Citrix Hypervisor

Why Citrix Hypervisor?

In a VDI project the virtualisation layer tends to be the cost you remember only at licence renewal. Hyper-V requires Windows Server licenses. There’s a need for a hypervisor optimized for VDI workloads.

Citrix Hypervisor is enterprise virtualization based on XenServer/Xen Project. Free for Citrix CVAD customers - zero additional hypervisor costs. Optimized for virtual desktops and apps workloads.

Bear in mind that the hypervisor is the most valuable single target in a virtual environment — it sees every machine at once. We cover what that means for hardening below.

How does it work?

Xen Architecture

Type-1 hypervisor:

• Bare-metal hypervisor
• Dom0 (control domain)
• DomU (guest VMs)
• Paravirtualization
• Hardware virtualization (HVM)

CVAD Integration

Native optimization:

• MCS provisioning support
• PVS streaming optimized
• HDX acceleration
• Intellicache (local caching)
• Session recording support

XenCenter Management

Centralized control:

• Multi-host management
• Resource pools
• VM lifecycle
• Performance monitoring
• Template management

Key Features

High Availability

• Host failure recovery
• Automatic VM restart
• Heartbeat monitoring
• Shared storage requirement
• Configurable priorities

Live Migration

• XenMotion (live migration)
• Zero downtime moves
• Cross-pool migration
• Storage XenMotion
• Maintenance mode

GPU Virtualization

• NVIDIA vGPU support
• AMD MxGPU
• GPU passthrough
• Graphics-intensive VDI
• CAD/3D workloads

Storage Integration

• NFS, iSCSI, FC support
• SMB for ISO libraries
• Thin provisioning
• Clustered pooling
• GFS2 support

Licensing Models

Free Edition:

• Basic features
• Included with CVAD
• No per-socket cost
• Community support

Standard Edition:

• Live migration
• High availability
• Conversion tools
• Per-socket licensing

Premium Edition (Platinum):

• GPU virtualization
• Workload balancing
• In-memory read caching
• Site recovery

Hardware Requirements

Component	Minimum	Recommended
CPU	64-bit x86	Intel VT-x / AMD-V
RAM	2 GB	16+ GB
Storage	46 GB local	SAN/NAS shared
Network	1 GbE	10 GbE +

Who is it for?

• Citrix CVAD customers looking for free hypervisor
• Organizations with VDI workloads
• IT teams wanting to reduce hypervisor costs
• Enterprises needing vGPU support

Benefits

For IT: Free with CVAD, native integration, proven platform

For costs: Zero hypervisor licensing, reduced TCO, competitive pricing

For VDI: Optimized for virtual desktops, MCS/PVS integration, HDX acceleration

Specifications

Type	Type-1 bare-metal hypervisor
Base	Xen Project open source
GPU	NVIDIA vGPU, AMD MxGPU
HA	Built-in high availability

The hypervisor as a single point of compromise

The hypervisor sees every machine running on it. That makes it the most valuable single target in a virtual environment — and the place where hardening pays back fastest.

• Keep the management layer separate. The admin interface should not be reachable from the user network. Segmenting the management network is the simplest and most effective single step.
• Patching the hypervisor. Vulnerabilities allowing escape from a virtual machine are rare, but their result is access to every workload at once. This component does not tolerate update backlogs.
• Administrative access control. The virtualization admin account often sits outside privilege reviews, even though its reach exceeds most accounts in the organization.
• Back up the configuration, not just the machines. Rebuilding an environment after an incident also needs network settings, resource pools and permissions.

We verify exposure and configuration of the management layer as part of security audits.

FAQ

Is Citrix Hypervisor free? Free Edition is included with Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops license. Standard/Premium available for additional fee.

How is it different from XenServer? Citrix Hypervisor is the commercial version of XenServer with support and enterprise features.

Can I use it without CVAD? Yes. Citrix Hypervisor works standalone for general virtualization, not just VDI.

How does vGPU support work? NVIDIA GRID vGPU and AMD MxGPU. Shared GPU among VMs for graphics workloads.

Does it support Windows 11? Yes. Windows 11 as guest OS is supported.

How does migration from another hypervisor work? XenServer Conversion Manager. Export OVA from import to Citrix Hypervisor.

Can I manage it with XenCenter? Yes. XenCenter is the management console. Also API and CLI for automation.

What storage is required for HA? Shared storage (iSCSI, NFS, FC) for VM metadata. Local storage possible without HA.

Does Citrix Hypervisor support containers? Not natively. Docker/Kubernetes run in Linux VMs.

What about support? Citrix support for paid editions. nFlo offers design, deployment and hypervisor support.