Virtual Iron Software, a provider of software solutions for creating and managing virtual infrastructure in the data center, announced that Virtual Iron 3.0 will support host bus adapters (HBAs) from both Emulex Corporation and QLogic.

Virtual Iron 3.0 provides server virtualization that enables users to run multiple virtual machines on a single physical server, often as part of a server consolidation project. The Fibre Channel storage networking connectivity capabilities provided by Emulex and QLogic are essential to the deployment of server virtualization - especially for enterprise environments that require automated capacity management and high availability.

"Virtualized environments continue to become more pervasive, as a result, we are witnessing a rapid increase in the need for servers that leverage SANs. said Frank Berry, vice president of marketing, QLogic Corp. "SANblade 4Gb HBAs and SANbox 4Gb switches from QLogic offer a suite of technology advancements that help storage administrators ensure complete business continuity, maintain application performance and cost-effectively scale their networks in virtual server environments."

Virtual Iron 3.0 makes use of the standard QLogic driver in the virtualization layer that has passed QLogic testing across a wide variety of SAN environments. This allows virtual machines running in Virtual Iron to access storage through a certified storage stack. Virtual Iron is also working in partnership with QLogic to support N_Port ID Virtualization (NPIV) and Virtual Fabric technologies, HBA virtualization technologies that provide a more secure, manageable, and higher performance environment for virtual machines.

"Virtualized server environments are rapidly increasing in deployment and are driving a wider use of SANs, and Emulex's first-to-market availability of its LightPulse Virtual HBA technology within Linux operating environments further validates our commitment to driving increased value into the data center," said Mike Smith, executive vice president of worldwide marketing at Emulex. "Support for Emulex HBAs within Virtual Iron environments ensures that end users may leverage the unique benefits of Emulex connectivity solutions, such as the ability to provide scalable performance, which is critical in virtualized servers."

Emulex is working closely with Virtual Iron to expand support for Emulex's LightPulse Virtual HBA technology, which was made generally available to customers last month. Virtual Iron intends to incorporate this technology in the first half of 2007. As more IT managers are looking to virtual infrastructure for consolidation, increased resource utilization and management flexibility, the Emulex LightPulse Virtual HBA technology enables each virtual machine to own and access a dedicated World Wide Port Name (WWPN), even when several virtual machines are sharing the same physical HBA. This new capability, using the industry standard N-Port ID Virtualization (NPIV), enables each guest to be managed independently, using SAN best practices for security and configuration management, such as fabric-based zoning and storage logical unit (LUN) mapping, even when the virtual machine is moved between physical servers using Virtual Iron's LiveMigration technology.

According to Mike Grandinetti, chief marketing officer at Virtual Iron, the certification of Emulex and QLogic with Virtual Iron's virtual infrastructure will be a key enabler for virtualization that meets data center cost, security and performance objectives.

Posted by David Marshall on October 24, 2006 03:12 PM