Vates · Open source
Vates VMS (XCP-ng, Xen Orchestra, XOSTOR)
Vates VMS bundles the XCP-ng hypervisor (Xen), Xen Orchestra for management and backup, and optional XOSTOR, a LINSTOR/DRBD-based HCI storage layer that replicates local disks across 3 to 7 hosts of a pool. All software is open source; Vates sells published per-host subscriptions that add support, the Xen Orchestra Appliance and product entitlements.
- Hypervisor
- Xen (XCP-ng)
- Cluster size
- 3–7 nodes
- Two-node
- No · witness
- Management
- Xen Orchestra (XOA appliance) managing all pools; XO Lite per pool
- Data reviewed
- 2026-09-19
Strengths
- Published, low per-host pricing with no per-core or per-socket metric.
- Xen Orchestra combines management, backup, replication and immutability.
- Open source end to end; the free edition is full-featured.
- Warm V2V migration from VMware and official Veeam support.
- EU vendor with a sovereignty focus.
Considerations
- XOSTOR is limited to 3-7 hosts per pool and needs a third host for quorum.
- No deduplication, compression or erasure coding for VM storage.
- SDN, microsegmentation and Kubernetes integration are basic or pre-release.
- 24/7 support only in the Enterprise plan (minimum 4 hosts); other plans are business-day.
- No DR orchestration, stretched clusters or published security certifications.
Use-case fit
Reliable VM platform with good backup; HCI limited to 7 hosts per pool.
Low published per-host prices, warm V2V from VMware and Veeam support.
No validated VDI brokers or storage efficiency for desktops.
Flat-price Essential plan and small footprint, but XOSTOR needs 3 hosts.
No storage QoS, stretched cluster or site-level synchronous DR.
Self-service resource sets, REST API and Terraform, with basic SDN.
Kubernetes tooling (CSI, Cluster API) is still pre-release.
GPU passthrough and vGPU basics only.
Strong built-in backup, replication and immutability, but no DR orchestration.
No public-cloud version.
Low cost, flat 3-host plans and built-in backup in one console.
EU vendor with sovereignty focus, but no published certifications.
Free full-featured software with fast clones and APIs.
Every comparison point
| Architecture & platform | |
|---|---|
| Hypervisor(s)Which hypervisor runs the virtual machines, and whether a choice of hypervisor is supported. |
Xen hypervisor (XCP-ng 8.3 LTS) with a Linux control domain (dom0); managed by Xen Orchestra. No choice of hypervisor. Vates Virtualization Management Stack ↗ |
| Architecture modelSoftware-defined (bring your own certified hardware), turnkey appliance, or disaggregated HCI (dHCI). |
Software-defined: XCP-ng installed on any x86-64 server, Xen Orchestra as an appliance VM; XOSTOR adds HCI storage on local disks. Vates Virtualization Management Stack ↗ |
| Storage engineHow the distributed storage is implemented - controller VM, in-kernel, or a separate storage layer. |
XOSTOR: LINSTOR/DRBD (LINBIT partnership) on LVM or LVM-thin in dom0 of each host, with synchronous block replication between hosts. Shared SAN/NAS SRs also supported. docs.xcp-ng.org ↗ |
| Minimum nodes per clusterThe smallest supported production cluster. |
Three hosts for XOSTOR (DRBD quorum needs 3 reachable machines; one may be diskless). docs.xcp-ng.org ↗ |
| Maximum nodes per clusterThe largest supported cluster, and how further scale is achieved. |
XOSTOR: up to 7 hosts per pool. XCP-ng pools reach 64 hosts with shared SAN/NAS storage; Xen Orchestra manages many pools. docs.xcp-ng.org ↗ |
| Single-node deploymentWhether a one-node cluster is supported, and with what limits. |
A single XCP-ng host with local storage is supported (no XOSTOR, no HA). Requirements - XCP-ng Documentation ↗ |
