Virtualization Report | David Marshall | June 2006

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June 2006

June 30, 2006

Today we take a look at VMware's new policy of publishing benchmark results. So what changed? And then... What's going on with Sun Solaris 10, Xen and VMware? listen LISTEN!

Posted by David Marshall on June 30, 2006 06:24 PM

June 29, 2006

Go Ahead, Compress Those Virtual Machines

Have you ever noticed how quickly your virtual machines become bloated? You know, after a few days of installing and uninstalling applications, adding and removing files, surfing the Internet, yada yada yada - you turn around and your virtual machine file went from 4GB to 7GB, but you didn't really use up 3GB of space! If this happens on one virtual machine that might be acceptable, but what happens if you have ten virtual machines on the same host... or more? You can see where a simple problem like virtual machine disk bloat can really start to get out of hand.

Parallels, the company that recently brought Parallels Desktop for Mac to market, has announced the release of Parallels Compressor. This virtualization application is an easy-to-use management tool that helps reduce the size of virtual hard disks, sometimes by 50 percent or more.

One of the nice things about this tool is its nondiscriminatory, universal approach at virtual hard disk "weight loss". Compressor will work-out and slim down a virtual machine created with Parallels, as well as VMware or Microsoft virtualization products. Doing so reclaims that "stolen" disk space to free up disk storage, speeds up virtual machine disk copy time, and optimizes the now fit and trim virtual machine.

The product is sold in two flavors, Workstation and Server. Compressor Workstation, which retails for $49, is optimized for virtual workstations running Windows 2000 or XP. Compressor Server, available for $179, is a professional-grade tool that is optimized for virtual server or virtual workstations running Windows 2000, XP, 2000 Server or Server 2003.

And if you already own Parallels Desktop for Mac, take note, the final version of Desktop (build 1848) already has Parallels Compressor Server technology built-in.

To try or buy either version of Compressor, check out their Web site, here. The Web site also offers more information and documentation on the product.

Posted by David Marshall on June 29, 2006 04:37 PM

June 28, 2006

VMware Relaxes Benchmark Policy

While you were trying to decide which virtualization solution to go with (VMware, Microsoft, Xen, Parallels, etc.), did you search for published benchmarking results to try and compare the different products? If so, did you find any? My guess is probably not. The reason being, VMware has had a pretty strict policy about publishing benchmarks. After the release of VMware Workstation 3.2, they introduced a clause in the End User License Agreement (EULA) stating you cannot publish benchmarking results from their products. With such an agreement in place, you can understand why finding such a benchmark comparison would prove difficult.

But are things about to change? According to the blog site run by Richard Garsthagen (the Technical Marketing Manager for VMware EMEA), it appears as though the release of VMware Infrastructure 3 may be ushering in a new benchmarking policy at VMware. Although everyone reads a software package's EULA before clicking that little "I accept" checkbox during the installation, Richard offers up a snippet that explains the policy change:

You may use the Software to conduct internal performance testing and benchmarking studies, the results of which you (and not unauthorized third parties) may publish or publicly disseminate; provided that VMware has reviewed and approved of the methodology, assumptions and other parameters of the study. Please contact VMware at benchmark@vmware.com to request such review.

I am a little disappointed that VMware didn't go further with relaxing the policy. With the battle cry for standardization that has been going on in the virtualization community as of late, would it not have made more sense to agree on a set of benchmarking tools and a common testing methodology, rather than asking to review and approve each study being conducted?

In any case, I hope this opens up a whole new arena for people to publish and share their benchmarking results of various virtualization products across a number of different hardware platforms. It will be interesting to see the results.

Posted by David Marshall on June 28, 2006 07:52 PM

June 28, 2006

Storage Networking Companies Announce Support for VI3

With the release of VMware Infrastructure 3 (VI3), VMware advances virtualization into a new era for the data center. By packaging applications and adding new feature sets, the new VI3 product offers a much more robust virtualization solution causing more businesses than ever to sign-up for the virtualization program. And as virtualization gets rolled out into larger scale deployments, the need for networked storage becomes that much greater. Network storage and server virtualization go hand-in-hand because it helps ease management, offers a consolidated storage solution, and enables virtual machine portability.

By announcing support for VI3 and closely aligning themselves with VMware's solution, companies like QLogic and Emulex hope to gain further traction into the server virtualization market - a market that seems to be growing and expanding at a faster rate each year.

QLogic Corporation announced that its storage networking products support the newly released VMware Infrastructure 3. Optimized for virtualized environments, their QLogic SANblade Pro 2400 Series 4Gb HBAs and SANbox 4Gb switches are a strong complement to VI3. They consolidate direct-attach storage and SANs and simplify ease-of-use through boot-from-SAN capabilities.

"SAN administrators want to deploy common infrastructures," said Greg Schulz, founder and senior analyst, The StorageIO Group. "With storage networking that extends from HBA end-node to fabric switching, QLogic allows SAN administrators to deploy a common storage networking infrastructure with full support for VMware Infrastructure 3. With continued adoption of server virtualization and VMware, the StorageIO group expects to see more server consolidation, which will likely result in the need for more bandwidth and more 4Gb end-to-end installations."

Emulex Corporation also made an announcement that their Emulex LightPulse family of HBAs are fully supported in VI3. Customers deploying VI3 may leverage both 2Gb/s and 4Gb/s HBA support which can help with I/O intensive and mission critical applications. Additionally, boot from SAN capabilities, support for high-availability multi-pathing, as well as VMware VMotion-based workload optimization ensure reliable and efficient deployments ideal for demanding corporate data centers.

"The Emulex HBA architecture is uniquely flexible and features industry-standard APIs to ensure seamless compatibility with VMware Infrastructure 3," said Mike Smith, executive vice president of worldwide marketing at Emulex. "Virtualized systems make sense for many enterprises as a way to maximize server efficiency. With the overwhelming desire for SAN attach capability within server virtualization environments, it is important for Emulex to closely align with VMware to enable end users to continue standardizing on Emulex HBAs throughout their data centers."

To read either company's press release, go here: QLogic and Emulex

Posted by David Marshall on June 28, 2006 05:02 PM

June 26, 2006

SWsoft on VMware and Virtualization

So what exactly is SWsoft's take on VMware and virtualization? I wasn't sure either until I came across these two articles.

According to the Virtuozzo Blog site, SWsoft had an extremely positive experience at this year's TechEd 2006 event. Foot traffic around their booth was up from the previous year, so the company was able to communicate with a lot more of the attendees. At the conclusion of the show, the company made the following observations:

A lot more people are using virtualization compared to TechEd 2005. 80% are using virtualization and 100% are evaluating it for deployments - compared to 50% and 60-70% respectively at TechEd 2005.

VMware users were much more interested to alternative approaches. Last year VMware users may or may not have had the time to talk to us... this year they did.

Hardware virtualization is still used mostly for testing and development. Only about 25% or less of the people I talked to use it in production.

About 80% of the production hardware virtualization users mention "OS sprawl" either as a problem they're dealing with now or something they're anticipating in the near future.

Around the same time, TechWorld wrote an interesting article, "VMware too slow and expensive", where it detailed some of the thoughts of SWsoft CEO Serguei Beloussov centered on their competitor, VMware. In it, the article writes:

VMware's virtualisation software, which leads the market by a considerable margin and is fast becoming the platform of choice for server consolidation projects, is too resource hungry, too slow and too expensive, according to the boss of a much smaller virtualisation company.
Serguei Beloussov, CEO of SWsoft which sells virtualisation product Virtuozzo, has slammed the virtualisation industry's standard-bearer, saying that Virtuozzo's OS shim-style virtualisation is better than VMware's all round, in that customers can fit more virtual machines (VMs) into a server, and that it's easier to manage and so costs less to run.

Beloussov, who claimed that analysts report Virtuozzo as second on enterprises' product short-lists behind VMware, said that VMware's primary product, ESX Server, is too expensive in terms both of total cost of ownership and of hardware. This is because of the way that ESX Server works, reckoned Beloussov.

...

He then claimed - as you'd expect - that Virtuozzo was better because it suffered from none of these drawbacks. "We find customers set off to solve the problem of physical server sprawl. They then get OS sprawl - we solve that," he said. This is because, according to Beloussov, Virtuozzo consist of a shim between the OS and the VMs that allows one OS kernel to be shared across VMs. With only one kernel running, hardware and maintenance costs are lower, if Beloussov is to be believed.

...

