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May 03, 2008 | Comments: (0)

Parallels, Microsoft and Leopard - Mac users watch out!

Parallels continues to rock the Apple world. After its recent announcement that the company has surpassed selling 1 million copies of the Parallels Desktop product, this virtualization company is still moving quickly to try and capture even more of the Mac market.

Parallels is now up to Beta4 on its anticipated server virtualization product. With build 1990, the company has re-introduced Leopard Server virtualization support back into the product - meaning that you can once again run Apple's Leopard Server in a virtual machine on an XServe running Leopard Server. In addition, they've improved the virtualization engine for added performance and machine density, enhanced the networking performance and updated the user interface.

At the same time, a partnership between Parallels and Microsoft is allowing for the Parallels Desktop for Mac product to become a part of the Microsoft Expression Professional Subscription. The company says this will allow millions of designers using Mac computers to use Microsoft's Expression Studio to design desktop and web-based graphical interfaces. The partnership also provides an even deeper support level from Microsoft for Microsoft Windows and Microsoft applications running in virtual machines.

"We selected the world's most popular desktop virtualization product as the perfect complement to Expression Studio," said Wayne Smith, Group Product Manager of Expression Studio at Microsoft. "This combination opens up Microsoft software products to Mac-based designers, which will widen the options for those wanting to design for the Microsoft platform including Silverlight."

Without trying to take anything away from Parallels, this partnership announcement obviously makes a lot more sense to me since I wouldn't necessarily expect the same type of partnership to be done between Microsoft and VMware with their Fusion product for slightly obvious reasons.

If you haven't already tried Parallels Server, you can download the latest Beta4 version of Parallels Server now.

Posted by David Marshall on May 3, 2008 03:42 PM

April 30, 2008 | Comments: (0)

Virtual Iron hits a customer milestone and releases a new update

Virtual Iron Software has reached a new customer milestone and at the same time released another update to their production-class server virtualization product.

The company announced that its virtualization solution has been deployed in over 2,000 customer organizations. Much of Virtual Iron's growth has come from small and medium-sized enterprises, which make up about 70% of its customer base. To reach this audience, Virtual Iron says it offers comparable capabilities to VMware but in a package that is much easier to deploy and easier to afford. Both of which typically resonate well with SMBs.

"There is tremendous demand worldwide for an alternative server virtualization solution," said Ed Walsh, president and CEO of Virtual Iron. "We offer all the capabilities of VMware without the cost and complexity. This combination is meeting a very real and fast-growing need in the mainstream market."

Around the same time, Virtual Iron also released an update to its server virtualization product, version 4.3.

"In Version 4.3, we continue to make production-class server virtualization better and easier for the mainstream market," said Chris Barclay, Director of Product Management at Virtual Iron. "For example, Version 4.3 includes the ability to LiveUpgrade, enabling users to upgrade with no VM downtime."

Virtual machine downtime is becoming a big marketing and sales point in the virtualization community. So I'm sure the SMB market will take notice of this feature.

Key additions in Version 4.3 include:

LiveUpgrade: This provides the ability to perform upgrades from 4.2 to 4.3 without any virtual server downtime.
Windows 2008: Support to run the latest Windows server version in virtual servers.
Change virtual server CDROM while running: This allows customers to mount and unmount CDROMs, including network CDROMs (ISOs) without needing to stop virtual servers.
Experimental iSCSI MPIO: This provides experimental and partial support for iSCSI multi-path, focusing on multiple storage controllers.
Jumbo frame support: This improves iSCSI network traffic throughput.

Virtual Iron Version 4.3 also adds support for a number of operating systems and updated versions.

RHEL 3 U9 32-bit
RHEL 4 U6 AS 32-bit and 64-bit
RHEL 5 U1 32-bit and 64-bit
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9 SP4 32-bit and 64-bit
CentOS 4 U6 32-bit and 64-bit
CentOS 5 U1 32-bit and 64-bit
Windows Server 2008 32-bit and 64-bit
Windows Vista 64-bit

You can get the new release on Virtual Iron's Web site.

Posted by David Marshall on April 30, 2008 04:42 AM

April 02, 2008 | Comments: (0)

Citrix XenServer 4.1 comes with new features and new pricing

Citrix announced the availability of Citrix XenServer 4.1, the company's first release since Citrix acquired XenSource in late 2007. The release included enhancements to the product as well as a major shift in the product's pricing.

The company changed its product pricing model from a per socket basis to per server. It no longer matters how many sockets or how many processor cores you have in the system. Customers can now deploy an unlimited number of virtual machines on each physical server for a single price.

What's nice about this new pricing solution is that it finally simplifies the process. The new pricing applies to all editions of Citrix XenServer 4.1, Standard, Enterprise and even the recently announced Platinum edition. A free version of XenServer, the Express Edition, is also available for unlimited use on a single server.