| Two-node cluster & witnessTwo-node support and what it needs as a witness or tie-breaker. |
Not with XOSTOR: a third host (possibly diskless) is needed for quorum. Two-host pools work with shared SAN/NAS storage. docs.xcp-ng.org ↗ |
| Stretched / metro clusterOne cluster spanning two sites with synchronous mirroring and automatic failover. |
No stretched/metro cluster design is documented for XOSTOR. Backup overview - Xen Orchestra Documentation ↗ |
| Independent scaling (compute-only / storage-only nodes)Whether compute and storage can grow separately. |
Yes: diskless XOSTOR nodes access volumes over the network. docs.xcp-ng.org ↗ |
| External storage (SAN / NAS) alongside HCIWhether existing SAN or NAS arrays can be attached to the same hosts. |
NFS, iSCSI, Fibre Channel/HBA and SMB storage repositories alongside local and XOSTOR storage. Vates VMS Documentation ↗ |
| All-flash / NVMe supportAll-NVMe support and any NVMe-optimised storage architecture. |
NVMe and SSD usable for XOSTOR; a dedicated 10 GbE+ DRBD network is recommended. dm-cache tiering is experimental. docs.xcp-ng.org ↗ |
| Host & VM maximumsPublished maximums per host or per VM - cores, memory, VMs. |
Up to 64 hosts per pool; 960 logical CPUs per host (2,048 theoretical) and 6 TB RAM; VMs up to 128 vCPUs (trusted; 32 security-supported) and 1.5 TiB RAM; disks 2 TiB VHD or 16 TiB QCOW2. Requirements - XCP-ng Documentation ↗ |
| Storage & data services | |
| Deduplication & compressionInline or post-process data reduction, and which editions include it. |
No deduplication or compression for VM storage. Vates VMS Documentation ↗ |
| Erasure coding (RAID-5/6)Capacity-efficient parity protection instead of full mirroring. |
No erasure coding; XOSTOR uses 1, 2 or 3 full replicas. Vates VMS Documentation ↗ |
| Data resiliency (failures tolerated)Replication factor / failures-to-tolerate options and fault domains (rack, block). |
Replication count 1, 2 or 3, fixed when XOSTOR is created; 3 copies tolerate two host failures. docs.xcp-ng.org ↗ |
| Snapshots & clonesSpace-efficient snapshots and clones, and their limits. |
VM snapshots (optionally with memory), fast clones and templates; rolling snapshot jobs in Xen Orchestra. Xen Orchestra - Vates VMS Documentation ↗ |
| Data-at-rest encryption & KMSSoftware encryption of the datastore, self-encrypting drives, and key management options. |
No native datastore encryption documented; Xen Orchestra encrypts backups at rest. Backup ecosystem - Vates VMS Documentation ↗ |
| Storage QoSIOPS / throughput limits or guarantees per VM or volume. |
No storage IOPS/throughput QoS documented. Vates VMS Documentation ↗ |
| File services (SMB / NFS)Native file shares served by the platform. |
No native file service. Vates VMS Documentation ↗ |
| Object storage (S3)Native S3-compatible object storage. |
No native S3 object service. Vates VMS Documentation ↗ |
| Block storage for external hostsPresenting volumes to physical servers or other clusters over iSCSI or NVMe-oF. |
XOSTOR volumes serve the pool only; no external block targets. Vates VMS Documentation ↗ |
| Data protection & DR | |
| Asynchronous replication (RPO)Native async replication and the lowest supported RPO. |
Xen Orchestra replication (incremental, scheduled) of VMs to another host, pool or site. Xen Orchestra - Vates VMS Documentation ↗ |
| Synchronous replication (zero RPO)Zero-data-loss replication between sites. |
Synchronous only within a pool through XOSTOR/DRBD; not between sites. Backup overview - Xen Orchestra Documentation ↗ |
| DR orchestration & runbooksAutomated failover, failback and non-disruptive DR testing. |