Finally, Beloussov's comprehensive demolition job on his biggest competitor cited performance as another weakness. "VMware is I/O intensive", he said, claiming that its overhead could be 5-10x higher then that of his own product. "The problem is that you cannot find out because the VMware [license] agreement means you can't publish performance comparisons," he said.

If you want to read more of what the SWsoft CEO had to say, check out the entire TechWorld article, here.

Posted by David Marshall on June 26, 2006 04:41 PM

June 26, 2006

InfoWorld Virtualization Report Podcast

Companies are coming together to help accelerate the adoption of virtualization in the IT community. Two new programs have recently been started, and we'll talk about both of them: the Intel-VMware Virtualize ASAP program and the IBM Virtualization Test Drive program. listen LISTEN!

Posted by David Marshall on June 26, 2006 03:48 PM

June 25, 2006

Reviewing Win4Lin: Running Windows on Linux

Toms Hardware recently published an 11-page review of Win4Lin's flagship product, Win4Lin Pro Desktop. For those of you not familiar with this product, Win4Lin Pro Desktop is a software package that is designed to run Windows 2000/XP applications as intended, without the need to patch the host operating system - all on top of a Linux operating system. The technology itself is not new; it is based on technology that has been in development for the past 20 years.

The review kicks off in high gear, explaining the need for the product as such:

If you are a Windows user who interacts with Linux on a regular or occasional basis, you will eventually feel disenfranchised. The best analogy might be a left-hander in a world full of righties (and right-hand bias). In that same way, Windows dominates the desktop marketplace, and until some shift changes the status quo, this bias will continue to exist as a phenomenon known primarily to early-adopters, former Windows users, and those fluent in both platforms by way of work or play.

The review goes on to explain the need for Windows applications in a Linux world, touches on defining emulation and virtualization techniques, and even attempts to differentiate Win4Lin from VMware.

On the surface, the primary difference between Win4Lin and VMware boils down to this: Win4Lin is a specialized emulation environment designed for ease-of-use, installation, and configuration for the sole purpose of operating Windows within Linux. On the other hand, VMware is constructed with a more general goal: to emulate various OS platforms, often side-by-side, in a scalable and flexible fashion. Accordingly, Win4Lin carries less operational overhead than VMware by sacrificing scalability for simplicity.

The review continues by describing limitations, tips, and benchmarking results that anyone interested in Win4Lin should read. It then comes to an end offering its own conclusions on the product. To be fair, the majority of the conclusion centers around graphic performance or graphic capabilities - and these same conclusions can and would be drawn against most virtualization software currently on the market. One of the biggest drawbacks to virtualizing an operating system today is the lack of support or the current inability to virtualize a modern, high-performance graphics card. This translates into a common problem for virtualization environments to properly handle graphic intensive software applications.

Check out the Toms Hardware review of Win4Lin Pro Desktop, here.

Posted by David Marshall on June 25, 2006 09:37 AM

June 25, 2006

VMware Server RC2 Adds OS Support

With the release of VMware Server RC2 (build 27828) comes a new list of host and guest operating system support. One of the most amazing features of VMware GSX Server has always been its huge list of supported host and guest operating systems. It seems as though its successor product, VMware Server, is living up to the challenge of stressing out its rivals as it continues to expand on its evolving matrix of supported operating systems.

VMware Server RC2 adds the following support:

Full support for SUSE Linux 10.1 as host and guest operating systems.

Full support for 32-bit Ubuntu 6.x as host and guest operating systems.

Full support for 32-bit Sun Solaris 10.x as guest operating systems.

Full support for 32-bit and 64-bit FreeBSD 6.0 as guest operating systems.

Experimental support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3.0 Update 8 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.0 Update 4.

Experimental support for 64-bit Ubuntu 6.x as host and guest operating systems.

Experimental support for 64-bit Sun Solaris 10.x as guest operating systems.

You can download the latest release of VMware Server, here.

And to find out what has been added to the product along the way, check out the Release Notes, here.

Posted by David Marshall on June 25, 2006 06:48 AM

June 24, 2006

Virtualization for the small and medium sized businesses

IBM announced that it was going to kick off a virtualization education and sales initiative designed to bring more small and medium sized businesses into the virtualization fold. IBM said that more than 65 percent of their virtualization sales are driven by IBM partners targeting SMBs, but this program should help expand that number. The new IBM Virtualization Test Drive program is designed to help IBM business partners more easily sell IBM's Virtualization Engine portfolio, a suite of tools designed to help improve efficiency.

While larger companies have typically already started learning about or implementing virtualization solutions in their data centers, small and medium sized businesses are traditionally slower to adopt new technologies because of limited resources and IT budgets. However, virtualization is a key technology to help overcome these limited resources and smaller IT budgets. This program should help educate people on that fact.

The program includes assistance in setting up a center of competence, technical and industry education, sales enablement and support and tools to help IBM Business Partners assist their clients to design and implement virtualization solutions around IBM's Virtualization Engine portfolio. The IBM Business Partners can also provide a "real world" environment in their innovation centers to simulate client scenarios and test applications. By attending training sessions at the IBM Business Partner's Innovation Centers, clients can see that IBM's Virtualization Engine offerings go beyond the abilities of most competitive offerings.

"We see this program strategy as a natural evolution to expand our virtualization ecosystem," said Rich Lechner, vice president, Virtualization, IBM. "We are using this approach to educate our clients on the business benefits of virtualization and demonstrate how easy it is to get started. In conjunction with IBM's extensive sales force, we are enabling our most-qualified business partners to help market offerings that both anticipate and answer our clients' needs while easing entry into the technology and showing immediate results and value."

The IBM Virtualization Test Drive partner program is already seeing impact. "We have found an 80 percent sales success rate when our clients come in to experience solutions first hand, and we have already received sales leads from our first virtualization test drive session." said Anthony Bongiovanni, President, Micro Strategies Inc. "With IBM's new Virtualization Test Drive program, we are helping customers understand the TCO of virtualization technologies as well as use the technology in a risk-free environment."

IBM is expanding Test Drive into Europe and then plans to roll it out to the rest of the world later this year.

Posted by David Marshall on June 24, 2006 11:37 AM

June 24, 2006

InfoVista Helps Enterprises Reap Benefits of Virtualization

InfoVista gives enterprise IT departments the tools they need to fully benefit from virtualization initiatives and manage the server environment, addressing the challenges in every stage of the lifecycle: readiness assessment, planning and design, implementation, and ongoing workload optimization and support.

While the promise of virtualization is clear, it is only as good as the performance management behind it. Virtualization requires IT administration to deal with near real-time changes in the infrastructure driven by application demands and the fluidity of the platform. Today's enterprises are accustomed to managing a more static "physical" infrastructure, and the dynamic nature of virtualization technology is perceived as a cause of uncertainty. To capitalize on the benefits and move from pilot to production, enterprises need end-to-end visibility and the ability to seamlessly manage the physical and virtual infrastructure.

"Virtualization is clearly an area where IT departments are putting time and resources," said Debra Curtis, research vice president at Gartner. "In the long term, what Gartner refers to as the Real Time Infrastructure (RTI) will enable greater infrastructure sharing across business processes in the virtual enterprise, and thus add greater flexibility and lower the cost of IT service delivery. Before you can dynamically adjust virtualized IT resources based on business priorities and service-level agreements, you must have instrumentation, performance monitoring and end-to-end IT service management, which are all prerequisites for success with RTI."

Service-centric performance management enables users to cost-effectively meet application service level objectives in an environment where an increasing number of business-critical applications are competing for shared resources. Essential capabilities such as performance management, automation, capacity planning, predictive analysis and change management address that challenge and give enterprise IT users the confidence and information needed to manage the virtual infrastructure. Service-centric performance management addresses problem areas inherent at each stage of the virtualization lifecycle.

Readiness Assessment: The key objective of this stage is to assess if the server infrastructure is ripe for virtualization and if benefits can be fully realized. This involves analyzing the existing infrastructure, reviewing the overall health of IT assets, identifying which applications and servers are candidates for virtualization and developing the roadmap that outlines the transition from a physical to virtual infrastructure. A key consideration is server capacity utilization and performance, looking at both the current snapshot as well as the historical trend. In addition, application demands on the servers must be evaluated.

A service-centric performance management solution analyzes existing systems infrastructure using real-time and historical performance reporting; identifies candidate servers ready for virtualization; and uses predictive capabilities to assess the risks of moving to a virtual environment.