Most other server virtualization solutions on the market charge incremental license fees based on the number of CPU sockets. This causes both the cost and the licensing complexity of their solutions to increase, things that consumers of virtualization are becoming extremely concerned with.

Chris Wolf, senior analyst at Burton Group, said, "As organizations increasingly virtualize their data centers, they are consistently asking virtualization vendors for simple, predictable pricing and licensing policies. Vendors who work to simplify licensing and pricing in a time of virtualization ubiquity are showing leadership by demonstrating that they are clearly putting their customers' interests first."

"By introducing this new, streamlined licensing model, we're taking yet another step toward friction-free deployment and continuing to make Citrix XenServer the easiest virtualization solution to own and deploy," said Matt Fairbanks, VP of product marketing, Virtualization and Management Division for Citrix.

New features of XenServer 4.1 include:

Scalability and Performance - Double the number of simultaneous running VMs, Rapid Virtualization Indexing (RVI, formerly nested page table, or NPT) support for modern AMD processors, VLAN support now available in Standard Edition, Improved Citrix XenApp performance and maximum number of user sessions
Reliability and Manageability - Host NIC bonding for fail-over (configured via CLI), Centralized logging, Configuration of network management interfaces via the CLI, Update/patch management integrated in XenCenter, Java bindings for XenAPI in SDK
Storage - Shared Fibre Channel storage support (initialized via CLI), Enhanced support for NetApp filers, including snapshot and cloning, Windows guest disk hot-remove, iSCSI compatibility and HBA support improvements, Support for hot-plugging USB storage as a storage repository
Host System - Rolling pool upgrade support, NIC driver updates (e1000, BNX2, TG3), Support for 10Gb network adapters (Mellanox/Chelsio)
Guest Support - Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 32-bit and CentOS 5 32-bit install from physical CD, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 64-bit and CentOS 5 64-bit guest support, Oracle Enterprise Linux 5 32-bit and 64-bit guest support, Windows Vista 32-bit guest support

Customers can download a free 30-day trial of the new Citrix XenServer 4.1 starting today. XenServer product suggested retail pricing starts at $600 per server for an annual license and $900 per server for a perpetual license. XenServer Express also remains available as a free download from the same web site.

Posted by David Marshall on April 2, 2008 06:07 PM

March 30, 2008 | Comments: (0)

VMware Server 2.0 reaches beta 2

VMware has just released a Beta 2 build of its very popular and free server virtualization software, VMware Server 2.0 (build 84186). Beta 1 brought about a lot of changes to the interface of the software, and added a number of feature improvements to enhance scalability and broaden guest operating system support.

The Beta 2 release continues the trend and offers an array of new features and increased performance and stability.

New features include:

Updated VMware Infrastructure (VI) Web Access management interface: With the faster performance, improved stability and broader range of configuration options, the VI Web Access management interface provides a simple, flexible, intuitive and productive management experience. In addition, embedded help files are context sensitive based on the task being performed.
Independent virtual machine console: With the new VMware Remote Console, you can access your virtual machine consoles independent of the VI Web Access management interface plus resize the virtual machine console windows as needed.
Support for USB 2.0 devices: Transfer data at faster data rates from USB 2.0 devices.
Multi-tiered permissions: Configure different levels of permissions to access virtual machines in different ways, including browsing, interacting, configuring and administering virtual machines.
New hardware editors: Edit and add devices such as USB 2.0 devices and legacy devices such as floppy drives, serial and parallel ports.
Automatically start your virtual machines: Select which virtual machines that you want to automatically start when VMware Server starts. In addition, there is also an option to boot the virtual machine directly into the BIOS Setup Screen.
Link to Virtual Appliance Marketplace: Access thousands of pre-built, pre-configured, ready-to-run enterprise applications packaged with an operating system inside a virtual machine. This speeds up time to value and simplifies software development, distribution, and management.

Join the three million people who have already downloaded VMware Server and participate in the latest Beta version by registering with VMware.

Posted by David Marshall on March 30, 2008 02:59 PM

March 30, 2008 | Comments: (0)

Parallels news about containers and server beta product

Parallels is offering a few different forms of virtualization to the market. Specifically in the server market, they have a container-based solution (from SWsoft) as well as a hypervisor/server virtualization solution that is currently in Beta.

Making a big move to get its product into the hands of end users, the company recently announced that it has signed an exclusive deal with Tech Data Corporation to distribute its Parallels Virtuozzo Containers offering in the United States. The agreement strengthens Parallels' channel program by offering value-added resellers (VARs) easy access to the company's container-based server virtualization software.

"Parallels Virtuozzo Containers takes a different approach to server virtualization than many of the other solutions available in the channel, and by doing, so offers enterprises large and small a unique set of advantages, such as better per-server density and superior performance," said Bill Portin, vice president of North American sales and operations, Parallels.

