Virtualization Report | David Marshall | July 2006

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July 2006

July 31, 2006

SWsoft offers a licensing plus / and GRIDToday talks about application fabrics

Today we take a look at SWsoft's Virtuzzo product. Not only does it offer a powerful virtualization solution, but it also offers a bonus when it comes to operating system problems faced by other server virtualization platforms. And then... Check out GRIDToday's interview with Kevin Haar as they discuss grid computing, virtualization, and application fabrics. A very interesting interview. listen LISTEN!

Posted by David Marshall on July 31, 2006 03:36 PM

July 30, 2006

Altiris Opens API - Trinket Goes Open Source

Once Altiris announced the release of its new software development kit which contained the Altiris Software Virtualization Solution (SVS) API, it would only be a matter of time before IT organizations would use it to leverage the flexibility of SVS and further optimize application management.

When Altiris SVS was still in beta last fall, LordJeb Software used the API to create a new user interface for SVS called Trinket. Trinket provides SVS end users with basic management of virtualized applications including reset, activation, deactivation, and delete through an easy-to-use interface available from an icon in the PC system tray. It even allows you to control which layer actions are made available in the UI.

Dwain Kinghorn, Altiris CTO, said, "We've seen an explosion of unique uses and applications for Altiris Software Virtualization Solution technology. To encourage innovation we have given the IT and developer communities the tools and code they need to create the next killer software virtualization application. Altiris open, standards-based technology allows us to provide this type of flexibility to the user community. The Trinket open source project is a good example of what is possible."

Now LordJeb Software has posted the Trinket project on SourceForge.net, turning the application into an open-source project under a BSD-style license. Developers can add code and new ideas to the project by simply downloading Trinket code from SourceForge.

Posted by David Marshall on July 30, 2006 08:25 PM

July 30, 2006

VMware's Virtual Appliance Challenge - GO VOTE!

If you haven't already checked out VMware's Ultimate Virtual Appliance Challenge, you should. Unfortunately, time is running out for you to make your opinion known! The deadline to cast your vote is tomorrow, July 31.

VMware has granted the individuals that make up the virtualization community the right to choose which virtual appliance should be crowned the VMTN Community Choice Appliance. The winner will not only receive this award of recognition, they will also receive a $5000 prize award.

Contestants from around the globe have sent in over 300GB of entries to be used and judged. John Troyer, VMware Senior Product Manager, VMTN online, has reported that the judges have been hard at work evaluating the appliance submissions. An announcement is expected on Monday, August 14, 2006 as to which appliances will win one of the many prizes, of which first prize is a whopping $100,000.

Even if you have no intention of actually voting, you should still check out the list of virtual appliances being made available. VMware has created yet another tremendous value add for virtualization users. The creating and sharing of virtual appliances is a huge bonus for the virtualization community.

I personally found myself recently in need of creating a powerful IT host and network monitoring solution - with a budget of zero and as much spare time as my budget was allowed, I needed to move quickly. I checked out the virtual appliances being offered on the VMTN challenge site, and sure enough, there were quite a few entries that fit within my $0 budget and they claimed to be up and operational within minutes. The claims were true. It didn't cost me anything in time or money. Within 10 minutes after downloading, I had a Linux machine installed and configured - complete with a web server, database and monitoring solution. I was literally monitoring my machines within minutes.

A monitoring appliance is only one such solution being offered. There are many categories and sub-categories currently being made available. And the amazing thing about these virtual appliances is that there are so many different possibilities available... possibilities that end only when creativity runs out.

Go check out the appliance challenge entries, here. There is still time to vote for your favorite!

Posted by David Marshall on July 30, 2006 02:35 PM

July 30, 2006

How Serious is Microsoft about Virtualization?

Many moons ago, it seemed like Microsoft was going to go head-to-head and toe-to-toe with VMware in the virtualization space. Once Microsoft acquired the virtualization IP from Connectix and then re-branded the Virtual PC and Virtual Server products, it seemed like a no-brainer that they would be coming after VMware and gunning for VMware's hard earned market share with a vengeance. But it ended up looking like quite the opposite. It was almost like Microsoft was simply standing at the edge of the pool, and sticking their big toe in to test the temperature of the water. Don't get me wrong, I had been using both Virtual PC and Virtual Server products long before Microsoft acquired it, and I have tremendously enjoyed both products long after the acquisition. I found quite a lot of value in both platforms, and enjoyed using the features found in these products... features that VMware hadn't implemented.

For many in the community, it seemed as though Microsoft was complacent with where the product was at that time. As a company, it seemed to be happy with the segment of the virtualization market that their products were fitting in. It seemed happy with a niche market and content to leave VMware to dominate in other areas. This practice didn't seem to fit in with Microsoft's usual MO. Add to that the appearance of slow product changes, missing features and components, and a lack of add-on technologies, and what else was the community supposed to think?

Only now is it finally starting to look and feel like Microsoft is jumping in with both feet. The company publicly declared their intentions about virtualization at this year's TechEd and WinHEC conferences. And to further validate the fact that they are finally serious about virtualization, we need only look at their recent announcements: SP1 for Virtual Server 2005 R2, Linux guest operating system support, declaring that current and future releases of Virtual PC and Virtual Server would be free of charge, filling in its virtualization management gap by creating Microsoft Virtual Server Manager, acquiring Softricity to provide for application virtualization as an alternative to server virtualization, offering a flexible Windows operating system license for those individuals or companies using server virtualization, and finally by signing an agreement with XenSource for interoperability between Xen and Microsoft's planned virtualization hypervisor product.

There are still a lot of improvements to be made, but at least now, it seems as though Microsoft is on the right path. As virtualization continues to catch on and spread throughout IT organizations around the globe, people in the virtualization community can no longer accept mediocrity or half-hearted attempts at creating a virtualization solution. Because as virtualization continues to get adopted into production data centers, product issues and missing features become less tolerated. I for one cannot wait to see what Microsoft will create now that it appears as though they are in the water with both feet.

Posted by David Marshall on July 30, 2006 02:29 PM

July 29, 2006

Consensus Needed for Virtualization Technology in Linux Kernel

At this year's Linux Kernel Summit and Linux Symposium that took place in Ottawa, one of the topics of discussion that was highly talked about centered around containers or kernel-level virtualization technology and how to get this feature into the Linux kernel.

Most of the kernel people in attendance believed that containers would be a good feature to add into the Linux kernel. Unfortunately, there are many different implementations of the technology already being worked on by several different groups. Solutions and products that are already being worked on include: OpenVZ, Virtuozzo, Sun Solaris Containers, Linux-VServer, among others. And so, the overall feeling was that the mainstream code should be the result of a concensus between all of the implementations.

OpenVZ's Kir Kolyshkin and Kirill Korotaev attended the sessions, and they describe in the OpenVZ Blog what they believe these different groups are aiming for:

Eric Biederman wants to have so-called namespaces in kernel. Namespaces are basically a building blocks of containers, for example, with user namespace we have an ability to have the same root user in different containers; network namespace gives an ability to have a separate network interface; process namespace is when you have an isolated set of processes. All the namespaces combined together creates a container. But, as Eric states, an ability to use not all but only selected namespaces gives endless possibilities to a user.

IBM people want application containers, and for them the main purpose of such containers is live migration of those. The difference between app. container and the "full" (system) container is a set of features: for example, an application container might lack /proc virtualization, devices, pseudo-terminals (needed to run ssh, for example) etc. So, an application container might be seen as a subset of a system container.