Planning and Design: This stage involves architecting a scalable solution and then creating a detailed implementation plan, the key objective being to align business demand to IT strategy. This involves choosing an optimal virtual machine configuration to transform a physical server to a virtual platform, sizing the hardware resource required to host selected virtual machines and clustering the hosts into a host farm. It is critical to ensure that infrastructure and service quality performance as perceived by end-users is not negatively affected by virtualization.

A service-centric performance management solution helps achieve design challenges such as physical to virtual transition, impact analysis, baselining and trending in order to align the virtualization strategy with business objectives.

Implementation: During the implementation stage, IT must employ monitoring capabilities to ensure both application and server performance are not negatively impacted as a result of virtualization. Any design deficiency, performance issue or hardware problem detected must be quickly resolved. A service-centric performance management solution implements automated discovery, dynamic report provisioning and offers before-and-after analysis.

Ongoing Workload Optimization and Support: Service-centric workload consolidation and optimization is an integral part of ongoing support to fully realize virtualization benefits and maximize ROI. The key objectives of this stage include cost-effective delivery of agreed service quality levels, and the ability to ensure high availability and accelerate problem resolution. A service-centric performance management solution provides real-time and historical performance data that can help IT administrators objectively make the right optimization decisions, keeping the workload in mind. It also enables pre-emptive troubleshooting and fast problem resolution.

"Virtualization is a complex and multi-tiered initiative that can yield great results if the necessary tools are in place to ensure service level objectives are met while costs are optimized," said Manuel Stopnicki, chief technology officer at InfoVista. "By taking these important steps to virtualize the server environment now, enterprises are paving the way for broader virtualization initiatives, better service quality management and application performance management, linking the entire infrastructure and achieving higher infrastructure ROI."

Posted by David Marshall on June 24, 2006 11:18 AM

June 22, 2006

Migrating from ESX 2.x to 3.0 and need some help?

If you are one of the people chomping at the bit to get your hands on the latest released version of VMware ESX Server 3.0, you aren't alone. But I ask you, are you prepared for what comes next? I mean, once you get your hands on the media, have you properly planned for your upgrade?

If you haven't really thought about it, you might want to check out the latest guide from Mike Laverick over at RTFM Education. If you've been involved in the server virtualization community for any period of time, you've probably already picked up one or two of his guides along the way. Each one is filled with valuable information, and he does a great job of educating each of us.

His latest guide is self-described as an "upgrade" guide to ESX 3.x and VirtualCenter 2.x. The guide is designed for people who are already very familiar with VMware ESX Server 2.x and VMware VirtualCenter 1.x. And it is based on the "delta" two-day training that can be optionally attended for those people with prior experience.

Mike clearly outlines that this guide is by no means a definitive statement on upgrading. For that, he recommends you read the VMware documentation. It's also not a comprehensive guide but rather a guide that covers most of the primary differences.

You will find information such as the following:

Upgrading Virtual Infrastructure
In Place Upgrade of VirtualCenter
In Place Upgrade of ESX Server
Upgrading Virtual Machines
Networking
Storage (VMFS, SANs, NFS, iSCSI)
Deployment and Migration
Resource Management
Backup and High Availability

You can download Mike's guide, here. And you can read the latest discussion on the guide, here.

Posted by David Marshall on June 22, 2006 08:26 PM

June 22, 2006

AppStream - They've Got Patents Too

It was only a few days ago that we talked about application virtualization patents exploding on the scene. My head was spinning at the rate press releases were hitting the wire shouting "we've been granted a patent", "we're filing a lawsuit and an injunction", or even "we invented application streaming". Silly me, I thought the big news in the application virtualization space was going to be the Softricity acquisition by Microsoft... guess I was wrong. And I guess Microsoft forgot to tell Stream Theory, AppStream, and Mobile Agent Technologies, because they have each been more vocal since the Softricity announcement causing it to become slightly overshadowed.

This time, it's AppStream who proudly steps up to the microphone to announce that it too has been granted a new patent.

According to the company's press release, AppStream announced that the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office recently issued the company a new patent on portions of its innovative application streaming technology.

The patent covers a method for "network streaming of multi-application program code" which is the fourth patent granted to AppStream related to application streaming technology, in addition to several other patents pending.

"This patent further secures our leadership role in providing new ways to deliver applications on demand," said Srinivasa "Venky" Venkataraman, chief operating officer of AppStream. "Software asset management continues to challenge even the most adept IT organizations. Companies need new and better ways to know where their software assets are, and dynamically control who's using them. With AppStream application streaming our customers get centralized access control, on-demand access, and dynamic licensing and entitlement provisioning. This enables businesses to get the full value of their software investment while reducing potential liability and overhead."

Patented and patent-pending AppStream technology will be released this month in the latest beta version of AppStream Technology Windows Edition, version 5.0.

Posted by David Marshall on June 22, 2006 07:51 PM

June 21, 2006

Intel and VMware Launch Virtualize ASAP Program

As if VMware wasn't in the news enough lately, here they come again. This time, VMware is making a joint press announcement with Intel Corporation announcing the launch of something called the Intel-VMware Virtualize ASAP.

According to the announcement, Virtualize ASAP is a global program to further accelerate IT customer deployment of applications in virtual environments using VMware Infrastructure on Intel Xeon processor-based platforms. The program also strengthens the collaboration between Intel and VMware around optimizing Intel platform support for virtualization.

"Virtualize ASAP gives a broad set of ISV partners a set of technical resources to accelerate the creation of best practices and reference configurations of VMware Infrastructure for servers using Intel's dual-core Xeon processors," said Diane Greene, president of VMware. "This will be very helpful to customers for both planning and ongoing deployment in their virtual infrastructure. The program will also provide valuable input to the ongoing technical collaboration to optimize VMware Infrastructure on Intel architecture."

Benefits offered to participating software vendors through Virtualize ASAP include:

Education on VMware Virtual Infrastructure, Intel Platforms and Best Practice Development: Participants will have access to training, a repository of best practices, case studies, technical white papers and more. In addition, Virtualize ASAP participants gain access to ASAP tools that guide them through the development of their own best practices, reference configurations and benchmarks for their software running on Intel and VMware platforms.

Virtual Appliances: VMware and Intel will assist software vendors with their pre-assembled virtual appliances, which deliver simplified customer evaluation and deployment of complex software environments, by providing leading server platforms and technical expertise. A virtual appliance is a fully pre-installed and pre-configured application and operating system environment that runs on a standard x86 desktop or server in a self-contained, isolated environment known as a virtual machine.

24x7 Online Access to Virtualize ASAP Center: The specialized online center jointly developed by Intel and VMware gives ISVs the ability to pre-schedule and utilize technical documentation, pre-configured system and software resources remotely 24 x 7. Located in Dupont, Wash., the center is now open and operational for participating ISVs. The center is equipped with the latest Intel Xeon processor-based server platforms provided by program sponsors Dell, HP and IBM running VMware Infrastructure software. The center provides web-based support with live technical assistance from technical and solution experts from/trained by Intel and VMware who are available Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. PDT.

For more information, visit www.virtualizeASAP.com

Posted by David Marshall on June 21, 2006 04:33 PM

June 21, 2006

InfoWorld Virtualization Report Podcast

We've followed Parallels' Mac product since the beginning, now that it's finally here, it seems to be making a lot of noise in the community. And speaking of noise, what's the deal with application virtualization and all this patent talk? listen LISTEN!

Posted by David Marshall on June 21, 2006 02:55 PM

June 20, 2006

Two virtualization products win "best" awards

As virtualization fever continues to spread across the world, two products in the industry, from Altiris and Softricity, gain recognition as being the "best" as they both received an award this week.

Altiris Software Virtualization Solution (SVS) was named 'Best' New Product at Microsoft TechEd 2006 as judged by editors from Windows IT Pro and SQL Server Magazine. SVS won Best New Product from a field of approximately 30 finalists and dozens more applicants. The award recognizes the best in product innovation and is evaluated on strategic importance to the IT industry, competitive advantages offered, and customer value provided.

Steve Morton, Altiris VP of product management and marketing, said, "Altiris demonstrated the innovation and value of Software Virtualization Solution to win Best New Product at TechEd 2006. Altiris continues to deliver innovative solutions to enhance Windows management and automate IT operations."

