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 We monitor customer use and feedback to determine when they are withdrawn.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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| C support in the XenServer SDK | XenServer 8.4 | XenServer 9 | |
| File based licensing | XenServer 8.4 | License Activation Service (LAS) is the next generation technology for product activations across the suite of Citrix products. As of April 15, 2026, LAS is the only way to activate and license Citrix on-premises components. | |
| Linux bridge network stack | XenServer 8.4 | XenServer 9 | vSwitch networking is the only networking technology supported by XenServer. |
| BIOS boot mode for virtual machines | XenServer 8.4 | Install your VMs using UEFI or UEFI Secure Boot mode instead. | |
| Python 2 scripts in dom0 | XenServer 8.4 | XenServer 9 | Installing additional code or packages or modifying the configuration is not supported unless explicitly instructed by official XenServer documentation or under the guidance of the Support Team. If you are using Python 2 in dom0 — for example, in custom power-on scripts — update your code to use Python 3. |
| BIOS boot mode for XenServer hosts | XenServer 8.4 | XenServer 9 | Install your hosts with UEFI boot mode instead. |
| Software Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) | 8.2 CU1 | XenServer 9 | |
Legacy drivers: qla4xxx, qla3xxx, netxen_nic, qlge, qlcnic |
8.0 | XenServer 9 | |
FastLinQ drivers: qed, qede, qedf, qedi, qedr |
XenServer 8.4 | XenServer 9 |