OpenVZ wants system containers that resemble the real system as much as possible. In other words, we want to preserve existing kernel APIs as much as possible inside a container, so all of the existing Linux distributions and applictions should run fine inside a container without any modifications. Of course, the goal is not 100% achievable, for example we do not want the container to be able to set the system time.

Linux-VServer wants just about the same as OpenVZ, it's only that their implementations of various components are different, and their level of a container resembling a real system is a bit lower (for example, in networking).

Kir is optimistic. He concludes that the task will not be an easy one, but that it is indeed doable. It was a huge step getting everyone together in person to discuss everything, and having the kernel developers onboard will go a long way to help merge the technology into mainstream code. However, consensus remains the key.

Posted by David Marshall on July 29, 2006 08:51 PM

July 28, 2006

Hitachi Goes Virtual and Open-Source Management with Qlusters

Hitachi has developed a hardware-based server virtualization system implemented on Intel's Itanium 2 Processor 9000. And check out what's going on with Qlusters, the company behind openQRM, an open-source management solution for virtual environments. listen LISTEN!

Posted by David Marshall on July 28, 2006 08:13 PM

July 26, 2006

Microsoft Releases Updated Virtual Machine Additions

For those of you using Microsoft Virtual Server and trying to install Microsoft Windows Vista into a virtual machine, you might be interested to know that Microsoft has released a new, updated version of the Virtual Machine Additions. The updated Additions (Build 13.709) offer performance optimizations for Windows Vista Beta 2 (Build 5384), Windows Vista Beta 2 June Refresh (Build 5465), and Windows Vista Beta 2 July Refresh (Build 5472).

The package is offered as Virtual Machine Additions for a Vista Beta 2 guest operating system. If you aren't running Windows Vista Beta 2 as a guest OS in your virtual machine, there is no need to upgrade to this version of the Additions.

You can download the Additions from the Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 Beta program, here.

And if you aren't familiar with how Microsoft Connect works, you will need to register or sign in with a Windows Live ID, an MSN account, or a Microsoft Passport.

Enjoy!

Posted by David Marshall on July 26, 2006 06:55 PM

July 26, 2006

SWsoft Announces Developer Network

Today, hosting automation and virtualization software provider, SWsoft, announced that it has launched the SWsoft Developer Network (SWDN). As part of the company's OPEN FUSION initiative, SWsoft hopes the Developer Network will provide developers and partners with resources to integrate applications and services with the company's products.

"SWDN shows our commitment to 100 percent open collaboration with our fast-growing partner ecosystem in creating the next generation of integrated services and infrastructure," said Serguei Beloussov, chief executive officer, SWsoft. "By providing third party and in-house developers and partners with the resources they need, SWDN will enable faster and higher quality development of innovative solutions for the markets we collectively serve."

SWsoft claims the SWDN is appropriate for anyone interested in developing, testing or integrating their solution with one or more of the company's products. Member benefits include:

Development Licenses: entitled to development licenses for the entire SWsoft product line.

Software Developer Kits (SDKs) and Documentation: includes SDKs and technical documentation, including API specifications, technical manuals and integration specifications.

Product Betas: early access to product betas before the general public.

Forums and Support: access to technical forums and dedicated feedback channels to interact and share information with SWsoft engineers and fellow SWDN members.

Knowledgebase: access to the SWsoft knowledgebase.

Certifications: software products can be certified as "Designed for OPEN FUSION" and listed in the OPEN FUSION Catalog.

SWDN offers two levels of involvement. Community Developer offers free access to developer forums, the technical library, and the SWsoft knowledgebase. Professional Developer offers free access for the first year, and costs only $295 annually thereafter. It also includes the Community Developer benefits plus development licenses for all SWsoft products.

Developers and partners can join today by clicking here.

Posted by David Marshall on July 26, 2006 06:14 PM

July 26, 2006

InfoWorld Sets Agenda for its Virtualization Executive Forum

As virtualization continues to sweep across the corporate world, InfoWorld steps up to help demystify virtualization by creating the Virtualization Executive Forum. The event will take place on September 25 and 26 at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City. The forum will cover the gambit by focusing on the benefits of various virtualization approaches, including server, hardware-assisted, storage, application, and desktop virtualization.

The forum's innovative agenda has attracted many of the top experts driving enterprise virtualization in both the business and technology communities, such as: Tony Bishop, Senior Vice President and Director of Product Management for Wachovia Bank, Dr. Jeffrey Jaffe, Chief Technology Office at Novell, and Andi Mann, Senior Analyst at Enterprise Management Associates. The event has also attracted the top vendors in the virtualization community. Companies such as Novell, EMC, PolyServe, Red Hat, VMware, DataSynapse, Emulex, IBM, and Microsoft are sponsoring the event.

The agenda currently includes the following sessions:

Virtualization: Navigating Through Transformational Technology - Dr. Jeffrey Jaffe, Novell's Chief Technology Officer, will speak about virtualization on Linux and how it is opening up new possibilities for organizations around the world. With virtualization on Linux, the use of hypervisor and hyperthreading technology, today's technology executive can harness the power of the data center, better utilize computing power throughout the organization and ultimately free up the organization to deliver solutions and applications that truly help drive success. With all of that happening though, there is still uncertainty and a learning curve around this technology.

System Virtualization Strategies - Which virtualization technology is the right one for the job? This session will examine server virtualization options (hypervisor, paravirtualization, OS virtualization, etc.), surveys the approaches to virtualizing applications and end user desktops, and offers general guidance for technology selection and implementation. Learn how enterprise are putting these technologies to work, the problems they are solving and opportunities they are creating, and what's next on the system virtualization horizon.

Storage Virtualization Strategies - A prerequisite to utility computing, storage virtualization eases the management of heterogeneous storage resources, improves data availability across the enterprise, and creates a foundation for disaster recovery and business continuity. This session will provide an overview of the various approaches to storage virtualization (in-band, out-of-band, array-based, switch-based, host-based), discuss how the technology is evolving, and share how IT organizations are using storage virtualization to manage SANs and NAS more cost-effectively and help their businesses become more agile.

Inside Hardware-Assisted Virtualization - In systems of scale, virtualization is baked into the architecture at every level. Virtualization is just as essential in the PC server realm, but the x86 design makes engineering challenging and system overhead high. Here, we'll talk about those challenges, how engineers have overcome them, and how new Intel and AMD CPU technology will change the picture for IT.

Putting Virtualization to Work for IT - The primary roles for virtualization hitherto have been cross-platform validation in software development and for software evaluation. However, virtualization is rapidly breaking into new areas where it is delivering compelling benefits to IT organizations: server resource utilization, load balancing, software support, demos, and training. This session discusses these uses as well as other specialized contexts in which virtualization can deliver unexpected benefits.

Virtualization and Applications: Meeting Enterprise Requirements - Mainframes and Unix systems long ago brought virtualization to mission-critical apps. Can the same be achieved on industry standard servers? This session will address performance, scalability, and high-availability of enterprise applications on virtualized x86 hardware.

Better Testing Through Virtualization - Virtualization is widely employed in enterprises to perform software testing using mock lab scenarios. Unfortunately, many sites do not get the full benefit from this approach because they do not design configurations correctly or set up applications properly. This session examines existing software tools and industry best practices for lab-based virtualization.