Softricity's SoftGrid platform was also honored as one of the best Virtual PC products in Redmond Magazine's 2006 "Best of the Best" Readers' Choice Awards. Chosen by 2,000 enterprise IT professionals, the award recognizes the network and systems management solutions that are used in real-world enterprise environments.

"We are honored that Softricity's application virtualization platform has been recognized by the readers of Redmond Magazine," said David Greschler, Founder and VP Marketing, Softricity. "The selection of our SoftGrid product by readers illustrates the great momentum, adoption and impact of application virtualization, and the unique value Softricity brings to the market."

Congratulations to both products.

Posted by David Marshall on June 20, 2006 08:26 PM

June 20, 2006

Xen sounds great, but how do I install it?

Although Xen has been around for a while now, it still seems to lurk in the shadows of other virtualization products from VMware and Microsoft. At a time when these other companies were selling their virtualization goods for top dollar, Xen was going to fill a niche market - free virtualization for the masses. Unfortunately, it wasn't long until VMware began giving away Player and then announced that the popular GSX Server platform would change names to VMware Server and would also be distributed freely. Microsoft also jumped on the "free" bandwagon as it began giving away its pride and joy, Microsoft Virtual Server 2005.

So where does that leave Xen? Well, the open-source hypervisor is still making noise in the virtualization community. How can a product that was developed collaboratively by some of the world's top engineers at over 20 of the most innovative data center solution vendors be dismissed? It can't. And with the 3.0 release of Xen, new features were added to help the product meet the demands of today's enterprises. Features such as:

Support for up to 32-way virtual SMP guests

Live migration of running virtual machines between physical hosts

Virtual machines offering near native hardware performance

Intel VT and AMD Pacifica hardware virtualization support

PAE support for 32-bit servers with over 4GB of memory

x86/64 support for both AMD64 and EM64T

Excellent hardware support as it supports almost all Linux device drivers

So with all these features and a great price, why aren't more people adopting Xen? While the adoption rate is now growing, part of the problem has been the level of complexity of actually installing it. Getting started with Xen can be a little confusing at first. Luckily, there are sites offering assistance such as HowtoForge.

Check out these great articles that attempt to help guide you through some of the pains.

How To Set Up Xen 3.0 From Binaries In Ubuntu 6.06 LTS (Dapper Drake)

and

The Perfect Xen 3.0 Setup For Debian

If you are interested in more information about Xen, you should visit XenSource for more documentation as well as the download bits.

Posted by David Marshall on June 20, 2006 05:38 PM

June 19, 2006

Application Virtualization Patents Explode on the Scene

As the virtualization technology sector continues to evolve hardware virtualization and application virtualization techniques and innovations, it's interesting to watch the patent play that is happening around us. One of the first players to jump into the patent infringement game was Stream Theory, defending its patent claims over streaming applications by filing lawsuits against Softricity, AppStream and Exent. This explosion happened shortly after Microsoft dropped a bomb of its own, announcing its acquisition plans of Softricity.

Now, Mobile Agent Technologies is blasting a PR announcement of its own stating that it too has been granted a patent for application virtualization techniques.

As someone extremely interested in this somewhat infant market, I can only hope that innovation in this promising area continues to thrive and that it doesn't get stifled by courtroom drama.

Quoting from the official press release:

Mobile Agent Technologies announced today that the United States Patent and Trademark Office has given final approval to their industry changing invention for relocating a running software process from one machine to another, completely intact, without any disruption in execution. The technology, called Automatic Thread Migration (ATM), provides for a system in which environmental monitoring facilities sense a lack of available computing resources, such as memory, network bandwidth, or CPU cycles, and then autonomously trigger the migration of the software process to a secondary host. At the same time components located on a tertiary machine, either in the same data center, or across the globe, maintain the execution stack trace and state of the program, and facilitate restarting the process exactly at the point at which it left off, prior to it's relocation to the secondary host. The migration is seamless and transparent to the application. This fault tolerant technology when fully implemented will eliminate an organization's need for backup data centers.
Mobile Agent Technologies has also announced the availability of an early access version of AgentOS, an agent based operating system. AgentOS represents the convergence of three current trends in the computing industry. The first being application virtualization, the second grid computing, and the last, service oriented architecture (SOA). Significantly improving upon the technical design of first generation corporate computing grids, AgentOS is based upon a zero middleware architecture. This eliminates the intermediary tier most commonly found in today's enterprise application infrastructures. Unlike existing application virtualization technologies whose approach to process migration is operating system dependent, AgentOS is agnostic in this respect, and can work in mixed heterogeneous environments consisting of both Windows, Unix and Linux machines. In regards to SOA, AgentOS supports the creation of reusable software building blocks which can be dynamically assembled, and then reassembled, into robust enterprise applications. An object oriented, agent based component model, allows business logic to be more easily adapted and reused, as compared to alternative development tools such as web services.

Mobile Agent Technologies has instituted an early access program for companies who would immediately like to take advantage of the significant cost savings provided by AgentOS. In addition, Mobile Agent Technologies is actively seeking business partners, including professional service firms, computer hardware manufacturers, systems integrators, and enterprise software companies. Recommended uses for AgentOS include supply chain management, logistics, compute intensive banking, brokerage, and human resource applications, risk management, insurance underwriting, computer gaming, business intelligence, and simulations.

Posted by David Marshall on June 19, 2006 07:02 PM

June 17, 2006

DataCore Reveals Top Ten "Lessons Learned"

DataCore Software announced that it has published key findings from a series of global user group roundtables that took place over the past six quarters, wherein DataCore customers have identified their key "lessons learned" while working with DataCore's products for storage control, storage management, and storage consolidation.

According to the company's press release, the key lessons learned include:

Keep it simple and avoid complexity - While hardware independence is crucial for purchasing advantages, within a given site users were in heated agreement to standardize on common hardware where practical (i.e. a maximum of 2 or 3 models/vendors), to zone by function (i.e. backup) or by application type so it makes it simpler to isolate problems; to set up a simple and obvious naming convention; and to protect systems with redundant paths and mirror key elements of your configuration wherever possible.

Flexibility is key. Avoid vendor lock-in and proprietary hardware - Participants in our user roundtables also reinforced the benefits derived from selecting hardware independent, portable management software that enables flexibility to meet change and greater purchasing choices on what hardware to incorporate. It was interesting to note that many virtual storage users were first introduced to the benefits of virtualization through seeing the benefits of virtual server technologies.

Document your storage area network (SAN) environment - Often ignored, this was a key point that many users cited that they wished they had known earlier. Planning and documenting the naming convention of your SAN environment can enable you to avoid complexity as your network grows. Take the time to think through the naming convention and make it simple and logical so it can grow with your systems.

Test, test, test - Users worldwide hailed the benefits in setting up a test or pre-production SAN.

People, Product and Procedure are all equally important - Storage management requires an understanding of skill sets, training and procedures of your organization. Don't expect miracle software cures; software is important but it is only one dimension of the solution. If you are going virtual, you should also rethink many of your processes to exploit the new benefits and cost savings possible.

Good fences make good neighbors - Segregate your storage traffic from your internal/public network (e.g. security) and limit access to "trained" personnel who understand the SAN. SANs support many servers and users; best practices and training must be embraced and instituted.

Deploy a SAN with advanced storage management features to get more than connectivity - Today's state-of-the-art features for storage management include storage virtualization, automated tools, snapshots, CDP technologies, storage pooling, "Auto-Grow" virtual capacity and remote replication. These advanced features enable a great deal of automation and allow your SAN to scale as well as to meet new requirements.

Deploy a SAN solution with redundancy throughout - A SAN architected correctly will achieve much higher levels of availability. Obviously, to get best results, your SAN solutions should be fully redundant and have dual controllers, power supplies, fans, network connections, as well as hot-swappable disk drives and components.

Future-proof for storage management - Computers are advancing every year, disk prices are dropping dramatically, new innovations like iSCSI and SAS are now practical - make sure your infrastructure is hardware independent and can absorb new innovations when they make sense. Select storage management software and a SAN that can start small, that can ensure easy and cost-effective growth, and that can offer upgrades that do not require downtime.

Keep it simple and avoid complexity for backups and disaster recovery - Where practical, simplify and reduce backup procedures using continuous data protection (CDP) technologies, disk-to-disk copy and snapshots that give users greater control of their data protection and backup process as well as make it possible for users to utilize disk technologies to buffer storage and avoid the ever shrinking backup windows. Also where practical, utilize simple synchronous mirroring of your storage pool for disaster recovery (cross campus, cross town) or new Asynchronous IP-based mirroring for cost effective replication across longer distances.