No DR runbooks; replicated VMs are started manually. Backup health checks test restores. Backup overview - Xen Orchestra Documentation ↗ |
| Native backupBackup built into the platform, without a third-party product. |
Xen Orchestra: full and incremental (CBT) backups, replication, mirror backups, file-level restore, encryption, to NFS/SMB/S3; XO Proxy for remote sites. Backup overview - Xen Orchestra Documentation ↗ |
| Immutable snapshots & ransomware protectionTamper-proof snapshots, ransomware detection and recovery features. |
Native on-premises backup immutability in Xen Orchestra, or S3 Object Lock; no ransomware detection. docs.xen-orchestra.com ↗ |
| Third-party backup ecosystemSupport from Veeam, Commvault, Rubrik, Cohesity, HYCU and similar. |
Veeam (agentless, fully supported since v13.1), Commvault, Storware, Bacula; NAKIVO and Vinchin with host-level agents. Backup ecosystem - Vates VMS Documentation ↗ |
| DR to public cloudUsing a public cloud as the recovery site. |
Backups can go to S3-compatible cloud storage; no cloud-hosted XCP-ng recovery site. Backup overview - Xen Orchestra Documentation ↗ |
| Networking & security | |
| Software-defined networkingOverlay networks, VPCs, distributed routing and load balancing. |
Xen Orchestra SDN controller creates pool-wide and cross-pool private networks; otherwise VLAN networks on Open vSwitch. Xen Orchestra - Vates VMS Documentation ↗ |
| Microsegmentation / distributed firewallEast-west VM firewalling enforced at the hypervisor. |
Basic traffic rules through the SDN controller; no full distributed firewall. Xen Orchestra - Vates VMS Documentation ↗ |
| RBAC, SSO & MFARole-based access control, directory / SAML integration and multi-factor authentication. |
Fine-grained object permissions and audit log in Xen Orchestra; LDAP, OpenID Connect and other identity providers. Xen Orchestra - Vates VMS Documentation ↗ |
| Platform hardeningSecure boot, TPM, hardened baselines (STIG), automated drift remediation. |
Xen isolation; UEFI Secure Boot and vTPM for guests (XCP-ng 8.3); published security advisories (VSA). No STIG baseline or drift remediation. Security & Advisories - Vates VMS Documentation ↗ |
| Security certificationsFIPS 140, Common Criteria, DISA STIG and similar attestations. |
No FIPS, Common Criteria or STIG attestation published. Security & Advisories - Vates VMS Documentation ↗ |
| Management & operations | |
| Management consoleThe day-to-day management interface. |
Xen Orchestra web UI (XO 6 new interface with monthly releases; XO 5 still used for some tasks such as V2V), XO Lite on each pool. Vates VMS Documentation ↗ |
| Multi-cluster / fleet managementManaging many clusters and sites from one place. |
One Xen Orchestra manages many pools and sites; XO Proxy handles remote-site backups. Xen Orchestra - Vates VMS Documentation ↗ |
| Lifecycle management (full-stack upgrades)Rolling, non-disruptive upgrades of software, drivers and firmware. |
Rolling pool updates from Xen Orchestra with automatic VM evacuation; no firmware management. Xen Orchestra - Vates VMS Documentation ↗ |
| APIs & automationREST API, Terraform, Ansible, PowerShell and CLI coverage. |
Xen Orchestra REST API, xo-cli and PowerShell/Go SDKs; Terraform/OpenTofu, Pulumi, Packer and Ansible dynamic inventory from Vates. Automation and DevOps tools - Vates VMS Documentation ↗ |
| Monitoring, analytics & capacity planningBuilt-in health, performance analytics, forecasting and right-sizing. |
Live stats, dashboards, usage and backup reports; Prometheus/OpenMetrics export. No capacity forecasting. Xen Orchestra - Vates VMS Documentation ↗ |
