XCP-ng preinstalled on Protectli hardware

Hardware Apr 6, 2021

We are proud to present our first hardware partner selling machines with XCP-ng preinstalled. A further example of XCP-ng success!

A logical move

XCP-ng is entirely compatible with Protectli products and we published a blog post about it 6 months ago.

Protectli is dedicated to providing reliable, cost effective, and secure computer equipment that doesn't lock you into proprietary vendors and expensive contracts.

Due to the high demand for XCP-ng on their machines, the next logical step for Protectli was to have XCP-ng preinstalled so it could be delivered out-of-the-box for their customers.

It's also perfectly aligned with our feedback: we are seeing an increasing demand regarding virtualization and edge computing. These machines are entirely fanless, and able to run in various environments outside the datacenter.

Vault series

XCP-ng will be available on Vault products, specifically FW6D and FW6E units.

FW6D and FW6E: two models with XCP-ng pre-installed

What's also interesting: these units can be shipped with Coreboot, allowing an even more Open Source stack, from the bottom to the top.

To learn more about Protectli and Coreboot, you can read about it here: https://protectli.com/coreboot/

Behind the scenes

And while we are here, let's explore the best way to deliver XCP-ng on those machines, in a fully automated way. Obviously, you don't want to manually install XCP-ng on each machine you sell (well, in theory, you can if you want hire someone to do that all day).

That's where automated installs enter the game! Thanks to PXE and the answer file mechanism, Protectli is able to create a fully automated process to install XCP-ng.

Our recently updated documentation explains:

How to configure your PXE setup for XCP-ng
How to get a fully automated install

Even better, you can even leave the root password empty. So on first boot, the user will be asked to create one. This way, there's no default password when the unit is shipped. That's a security guarantee to avoid any default password laying around and left forever (admin/admin!)