Posted by David Marshall on June 17, 2006 06:53 PM

June 17, 2006

Altiris Software Virtualization Solution 2.0 SP1 Available

Altiris has announced the release of its first service pack for Software Virtualization Solution (SVS) 2.0 - the company's application virtualization product.

The service pack includes several bug fixes, including the Novell Client fix released as a hot fix for SVS 2.0. In addition to the bug fixes announced, the service pack also includes two new features:

Support for new WISE Package Studio tools - Altiris Wise Package Studio 7 includes new tools that support packaging and editing Virtual Software Packages. APIs have been added to support these tools.

OnEvent actions support - VSA files can now include files that can be called by OnEvent actions, such as OnPreActivate, OnPostActivate, and so forth.

In addition to the new features and bug fixes, the development team has also provided new complete install files with SP1 pre-applied. They also added an agent install executable that correctly upgrades existing SVS client installations.

The updated version can be downloaded, here. And to read the documented Release Notes for the service pack, go here.

Posted by David Marshall on June 17, 2006 06:21 PM

June 15, 2006

Parallels Desktop for Mac now Available

Today, Parallels makes the announcement that many Mac users have been waiting to hear: Parallels Desktop for Mac is now available!

After a successful multi-stage beta program that involved more than 100,000 testers from 71 countries, Parallels announces the final release version of its Desktop for Mac product. It is currently the only solution available that lets Mac users run Windows and Mac OS X at the same time - without rebooting - on any Intel powered iMac, Mac Mini, MacBook, or MacBook Pro. Parallels near-native performance and stability is driven by its hypervisor-powered virtualization engine, and offers full support for Intel Virtualization Technology.

"Parallels Desktop enables Mac users to access Windows programs without giving up the functionality, power and usability of their Mac OS X desktops," said Nick Dobrovolskiy, CEO of Parallels. "We've broken through the barrier that previously kept Mac and Windows from effectively working together side-by-side, simultaneously, on one computer."

As a special incentive to new customers, the company is extending the $49.99 pricing for 30 days following today's announcement. So if you are the least bit interested, act now, because the product will return to its original asking price of $79.99.

Important features found in Parallels Desktop for Mac include:

Run any version of Windows at the same time as Mac OS X at near-native speeds, without having to dual-boot or shut down their Mac desktop.

Users can also run Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris, OS/2, eComStation, or MS-DOS programs alongside Mac OS X applications.

Safely share files and "cut and paste" data between Windows and Mac OS X programs.

Expand a virtual machine to full-screen size on a primary display, or export and expand it on a secondary display.

Reduce Windows 2000, 2003 and XP virtual machine hard drive size by 50 percent or more with Parallels Compressor technology. This powerful tool, which retails for $179, is included free with each copy of Parallels Desktop for Mac.

If you were one of the early adopters or beta testers and you pre-ordered your copy, you can download the final release version here and register it with your permanent key. To register, go to "Help" on the menu and then click on "Activate Product" and then enter your key. If you pre-ordered but haven't received your permanent key, contact Parallels at lostkey@parallels.com.

Posted by David Marshall on June 15, 2006 07:18 PM

June 15, 2006

HP unveils advanced blade server line

Heavyweight Hewlett Packard unveiled a new blade server technology that it believes will help them beat out the competition. The BladeSystem c-Class took three years to develop and offers innovations in virtualization, power and cooling, and system management capabilities that HP claims can reduce operational and capital expenditure costs by as much as 46 percent in a typical data center implementation over three years.

"By implementing a simple, 'out-of-the-box' design, customers can dramatically reduce the biggest IT cost drivers and barriers to change in today's racked, stacked and wired data centers" said Tony Parkinson, an HP Vice President and General Manager.

The BladeSystem c-Class represents a breakthrough architecture that should help the company meet the growing demand for "software as a service" model equipment that answers the simple management approach and meets the scalability requirements. The systems are expected sometime in July of 2006, with pricing available around the same time.

Posted by David Marshall on June 15, 2006 06:48 PM

June 15, 2006

InfoWorld Virtualization Report Podcast

Back and forth they go, Microsoft and VMware take turns in the spotlight. This time, Microsoft is up at bat and they deliver virtualization news from TechEd 2006. And then... Let's find out what OpenVZ is all about, and what exactly are they up to these days? listen LISTEN!

Posted by David Marshall on June 15, 2006 04:52 PM

June 14, 2006

Gestio Virtual Infrastructure Protection for Microsoft Virtual Server

AK Computer Services Ltd. announced that it has released Gestio Virtual Infrastructure Protection for Microsoft Virtual Server (VIP for MSVS), a module which allows you to use NetIQ AppManager to monitor the performance and availability of Microsoft Virtual Infrastructure and Virtual Machines.

According to their press release:

Following the success of our AppManager module for VMware[,] AK Computer Services has now launched Gestio VIP for Microsoft Virtual Server. Gestio VIP for MSVS allows you to monitor all aspects of Microsoft Virtual Server and its associated Virtual Machines using NetIQ AppManager. Gestio VIP for MSVS monitors and protects a Microsoft Virtual Infrastructure using your production systems management application. This enables you to apply the same levels of control, escalation, reporting and service level agreements (SLA's) to your virtual infrastructure as you apply to your production infrastructure, allowing you to confidently use Microsoft Virtual Infrastructure for production scale applications.
Server virtualization allows customers to improve the efficiency and utilization of large Windows systems by host[ing] multiple 'Virtual Servers' on a physical system. Using Server virtualization, business[es] can reduce the number of servers they have to maintain within a data center. Such a reduction of systems allows organizations to reduce the power and air conditioning requirements within the data center. Business are virtualizing whole data centers and need to ensure that, not only are they monitoring the Applications they have traditionally been monitoring but, they are monitoring the "Virtual Infrastructure" as well. The Gestio Virtual Infrastructure Protection modules for AppManager allow you to do just this.

Gestio VIP for MSVS includes comprehensive reporting in addition to the monitoring and alerting capabilities. Now not only can you be alerted about changes to the infrastructure, but you can get information to help you decide on the best location for a new VM. Using AppManager and Gestio Modules you can now monitor and visualize both VMware and Microsoft Virtual Infrastructures within a single business view, providing you with the only comprehensive Systems Management Solution for the monitoring and management of Virtualized servers.

Pricing and Availability
The suggested list price for VIP for Microsoft Virtual Server is $2,500 per Virtual Server. You can purchase Gestio VIP for MSVS direct from AK Computer Services in the UK or via our worldwide Channel partner network.

For more information about AKCSL, visit www.akcsl.com or for specifics on the Gestio modules go to www.gestio.co.uk

Posted by David Marshall on June 14, 2006 05:01 PM

June 14, 2006

Ecora Software Releases Configuration Management Solution for VMware

According to Ecora Software's press release, the company released a suite of configuration management solutions for VMware ESX Servers that provide substantial time and resource savings by simplifying virtual infrastructure management and mitigating security risks.

The software suite includes Ecora Documentor for VMware, a free application that installs and operates on a single workstation and collects hundreds of configuration settings from VMware servers which in turn produces comprehensive, audit-ready documentation. They offer an upgrade package, Ecora Reporter, which provides additional functionality by offering dozens of ready-made report templates for fast and easy analysis of critical configuration data. A third product, Ecora Auditor for VMware, provides IT staff with the ability to customize reports, as well as automatically track configuration changes that are made.

Ecora Reporter and Auditor for VMware come loaded with 28 ready-made report templates that include the following:

ESX security settings

Virtual machine permissions

VMFS files

VMFS volumes

ESX and GSX host overview

Virtual machine summary

Physical NIC and virtual switches

Linux local users and groups, and many more.

Ecora's Documentor for VMware is available for free at www.ecora.com. The Web site also offers free trials of Ecora Reporter and Auditor for VMware.

Posted by David Marshall on June 14, 2006 04:46 PM

June 14, 2006

Virtual Iron Joins the Distributed Management Task Force

Virtual Iron Software, a provider of software solutions for creating and managing virtual infrastructures in the data center, announced that it had joined the Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF) to help lead the development of management standards and promote interoperability in the enterprise data center.

Virtual Iron delivers advanced virtualization and management solutions that leverage industry standards and the Xen open source hypervisor. The software includes comprehensive capabilities to manage virtual infrastructures and addresses a number of data center and virtualization initiatives. Organizations use Virtual Iron's software for consolidation, rapid provisioning, business continuity, workload management and policy-based automation to deliver dramatic improvements in utilization, manageability, and agility.