"This makes Parallels Virtuozzo Containers an ideal solution for VARs deploying data center-scale virtualization or for those deploying virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) solutions. Working with Tech Data's AIS Division, Parallels will ensure our VAR partners have access to the support, expertise and information they need to profitably deploy Parallels Virtuozzo Containers."

At the same time, the company is also moving fast to get their server virtualization solution from Beta to GA. Things must be heading in the right direction for Parallels' latest product. InfoWorld's Randall Kennedy recently put the Beta product through InfoWorld's Test Center and said it looks promising. Kennedy said:

"I did find Parallels Server to be quite responsive, allowing me to install Windows Server 2003 into a new VM at a very competitive pace. I also found the various performance and resource utilization counters to be both helpful and informative, with everything arranged neatly in a series of tabbed panes within the VM console window.
One feature I found most welcome was support for multiple virtual CPUs. Many server applications are tuned to behave differently on a single-CPU system, limiting scalability in non-SMP VM environments. Parallels Server's multi-CPU support should give these applications a healthy performance boost."

You can read Kennedy's full findings on the Beta product, here.

You can also check out the Parallels Server Beta product for yourself.

Posted by David Marshall on March 30, 2008 01:51 PM

March 19, 2008 | Comments: (0)

Microsoft surprises industry with Hyper-V release candidate

Microsoft's virtualization hypervisor product has seen its share of delays, but now, it looks as though the product is right on track and could even be out sooner than last expected. Today, the company put out a release candidate of Hyper-V that provides updated, near-final code.

According to Mike Neil, Microsoft's general manager for virtualization strategy, "This milestone is important to the hundreds of customers and partners in the early adopter programs, and those of you trialing Hyper-V on your own, because it's feature complete, better performing than the beta, and you'll have a better experience using it."

Neil published on his blog that external deployments have exceeded Beta coverage goals and external TAP deployments have increased significantly. And amongst the early adopter customers, the three most common Windows Server 2008 roles run within Hyper-V are IIS, application server and Terminal Services.

Microsoft is reporting that the release candidate features an expanded list of tested and qualified guest operating systems, which now includes Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 (SP2), Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10, Windows Vista SP1 and Windows XP SP3. Host server and language support has been expanded to include the 64- bit (x64) versions of Windows Server 2008 Standard, Enterprise and Datacenter, with English, German and Japanese language options available as well as enablement of Hyper-V on international locales, and further language options and support available in the final release. In addition, the release candidate comes with support for more hardware configurations and offers improved performance and scalability. It also includes the option for installing Hyper-V Manager Microsoft Management Console on Windows Vista SP1 for remote management.

As Hyper-V's release draws closer, announcements of third-party add-on solutions will begin to come out in support of the new hypervisor as well.

One such solution has already been announced from virtual lab management provider Surgient who has been providing a similar solution for Microsoft Virtual Server and VMware ESX Server for years.

"Surgient has seen growing customer interest in adding support for Windows Server 2008 and Hyper-V to our virtual lab management software so that our mutual customers can streamline application life cycle operations, reducing capital and operating expenses," said Tim Lucas, president and CEO of Surgient Inc. "Our customers need to be able to replicate production application configurations in virtual labs using any virtual or physical infrastructure. Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V delivers in all these areas, and we're excited to add support for it to our virtual lab management platform."

Customers and partners can download the release candidate, here. And if you are already operating the Beta version, it is expected that the Windows Update service should refresh your copy to the latest release.

Posted by David Marshall on March 19, 2008 05:11 PM

March 18, 2008 | Comments: (0)

Another look at VMware's VMsafe with Blue Lane and Catbird

Security in the virtualization space, or virtsec as its being called by some, is supposed to be a big deal. Why? For one, security is a huge topic of concern in the physical world. Consumers and businesses spend large sums of money every year to protect their physical end-points and keep malware from entering their datacenter or homes. And when you transition over to a virtual world, why wouldn't you still be concerned about the very same problem and issues? After all, just because a machine is virtual doesn't mean it's impervious. And security seems to be one of the top reasons why many people in the industry are slow to adopt virtualization into their production environments. And so, VMware has introduced us to their solution called VMsafe.

I was originally exposed to this concept back at VMworld two years ago (it didn't have a name like VMsafe back then - it was just an idea or concept at the time). But now, the VMsafe initiative was finally launched at VMworld Europe 2008 and the cat has been released from the bag. The technology allows security software vendors like McAfee to write anti-virus and malware protection software against an API that will be provided with the VMware ESX Server hypervisor environment.

Everything I heard made sense to me at the time, but I wanted to know more about the security of the security end-point. VMsafe can stop the malware before it gets to the virtual machine, but what keeps the malware writers from focusing their attack on the API or the VMsafe virtual machine? According to an article in a VMworld Europe magazine, this shouldn't happen.

