About Software Updates and Upgrades

XenCenter issues notifications about available XenServer and XenCenter updates and upgrades on the Updates tab in the Notifications view. A software upgrade is a major, standalone version of XenServer. Upgrades offer new features or technologies, or replace a release that is no longer supported. A software update updates a major version of XenServer, but does not upgrade it to the next major version.

XenCenter is configured by default to automatically check for new XenServer and XenCenter updates and upgrades at regular intervals, and you will be notified when a new update or product version is available. It is recommended that you install all published updates. You can check for available updates manually at any time and verify that you are running the latest version of both XenServer and XenCenter. To do this, select Notifications > Updates and then click Refresh.

Applying updates to XenServer hosts

Updates to XenServer can be delivered as a Hotfix or a Service Pack. Hotfixes generally supply bug fixes to one or more specific issues; whereas Service Packs contain accumulated bug fixes, and occasionally, feature improvements and enhancements. Updates can be quickly applied to your managed servers; see Updating managed servers for details.

Updating your version of XenCenter

Updates for XenCenter are supplied as XenCenterSetup.exe files which can be downloaded and installed using a Download Manager; see Updating XenCenter.

Upgrading XenServer hosts

To upgrade XenServer hosts, use the Rolling Pool Upgrade wizard. You can use this wizard to upgrade multiple servers in a pool with minimal service interruption for running VMs. VMs are automatically migrated onto other available servers as the upgrade is applied to each server in turn. The wizard can also be used to upgrade standalone servers. See Upgrading managed servers.