For those not familiar with the DMTF, they have more than 3,500 active participants representing 39 countries and nearly 200 organizations. They are the developer of the Common Information Model (CIM), the standard for the exchange of management information in a platform-independent and technology-neutral way, and they promote interoperability for enterprise and Internet environments.

Virtual Iron founder and CTO, Alex Vasilevsky, said "By actively engaging with the DMTF, we join many of our strategic partners in the development of standards for integrated, interoperable management solutions. We are always looking for new and innovative ways to help our customers reduce the cost of owning and managing their data center environment. The DMTF is key to driving industry-based standards for lowering costs through stable, integrated management and data center protocols."

Posted by David Marshall on June 14, 2006 04:24 PM

June 13, 2006

Win4Lin Announces Virtual Desktop Server (VDS) Product

Quoting from their official press release:

Win4Lin, the leading purveyor of desktop and enterprise Windows-on-Linux solutions for business, announced today the immediate availability of their new Enterprise and SMB product, Win4Lin Virtual Desktop Server (VDS). The product provides the ability to consolidate and serve multiple Windows Desktops from Linux server infrastructure.

Win4Lin Virtual Desktop Server allows organizations to standardize the application environment to users regardless of desktop hardware and operating system - Windows, UNIX, or Linux can be used on the client, but a common application profile can be created and served from Linux server configurations such as blade servers, rack arrays or large multi-way machines.

Win4Lin Virtual Desktop Server is very popular in the retail, education and health services industries due to its ease in supporting legacy Windows applications for industries that are looking to preserve their application investment while migrating to lower cost operating system infrastructure.

The features of Win4Lin Virtual Desktop Server include:

Integrated Virtual Machine hosting of Windows XP/2000 desktop sessions on Linux servers

Centralized management and provisioning of users

"Renewable" windows - recover from any malware corrupted session by re-launching the original master copy of Windows with your individual "Documents and Settings"

Display either a single application or an entire Windows desktop.

Automatic local printing from the server to the local attached printer.

Consistent user access to personal desktop environment from home, office and other network connected locations.

Support for multiple remote display choices - Win4Lin client, Sun Ray, NoMachine, LTSP, VNC, X, and others.

Win4Lin VDS serves Windows applications to network-connected users using Linux server infrastructure while providing all the advantages of consolidation and central management. Linux Servers, the fastest growing sector in the server market, are more cost effective, more secure, and more reliable than other server operating systems.

"IBM is committed to an enterprise software strategy based on open standards such as J2EE, Linux and others, using tools like Eclipse and Rational," said Jeff Smith, Vice President, Open Source & Linux Middleware, IBM Software Group. "Products like Win4Lin Virtual Desktop Server provide a bridge for hard-to-replace legacy desktop applications as customers fully transition towards an open standards based application environment."

"As more and more enterprises look to the advantages of Linux on the desktop, they need to provide a seamless way of bringing legacy Windows applications to Linux," said Roger Levy, vice president and general manager of Open Platform Solutions for Novell. "Win4Lin Virtual Desktop Server is a natural complement to Novell's SUSE Linux Enterprise platform, as Win4Lin allows customers to fully leverage an end-to-end Linux infrastructure without giving up access to their legacy Windows applications."

"Many businesses are in a transition phase regarding their IT infrastructure and applications," said Malcolm Yates, ISV and Partner Manager at Canonical, "and the Virtual Desktop Server on Ubuntu 6.06 LTS delivers a stable, secure and manageable solution to support a broad range of existing applications and users."

"Mandriva, as a worldwide Linux and Open Source leader, is committed to leveraging virtualization technology, such as OpenVZ, for Linux OS virtualization. We also recognize that customers still may have some number of Windows applications that provide challenges in making the complete transition to Linux", said Francois Bancilhon, president and CEO of Mandriva. "Win4Lin Virtual Desktop Server provides our users with complementary virtual machine technology to host and serve legacy Windows guests environments from our Mandriva Corporate Server 4.0 platform."

"This is an important step forward for Win4Lin in both its usability and performance allowing the enterprise to embrace Linux but continue to provide access to Windows applications. Choosing Win4Lin makes sense for organizations who want to move off Windows to Linux, but have trepidations about the new environment. Along with the connectivity of NoMachine, users can finally experience fast and easy access to Windows on the Linux desktop, making the migration to Linux smoother", said Gian Filippo Pinzari CEO and CTO of NoMachine.

"Vision Technologies, Boundless Technologies, and UCSI are leaders in thin client devices to large organizations", said Oscar Smith, President and CEO. "Win4Lin Virtual Desktop Server is the ideal software complement to our products, providing cost-effective, open source server-based delivery of Windows desktops to organizations seeking to use thin client devices and virtual machine technology to achieve the lowest possible TCO for desktop computing."

"Win4Lin Virtual Desktop Server is the ideal complement to our Desktop Multiplier for SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop software," said Trevor Poapst, Director of Global Marketing and Channel Strategy for Omni. "Our customers are seeking the efficiencies and cost savings of a multiplied Linux desktop, but often still have the need to run specialized Windows applications. We recommend Win4Lin Virtual Desktop Server in these cases."

"KitASP is a leader for thin client solutions in the Japanese market. The market for thin client solutions is rising at the same time as the acceptance of open source platforms is rising," said Toshio Matsuda, president and CEO of KitASP. "Win4Lin Virtual Desktop Server provides our customers with the compelling integration of popular Windows applications together with popular Linux servers."

"Net Integration Technologies manufactures and sells an award-winning, Linux-based server Operating System solution for SMB resellers( NITIX) ", said Steve Estabrooks, Director, ISV account Development. "Win4Lin Virtual Desktop Server addresses one of the most sought-after capabilities in our partner base, an efficient Linux-based way to deploy Windows terminal like desktop sessions. Net Integration Technologies has also been using Win4Lin products internally for several years with much success."

"Win4Lin Virtual Desktop Server is 'just what the doctor ordered'" according to Jordan Rosen, CEO of Lille Corp. "Our large healthcare clients want to turn IT right-side up by making Linux the dominant operating system and Microsoft Windows the legacy player. VDS not only makes that technically feasible, but it makes it affordable."

"Win4Lin Virtual Desktop Server is in the vanguard of products opening new markets for infrastructure where desktop operating environments are uncoupled from their physical machine dependencies", said Jim Curtin, president and CEO of Win4Lin, Inc. "Virtual Desktop Server allows an organization to deploy an end-to-end Linux infrastructure where legacy Windows 2000 and XP desktops are guests, not rooted control points. This is a watershed event, from SMB to enterprise, in the shift from ponderous and out-dated desktop paradigms to flexible, cost-effective virtual desktop infrastructure."

Win4Lin Virtual Desktop Server can be used in one of two ways. First, VDS serves as a means to wean a Linux-committed organization from the last few Windows applications by consolidating them onto a server for as-needed concurrent use. Windows can then be gracefully de-commissioned from a convenient central location once suitable replacements are in production. Secondly, organizations with reluctant user populations can use VDS to server Windows desktops in "full screen" mode on top of an end-to-end Linux infrastructure. This allows the organization to reap the many benefits of Linux infrastructure without their users needing to be re-trained in the first phases of the conversion.

Win4Lin Pro Desktop, the single-user Desktop version of Win4Lin Virtual Desktop Server, was recently picked as the winner in a LinuxWorld Magazine face-off review against VMware Workstation and was the winner of the prestigious LinuxWorld Expo Award, Best Enterprise Integration Product.

For more information about Win4Lin and its products please visit http://www.win4lin.com/.

Posted by David Marshall on June 13, 2006 08:44 PM

June 13, 2006

WinHEC 2006 Virtualization Slides Available

If you weren't fortunate to attend Microsoft's WinHEC 2006 event this year, you aren't alone. And for those of us who were not able to attend, Microsoft has made the track session slides available online for download.

At WinHEC 2006, Microsoft reaffirmed its commitment to virtualization. The track - Systems Fundamentals, Virtualization - includes in-depth information about the Windows virtualization platform architecture. The following session slides are now available:

Device Virtualization Architecture - This session discusses I/O virtualization techniques, focusing on those that will be used in Windows virtualization. It explains how devices can be shared between multiple partitions and provides the background necessary for understanding the following session. Download session slide.