"Security purists and VMware's competitors will undoubtedly argue that providing access to the hypervisor, albeit in a highly controlled manner, increases the risk of the hypervisor's own integrity being compromised, and with it the security of every virtual machine that runs on top of it. VMsafe is architected in a manner that eliminates this threat by having the security product run in an isolated space outside of the context of the hypervisor."

Good. So VMsafe is safe. But safe from what? Interestingly, while describing this whole concept of security and VMsafe during the keynote presentation, Christopher Bolin, CTO of McAfee talked about academic and online discussions over the potential threats to VMware and other virtualization technologies. And despite these discussions, Bolin said that they haven't yet seen any real malicious attacks against virtualization and VMware specifically. That's impressive.

Michael Montecillo, a security analyst with Enterprise Management Associates, believes that virtualization security is a moving target. He says, "Organizations are still trying to determine what is the best, most effective way to implement virtualization within their environments. This has caused variations in practices involving the technology utilized and the management processes designed to implement those technologies. From a security perspective, this makes designing a strategy very difficult as there is no standard technology or management method. Therefore, security strategies need to be very flexible and highly capable to address the risk to virtualized environments."

Montecillo added, "VMsafe is an initial effort to bring attention to the fact that security is playing a larger role than ever in the adoption of virtual technologies. VMsafe is beneficial to VMware as it helps VMware address the security voice which has likely slowed the adoption of virtualization technologies in certain environments. VMsafe is also very beneficial to the security vendors involved as it has put the security issue of virtualization at the forefront of the thinking of a lot of executives."

So McAfee is now onboard. But there are two other companies who have been protecting VMware's hypervisor for well over a year now, Blue Lane Technologies and Catbird, and they agree with Montecillo's assessment that VMsafe is bringing the security issue to the forefront.

Gregory Ness, VP of Marketing at Blue Lane Technologies said, "VMware finally uttered the 'S' word, signaling their serious intentions to virtualize production data centers. It is a kind of declaration of independence from the world of ASIC and gig-based security that was also signed by some of the leading players in security." And added, "VMware has articulated an advanced security vision that promises to do for security what virtualization has done for devtest."

Tamar Newberger, VP of Marketing for Catbird, is also a firm believer that VMware's coming out and their affirmation about VMsafe is good for the industry. The feeling is that reducing security concerns will help accelerate virtualization adoption and move the technology into production environments.

Newberger said that VMsafe is an important announcement and shows that VMware is now onboard with the need for security around its product. Saying, "In the shift from P to V, we see best practices for security being inadvertently left behind. Indeed, frequently the security team is left out entirely by the infrastructure team when they are mapping out VMware deployment plans, either because they simply didn't think about it or because they are concerned it might slow things down. Businesses have spent so much time and money figuring out their security topology on their physical networks – but then almost entirely ignore it for their virtual network. It's weird!"

Companies like Blue Lane and Catbird originally came into the virtualization market to specifically address the growing security concerns found within virtualization. And even without the availability of VMsafe APIs, both companies have been able to architect a solution to help address the security problem. Catbird has been shipping its V-Security product since last summer and offers a 'Security as a Service' approach. Likewise, Blue Lane started shipping its VirtualShield product in March 2007. So because both of these companies already have products on the market to address this security concern within VMware environments, how does this announcement affect and change each company's roadmap or long-term vision? After all, creating a set of APIs that can easily be leveraged must certainly take a toll on the barriers of entry into this virtsec space.

Ness believes it will be a big boost for all virtsec players - including Blue Lane. "I think the data center virtualization prospects have been waiting for VMware to step up, articulate a vision and delineate who will do what. They have removed any uncertainty that clouded/confused the early market. Because virtualization is a disruptive technology for security it levels the playing field in many ways, including de-emphasizing specialized network IPS hardware, increasing the importance of app/protocol fluency and moving the security industry away from headaches like signatures, tuning and cottage 'intrusion suspicion management' industries. More layer 7 intelligence will be required by virtsec. All of these trends point toward our advanced architecture and away from solutions architected when hackers were living at home and targeting desktops for fame."

Newberger said that it hasn't altered Catbird's roadmap per se, since the type of functionality that VMsafe enables was already on their roadmap.

"We do believe that we can demonstrate how using VMsafe – and security as a whole - will accelerate VMware adoption by reducing the security concerns that have been dogging the market. There have been lots of analysts and CIOs warning of impending doom and gloom – but most of their concerns could easily be addressed by products already in the market, such as Catbird. And VMware supports this approach."

According to Montecillo, "Blue Lane and Catbird currently sit in an excellent position with regards to virtualization. These companies are on the cutting edge for a growing concern for organizations looking to consolidate servers and move to virtualization solutions. With the innovations that come with the move to virtualized environments, so too comes new security concerns. Technical concerns such as the security of the hypervisor are complicated by management issues like trusted zone spanning and network activity monitoring. Companies such as Blue Lane have a head start on addressing these concerns through product portfolios and thought leadership. Of course the VMsafe announcement has allowed some larger security vendors such as McAfee or Symantec to enter into the realm of virtualization security as well. However, as they do not currently have the technology to secure the virtualized environments in the manner that Blue Lane, Catbird, or some of the others do, acquisitions are likely."

