I hope this message finds everyone well and happy new year to you!
Just a quick question we are struggling to find answers on. We are currently (seriously) looking at migrating our VMware infrastructure (many servers and interconnected) to XCP-ng. Today we use vCenter to manage our infrastructure. From what I can read and understand, if we move to XCP-ng we can either manage each server individually through the native XCP-ng administration WebGUI or we could use Orchestra to manage the infrastructure. Am I correct on that the way I said it and also, is there a license cost for Orchestra? I see XCP-ng can be downloaded for free and support options are available (all very reasonably priced), however we are getting mixed answers when it comes to the upfront licensing costs for Orchestra. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks to everyone for their assistance - it’s all very much appreciated!
It is pretty straight forward on the price. They have a bundle for host and xen orchestra or you can only buy xen orchestra. Xen orchestra is like the vsphere of vcenter.
Bundled:
Standalone:
It is recommend to use xen orchestra to manage your hosts. There is a free version but you can choose whatever version fits your needs.
They are working on XO lite which is the built-in version but it won’t be as feature rich. You can do the basics.
XCP-NG is free, XO is open source and can be compiled from sources so you can test it out. There are support options for both of these that can be bought individually. They just started offering new bundled pricing for both and you can find that here:
XO-lite is not ready for use, far too many features are missing.
You can also (maybe) run XCP-NG Center on a Windows client, This will be end of life with the next release, no idea how long it will continue working.
The pricing on Xen Orchestra should be a lot lower than you will be paying for VMWare, if you are non-profit then check with them for discounts. You can use the built from sources version while you test, lots of posts and videos on setting this up. Easiest way is to just download an image directly into the hypervisor, details of this are on the ronivay github. Also you could download directly the Xen Orchestra Appliance and use it during the demo phase, then buy a license key and enter it for full features.
Are you saying I can download the uncompiled code for both XCP-ng and Orchestra and compile them and use them as they are? I do not need to purchase a license for either? Just looking for that confirmation.
Is one able to use the complied code for normal business operations or is it just testing and when you put it into an actual production system it then needs to be licensed? These two points are where I’m getting confused.
I GREATLY APPRECIATE you help and everyone else’s help!
Yes there is a script that can be run to build it from source. Or if you are proficient with docker you can run it as a container. You will get access to all the features minus the cloud images.
You don’t need to compile XCP-NG and it does not need a licence. XO can be compiled to get the full version,or you can get a free 30 day trial to get the supported version from Vates.
This is a directly downloadable image of XO from sources:
Should be the same as the script version, but prebuilt into a Debian VM image that you can directly import.
I’ll add what I do/did. First thing I did was built a standalone computer with Linux installed, then ran the XO installer script so I had a physical computer that can be set up to interface with XCP-NG. Lately I’ve also been downloading the VM image. Either way gives you a control point that doesn’t require XCP-NG Center (I’ve also used this in the past), but as I said above, the github says they have a January release, and then it will be end of life. They are targeting XO-lite to replace this, but it takes time build it and as of the latest Beta of 8.3, it still lacks way too much to really be useful. But they keep making progress and it really isn’t scheduled until XO version 6 hits release. At least that’s what I’ve read.