How to Use the WMI Interfaces with Windows Virtualization - This session provides attendees all of the information that they need to take advantage of the Windows Management Infrastructure (WMI) interfaces that allow remote and local management of a server that is running with Windows virtualization enabled. This knowledge will enable attendees to build software management solutions on top of the Windows virtualization architecture.
Download session slide.

HyperCall APIs Explained - This session provides attendees a robust understanding of Windows hypervisor application programming interfaces (APIs) that are used to configure and communicate with the Windows hypervisor. Makers of third-party operating systems can use this knowledge to build solutions on the Windows virtualization infrastructure.
Download session slide.

Hypervisor, Virtualization Stack, and Device Virtualization Architectures - The powerful new Windows virtualization infrastructure will be a core capability in Windows Server Longhorn and in subsequent client releases. This session provides an architectural overview of the three pillars of Windows virtualization: the hypervisor, the virtualization stack, and device virtualization. Other Windows virtualization sessions build on the groundwork that will be laid during this session.
Download session slide.

I/O Memory Management Hardware goes Mainstream - I/O memory management hardware has been an essential component of mainframe and high-end server platforms for decades. Just as other technology components that were once confined to the high end of the computing space have moved into the mainstream PC, I/O memory management hardware is now poised to make its mainstream debut. This presentation introduces the AMD I/O memory management architecture, including details of the software interface, page table formats, and table walking algorithms. The potential usage and benefits of the AMD I/O memory management architecture are also discussed.
Download session slide.

Inside Microsoft's Network and Storage VSP/VSC - This session provides independent software vendors (ISVs) and independent hardware vendors (IHVs) an in-depth understanding of the architecture that is used in Microsoft's network and storage virtual device drivers and familiarity with the built-in capabilities of these drivers.
Download session slide.

Intel Virtualization Technology: Strategy and Evolution - This session presents the vision and strategy for virtualization in enterprise computing, for both client and server usage models. It then discusses how system virtualization is implemented today and describes the role and value of the first-generation Intel Virtualization Technology (VT). Finally, the session provides a deep discussion of future VT architecture directions and ends with a description of the Intel virtualization roadmap.
Download session slide.

Microsoft Server Virtualization Strategy and Virtual Hard Disk Directions - This session provides attendees with insight into the direction that Microsoft is taking with its operating system virtualization technologies. It covers virtual server, virtual PC, Windows virtualization, and Microsoft's virtual hard disk (VHD) direction. The session includes a brief history of product releases to date, the current work, and the future direction for each of these products.
Download session slide.

PCIe Address Translation Services and I/O Virtualization - This session presents some of the evolutions from the PCI I/O Virtualization working group in the two key areas of PCIe Address Translation Service (ATS) and protocols to support multiple operating system instances. The PCIe ATS specification defines a new protocol to enable I/O endpoints to efficiently work with chipsets that implement address translation and protection table technology. This session provides a functional overview of the address translation and protection table, ATS terminology, ATS wire protocol operation, critical areas of attention, and what lies ahead.

The PCIe I/O Virtualization specifications define new protocols to enable I/O endpoints to be efficiently shared by multiple operating system instances and to break through the performance barriers that are currently gating virtualization solutions within the industry. This session covers the I/O virtualization terminology, a functional overview, I/O virtualization usage models, single-root and multi-root topologies, configuration, management, error handling, quality of service (QoS), and what lies ahead.
Download session slide.

Windows Virtualization Best Practices and Future Hardware Directions - This future-looking session gives attendees an understanding of the directions that Microsoft is taking with Windows virtualization and what independent hardware vendors (IHVs) can do to ensure interoperability between their hardware and Windows virtualization. Example topics include IOMMUs and direct memory access (DMA) remapping.
Download session slide.

Posted by David Marshall on June 13, 2006 08:17 PM

June 12, 2006

Virtualization a Big Investment for Microsoft - TechEd 2006

If you aren't going to Boston to see Microsoft's TechEd 2006 this year, don't worry. Once again, the amazing powers of video and the Internet come through for those of us who aren't lucky enough to make the journey.

From the Webcast of the TechEd 2006 Keynote Address, Bob Muglia (Senior Vice President, Server and Tools Business at Microsoft Corporation) introduces and talks about our favorite topic, virtualization.

If you have the time, please watch the entire Webcast. If you find yourself longing for more virtualization news, jump to about 50 minutes into the keynote address to fill that void.

Here, Bob Muglia talks about virtualization at multiple levels.

The first, the level of virtualization that most people think about, that is hardware virtualization. This is what you use when you virtualize the entire hardware; it's what Virtual Server does as well as products from VMware and Xen. It is a very effective way to achieve a great deal of isolation of applications in a packaged format. He goes on to say, these packages are very isolated, but they are not very granular in terms of the level of control people have over them.

The second, which is the one furthest out, will take another generation of the operating system beyond "Longhorn", and it is called OS services virtualization. Within the operating system, key system services are virtualized, services like WinLogon to allow you to run multiple instances at the same time.

The third is application virtualization. This is the concept of being able to take and package an application up as a virtual object that can get sent down to the server or computer. With application virtualization, it is possible to run two versions of your business application that use different DLLs that are incompatible. And while it may provide less isolation than hardware virtualization, it offers much more granular control.

And if you continue to watch the Webcast, you'll see Bill Anderson provide a demo of Windows Server virtualization and Microsoft's new product in System Center, Virtual Machine Manager.

Posted by David Marshall on June 12, 2006 07:22 PM

June 11, 2006

InfoWorld Virtualization Report Podcast

Today we talk about PlateSpin and Double-Take Software forming a partnership to deliver an outstanding solution. And then... AMD enters the scene with an answer to Intel's vPro technology listen LISTEN!

Posted by David Marshall on June 11, 2006 07:30 AM

June 11, 2006

Network Virtualization - Enter Project Crossbow

How cool would it be to be able to divide your physical network interface card (NIC) into several virtual interface cards and have the ability to prioritize networking traffic as well as having full resource control? Well, it could be a reality as Sun researchers and project "Crossbow" attempt to solve networking problems by making sure each application gets a set amount of bandwidth.

The project is described in the following way:

Crossbow provides the building blocks for network virtualization and resource control by virtualizing the stack and NIC around any service (HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, NFS, etc.), protocol or Virtual machine.
Each virtual stack can be assigned its own priority and bandwidth on a shared NIC without causing any performance degradation. The architecture dynamically manages priority and bandwidth resources, and can provide better defense against denial-of-service attacks directed at a particular service or virtual machine by isolating the impact just to that entity. The virtual stacks are separated by means of H/W classification engine such that traffic for one stack does not impact other virtual stacks.

Project Crossbow is next step in the evolution of Solaris networking stack and brings bandwidth resource control and virtualization as part of the architecture itself instead of the usual add-on layers which have heavy overheads and complexity.

Project Crossbow is an OpenSolaris Project. More information about the project can be found on their official Web site, here.

Posted by David Marshall on June 11, 2006 07:03 AM

June 10, 2006

TechEd 2006 Feeds Virtualization Hunger

If you haven't been to Microsoft TechEd, you really should try to attend. The event is usually done extremely well, and I've always walked away with a positive outcome - feeling as though I learned something valuable.

Hopefully, this year is no different as Microsoft brings TechEd 2006 to Boston, MA on June 11th through June 16th. The show consists of hundreds of learning opportunities featuring Microsoft Product Managers, Developers, Programmers, IT Managers with select sessions from leading industry experts.

And this year, they have a number of tracks that relate to virtualization, such as:

BOF41 Creative Uses for Virtualization in the Development Lab
Day/Time: Thursday, June 15 10:15 AM - 11:30 AM
This session will encourage discussions of the many innovative methods that sofware developers, QA testers and technical professionals have used virtualization technologies to enhance the application development lifecycle.

SVR003 Introduction to Virtual Server 2005 R2
This lab will walk the user through various tasks that can be performed with Virtual Server 2005 R2 and give the user insight into the world of possibilities in a virtualized world. The objective of this lab is to guide you through the core functionality and new features in Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2. After completing this lab you will have: Created a new virtual machine from an existing virtual hard disk, Configured virtual machines for virtual networking, Configured Virtual Server and virtual machine settings, Used advanced features of Virtual Server including undo & differencing disks

BOF21 Using Intel Virtualization Technology with Microsoft Windows
Day/Time: Tuesday, June 13 9:00 PM - 10:00 PM
The attention on virtualization as a capability on client and servers has been growing recently. With the rise of new use models and the introduction of hardware technologies such as Intel VT, the reliability and usability of the virtualized system has entered the mainstream. This session will be an open discussion on the uses for virtualization for clients and servers. Developers should come prepared to discuss ideas around potential new revenue streams using virtualization. IT Pro customers should be ready to discuss the way virtualization deployments are and will be changing the way the industry does business.