Posted by David Marshall on March 18, 2008 04:32 PM

March 05, 2008 | Comments: (0)

Parallels Server Beta 2 is now open to the public

Parallels announced today that it was going to open up its Beta 2 program for its Parallels Server product to the general public. Parallels Server is the first server virtualization platform to come out of Parallels, now famous for their desktop virtualization software on the Mac. The company announced the first round of beta testing only 2 months ago. And I knew back then that it wouldn't be long until the beta reached the general public.

"We are extending beta testing to everyone based on the positive results from our closed beta," said Corey Thomas, Vice President of Consumer and Business Marketing, Parallels. "Feedback has been that it is easy to install and use, reliable and fast. We've incorporated feature requests and fixes into this latest version and feel confident that it's ready for a broader set of beta users to experience."

Ben Rudolph, Director of Corporate Communications at Parallels, was demonstrating the product while at VMworld Europe 2008. And it looks like the company has come a long way with it. The product performed very well on the Mac server that Rudolph was using. And with the Beta 2 release, the company has added a number of impressive features. Key among them:

A Full Bare-metal Hypervisor that allows users to run multiple virtual machines directly on the host physical machine's hardware. The company has been promising a bare-metal platform for some time now, and they are finally about to deliver on that promise.
An Integrated Toolset that enhances and simplifies the user experience. The toolset includes: Parallels Tools, a set of helpful add-ons that make working with virtual servers easier and more productive: Parallels Transporter, a built-in, wizard driven migration tool that can move the entire contents of a real machine to a virtual machine: and an integrated, single-click backup utility. Tools like this will be important to help further adoption of the platform.
Virtual Support for 4-way Symmetric Multi-processing (SMP), which lets users assign up to 4 virtual cores to a virtual machine for exceptional performance under heavy workloads. Long ago seems the day when we only had support for a single virtual processor in a virtual machine.
Experimental Support for Intel VT-d, enabling users to leverage full hardware-acceleration technologies for faster, more stable virtual machines and better resource management. Using VT-d, users can also directly assign hardware resources such as graphics and network cards to virtual machines, giving them native access to that hardware for optimal service levels.

Parallels Server supports an impressive list of 50 different x86 and x64 guest operating systems, including Windows Server 2008. Many people are interested in virtualizing Mac OS X. Right now, because of license limitations, Leopard Server is the only version currently supported. Although Rudolph said that the feature is currently disabled in this Beta build. Hopefully, support for this operating system will get added back in soon.

A full list of features and specifications are available on Parallels' Web site, and you can now download the Beta 2 build of this server virtualization platform as well. Go here to find out more details and to download the product.

Posted by David Marshall on March 5, 2008 05:07 PM

February 23, 2008 | Comments: (0)

VMware issues security updates and fixes for VI3

On February 20th, VMware issued a number of security updates and product fixes for their VMware ESX Server product.

ESX Server 3.0.2, Patch ESX-1003359: Security Update to the Samba Package: This patch provides updates to the Samba package distributed with the service console for ESX Server 3.0.2. The patch addresses a stack buffer overflow flaw in the way Samba authenticates remote users. A remote unauthenticated user can trigger this flaw to cause the Samba server to crash, or execute arbitrary code with the permissions of the Samba server.
Note: This vulnerability can be exploited only if the attacker has access to the service console network.
ESX Server 3.0.2, Patch ESX-1003360: Security Updates to the Python Package:
This patch provides service console updates for the Python package. The patch fixes security issues with an integer overflow issue with the way Python's Perl-Compatible Regular Expression (PCRE) module handles certain regular expressions, a flaw in Python's locale module where strings generated by the strxfrm() function are not properly NULL-terminated, and multiple integer overflow flaws in Python's imageop module that can allow an attacker to cause the application to crash, enter an infinite loop, or possibly execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the Python interpreter.
ESX Server 3.0.2, Patch ESX-1003362: Fix for aacraid SCSI Driver Security Issue:
This patch fixes an issue where the aacraid SCSI driver does not check IOCTL command permissions. This flaw might allow a local user on the service console to cause a denial of service or gain privileges.
ESX Server 3.0.2, Patch ESX-1003364: Virtual Machines on the ESX Server Host Do Not Power on Automatically:
This patch fixes an issue where a virtual machine does not auto start on reboot of the ESX Server host.
ESX Server 3.0.2, Patch ESX-1003365: ESX Server Host Might Stop Responding When a CD-ROM Drive Is Accessed:
This patch fixes an issue where the ESX Server host running on Intel's Harwich and Foxcove platforms might stop responding when a CD-ROM drive is accessed from a virtual machine under heavy CPU loads.
ESX Server 3.0.2, Patch ESX-1003366: iSCSI LUNs in the Pass-Through Mode Might Cause the ESX Server Host to Stop Responding:
This patch fixes an issue where iSCSI LUNs in the pass-through mode might cause the ESX Server host to stop responding.
ESX Server 3.0.2, Patch ESX-1003179: Fixes for Remote Console Blackout, OpenSolaris Boot Delay, Duplicate Packet Issue; Support for Virtual Machines to Share Generic SCSI Devices:
This patch fixes the following issues:
- Fixes an issue where a virtual machine using a e1000 NIC stops responding under heavy Pre-boot Execution Environment (PXE) network load, when the IBM Tivoli driver attempts to write to the e1000 register.
- Fixes an issue where OpenSolaris virtual machines might take a long time to boot due to SCSI errors.
- Enables virtual machines on the same ESX Server host to share generic SCSI devices.
- Fixes an issue where a virtual machine's remote console appears blacked out, when the virtual machine is accessed from a computer via a network that has a Generic Routing Encapsulation (GRE) tunnel to the virtual machine's ESX Server host.
- Fixes an issue where broadcast/multicast packets are duplicated when two or more virtual machines are connected to a vSwitch using NIC teaming.
ESX Server 3.0.2, Patch ESX-1003374: Fixes for VMware Tools Installer:
This patch provides updates for the VMware Tools installer to support Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.1 and changes the name of Windows XP Professional x64 guest operating system in VMware tools to be correctly communicated to the ESX Server host.