Exposing the Intangible Enterprise - The Real World Experience of Virtualization - Weighs the realities of virtualization against the marketing hype. Sharing his analysis of new empirical research, case studies, and in-depth interviews, Mann will examine how, why, and where virtualization is being usefully implemented in the enterprise and where the challenges lie. This session will also review related management issues, including how virtualization affects ITIL disciplines, and present recommendations on how enterprises should approach virtualization projects.

FromPhysical to Virtual (Part 1: Planning) - The first hour of this two-part session will focus on the planning and preparation required to implement datacenter virtualization. We'll discuss skills requirements, software licensing issues, workload selection, performance and resource utilization metrics, host hardware platform requirements, emulation versus host-based virtualization, storage and networking considerations.

From Physical to Virtual (Part 2: Deployment) - The concluding hour of this two-part session will address how to successfully complete a P2V migration, tools on the market to help with this, load-balancing and fail-over configurations, pitfalls with clustering, incompatibilities, downtime expectations, fallback planning, and final testing before rollout.

Roadmap to a Virtualization-Oriented Architecture (VOA) - Designing and implementing a virtualization-oriented architecture can create real business value for visionary organizations today. In this keynote session, Tony Bishop, Chief Product Strategist and Head of Product Management for Wachovia's Corporate Investment Bank Technology Group, will outline the 10 fundamental steps Wachovia is taking to realize business advantage through virtualization, and help you identify and overcome the organizational, cultural, and technical challenges to creating a virtualized, service-oriented infrastructure.

Virtualization Futures: Trends and Forecasts

Posted by David Marshall on July 26, 2006 05:38 PM

July 25, 2006

IBM Virtualization Certification and Devon IT's Virtual Desktop Bundle

IBM's virtualization technologies achieved one of the industry's most stringent security certifications. And Devon IT announced their virtual desktop and thin client bundle. listen LISTEN!

Posted by David Marshall on July 25, 2006 08:34 PM

July 24, 2006

Microsoft-XenSource: Choosing a Side of the Fence

When Microsoft and XenSource made the announcement that the two companies would be cooperating on the development of technology that would provide interoperability between Xen-enabled Linux and the new Microsoft Windows hypervisor technology-based Windows Server virtualization, people immediately took to the Internet to try and describe their feelings as to what just took place. In reading many of these articles, I could almost imagine the scene in Empire Strikes Back when Darth Vader asks Luke to join the dark side. Was the announcement really that bad? Did it cause a disturbance in the force?

The announcement claims that the agreement between these two companies will provide a number of benefits for end users, specifically:

Interoperability by design through collaborative development of two leaders in virtualization technology

A flexible, high performance and more secure virtualization Xen-enabled solution with Windows Server "Longhorn," optimized to support heterogeneous software environments and a wide array of hardware

Microsoft technical support for issues regarding interoperability with Xen-enabled Linux guest operating systems through the standard Microsoft technical support process

Additional products from XenSource that enhance manageability, performance, and reliability based on the collaboratively developed code

Microsoft support for Windows on XenEnterprise, available in Q3 2006

XenSource says the "agreement is positive for users of the Xen-based systems since customers of all sizes can freely deploy their guest operating system images interchangeably between Xen-based systems and Windows Server virtualization. The interface between the guest and Windows Server virtualization is the Xen Hypercall API, mapped to the Windows Server virtualization Hypercall API, so more and more people will use these systems resulting in better quality and more support."

Bob Muglia, senior vice president of the Server and Tools Business at Microsoft, said "Microsoft's commitment to customers is to build bridges across the industry with solutions that are interoperable by design." He continues, "Our work with XenSource, a recognized leader in open source virtualization technology, reflects that commitment and Microsoft's ongoing efforts to bring virtualization solutions to the mainstream and help customers progress toward self-managing dynamic systems."

eWeek did an interview Podcast with Christine Martino, vice president of Hewlett-Packard's Open Source and Linux organization, and asked about her reaction to the Microsoft-XenSource agreement. During the interview, she said that the agreement is a good endorsement of Xen, it's a realization for Microsoft to the importance of this technology, and the virtualization market. And any work that's done there, that's kept open-source friendly, is good for us. HP works with XenSource as well, and their goal is to be involved to help develop an industry standard open-source model. Martino believes Microsoft is being very pragmatic, and recognizes the draw that Xen has and the importance of that.

But market leader VMware wasn't going to just sit there and watch a rosy picture being painted for the masses to consume. They charged right back in the media with a 1-2 counter punch of its own, calling the agreement out for what they believed it to truly represent.

Raghu Raghuram, VMware's vice president of Platform Products, said "this is a one-way arrangement where Microsoft will allow Linux to run on future Microsoft hypervisors through translated calls to the hypervisor when Windows is controlling the hardware, but not the other way around. Under this arrangement, Longhorn 'enlightenments' will not be ported or licensed to run on a Xen hypervisor." He continues, "To achieve true interoperability and choice, it is in the best interest of customers to run their operating systems, including Linux distributions, on hypervisors that use open standards and do not have license lock-in to proprietary interfaces."

Contrasting Microsoft's approach, Raghuram says, "VMware is actively working with the Linux kernel community to develop an open interface so that the Linux kernel can run natively and efficiently on a choice of hypervisors. This interface would also be available to any operating system. It is notable that Microsoft's announcement is being made about a hypervisor whose first release is roughly two years away or more, and while the Linux hypervisor interfaces are still being discussed in the community."

The question then becomes, which side of the fence do you fall on? Is this agreement between Microsoft and XenSource a one-way street favoring Microsoft like VMware says? Or will this agreement actually help the open-source community like Microsoft and XenSource claim? I'd love to know what you think.

Posted by David Marshall on July 24, 2006 04:57 PM

July 22, 2006

Climb Aboard the Xen Train

Xen has been out for quite a while now, but it seems like only recently that the "Xen train" has really started to pick up steam. Perhaps that is because the virtualization market as a whole is itself starting to take off in the eyes of the industry.

By 2007, IDC expects the virtualization market to reach $18 billion... yes, billion. Just look at the latest numbers reported by EMC for the virtualization market leader, VMware. Reported revenue for the second quarter of 2006 was $157 million, which translates to a growth rate of 73%. If that trend continues for VMware, the company could be looking at a $630 million annual revenue. Figures like that are what keeps pulling people into this market as they vie for their own slice of the pie.

Xen was originally developed at Cambridge University, and numerous large, well known companies had a hand early on with the research project. Xen is open-source virtualization software that, like the more famous VMware, allows multiple operating systems to run concurrently on the same physical server.

Last week seemed to be the week of Xen announcements, where passengers started to line up for that "Xen train".

Perhaps the biggest shock was Microsoft announcing that it was going to team up with the open-source virtualization vendor - XenSource. The two companies announced that they would cooperate with each other on the development of technology to foster interoperability between their respective virtualization platforms.

IBM, which pioneered virtualization back in the 1960's for its mainframe systems, also punched its ticket to ride the Xen train. They announced last week that the company would support Xen on its server and blade platforms that run on Intel and AMD processors, and that its middleware will also support the virtualization technology.

Novell climbed aboard last week as well, as it announced the official release of its latest operating system platform - SUSE Linux Enterprise 10, which has Xen technology baked in.

Red Hat isn't far behind its competitor, Novell. They too plan to offer a distribution of Red Hat Linux containing Xen 3.0 sometime later this year. And Sun Microsystems has also recently come out and said they plan to support Xen in Solaris 10 by mid-2007.

