Citrix Hypervisor

Data Governance

This article provides information regarding the collection, storage, and retention of logs by Citrix Hypervisor.

Citrix Hypervisor is a server virtualization platform that enables the customer to create and manage a deployment of virtual machines. XenCenter is the management UI for Citrix Hypervisor. Citrix Hypervisor and XenCenter can collect and store customer data as part of providing the following capabilities:

  • Server status reports - A server status report can be generated on-demand and uploaded to Citrix Insight Services or provided to Citrix Support. The server status report contains information that can aid in diagnosing issues in the customer’s environment.

  • Automatic updates for the Management Agent - The Management Agent runs within VMs hosted on a Citrix Hypervisor server or pool. If the server or pool is licensed, the Management Agent can check for and apply updates to itself and to the I/O drivers in the VM. As part of checking for updates, the automatic update feature makes a web request to Cloud Software Group that can identify the VM where the Management Agent runs.

  • XenCenter check for updates - This feature determines whether any hotfixes, cumulative updates, or new releases are available for the Citrix Hypervisor servers and pools XenCenter manages. As part of checking for updates, this feature makes a web request to Citrix that includes telemetry. This telemetry is not user-specific and is used to estimate the total number of XenCenter instances worldwide.

  • XenCenter email alerts - XenCenter can be configured to send email notifications when alert thresholds are exceeded. To send these email alerts, XenCenter collects and stores the target email address.

Any information received by Cloud Software Group is treated in accordance with our Agreements.

Server status reports

During the course of operation a Citrix Hypervisor server collects and logs various information on the server where Citrix Hypervisor is installed. These logs can be collected as part of a server status report.

A server status report can be generated on-demand and uploaded to Citrix Insight Services or provided to Citrix Support. The server status report contains information that can aid in diagnosing issues in the customer’s environment.

Server status reports that are uploaded to Citrix Insight Services are stored in Amazon S3 environments located in the United States.

Citrix Hypervisor and XenCenter collect information from the following data sources:

  • XenCenter
  • Citrix Hypervisor servers and pools
  • Hosted VMs

You can select which data items are included in the server status reports. You can also delete any server status reports that are uploaded to your MyCitrix account on Citrix Insight Services.

Citrix Insight Services does not implement an automatic data retention for server status reports uploaded by the customer. The customer determines the data retention policy. You can choose to delete any server status reports that are uploaded to your MyCitrix account on Citrix Insight Services.

Data collected

A server status report can contain the following log files:

Log type Contains PII?
xapi-debug maybe
xen-info maybe
conntest no
xha-liveset maybe
high-availability maybe
firstboot yes
xenserver-databases yes
multipath maybe
disk-info maybe
xenserver-logs maybe
xenserver-install maybe
process-list yes
blobs no
xapi yes
host-crashdump-logs maybe
xapi-subprocess no
pam no
control-slice maybe
tapdisk-logs no
kernel-info maybe
xenserver-config maybe
xenserver-domains no
device-model yes
hardware-info maybe
xenopsd maybe
loopback-devices maybe
system-services no
system-logs maybe
network-status yes
v6d maybe
CVSM no
message-switch maybe
VM-snapshot-schedule no
xcp-rrdd-plugins maybe
yum if customized
fcoe yes
xapi-clusterd maybe
network-config if customized
boot-loader no

Management Agent automatic updates

The Management Agent runs within VMs hosted on a Citrix Hypervisor server or pool. If the server or pool is licensed, the Management Agent can check for and apply updates to itself and to the I/O drivers in the VM. As part of checking for updates, the automatic update feature makes a web request to Cloud Software Group that can identify the VM where the Management Agent runs.

The web logs captured from the requests made by the Management Agent automatic updates feature are located in a Microsoft Azure Cloud environment located in the United States. These logs are then copied to a log management server in the United Kingdom.

The web requests made by the Management Agent automatic updates feature are made over HTTPS. Web log files are transmitted securely to the log management server.

You can select whether your VM uses the Management Agent automatic update feature. If you choose to use the Management Agent automatic update feature, you can also choose whether the web request includes the VM identifying information.

Web logs containing information from web requests made by the Management Agent automatic updates feature and the XenCenter check for updates feature can be retained indefinitely.

Data collected

The Management Agent automatic updates web requests can contain the following data points:

Data collected Description What we use it for
IP address The IP address of the VM where the Management Agent is installed  
VM UUID A unique user ID for the VM where the Management Agent is installed  

XenCenter check for updates

This feature determines whether any hotfixes, cumulative updates, or new releases are available for the Citrix Hypervisor servers and pools XenCenter manages. As part of checking for updates, this feature makes a web request to Cloud Software Group that includes telemetry. This telemetry does not personally identify users and is used to estimate the total number of XenCenter instances worldwide.

The web logs captured from the requests made by the XenCenter check for updates feature are located in a Microsoft Azure Cloud environment located in the United States. These logs are then copied to a log management server in the United Kingdom.

The web requests made by the XenCenter check for updates feature are made over HTTPS. Web log files are transmitted securely to the log management server.

The XenCenter check for updates feature is enabled by default. You can choose to disable this feature.

Data collected

The check for updates feature web requests contain the following data points:

Data collected Description What we use it for
IP address The IP address of the XenCenter host machine  
XenCenter version The version of XenCenter making the request  

XenCenter email alerts

XenCenter can be configured to send email notifications when alert thresholds are exceeded. To send these email alerts, XenCenter collects and stores the target email address.

The email address that XenCenter uses to send email alerts is stored on the machine where you installed XenCenter.

You can delete email alerts configured in XenCenter to remove the stored email information.

XenCenter retains the email information used to provide email alerts for the lifetime of the email notification. When you delete the configured email alert, the data is removed.

Data collected

To provide email alerts XenCenter stores the following data points:

Data collected Description What we use it for
Email address The email address for alerts To send alert and notification emails to
SMTP server The SMTP server to use To route the email alerts to the recipient
Data Governance