Posted by David Marshall on February 23, 2008 05:50 AM

February 10, 2008 | Comments: (0)

Microsoft Windows Server 2008 RTM: Hyper-V clock begins

Things must have been extremely busy over at the Redmond campus last week, what with the announcement of Microsoft Windows Server 2008 going gold or being released to manufacturing (RTM).

Other than the obvious news that Microsoft is releasing a new version of the server operating system, what it means more specifically to me is the start of the internal clock counting down the release of Microsoft's hypervisor technology, Hyper-V (or Viridian for those of us waiting long enough).

Sometime within the next 180 days, we should be able to get our hands on a finalized, complete version of the long awaited virtualization technology. Within the RTM release of Windows Server 2008, Microsoft did include a Beta version of the hypervisor - I believe it to be the same Beta version that was included with the RC1 build of Windows Server 2008. So that should at least allow us to continue to play with the technology, but I wouldn't recommend putting this version into production use in your environment. Been there, done that! When something is marked as Beta, it's for a reason. There are always bugs in a product (you learn something working in QA - testing is never done!), but you know you'll find bugs easily in a Beta product. I say install it, try it, learn it - just not in production.

Users of this Beta Hyper-V version should also know that it sounds like Microsoft is planning an in-place upgrade of the hypervisor. Stay tuned, hopefully more information on this will unfold soon enough.

Server 2008 isn't yet available for customers to purchase. But that should happen around March 1st. A global launch of the product is planned with something called "Heroes Happen 2008", where the operating system will be joined in a three-prong attack with SQL Server 2008 and Visual Studio 2008.

Posted by David Marshall on February 10, 2008 04:15 PM

February 06, 2008 | Comments: (0)

IBM's PowerVM virtualization for SMB customers

When we talk about virtualization and its history, we have to talk about IBM and the old mainframe days. IBM introduced virtualization technology to market some 40 years ago. And now, the company is repackaging its Unix Advanced Power Virtualization (APV) software that has been around since 2004 into a new product offering called PowerVM.

With IBM's PowerVM virtualization platform, customers can create up to 160 virtual partitions in a single system, which dramatically improves the utilization of the server.

PowerVM Express is specifically designed for small and medium sized businesses and is reasonably priced at $40. The Express edition is designed for three LPARS per server. In addition, the company also offers Standard and Enterprise editions that allow ten LPARS per server socket.

"Virtualization has typically been in the domain of large enterprises. Today we aim to simplify the adoption of virtualization technologies, making it available to small and medium-sized businesses," said Scott Handy, vice president of marketing and strategy, IBM Power Systems. "The capabilities we deliver when combining IBM's leadership virtualization software and POWER6 technology in our new offerings take us beyond just world-class performance and allow us to help clients build more efficient businesses by saving time, space and money."

PowerVM now has the ability to implement live migration of a virtual machine similar to VMware's VMotion technology. IBM calls it Live Partition Mobility, and it moves a single LPARS workload or all LPARS workloads from one physical host server to another without any interruption to the user. Although SMB customers interested in PowerVM Express may be upset, this feature is only found on the Enterprise edition of PowerVM, priced at $1,500.

Another feature found is Lx86, which allows an IBM System p server to run Linux x86 binary applications unmodified without recompilation, in addition to UNIX and Linux on POWER applications. This feature is offered in all three editions at no additional charge as an incentive to get x86 server users to consolidate on to System p servers. Lx86 is a product of Transitive Corp. that was shown in Beta as the Application Virtual Environment.