Everyone seems to want this technology now. And the Xen passenger list seems to keep growing as companies continue to sign-up in hopes of getting a piece of that multi-billion dollar pie.

Posted by David Marshall on July 22, 2006 06:35 AM

July 21, 2006

Microsoft Acquires Softricity and Parallels Takes It Offline

It looks like Microsoft is one step closer to releasing streaming applications into the market as it announces the acquisition of Softricity. And then... Parallels takes its virtualization software into the physical world. listen LISTEN!

Posted by David Marshall on July 21, 2006 06:11 PM

July 20, 2006

Parallels for Mac Makes Its Way Offline

Running Microsoft Windows on the Mac just got a little bit easier thanks to a new deal struck between virtualization provider Parallels and Nova Development. The deal engages Nova Development to be the exclusive retail publisher of Parallels Desktop for Mac software - a desktop virtualization product that enables Intel-based Macs to run Microsoft Windows simultaneously with Mac OS X. The rollout to stores has already begun and the product will start showing up on shelves in The Apple Store, CompUSA, Staples, Office Depot, Fry's Electronics, and numerous other software outlets. Before the deal with Nova Development, Parallels was stuck in cyberspace, only available for purchase online.

According to Benjamin Rudolph, marketing manager of Parallels, "This retail launch helps to further eliminate the barrier that previously kept Mac and Windows from effectively working together, side-by-side, simultaneously, on one computer." He continues, "With the immediate availability of Parallels Desktop for Mac in leading retailers, Mac users now have even easier access to the first solution that enables them to use Windows programs without giving up their Mac OS X desktops."

If you aren't familiar with it, Parallels Desktop for Mac was released in June of this year after it had gone through extensive beta testing and numerous product updates. The product has recently been seen in Apple's commercial ads showing off the capability of running Windows on their new Mac line. This, in spite of rumors that Apple's next release, Leopard, may have its own virtualization platform - which seems rather unlikely with the commercial ads running, and what with Parallels making so much noise right now and being first to the party.

Through August 15th, Nova is offering an added benefit - users who purchase Parallels Desktop for Mac either in a retail store or on Nova Development's Web site will be eligible for a $20 rebate when Windows XP is purchased within 14 days. The rebate form is available at the following Web address.

Posted by David Marshall on July 20, 2006 05:59 PM

July 20, 2006

Is Symantec Getting into the P2V Business?

This week, Symantec Corporation introduced its latest product - Symantec Backup Exec System Recovery. The product incorporates functionality from Symantec LiveState Recovery. As a stand alone product, Backup Exec System Recovery complements Backup Exec for Windows Servers, which is optimized for data protection. But the product seems to transcend beyond the normal "backup and recovery" process.

Organizations have been using Symantec's products for years to recover their systems. But finally, it appears as though they are able to break the barrier of having to recover systems to the identical hardware platform where recovery points were created. Businesses and IT administrators have been after solutions such as this for quite some time. It becomes quite costly to maintain duplicate hardware solely for the purpose of disaster recovery. And as systems fail or need to be replaced with newer equipment, a solution like this can provide peace of mind as it offers the ability to recover a Windows system to dissimilar hardware.

And to help break into the virtualization market, the product's flexibility allows administrators to perform system restorations even if there is no hardware available by restoring recovery points to virtual environments. Does this sound familiar? Some of us call this process P2V, or physical to virtual conversions. And it doesn't stop there. If you migrated your backup to a virtual machine for disaster recovery purposes or as a temporary stop gap measure, the product can later restore the virtual machine back onto physical hardware once available. This process is known as V2P, or virtual to physical conversions.

There are quite a few tools and players already in the P2V space, so it will be interesting to see how quickly and how far Symantec can take this product into the virtualization community.

Posted by David Marshall on July 20, 2006 05:18 PM

July 18, 2006

Altiris SVS Software Developer Kit Available

If you are currently using Altiris Software Virtualization Solution (SVS) but wanted to go that extra mile and do "just a little more" with the product, perhaps you should look into using the newly released Altiris SVS Software Developer Kit (SDK). The SDK is quite useful, and best of all, free!

According to the Altiris enthusiasts site, Juice, the SVS SDK provides API level access to the full SVS system. The SDK has been used and thoroughly tested both internally as well as by serveral third parties. It contains C header files, a lib file, full documentation, and sample code.

They list seven steps to getting started with the product:

Register for the SDK on Altiris. Once you register, you will get an e-mail notifying that you registered. Then you must wait for approval. This will be followed by another e-mail.

Once approved, go back to Altiris' Web site and login with your new username.

Select from the menus along the top: Registered User -> Software Virtualization SDK

Select the "Download" link to download the zip file.

Extract the zip file.

Make sure you have .NET 2.0 already installed on your system. If not, download it here.

Launch ACME.exe to install the SDK

Keep in mind, the SDK license prohibits the redistribution of derivative works. That means you are free to use what you have created for yourself or within your organization, but you cannot give it to anyone externally. If you want to develop an application for commercial purposes, please contact the SVS product team.

Thanks to the Juicemaster for sharing this information!

Posted by David Marshall on July 18, 2006 03:39 PM

July 18, 2006

InfoWorld Virtualization Report Podcast

If you have a virtual data center running VMware ESX Server, perhaps you have a need for a backup solution? esXpress is one such solution. And then... What about cutting through the complexity of managing the virtual environment? Tideway hopes its Foundation 6.0 product is the answer. listen LISTEN!

Posted by David Marshall on July 18, 2006 03:18 PM

July 17, 2006

SWsoft Takes Lead in Virtualization Benchmarking

Last month, we discussed the fact that VMware was relaxing its benchmark publication policy... just a little bit. But it was enough to spark members of SWsoft to start thinking about a comprehensive virtualization benchmarking solution that the entire industry could use to assess different aspects of server virtualization technologies.

According to the Virtuozzo Blog site, their current thinking about benchmarking includes:

The benchmark will be focused on server virtualization. When we have [a] desktop product, we'll focus on a benchmark for desktop technologies, but for now, it's just servers.

The benchmark will be comprehensive and will measure several aspects of the technology.

SWsoft will work with all interested parties - virtualization technologies vendors, hardware and software vendors and, of course, benchmark vendors - to ensure that the benchmark is accepted by the entire industry.

Their current thinking on the metrics of the benchmark include:

Isolation - We'll determine how strong and complete the isolation between virtual environments is. Hereafter, by "virtual environment" I mean not just Virtuozzo VE but rather a system partition created by a virtualization technology.

Security - We'll perform several attacks on the target system, trying to measure how robust the system is.

Manageability - We'll perform typical management operations – such as provisioning, starting and stopping of virtual environments and applications – and measure how long does it take to do those as well as how easy or confusing it is for an admin to do them.

Performance - We'll run a series of well-known performance tests, measuring performance of a single environment as well as performance of multiple concurrently running environments.

Scalability - We'll measure how well a technology can use the resources provided by the hardware.

Density - We'll measure how many concurrent environments it is possible to run with acceptable performance.

Resource management - We'll determine if resource management capabilities provided by a virtualization technology are adequate for the test scenarios.

Kudos for someone in the industry for taking the torch and running with it. There needs to be some form of standard benchmarking that people can look to when trying to decide which virtualization platform they should go with.