| Self-service & private-cloud portalCatalogues, projects, quotas and chargeback for consumers. |
Self-service resource sets let teams provision VMs within quotas. Xen Orchestra - Vates VMS Documentation ↗ |
| Live migration & HALive migration, automatic restart on failure and load balancing (DRS-like). |
Live migration between hosts, pools and storage repositories with compression and batch control; pool HA restarts VMs after host failure. Xen Orchestra - Vates VMS Documentation ↗ |
| Cloud, containers & AI | |
| Kubernetes & containersNative or integrated Kubernetes, and persistent storage for containers. |
No integrated Kubernetes. Vates provides a cloud controller manager, a CSI driver (v0.4.0 in testing) and an alpha Cluster API provider for Kubernetes on VMs. Automation and DevOps tools - Vates VMS Documentation ↗ |
| Hybrid / public cloudThe same stack in a public cloud, or cloud services managing the on-premises cluster. |
No public-cloud edition. Vates Virtualization Management Stack ↗ |
| VDI / end-user computingValidated VDI brokers - Citrix, Omnissa Horizon, Azure Virtual Desktop and others. |
Windows desktops run as VMs; no VDI broker validated by Vates. Vates Virtualization Management Stack ↗ |
| GPU & AI workloadsGPU passthrough and vGPU, and packaged AI / inference offerings. |
PCI passthrough and up to 8 virtual GPUs per VM; no packaged AI stack. Requirements - XCP-ng Documentation ↗ |
| Database servicesBuilt-in database provisioning and lifecycle (DBaaS). |
No database service. Vates Virtualization Management Stack ↗ |
| Deployment & hardware | |
| Deployment method & timeHow a cluster is installed, and how long that typically takes. |
Install XCP-ng from ISO on each host, deploy the Xen Orchestra Appliance, create the pool and XOSTOR from the XO UI. Hours for a small cluster. Vates VMS Documentation ↗ |
| Hardware optionsAppliances, certified / validated nodes and compatibility lists. |
Any x86-64 server with supported processors and drivers; the HCL marks partner-validated, customer-proven and vendor-certified hardware. Hardware compatibility list (HCL) - Vates VMS Documentation ↗ |
| Hardware OEMsWhich server vendors ship or certify nodes. |
Vendor-neutral; hardware partners with validated models are listed in the Vates ecosystem. Hardware compatibility list (HCL) - Vates VMS Documentation ↗ |
| Edge / ROBO suitabilitySmall footprints, remote management and low-touch operation for branches. |
Light hosts and a flat-price Essential plan for up to 3 hosts; XO Proxy for remote-site backup. XOSTOR needs 3 hosts. Vates Virtualization Management Stack ↗ |
| Air-gapped / disconnected operationRunning and updating without any internet or cloud connection. |
Runs fully on premises; air-gapped patching uses mirrored update repositories. Confirm the offline XOA update process with Vates. Vates VMS Documentation ↗ |
| Migration tooling (e.g. from VMware)Built-in or vendor tools for moving VMs onto the platform. |
Xen Orchestra V2V from VMware vSphere/ESXi using nbdkit and VDDK, with warm migration (final delta at cut-over). V2V Migration Guide - Xen Orchestra Documentation ↗ |
| Licensing & subscription | |
| Licence modelSubscription, term, perpetual or free, and the usual term lengths. |
Open-source software (no licence needed to run). Subscriptions for 1, 3 or 5 years, up to 15% discount for longer terms. Subscribe to XCP-ng and Xen Orchestra ↗ |
| Licence metricWhat is counted - physical cores, sockets, nodes, TiB, or VMs. |
Per host per year (no per-CPU, per-core or per-RAM metric), or a flat price for up to 3 hosts. Subscribe to XCP-ng and Xen Orchestra ↗ |
