Disgruntled VMware users contemplating the open source cut of XenCenter as an alternative need to think again. In December the Cloud Software Group quietly canned the offering with an update to the project’s README file.
“Please note that as of December 2023 this copy of the XenCenter repository is considered archived,” the December 14 GitHub README states. “As such it will not reflect the latest state of XenCenter development, and any pull requests will not be reviewed/merged. If you have any feedback regarding XenCenter, please send it to feedback [at] xenserver.com.”
Good luck getting any feedback. In the past year The Register has asked Cloud Software Group’s press representative for info and/or an interview eleven times. Only one such approach has produced a result – and that was a link to a public blog post.
XenCenter is a Windows-based tool for managing the Citrix Hypervisor and/or XenServer. Citrix gave up on general purpose server virtualization a few years ago, but kept its products alive and recommended them as the best way to abstract its other lineup. XenServer often became a silo, so it became possible to manage it with other tools – including VMware’s vCenter.