If you are interested in helping to formulate these benchmarking metrics, send them your thoughts and ideas. They are looking forward to comments and participation from the industry.

Posted by David Marshall on July 17, 2006 03:33 PM

July 17, 2006

Computer Lab International joins VMware’s VDI Alliance

Quoting from their official press release:

Computer Lab International, Inc. (CLI), a leading provider of thin client and text terminal products, announced today that it is partnering with VMware, the global leader in virtualization software for industry-standard systems, to accelerate the development and adoption of desktop virtualization by joining VMware's Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) Alliance.

VMware's Virtual Desktop Infrastructure Alliance is a technology alliance of hardware, software and service providers for building joint virtual desktop offerings. As part of the Virtual Desktop Infrastructure Alliance, CLI plans to collaborate with VMware to create, test and integrate joint desktop hosting offerings based on VMware virtual infrastructure and CLI thin clients.

Using VMware's Virtual Desktop Infrastructure and CLI's thin clients, IT administrators host and centrally manage desktop virtual machines in their data center while offering end users a full desktop experience that can be accessed anytime and anywhere. Businesses benefit by alleviating the cost and time spent managing and securing desktop PCs, especially for companies with remote workers or outsourced operations. IT administrators ensure desktop standardization, security and compliance for increased manageability.

"CLI is very pleased to be partnering with VMware in the Virtual Desktop Infrastructure Alliance," comments Michael Oliva, CLI's Director of Marketing. "CLI thin client terminals, used within the VMware virtual infrastructure to access hosted desktops, deliver the ability to bring new capabilities to users, with reduced risk, in less time, and at a much lower cost than PCs. CLI is looking forward to working together with VMware to provide customers with seamless virtualization solutions."

More information about Computer Lab International, Inc. can be found on their Web site.

To find out more information about VMware's Virtual Desktop Infrastructure, click here.

Posted by David Marshall on July 17, 2006 03:25 PM

July 16, 2006

EMC's Financial Bright Spot - VMware

EMC Corporation said that net income for the quarter was 5 percent lower than a year ago, a result that the company warned about only days earlier when it announced they would fail to meet its financial goals because of inventory troubles with one of its key new products.

EMC's CEO Joe Tucci didn't try to downplay the news. He expressed his disappointment with the quarter's performance and takes responsibility for what happened. He then pledged his personal commitment that the company can and will do better. The bad news attributed to the company's stock price decline of nearly 4 percent.

However, the quarter wasn't all bad news. There was at least one real bright spot to be found in the second quarter, thanks to VMware.

According to EMC's press release, VMware, an independent EMC subsidiary, grew total revenues 73% year-over-year to $157 million, its highest growth rate in five quarters. VMware's exceptional growth reflects customers' increasing adoption and standardization on VMware Infrastructure and the success of its growing virtual appliance/software life cycle and enterprise desktop businesses. VMware Infrastructure 3, which shipped in the last month of the quarter, added significant new hypervisor platform functionality as well as a suite of groundbreaking new virtualization-leveraging services including distributed resource management, high availability, and online agent-less backup. VMware launched the Virtual Desktop Infrastructure Alliance during the quarter, with more than 20 hardware, software and service providers joining the initiative focused on hosted and mobile enterprise desktop solutions. VMware continued its focus on industry standards during the quarter, releasing the virtual machine disk format (VMDK) for free and without license.

On a conference call, EMC said it would cut its financial forecast for the full year. It now expects revenue to exceed $10.8 billion, rather than its previous forecast of $11.1 billion. EMC expects about 51 cents a share on revenue compared to earlier projections of 54 to 57 cents.

Posted by David Marshall on July 16, 2006 07:34 AM

July 15, 2006

Tideway Foundation 6.0 Visualizes the Virtual and Physical Environment

Tideway Systems announced the availability of Foundation 6.0 - The company's IT service configuration management product. Foundation 6.0 includes significant advancements in its support for virtualization technologies- such as VMWare, Sun Solaris containers and Microsoft Windows Clustering Services. The release also includes additional reports and visualizations to support these virtualization technologies.

Tideway's CEO, Richard Muirhead, explains that almost every large enterprise is looking to drive down IT costs by optimizing and utilizing space in the data center. One such answer to this problem is to use virtualization. However, Mr. Muirhead adds, "What is often missed is that virtualization adds additional layers of overhead and complexity to the management of these environments - so cost savings in hardware are offset by increases in headcount and outtage costs. To make these programs truly effective, you need a clear picture of the entire IT environment - virtual and physical, how all the components relate to each other, and to identify clearly areas of non compliance."

Foundation 6.0 claims to offer a unique approach for managing virtual environments. According to their press release:

Tideway Foundation 6.0 allows IT organizations to cut through the complexity of virtual environments, penetrating the layers of abstraction and untangling the relationships between the physical and virtual worlds. Tideway Foundation 6.0 uniquely models and maps complex, virtualized, n-tier business applications, assisted by hybrid discovery techniques, removing the last hurdle to virtualization. It is now possible to visualize exactly how the physical and virtualized IT environments support critical business applications and gain direct access to compliance reports.
Tideway Foundation 6.0 manages virtual technologies including VMware (ESX, GSX, VMware Server, Workstation, ACE), Xen, Solaris 10 Containers, Egenera BladeFrames and Microsoft Clustering Services. For further information on additional new features and updates please visit the Tideway website.

Posted by David Marshall on July 15, 2006 09:49 AM

July 15, 2006

VMware Offers VirtualCenter 1.4

When VMware announced the release of VMware Virtual Infrastructure 3 and VirtualCenter 2.0, and announced the end of the VMware GSX Server product line, I thought the writing on the wall spelled out "THE END" for VirtualCenter 1.3. I guess I was wrong. VMware has announced a 1.4 minor update release for VirtualCenter.

So what exactly is it? VMware VirtualCenter 1.4 is an extension of the VirtualCenter 1.x product line offering new support for VMware Server. But do not be confused, VC 1.4 cannot manage ESX 3.0, only VirtualCenter 2.0 can do that. And although VMware Server is being offered as a free product, VC 1.4 is not. Existing VirtualCenter customers with valid support and subscription contracts can upgrade to 1.4 at no charge. However, agent licenses for VMware Server must be purchased.

So, what are the new features in this release?

VMware Server support - A VMware Server can now be managed by VirtualCenter as a host, along with ESX Server 2.x and GSX Server 3.x hosts in a heterogeneous environment.

VMware Server 64-bit support - Create and use 64-bit virtual machines and templates on VMware Server.

VMware Server SMP support - Create and use SMP virtual machines and templates on VMware Server.

VMware Server virtual hardware support - Create or edit virtual machines to use the additional virtual hardware options on VMware Server. This includes the E1000 NIC and new autodetect options. Virtual machines not using the new hardware continue to be supported on ESX Server 2.x and GSX Server 3.1 or later hosts.

VMware Server migration support - Virtual machines on ESX Server or GSX Server hosts can be migrated or imported onto VMware Server hosts. Once migrated to a VMware Server, they can be migrated back to an ESX Server or GSX Server, provided their virtual hardware has not been upgraded through the VMware Server Console.

And finally, what issues have been resolved with this new release?

Fails to Delete a Directory when Cancelling the Operation of Creating a Template on a Local Datastore.

Need a Script Similar vm-support for VirtualCenter, which would Capture all VirtualCenter Logs. To use this, download the new script per the instructions in the KB article, or upgrade to VirtualCenter 1.4 or later. See KB article 1935 for additional information.