According to IBM, nearly 70 percent of IBM POWER6 processor-based System p servers use PowerVM technology today.

Posted by David Marshall on February 6, 2008 07:14 PM

February 04, 2008 | Comments: (0)

Citrix introduces public beta for XenServer 4.1

While at Summit 08, Citrix had a lot to say about their acquired XenServer line. The company bulked up the XenServer team with 60 new people and were able to add 400 new customers into its camp in Q4. The company's goal is to deliver $50 million in revenue for 2008, and one way they are going to try and do that is to deliver on their next version of XenServer 4.1 (code-named Miami). To that end, the company has now opened up the beta program to the public.

This service pack or dot release enhances the previous v4 product with the following capabilities and improvements:

Scalability and Performance: Increased the number of simultaneous running VMs, Enhanced nested page table (NPT) support for modern AMD processors, VLAN support in Standard Edition, Improved Citrix Presentation Server performance and maximum number of user sessions
Reliability and Manageability: Host NIC bonding for fail-over (configured via CLI), Centralized logging, Configuration of network management interfaces via the CLI, Update/patch management integrated in XenCenter, Java bindings for XenAPI in SDK
Storage: Initial shared fibre channel storage support (via CLI only), Enhanced support for NetApp filers, including snapshot and cloning, Windows guest Hot disk remove, ISCSI improvements, Support for hot-plugging USB storage as a storage repository
Host System: Rolling pool upgrade support, NIC driver updates (e1000, BNX2, TG3), Support several 10Gb network adapters (Mellanox/Chelsio), Improved hardware support
Guest Support: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 32-bit and CentOS 5 32-bit install from physical CD, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 x64 and CentOS 5 x64 guest support, Oracle Enterprise Linux 5 x86 and x64 guest support, Windows Vista x86 guest support

One nice thing about this beta, there is no license key needed. The key is embedded into the binary, and will last through the beta period without expiring.

You can sign up for the Citrix XenServer 4.1 beta, here.

Posted by David Marshall on February 4, 2008 05:02 AM

January 29, 2008 | Comments: (0)

Parallels announces Virtuozzo Containers 4.0

Parallels has been busy, as usual. The company has officially transitioned over from the SWsoft company name to Parallels full time. And they've also announced the release of its container-based server virtualization platform, Parallels Virtuozzo Containers 4.0. At the same time, they have also announced the launch of their new data center management tool, Parallels Infrastructure Manager.

Parallels Virtuozzo 4.0 includes enhancements and new features that aim to improve usability, data center management and business continuity.

"The ever-changing needs of today's enterprise data centers call for a virtualization solution that is flexible and delivers high performance," said Serguei Beloussov, CEO of Parallels. "With the release of Parallels Virtuozzo Containers 4.0, we are launching the next wave of virtualization, including a suite of products that help IT administrators effectively manage their growing virtual infrastructures."

When people think of server virtualization, more often than not, they immediately think about VMware, Microsoft or some Xen-based technology. This is probably one of the biggest hurdles that Parallels has to overcome with its Virtuozzo product. Unlike these other hypervisor technologies, Virtuozzo is a containers virtualization solution. In other words, it virtualizes the operating system, not the hardware itself.

Benjamin Rudolph, Parallels Director of Corporate Communications, describes the process like so:

"You can install an OS (Windows or Linux) and then run workloads off that single kernel in isolated execution environments that we call 'containers'. Because all of the containers are working in direct contact with real hardware and are all working off that 1 OS install, performance is exceptional... about 97-99% of native, regardless of how many containers are running. And, container footprints are tiny - only 10MB of RAM and 45MB of disk space required at the bare minimum."

Rudolph adds, "All of this means that you get the best performance and best density of any product in the market, meaning that Parallels Virtuozzo Containers 4.0 is the ideal solution for large scale, datacenter virtualization."

So while this solution typically scales better than hardware virtualization, like anything else, it has its own set of drawbacks. One of the biggest drawbacks is that the environment has to be homogeneous and must remain at the same patch or service pack level. Of course, if your environment runs on the same operating system and you keep everything patched at the same level, this probably wouldn't adversely affect you.

Parallels Virtuozzo Containers 4.0 offers new features and functionality in several key areas:

Business Continuity - Parallels Virtuozzo Containers 4.0 includes several new options to drive uptime, such as Windows Server 2003 and Red Hat clustering services. In addition, Parallels Virtuozzo Containers 4.0 delivers a comprehensive set of backup enhancements.
Ease of Use and Manageability - Version 4.0 extends the already significant resource management in Parallels Virtuozzo Containers with the inclusion of virtual CPU improvements, burstable CPU limits, hardware device forwarding, hardware device sharing and more.
Efficiency - Version 4.0's architectural enhancements provide even higher levels of stability and performance. New efficiency-driving features include real-time optimization of hardware resources, and an improved Virtuozzo file system that speeds common management tasks and more effectively utilizes hard disk resources.

