Citrix released XenServer 5.5 Beta yesterday. To download, you’ll need a MyCitrix login.

Here are some of the benefits according to the release notes:

Improved backup and snapshot support allows you to perform live snapshot and clone operations on all storage types.

This enables better support for backup utilities and practises, and helps to reduce disk space requirements by storing snapshots using only the minimum space required. You can now take snapshots from XenCenter as well as through the xe CLI. For more information on this feature, please refer to the Storage chapter and the ‘VM Snapshots’ section of the Backup and recovery chapter in the Administrator’s Guide.

Active Directory integration to allow credentials to be verified against an AD server.

This allows granting and revocation of access to XenServer pools easily and securely using existing IT infrastructure. For more information on this feature, please refer to the ‘XenServer hosts and resource pools’ chapter in the Administrator’s Guide.

Workload Balancing to optimize VM placement and assist with balancing of workloads within a pool.

This is done using the Workload Balancing server, available as a download alongside XenServer. For more information on this feature, please refer to the ‘Workload Balancing’ chapter in the Administrator’s Guide.

Integration with StorageLink services via the xe CLI enabling advanced storage management capabilities via the Citrix StorageLink service, available as a download alongisde XenServer.

For more information on this feature, please refer to the ‘Citrix StorageLink Gateway (CSLG) SRs’ section of the Storage chapter in the Administrator’s Guide.

Improved operating system support including new support for Red Hat Enterprize Linux 5.3, Novell SLES11, and Debian Lenny.