When a Host is Shutdown through VirtualCenter, VirtualCenter Should not Attempt to Reconnect the Host.

Certain Errors that Display in the Remote Console Did Not Display in the VirtualCenter Console.

VirtualCenter Stops Collecting Performance Statistics After an Extended Period of Time when Customized Intervals are removed.

WebService Crashes if the vmpath Provided in ScheduledTaskSample is Empty or Wrong.

To find out more about the product, visit VMware's Web site, here.

If you would like to read the release notes, go here.

Posted by David Marshall on July 15, 2006 08:13 AM

July 15, 2006

InfoWorld Virtualization Report Podcast

If you've been around long enough, I guess you might just see it all. That's how I feel about virtualization right now. I can't believe how quickly it is becoming a commodity. It seems like everyone is starting to give it away, like CRAZY EDDIES! And so we'll discuss VMware Server and Microsoft Virtual PC, both recently announced as free. listen LISTEN!

Posted by David Marshall on July 15, 2006 06:02 AM

July 12, 2006

Microsoft Announces Free Virtual PC

When desktop virtualization products were first released, they were considered by many to be nothing more than a tool for PC enthusiasts. Hard core IT administrators didn't give the product much thought early on, and they certainly didn't foresee the usefulness of the product in their every day work lives. But as VMware Workstation started dominating the market, Microsoft finally saw the opportunities that the desktop virtualization space offered and quickly ran out to acquire the IP of Connectix Corporation. And from that acquisition came the product now known as Microsoft Virtual PC.

Fast forward to today, and virtualization has become one of the biggest buzzwords in the IT community. And to the surprise of many, virtualization products are starting to become a free commodity.

Microsoft and VMware have been going back and forth these past few months making general announcements about reducing their virtualization offerings to the rock bottom prices of FREE!

Once again, Microsoft is making an announcement... this time, announcing that its long-running desktop virtualization platform, Microsoft Virtual PC 2004 SP1, is going to be available for download, absolutely free.

Microsoft is now working on their next desktop virtualization product, Virtual PC 2007. The next generation product is expected to offer enhanced performance as well as anticipated support for Microsoft Vista. And yes, for those of you playing at home, the next generation platform will also be freely distributed and available for download once released.

The question now remains, what will VMware do with Workstation? Will they continue to charge for this product or respond with its own price change? And what will happen with other companies who are trying to sell their own commercial virtualization platforms?

To find out more information and to download Microsoft Virtual PC 2004 SP1, go here.

Posted by David Marshall on July 12, 2006 04:49 PM

July 12, 2006

VMware Server Fully Baked and Available

The much anticipated general availability of VMware Server 1.0 (build 28343) was finally announced today. After a five month beta program with more than 700,000 downloads, VMware's free enterprise-class server virtualization offering has finally shipped. And as an added surprise, VMware VirtualCenter will be capable of centrally provisioning, monitoring, and managing these VMware Server deployments.

VMware Server, the successor to the award-winning VMware GSX Server product introduced back in 2001, will enable users to realize the benefits of server-class virtualization. VMware Server can be seen as a leap frog virtualization platform to entice it's customers to progress and upgrade to VMware's paid-for, flagship product, VMware Infrastructure 3 - the third generation of the industry-leading infrastructure virtualization software suite used by more than 20,000 companies worldwide.

But don't be confused, VMware Server is by no means a push over. The product is feature-packed and offers the following capabilities:

Runs on standard x86 hardware

Support for 64-bit guest operating systems, including Linux, Windows, NetWare and Solaris

Support for VMware VirtualCenter to efficiently provision, monitor, and manage infrastructure from a central management console

Experimental support for 2-way Virtual SMP, enabling a single virtual machine to span multiple physical processors

Runs on a wider variety of Linux and Windows host and guest operating systems than any server virtualization product on the market

Ability to capture entire state of a virtual machine and roll back at any time with the click of a single button

Installs like an application with quick and easy, wizard-driven installation

Quick and easy, wizard-driven virtual machine creation

Support for VMware and Microsoft virtual machine format and Symantec LiveState Recovery images with VM Importer

Experimental support for Intel Virtualization Technology

Investment protection with an easy upgrade path to VMware Infrastructure

By releasing such a powerful, flexible, and stable product such as VMware Server, at the low price of free, VMware is once again flexing its virtualization muscle to tell the rest of the industry that it intends to maintain its well-established marketing lead over the competition.

While the VMware Server software is free, the company does charge for a support subscription. If you are interested in an enterprise-class support subscription, VMware offers two levels of support to choose from - the Gold level will cost you an annual rate of $350 per two processors, while the Platinum level goes for $450.

To find out more about the product by reading its release notes, go here. And to download and start working with this new release, go here.

Posted by David Marshall on July 12, 2006 03:45 PM

July 11, 2006

ToutVirtual Offers Free Virtualization Management

ToutVirtual, an emerging player in management software for virtual computing infrastructures, made an announcement today about its new management software - VirtualIQ 525. The product is being made available as freeware and configured with the ability to manage up to 5 CPUs or 25 virtual machines.

VirtualIQ 525 is a centralized Web console with a virtual software appliance that provides IT administrators with a closed-loop, policy-based system for host and virtual machine management. It currently provides support for VMware GSX Server, VMware Server, VMware ESX Server, VMware Player, VMware Workstation, and open-source Xen. Microsoft Virtual Server support isn't far behind.

With virtualization gaining in popularity, several vendors have released their virtualization offerings to market. But as ToutVirtual describes, "a void remains in the undeveloped area of managing those virtualized environments and devices once they are in place. Currently, writing custom scripts is a common process for companies to manage the complex, disparate, and heterogeneous virtualized systems." They explain, "with its VirtualIQ suite of products to manage heterogeneous virtual computing infrastructures (cross platform and multi-tier), [they] plan to automate and simplify this management process."

According to Tim Grieser, program vice president for system management software at analyst firm IDC, "The rapid spread of virtualization on Intel architecture platforms is increasing the need for software tools to effectively manage these environments. Multi-function tools that can manage across a variety of environments, such as VirtualIQ from ToutVirtual, are increasingly needed by IT to monitor and control their virtualized resources." Grieser added, "This type of software provides leverage so that IT can efficiently manage the increasing complexity of virtualized infrastructures and virtual machines."

VirtualIQ 525 is the industry's first free and ready-to-run virtual appliance for monitoring and controlling the entire virtualization management stack. It's easy to deploy, supports multiple virtual platforms under one console, provides event-based alerting, and offers simplistic virtual infrastructure management.

Four areas are provided from which to manage the entire virtual environment:

Dashboard - Gives an at-a-glance overview of the current hosts, virtual machines, their status, and resource activity.

Manage - Provides further granularity to allow an IT administrator to create groups, set specific policy parameters with automated actions, view and act upon usage-trends data, and to optimize host-to-virtual machine resources.

Reports - Provides a convenient way to print and share information.

Configuration - Allows the user to setup e-mail and host settings.

The ToutVirtual VirtualIQ 525 freeware can be downloaded, here. For users needing greater than 5 CPUs or 25 virtual machine support, stay tuned for additional products launching during the Summer of 2006.