| Licensing minimumsMinimum cores per CPU, minimum order quantities and similar rules. |
Pro: minimum 3 hosts. Enterprise: minimum 4 hosts. XOSTOR add-on: minimum 3 hosts. Subscribe to XCP-ng and Xen Orchestra ↗ |
| EditionsThe editions or packages sold. |
Essential, Essential+, Pro and Enterprise; add-ons XOSTOR (Essential/Pro/Enterprise) and EasyVirt. Subscribe to XCP-ng and Xen Orchestra ↗ |
| Free / community editionA no-cost edition, and what it is licensed for. |
XCP-ng and Xen Orchestra built from sources are free and full-featured, without support or the pre-built XOA. Subscribe to XCP-ng and Xen Orchestra ↗ |
| Guest OS (Windows Server) licensingWhat the platform does, or does not do, for Windows Server guest licensing. |
No guest OS rights included; license Windows Server per host as usual. Subscribe to XCP-ng and Xen Orchestra ↗ |
| Licence portabilityMoving the licence between hardware vendors, or into a public cloud. |
Hardware-vendor neutral per-host subscriptions; no public-cloud offering. Subscribe to XCP-ng and Xen Orchestra ↗ |
| Support & lifecycle | |
| Support offeringsThe support levels sold, and their hours. |
Essential (6 tickets/yr), Essential+ and Pro: business-day support, 24 h critical response. Enterprise: 24/7, 1 h critical response, setup/upgrade assistance. Subscribe to XCP-ng and Xen Orchestra ↗ |
| Single point of support (hardware + software)One call for the whole stack, or separate vendors for hardware and software. |
Software only; hardware is supported by its vendor. Subscribe to XCP-ng and Xen Orchestra ↗ |
| Critical-issue responseTarget response time for a severity-1 issue on the top support tier. |
Enterprise: 1-hour response for critical incidents, 24/7. Subscribe to XCP-ng and Xen Orchestra ↗ |
| Release & update cadenceHow often feature and maintenance releases ship. |
Monthly security and maintenance updates for XCP-ng 8.3 LTS; Xen Orchestra ships monthly (XO 6.8, Aug 2026). Releases - XCP-ng Documentation ↗ |
| Lifecycle policyHow long a release is supported, and long-term-support options. |
LTS releases are supported for up to 5 years; XCP-ng 8.3 LTS until 2028-11-30 ahead of XCP-ng 9.0. Releases - XCP-ng Documentation ↗ |
| Cost | |
| Published list pricingWhether the OEM publishes prices, and the headline list price. |
Published: Essential $2,000/yr and Essential+ $4,000/yr (up to 3 hosts); Pro $1,000 and Enterprise $1,800 per host/yr. XOSTOR adds $800 (Pro) or $1,200 (Enterprise) per host/yr. Subscribe to XCP-ng and Xen Orchestra ↗ |
| TCO drivers & hidden costsAdd-ons, minimums, hardware premiums and other costs that move the total. |
XOSTOR is a separate add-on; replicas (2-3 copies) without data reduction raise raw capacity; 24/7 support only in Enterprise (min 4 hosts). Subscribe to XCP-ng and Xen Orchestra ↗ |
| Vendor & ecosystem | |
| Vendor & ownershipWho owns and develops the platform, and recent ownership changes. |
Vates, an independent French company founded in Grenoble, which develops XCP-ng and Xen Orchestra. About Vates - The Story Behind Our Company ↗ |
| Ecosystem & communityPartners, certified applications, skills availability and community. |
Active open-source community and forum, Veeam and other backup partners, HCL hardware partners; smaller ecosystem than the market leaders. Backup ecosystem - Vates VMS Documentation ↗ |
| Lock-in & exit optionsOpen formats, standard hypervisors and how hard it is to leave. A higher score means less lock-in. |
Fully open source; standard VHD/QCOW2 disks; free edition can be self-supported. Vates Virtualization Management Stack ↗ |
