  
Separate PVS-Accelerator Supplemental Pack 8.2 CU1 XenServer 8 These capabilities are now included in the core product.
Support for the following Linux operating systems: CoreOS, Ubuntu 16.04, Debian Jessie 8, Debian Stretch 9, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP3, SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 12 SP3, CentOS 8 8.2 CU1 8.2 CU1 Upgrade your VMs to a later version of their operating system where available.
Support for the following Linux operating systems: Ubuntu 18.04, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP4, SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 12 SP4 8.2 CU1 8.2 CU1 Upgrade your VMs to a later version of their operating system where available.
Support for Windows Server 2012 R2 8.2 CU1 XenServer 8 Upgrade your VMs to a later version of their operating system.
Support for Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8.1 8.2 CU1 8.2 CU1 Upgrade your VMs to a later version of their operating system.
Transfer VM 8.2 CU1 8.2 CU1 (XenCenter 8.2.3) Use the latest release of XenCenter. Since XenCenter 8.2.3, the mechanism used for OVF/OVA import/export and single disk image import has been simplified and these operations are now performed without using the Transfer VM.
Measured Boot Supplemental Pack 8.2 CU1 8.2 CU1  
Container Management Supplemental Pack 8.2 8.2  
Support for Hewlett-Packard Integrated Lights-Out (iLO) 8.2 8.2  
Support for the following legacy processors: Xeon E3/5/7 family - Sandy Bridge, Xeon E3/5/7 v2 family - Ivy Bridge 8.2 8.2  
The guest-tools.iso file included in the XenServer installation ISO 8.2 8.2 Download the XenServer VM Tools for Windows or for Linux from the XenServer downloads page.
Support for Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 SP2, and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 8.2 8.2 Upgrade your VMs to a later version of their operating system.
Legacy SSL mode and support for the TLS 1.0/1.1 protocol 8.2 8.2  
Cross-server private networks 8.2 8.2  
The following xe CLI log commands: diagnostic-db-log, log-set-output, log-get-keys, log-get, log-reopen 8.2 XenServer 8  
The vSwitch Controller (see Notes) 8.1 8.2  
Legacy partition layouts: DOS partition layout, Old GPT partition layout. Note, this change also removes support for servers with less than 46 GB of primary disk space. 8.1 XenServer 8  
VSS and quiesced snapshots 8.1 8.1  
Support for Ubuntu 14.04 8.1 8.1  
Support for all paravirtualized (PV) VMs, including the following: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6, CentOS 5, CentOS 6, Oracle Enterprise Linux 5, Oracle Enterprise Linux 6, Scientific Linux 6, NeoKylin Linux Advanced Server 6.2, Debian Wheezy 7, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP3, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP4, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP1, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP2, SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11 SP3, SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 12, SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 12 SP1, SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 12 SP2 8.1 8.1 Upgrade your VMs to a later version of their operating system before moving to the latest version of XenServer.
Legacy drivers: qla4xxx, qla3xxx, netxen_nic, qlge, qlcnic 8.0    
XenCenter installer bundled with the XenServer installation media. 8.0 8.0 Download the XenCenter installer from the Downloads page instead.
XenCenter connections to XenServer hosts that are version 6.x and earlier. 8.0 8.0 Upgrade your out-of-support XenServer hosts.
Support for Nutanix integration. 8.0 8.0  
Support for the following legacy processors: Opteron 13xx Budapest, Opteron 23xx/83xx Barcelona, Opteron 23xx/83xx Shanghai, Opteron 24xx/84xx Istanbul, Opteron 41xx Lisbon, Opteron 61xx Magny Cours, Xeon 53xx Clovertown, Xeon 54xx Harpertown, Xeon 55xx Nehalem, Xeon 56xx Westmere-EP, Xeon 65xx/75xx Nehalem-EX, Xeon 73xx Tigerton, Xeon 74xx Dunnington 8.0 8.0 For information about supported processors, see the Hardware Compatibility List
Support for qemu-trad. It is no longer possible to use qemu-trad by setting platform-devicemodel=qemu-trad. All VMs created with qemu-trad device profile get automatically upgraded to qemu-upstream-compat profile. 8.0 8.0  
Support for the following guest templates: Debian 6 Squeeze, Ubuntu 12.04, Legacy Windows, Asianux Server 4.2, 4.4, and 4.5, NeoKylin Linux Security OS 5, Linx Linux 6, Linx Linux 8, GreatTurbo Enterprise Server 12, Yinhe Kylin 4 8.0 8.0  
Legacy Windows drivers from the Citrix VM Tools ISO 8.0 8.0  

Notes

Backup and restore in xsconsole

The backup and restore capability in xsconsole is temporarily not available. We are actively investigating a replacement solution.

Health Check

Logs for the Health Check service are retained by Windows for troubleshooting purposes. To remove these logs, delete them manually from %SystemRoot%\System32\Winevt\Logs on the Windows machine running XenCenter.

Dynamic Memory Control (DMC)

This feature was previously listed as deprecated. The deprecation notice was removed on Jan 30, 2023. DMC is supported in future releases of XenServer.

Disconnecting the vSwitch controller

The vSwitch Controller is no longer supported. Disconnect the vSwitch Controller from your pool before attempting to update or upgrade to the latest version of XenServer.

  1. In the vSwitch controller user interface, go to the Visibility & Control tab.
  2. Locate the pool to disconnect in the All Resource Pools table. The pools in the table are listed using the IP address of the pool coordinator.
  3. Click the cog icon and select Remove Pool.
  4. Click Remove to confirm.

After the update or upgrade, the following configuration changes take place:

  • Cross-server private networks revert to single-server private networks.
  • Any Quality of Service settings made through the DVSC console are no longer applied. Network rate limits are no longer enforced.
  • ACL rules are removed. All traffic from VMs is allowed.
  • Port mirroring (RSPAN) is disabled.

After update or upgrade, if you find any leftover state about the vSwitch Controller in your pool, clear the state with the following CLI command: xe pool-set-vswitch-controller address=

Deprecation