Posted by David Marshall on July 11, 2006 08:24 PM

July 11, 2006

Product Review: Ars Technica on Parallels Desktop for Mac

Dave Girard did an excellent product review for Ars Technica as he stepped through the latest release from Parallels - Parallels Desktop for Mac.

If you are a new Intel-powered Mac user, and still haven't tried Parallels virtualization solution for Mac OS X, this review is a good place to start. The review starts out with a colorful background and introduction to the product, and then quickly moves through an informative installation instruction set that details both the install steps of the virtualization application as well as a basic walk-through of a Windows XP virtual machine.

One of the more interesting sections is the "Benchmark vs. Boot Camp" page, where the review contains a number of benchmark results from numerous tools, offering up some decent comparison data that I haven't seen before.

The following pros and cons were offered:

Pros

Fast and overall responsiveness in OSes is very good

Clean, unobtrusive interface

Seamless networking with no configuration needed

Additional tools for Windows make file sharing and mouse movement better

Disk image compacting tool saves hard drive space

Very good application compatibility for software within client OSes

Runs multiple instances of the application to use more than one core/CPU when running two or more client VMs

Connect image option is a time and disk saver for downloaded installers

Well priced, even at US$80

Cons - Although I will have to say, many virtualization platforms have similar problems.

Not suitable for games or complex 3-D modeling applications

Limited USB hardware support

No option to use more than a single CPU core

Can't burn DVDs and CDs within VMs

Improved mouse movement driver for Windows VMs only

The review concludes with the following thoughts:

For all the naysayers and people who may still be unhappy with the transition to Intel chips, it's hard to ignore the advantage of virtualization, which opens up a broad spectrum of applications and utilities that are no longer crippled by having to run in Virtual PC's emulated environment.
People pondering the switch to a MacBook can rest assured that with the exception of USB device support and hardware accelerated 3-D applications, their needs will be well met by this little workhorse of a program. Between the networking that just works, the impressive speed and the inability of the client operating systems to know they are running within a "virtual machine," I think you'll be hard-pressed to find software for any x86 OS that doesn't work within a Parallels VM. If you're still not certain, you can always try the fully-working demo and make your decision later.

Check out the full review, here.

Posted by David Marshall on July 11, 2006 04:38 PM

July 10, 2006

InfoWorld Virtualization Report Podcast

Fujitsu is joining the long list of system manufacturers putting Intel's new Xeon processors into their servers. The company recently announced five new systems sporting these new Intel processors. And after that... we'll listen in to find out what's going on with virtualization in the Mac community. Is Apple going to come out with their own virtualization product? listen LISTEN!

Posted by David Marshall on July 10, 2006 04:11 PM

July 06, 2006

How Much Did Open Source Virtualization Impact VMware?

I think it's fair to say that all of us living in the virtualization space today are thankful for the incredible price drops that we have witnessed across the different virtualization platforms. And it has certainly helped IT departments in their efforts of trying to convince purchasing, finance and upper-level management of the value of virtualization.

So what exactly brought about this change in pricing? Was there a single event that shocked the community and caused pricing to hit rock bottom? Did consumers cause the price to fall by not buying into the solution?

In an article from CIO India, Bernard Golden asks "what has caused the effective price of virtualization to head toward zero -- and how?" in the latest article Virtualization and the Impact of Open Source.

And he answers that question in the article, like so:

VMWare has completely restructured its product line and its go-to-market strategy. VMWare offers a significant part of its product line available for immediate download at no cost.
...

Why the big change in strategy? In one word: Xen. This is an open source virtualization product emanating from Cambridge University, with a commercial arm called Xensource. The entrance of an open source product into the market has caused the effective price of virtualization to head toward zero. What's interesting about this market, though, is how fast commoditization has occurred. Unlike databases, where Oracle has a huge installed base that it can milk at traditional prices, virtualization is a nascent market where user choices are being made today. VMWare faced its own choice: maintain its historical pricing and end up a bit player, or chop prices, attempt to establish a dominant market share, and figure out how to make money from the resulting user base. VMWare cut its prices with gusto.

While I agree that Xen and open source virtualization probably helped steer VMware slightly onto their current course of action, I don't believe the answer is as simple as saying, "In one word: Xen."

In fact, I would say that VMware may have been heading on that course anyway... to a degree. But perhaps more so than Xen, if anyone outside of VMware was helping to plot their course through virtualization strategy and pricing, I would argue that the one word would be: Microsoft.

Like the proverbial game of cat and mouse, these two virtualization giants went back and forth releasing media announcements, and offering price drops that caused the masses to just sit and watch in complete awe and amazement.

Out of the gate, Microsoft almost immediately went after VMware by acquiring Connectix Virtual PC and then lowering the price to combat VMware Workstation. Around December of 2005, VMware caused a stir by releasing VMware Player, a free desktop virtualization solution that would ultimately bring people to buy its more feature rich sibling - Workstation. Without blinking, Microsoft made its own announcement on December of 2005, it was going to lower the price of Virtual Server 2005 to $99 with the purchase of Windows Server 2003 R2. Now, server class virtualization was starting to get even cheaper! With the spotlight back on VMware, they announced just two months later they would be releasing VMware Server (formally GSX Server, another server class product) - free of charge. Once again, the crowd looked to Microsoft for a response, and it came in the form of free server virtualization of its own - they announced in April of 2006 that Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2 would be freely available. And once again, two months later, VMware announced the release of VI3 along with a significant price reduction.

In a recent survey conducted by US analyst house Yankee Group, it was reported that VMware held a 55% market share with Microsoft coming in a close second with 29% of the market. That is a dominating figure! These two companies, VMware and Microsoft, control an estimated 80% of the market combined. Xen on the other hand was found to be a very small niche market with about 1% of the market share.

For these reasons, among others, I would submit that once again Microsoft, rather than Xen, more directly impacted VMware's pricing strategy. Not to discount Xen or the open source virtualization movement, but if we are going to pick one thing or claim one word, I respectfully disagree with Xen being the final word.

Posted by David Marshall on July 6, 2006 07:20 PM

July 05, 2006

Migrating Physical to Virtual Machines - Then and Now

Back in the stone ages of server virtualization (circa 2001), one of the pain points that I started to deal with was trying to figure out how to migrate one of my physical servers over to a virtual machine.

Picture if you will (sound the music), VMware ESX Server was only a 1.0 release at the time, there were no conversion tools from Leostream or PlateSpin, VMware didn't have a solution available to its customers, Google and Yahoo were practically useless for searching for ANYTHING about server virtualization, and I don't believe anyone had actually coined the phrase "P2V" at that time. It was a lonely time for server virtualization enthusiasts. There were no user groups to speak of, nor were there any communities created to help answer trivial, common, or obscure questions about the products. We were still working on coming up with problems and questions - we didn't have time to congregate and come up with answers yet! And most of the people in the IT community at that time looked at you like you were insane for even using virtualization in a production environment.

And so, we tried to use similar methods that we used on physical servers to move images around. We quickly realized in our Windows dominated data center, you cannot simply Ghost a physical server and expect that image to boot on a virtual machine. Can you say "Blue Screen of Death"? Unfortunately, BSOD became our battle cry as we experimented over and over again trying to perfect what seemed like a simple conversion process.

Fast forward to the present (thank goodness), and we have all kinds of choices: P2V solutions from the virtualization vendors, products being released by traditional imaging software vendors, 3rd-party offerings from virtualization start-up companies specializing in conversion, as well as a number of homegrown solutions.

