Who Should Install This Update?

This XenCenter update is for customers who use XenCenter as the management console for Citrix Hypervisor 8.2 CU1 and XenServer 8. This version of XenCenter supersedes any previous version of XenCenter. It constitutes the following deliverable:

Prerequisites

If this is the first time you have updated your version of XenCenter from 8.2.3 and earlier, you must set up a client ID to continue to receive Citrix Hypervisor 8.2 Cumulative Update 1 hotfixes. For more information, see Authenticating your XenCenter to receive updates.

If you have previously imported your client ID into XenCenter, it is retained when you update to the latest version. You don't need to import it again.

Upgrade notes

• XenCenter 2024.2.0 supersedes earlier versions of XenCenter, including XenCenter 8.2.x. When you install XenCenter 2024.2.0, it removes other versions of XenCenter on your system.
• If XenCenter 2024.2.0 is the first version of XenCenter with a version format YYYY.x.x that you installon your system, it imports your server list from any instance of XenCenter 8.2.x on the system. Passwords are not imported.
• If you already have a version of XenCenter YYYY.x.x installed in parallel with XenCenter 8.2.x, this version does not import your server list from XenCenter 8.2.x. To migrate your server list from XenCenter 8.2.x, complete the following steps in order:
  1. Export your data from XenCenter 8.2.x. Go to File > Export Folder List.
  2. Install XenCenter 2024.2.0.
  3. Import your data into XenCenter 2024.2.0. Go to File > Import Folder List.
  For more information, see Exporting and Importing a List of Managed Servers
• .

Important changes of behavior in this update

This version of XenCenter contains the following behavior changes compared to XenCenter 8.2.7 and earlier:

• The version format for future versions of XenCenter has changed to be independent of the version of XenServer or Citrix Hypervisor. The new format is YYYY.major.minor - the year of release followed by a major and minor version number.
• The installation location for XenCenter YYYY.x.x is different to that of XenCenter 8.2.x. In future, XenCenter is located in C:\Program Files (x86)\XenServer\XenCenter.
• You can update XenCenter YYYY.x.x from within XenCenter. When a new version of XenCenter is available, XenCenter displays the notification XenCenter Update in the menu bar. You can choose to download and install the latest version from here.

Features included in this update

This update contains the following new feature:

• (XenServer 8 only) Import a VHDX or AVHDX disk image as a VM: You can now import a VHDX/AVHDX file into a pool or specific host as a VM. VHDX is an improved version of the VHD format that provides better performance, fault tolerance, and data protection features in addition to a larger capacity.

  If you are a Citrix customer, you can also use this feature to migrate your VMs from VMware to XenServer. As part of its software streaming technology, Citrix Provisioning stores a shared disk image (vDisk) as a VHDX/AVHDX file. By using the XenCenter **Import** wizard to import a VHDX/AVHDX file, you can easily migrate your vDisk from VMware to XenServer.

Issues fixed in this update

This update includes fixes for the following issues:

• Some updates that do not include guidance about update tasks are not displayed in the **By update** view. To see these updates, you can look in the **By server** view.

Improvements included in this update

This update includes the following improvements:

• Improvements to display of license expiry date information.
• Improvements to branding information in the **New Conversion** wizard.

Known issues in this update

This update contains the following known issues:

• After a standalone host is rebooted, including when it's rebooted after applying updates, the host's **General Tab** does not display the status of the system correctly. We recommend that you refresh the host's **General Tab** by clicking on a different object and back on the host, or by disconnecting and reconnecting.
• Changing the font size or dpi on the computer on which XenCenter is running can result in the user interface appearing incorrectly. The default font size is 96 dpi; Windows 10 refers to this font size as 100%. (CA-45514) (CAR-1940)
• In XenCenter, when you attempt to import an OVF package or a disk image from a folder containing a hash character (#) in its name, the import fails with a null reference exception. (CA-368918)
• When attempting to run XenCenter from the command line while XenCenter is already running, any arguments with whitespace characters must be wrapped in both double and single quotes: "'example'". (CA-389317)
• If you connect to the same XenServer pool with multiple instances of XenCenter, neither XenCenter shows available updates. To attempt to work around this issue, you can disconnect and reconnect XenCenter from the pool. (CA-389319)
• If more than one instance of XenCenter is attempting to install multiple updates on a pool, a host might fail to install with the error: "The update has already been applied to this server. The server will be skipped." This error causes the whole update process to stop. (CA-359814)

  To workaround this issue: 1. Ensure that no other XenCenter instance is in the process of updating the pool 2. Refresh the update list in the Notifications > Updates panel 3. Start the update from the beginning

• When updating to XenCenter 2024.2.0 from 2023.4.0 or earlier, you encounter an error if you attempt to **Download XenCenter v2024.2.0.xxx source code**.

Updating XenCenter on your Windows machine

Prerequisites: .NET Framework is 4.8 or later. This prerequisite is a change from 8.2.0 and earlier versions of XenCenter, which required 4.6 or later. Ensure that you update the version of .NET Framework if required.

1. Download XenCenter.msi to a known location.
2. Double click XenCenter.msi.
3. Click Run to start the Citrix XenCenter Setup wizard.
4. Click Next to continue and follow the instructions on the Setup wizard.
5. When you have finished making any modifications to the installation directory settings, click Install to start the installation.
6. Click Finish to exit the XenCenter Setup wizard.

Files Updated

More Information

For more information, see the XenCenter Documentation.

If you experience any difficulties, contact Citrix Technical Support.