MGTTLC03 Virtual Machine Management with System Center
Day/Time: Thursday, June 15 4:30 PM - 5:45 PM Room: SEC, SVR, MGT & CLI Theater 2
Speaker(s): Bill Shelton
This chalk talk presents the opportunity for an open Q & A regarding Microsoft's approach and tools for virtual machine management. In particular, this chalk talk provides the opportunity to learn the various tips and tricks for management of a virtual data center.

SVR302 Virtual Server R2 SP1 Beta: Introduction
Day/Time: Monday, June 12 9:00 AM - 10:15 AM Room: 157 ABC
Speaker(s): Rajiv Arunkundram, Peter Doulas
This session focuses on the new features of Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 such as Intel VT and AMD VT support, Volume Shadow Services support and how to use the features to provide additional solution capability. The session also covers the roadmap for virtualization technologies from Microsoft.

SVRTLC11 Virtual Server Solution
Speaker(s): Allen Stewart
Abstract pending

SVR335 Virtual Server Solution Scenarios
Day/Time: Monday, June 12 1:30 PM - 2:45 PM Room: 258 ABC
Speaker(s): Robert Larson, Allen Stewart
This session focuses on the three main solution areas for Virtual Server: Branch Office solution, high availability with clustering, disaster recovery, and test and dev environments. The session provides best practices on how to evaluate the requirements for a specific virtualization solution and some key tips and tricks for effective deployment of Virtual Server.

SVR216 Virtual Server: Customer Success Stories
Day/Time: Tuesday, June 13 4:30 PM - 5:45 PM Room: 259 AB
Speaker(s): Ivar Hyngstrom, Ken Isacson, Dimitri Mundarain, Tony Taylor
This session focuses on customer success stories of how customers evaluated and selected Virtual Server over competing technologies/vendors. This session provides you with best practices on how to evaluate a virtualization solution and an example of how a customer actually deployed virtualization in their environment.

Check out the full listings, here.

Posted by David Marshall on June 10, 2006 05:52 PM

June 10, 2006

Altiris SVS vs. Softricity SoftGrid: One Developer's Perspective

A person, who identified himself as R.Kennedy the CTO of Devil Mountain Software, recently posted his opinions on using Altiris SVS and Softricity SoftGrid against his own software applications. After going through an installation and testing of both products, he posted his findings on Juice, a community for Altiris enthusiasts. Because this is posted on an Altiris Web site, I took the posting, as perhaps you should, with a grain of salt and used it for more informational gathering rather than pure fact. However, I also have no data to say otherwise.

In Mr. Kennedy's findings, he concluded that SVS had the superior implementation of a "pure" virtualization model. He claims its "layered" architecture is more reliable and compatible than the "virtual environments" model used by SoftGrid. This conclusion was drawn based on his own personal experiences adapting two of his own product tools - DMS Clarity Studio and DMS Clarity Tracker - to work under virtualization.

Quoting Mr. Kennedy from his post:

During testing with SVS we found the application "recording" phase to be incredibly simple. Both of our applications - Studio and Tracker - installed cleanly and ran correctly when enabled in their respective SVS layers. Note: This includes successfully starting and stopping two windows services (cfwtracker and cfwupload) and handling some complex hardware/software disclosure probing by Tracker. Overall, it was a pleasure to work with.
By contrast, SoftGrid's sequencing process was a real nightmare for us. In the beginning, we couldn't get Tracker to install at all during the recording phase. Later, after providing the MSI (Microsoft Installer) package to Softricity for analysis, we were provided with a working OSD. Still, there was the matter of how to launch our services. Tracker is headless - it runs as a Windows service and has no local UI. Fortunately, we were able to tie the service startup to the launching of our tray control applet (cfwtray). Still, it's not a perfect solution since the user will need to log in to the system before our services will be enabled.

Bottom Line: You can't deploy agents/headless services reliably with SoftGrid.

We were tripped up by a different issue with our Clarity Studio tool. Studio includes a test script, OfficeBench, which exercises the Microsoft Office suite to simulate end user activity/record application performance. To accomplish this, OfficeBench accesses the applications via OLE-Automation (a.k.a. VBA), launching each program and running them through various document creation, data analysis and presentation tasks. The problem is that, unless you're running with the context of a virtualized application, you cannot "see" the automation interfaces. In our case, OfficeBench, which was running locally on the client, couldn't "see" Office, which was running virtualized from the SoftGrid server. Again, after much back-and-forth with Softricity, we were able to get our script to work - this time by creating a custom OSD to launch Clarity Studio as if it were part of the Office code base.

...

In conclusion, our experiences with SVS and SoftGrid could not have been more dissimilar. With SVS, I was up and running in minutes - no servers to install, no managing shares or complex sequencing. And, as I noted above, it worked on the first try with both of our core applications. By contrast, SoftGrid was struggle from day one. In addition to the complex setup required just to test things, there were the myriad gotchas along the way that made my job that much harder. For this developer, at least, SVS is the clear winner in the ease of use/deployment category.

You can read the original posting on the Juice Web site, here.

Posted by David Marshall on June 10, 2006 05:16 PM

June 09, 2006

InfoWorld Virtualization Report Podcast

After WinHEC 2006, the community couldn't stop talking about Microsoft's hypervisor... that is, until June 5th came around and VMware announced VMware Infrastructure 3. So what is it? listen LISTEN!

Posted by David Marshall on June 9, 2006 06:11 PM

June 08, 2006

OpenVZ Solves Networking Problem with new Virtual Ethernet Device

According to their official blog site, OpenVZ has just released a new kernel from the development branch - 2.6.16-026test014.4.

Aside from the usual bug fixes and performance optimizations, it also includes three major features:

Virtual ethernet device for a VE - known as veth
/proc/meminfo virtualization
IPv6 virtualization (Previously mentioned by the Virtualization Report)

This article will focus on the first item, the virtual ethernet device - otherwise known as veth.

Like a real computing environment, a virtual environment usually needs networking capabilities and thus needs an IP address. To do that, the OpenVZ kernel implements a special networking device called the "venet". Unfortunately, the venet has some drawbacks to it. To set up an IP address, a physical server administrator sets the IP for the VE from the host server because the proper route should be added to the host server's routing table.

While venet functions just fine for most purposes, there are special circumstances that it just can't handle. For example, since venet doesn't have a MAC address, there is no way to send or receive broadcasts, which makes it impossible to run DHCP in a VE.

To solve the problem, OpenVZ has introduced yet another virtual network device for a VE called "veth". According to Kirill Korotaev, the kernel team leader, veth is an ethernet like adapter with a MAC address. And because of that, it can be used in configurations, when veth is bridged to ethX or some other device, a VPS user can setup the networking himself, including IPs, gateways, etc.

A list of differences include:

veth allows broadcasts in VPS, allowing the use of DHCP server inside VPS or samba server with domain broadcasts, etc.
veth has some security implications, so it is not recommended in an untrusted environment. This is due to broadcasts, traffic sniffing, possible IP collisions, etc.
Using a venet device, only a node administrator can assign IP addresses to VPS. With a veth device, network settings can be fully done on the VPS side. VPS should setup correct gateway, subnet mask, and IP address information, and node admins can then choose where your traffic goes.
veth devices can be bridged together and/or with other devices. For example, a host server admin can bridge veth from 2 VPSs with some VLAN eth0.X. In this case, these 2 VPSs will be connected to this VLAN.
venet devices are a bit faster and more efficient.
with veth devices, IPv6 auto generates an address from MAC.

Posted by David Marshall on June 8, 2006 07:34 PM

June 08, 2006

NextIO and Denali Announce First I/O Virtualization Designs for PCIe

At the 2006 PCI-SIG Developers Conference in San Jose, California, NextIO and Denali Software announced the availability of verification intellectual property (IP) products that support NextIO's virtual I/O design IP and Shared PCI Express Switch.

For those not familiar with it, virtual I/O technology is the hardware compliment to software server virtualization products from companies such as VMware and Microsoft. The technology enables more virtual servers to share a single physical I/O cont