InfoWorld recently completed a review of two of the leading P2V solutions being offered by 3rd-party manufacturers, PlateSpin and Leostream. Both companies have been at this for a while now, and the products have improved a great deal over time as they have been put through the test of battle.

For some people, packaged P2V solutions come at too great a price, which causes many to come up with homegrown migration solutions of their own, or they download them from the community. One of the more popular solutions in this category is a project dubbed "Ultimate P2V", created by Qui Hong, Chris Huss, and Mike Laverick. Expanding on this project is a newcomer called EZP2V. Both projects make use of a BartPE boot disk and a number of tools and plug-ins to help with the process.

No matter which solution you choose, there is always the chance of a failed migration. Converting a physical machine to a virtual machine is a complex process, even though things have gotten a lot simpler and easier than when I first attempted it many years ago... blind folded with my hands tied behind my back!

I'd love to know, what P2V solution do you currently use? Which products have you used in the past? I'd love to know what worked or hasn't worked for you. I'm always looking for new and interesting tools to make my life easier. And yes, even 5 years later, I've still seen a few machines BSOD after conversion. Help me catch a break!

Posted by David Marshall on July 5, 2006 08:05 PM

July 05, 2006

InfoWorld Virtualization Report Podcast

An interesting story was released about Unisys confirming that it was going to shift its mainframe CPUs in favor of using Intel-based hardware. And, they might even be getting into the virtualization hypervisor business! After that, we'll talk about the pain points of migrating from a physical to a virtual data center - using P2V. listen LISTEN!

Posted by David Marshall on July 5, 2006 03:46 PM

July 04, 2006

HP Enhances Virtualization Capabilities for HP Integrity Servers

HP announced in a press release that it has added capabilities to its Virtual Server Environment for HP Integrity servers to better enable customers to automatically adjust resources within a pooled server environment.

The new HP Virtual Server Environment (VSE) Reference Architecture for Oracle Real Application Clusters for HP-UX 11i dynamically scales the Integrity server infrastructure when mission-critical Oracle database workloads fluctuate. For example, customers can use the capability to automatically allocate additional server capacity to financial applications during the month-end close.

For customers that are concerned about the availability of their mission-critical UNIX environments when they consolidate using virtualization, HP has further integrated HP Serviceguard for HP-UX 11i with HP Integrity Virtual Machines. Available now with the latest release of HP Serviceguard, this functionality helps guard against failure by automatically moving the virtual machines between servers in a VSE. HP Integrity Virtual Machines also now enables easy manual migration of virtual machines, accelerating application qualification and deployment.

...

Available since 2003, the HP VSE is a foundational element in HP's Adaptive Infrastructure framework, which enables customers to move toward an automated "lights-out" computing environment that can be remotely managed 24 hours a day. HP offers a broad portfolio of services for the HP Virtual Server Environment, from planning and assessment through design and implementation to mission-critical proactive and reactive support.

More information about HP Integrity systems is available here. More information about the HP Virtual Server Environment is available here.

Posted by David Marshall on July 4, 2006 08:06 PM

July 04, 2006

Survey Suggests Server Virtualization Catching On

According to a recent survey conducted by US analyst house Yankee Group, server virtualization is catching on in the enterprise. The recent poll of 1,700 managers and executives from around the globe has released some real eye-opening statistics.

The survey results suggest that three out of four companies, regardless of size, already have or plan to deploy server virtualization technologies over the next 12 months.

Of those companies, nearly two-thirds (62%) already have a virtualization solution in place or are in the process of migrating, while 21% plan on implementing the technology within the next 12 months. Only 4% of the respondents said they actually had no plans to implement a virtualization solution in their environment.

Reducing infrastructure costs was the primary reason cited by 43% of companies for installing the technology, and half of those who have already deployed server virtualization indicated that they had already reduced costs as a result of the move. Other reasons cited for implementing virtualization included ease of application deployments (18%), improving server utilization rates (15%), consolidating physical floor space (12%), and to increase server and application provisioning times (10%). Nearly half of the respondents also claimed that disaster recovery benefits were also a huge factor in moving to a virtualized solution.

Interestingly, the survey also found that VMware is the clear and convincing market leader. 45% of the respondents are deploying or plan to use VMware's ESX Server platform, while another 10% will use VMware GSX Server (now VMware Server). This seems to suggest that VMware has or will maintain a 55% market share over the next 12 to 15 months. Microsoft comes in a close second with around 29% of the market share with its Microsoft Virtual Server platform. Other server virtualization solutions such as XenSource, XenOptimizer built into Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Novell SUSE are found to be very small niche market solutions where each has only about 1% of the market share.

Posted by David Marshall on July 4, 2006 07:57 AM

July 02, 2006

SWsoft Launches Two-Tiered Partner Program

SWsoft, a provider of operating system virtualization and automation, announced a two-tiered partner program to help propel their Virtuozzo platform further into a virtualization market currently dominated by VMware. According to industry analyst firm, IDC, the virtualization market is expected to grow to $15 billion worldwide by 2009.

Announced on Tuesday, the SWsoft Partner Network is designed to qualify and reward channel partners that sell the Virtuozzo virtualization products. Members receive product discounts, sales leads, market development funds, discounts on training and access to the SWsoft partner portal resources.

SWsoft is actively recruiting and has outlined requirements for their two-tiered program: Certified and Premier partners. Those seeking Certified partner status must complete a half-day sales training session as well as having at least one person complete a 2-day technical training session. To achieve Premier partner status, at least three people must complete the 2-day technical training session and the company must meet a quarterly sales target. For the added requirements, Premier partners become eligible for rebates.

"This is an opportunity for partners to get in on the ground floor to help meet rapidly accelerating customer demand for OS-level virtualization and provide customers with a more efficient and scalable virtualization solution," said Darren Harvey, former VMware employee now director of enterprise channel sales at SWsoft. "Our company is committed to the channel and has built a model around providing world-class sales support to our partners starting with marketing initiatives, sales leads and extending through the entire sales cycle."

Partners interested in learning more can contact SWsoft by email or by visiting their Web site.

Posted by David Marshall on July 2, 2006 01:08 PM

July 02, 2006

Who Said VMware was Finished with ESX 2.x?

If you thought VMware was solely concentrating on VI3 and that they completely gave up on their old flagship product ESX Server 2.x, they haven't... at least not yet.

VMware has announced two new upgrade patches for their old generation server virtualization platforms: VMware ESX Server Version 2.5.3 Upgrade Patch 2 and ESX Server 2.1.3 Upgrade Patch 1.

The following issues have been addressed with ESX Server 2.5.3 Patch 2:

SCSI conflicts now result in the guest operating system retrying I/O instead of getting an error message.

Refinement of the runt packet padding behavior.

Display of all groups defined in the /etc/group in the VMware management interface.

Use of non alphanumeric characters in passwords in the VMware management interface.

Adds support for the Sun StorageTek FLX-380 storage array.

Additional information about ESX 2.5.3 Upgrade Patch 2 can be found here. And the file can be downloaded here.

The following issues have been addressed with ESX Server 2.1.3 Upgrade Patch 1:

Display of all groups defined in the /etc/group in the VMware management interface.

Use of non alphanumeric characters in passwords in the VMware management interface.

Additional information about ESX 2.1.3 Upgrade Patch 1 can be found here. And the file can be downloaded here.

Posted by David Marshall on July 2, 2006 12:37 PM

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