| Regional availability & sovereigntyWhere the platform is sold and supported, and sovereignty considerations. |
EU (French) vendor with a sovereignty focus, e.g. work with the Italian Cybercommand; sold worldwide. vates.tech ↗ |
Editions
| Edition | Model | Metric | Price / unit / yr | Basis | Support | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| XCP-ng + Xen Orchestra (from sources) ↗ | Free | free | $0 | OEM list price | Community forum and Discord | Labs and self-supported deployments. |
| Essential ↗ | Subscription | per cluster | $2,000 | OEM list price | Business day, 24 h critical response, 6 tickets/yr | Small sites with up to 3 hosts. |
| Essential+ ↗ | Subscription | per cluster | $4,000 | OEM list price | Business day, 24 h critical response, unlimited tickets | Small clusters needing all Xen Orchestra features. |
| Pro ↗ | Subscription | per node / host | $1,000 | OEM list price | Business day, 24 h critical response, unlimited tickets | Mid-size estates on shared SAN/NAS with business-hours support. |
| Enterprise ↗ | Subscription | per node / host | $1,800 | OEM list price | 24/7, 1 h critical response, setup/upgrade assistance | Production estates on external storage that need 24/7 support. |
| Pro + XOSTOR Pro (HCI) ↗ | Subscription | per node / host | $1,800 | OEM list price | Business day, 24 h critical response, unlimited tickets | Hyperconverged 3-7 host pools with business-hours support. |
| Enterprise + XOSTOR Enterprise (HCI) ↗ | Subscription | per node / host | $3,000 | OEM list price | 24/7, 1 h critical response, setup/upgrade assistance | Production hyperconverged pools needing 24/7 support. |
Hardware routes
- Any x86-64 server (HCL-listed preferred) ↗
Hcl
Any — HCL levels: partner-validated, customer-proven, vendor-certified for Xen, and withdrawn. Unlisted supported hardware is still covered by support.
Support
- Essential ↗
Business day · Sev-1: 24 hours · 6 tickets per year; up to 3 hosts. - Essential+ / Pro ↗
Business day · Sev-1: 24 hours · Unlimited tickets. - Enterprise ↗
24/7 · Sev-1: 1 hour · Unlimited tickets, setup and upgrade assistance; minimum 4 hosts.
Deployment
- Networks
- Management (XAPI, private IPs only), XOSTOR / DRBD replication (dedicated 10 GbE+), VM traffic (VLANs), Live migration, Backup network (optional), Out-of-band (IPMI)
- NICs
- Dedicated 10 GbE or faster for DRBD replication, plus management and VM NICs
- Switching
- Two redundant switches; management network must not use public IPs
- Witness
- A third (possibly diskless) XOSTOR host provides DRBD quorum; no external witness
- Time to deploy
- Hours for a 3-host pool once racked
Reference diagrams
Drawn for the default workload (200 VMs → 6 nodes). Build a comparison to size them for yours.OEM references
- ProductVates Virtualization Management Stack ↗
- DatasheetXOSTOR - Software Based Hyperconverged Virtual Infrastructure ↗
- DocsVates VMS Documentation ↗
- RequirementsRequirements - XCP-ng Documentation ↗
- LicensingSubscribe to XCP-ng and Xen Orchestra ↗
- PricingSubscribe to XCP-ng and Xen Orchestra ↗
- SupportSubscribe to XCP-ng and Xen Orchestra ↗
- LifecycleReleases - XCP-ng Documentation ↗
- HclHardware compatibility list (HCL) - Vates VMS Documentation ↗
- DrBackup overview - Xen Orchestra Documentation ↗
- SecuritySecurity & Advisories - Vates VMS Documentation ↗
- NetworkingXen Orchestra - Vates VMS Documentation ↗
- K8sAutomation and DevOps tools - Vates VMS Documentation ↗
- CloudVates Virtualization Management Stack ↗
- MigrationV2V Migration Guide - Xen Orchestra Documentation ↗
- EcosystemBackup ecosystem - Vates VMS Documentation ↗
- CompanyAbout Vates - The Story Behind Our Company ↗