Virtuozzo 4.0 also introduces the Parallels Infrastructure Manager, a powerful tool for managing the Virtualized Data Center that enables IT administrators to efficiently manage their infrastructure from anywhere.

The Parallels Infrastructure Manager includes a number of important features such as:

Enhanced Permissions - Includes role-based security and audit, Microsoft Active Directory support and LDAP integration.
Newly Designed Management Tool – Easier assessment of resources and assets via powerful dashboards.
Large Scale Deployment and Management Capabilities - Includes application and OS templates as well as centralized data center management, providing logical views of the data center.

If you'd like to find out more about the product or what the company is doing, Parallels is also sponsoring an online Web event on Thursday, January 31, 2008. The live Webcast will take place at 11:00AM EST, and afterward, it will be available online as an on demand video. Parallels' CEO Serguei Beloussov will discuss the new features in Parallels Virtuozzo 4.0, and he will also take a look at the entire virtualization landscape as well.

You can watch this event, here.

Posted by David Marshall on January 29, 2008 08:03 PM

January 19, 2008 | Comments: (0)

Citrix adding patch management in future XenServer Edition

Many people have often had the misconception that a virtualized environment must be safe from security problems and vulnerabilities. After all, its virtual, right? Well, no. This just isn't the case, and there have been plenty of discussions around this very subject as of late.

Virtualization platforms are not without their security issues. Case in point, Roger Klorese, Citrix XenServer Product Marketing, recently talked about a new feature coming out in the next release of Citrix XenServer that is currently in closed beta. The feature is designed with patch management in mind. In his blog, Roger writes:

"Pool-wide patch management has been integrated into the product, and, in conjunction with a wizard in XenCenter, will allow you to:

Check the Citrix XenServer website for updates
Download any pending updates to your XenCenter system
Choose which servers in your managed pools you wish to apply the patches to
Put each server in maintenance mode (with their VMs kept online on another server via XenMotion)
Apply the patches
Bring the server back online and move VMs back to it automatically

...All in a single guided process."

This is just another example of virtualization platforms trying to make the technology easier and safer for people to implement in large doses. Server virtualization is enterprise ready, and features like this do nothing but help get that message out.

Like Citrix, VMware is concerned with security and patch management of its products as well, and introduced VMware Update Manager for its server virtualization platform, VMware ESX Server.

Posted by David Marshall on January 19, 2008 10:29 AM

January 13, 2008 | Comments: (0)

Virtual Iron and FalconStor form virtualization alliance

FalconStor Software, specializing in disk-based data protection solutions, and Virtual Iron, provider of server virtualization software, announced the formation of a strategic alliance in order to help streamline storage and server virtualization solutions. Both companies hope to enhance IT productivity and business continuity for organizations of all sizes.

The combined solution is geared toward improving data center resource management by increasing utilization of existing physical resources, optimizing virtual infrastructure performance through real-time data migration, and delivering more cost-effective high availability and disaster recovery.

"The server virtualization market is red hot and gaining rapid adoption as organizations strive to achieve physical server consolidation, maximize resource utilization and deploy disaster recovery solutions," said Mark Bowker, Senior Analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group. "In a recent survey of current and planned virtualization users, ESG discovered the importance of networked storage as 86% of the respondents that have implemented server virtualization use some form of networked storage to support their infrastructure requirements."

Virtual Iron and FalconStor have agreed to collaborate on marketing, sales, product integration and cross-support to original equipment manufacturers (OEM) and reseller partners worldwide.

FalconStor's Network Storage Server (NSS) and FalconStor's Continuous Data Protector (CDP) support both iSCSI and Fibre Channel storage. For Virtual Iron customers, it provides:

Storage Migration for Virtual Machines - Virtualization combined with built-in mirroring allows seamless migration between storage arrays without downtime.
Extended support for a wide range of SMB and enterprise-class storage arrays already certified by FalconStor.
Application-aware snapshot agents that provide transactionally-consistent snapshots of data for Exchange, SQL, SharePoint, SAP, and Oracle running in virtual machines.
Thin provisioning for virtual machines maximizes disk space to optimize storage management within virtualized environments.

These capabilities allow Virtual Iron customers to take a storage-vendor agnostic approach to virtualize and provision storage resources for virtual machines. The combination also attempts to offer an answer to the market where questions are raised about competing technologies from VMware and Citrix.

VMware has had its VMotion technology for a while now and recently announced the addition of Storage VMotion to try and answer the questions around storage virtualization. And VMware is also partnered with FalconStor along with other storage virtualization vendors. In addition, VMware offers its own snapshot and disaster recovery features which provides value to customers and also helps to justify the cost of the VI3 solution.

Citrix has also partnered with others, including companies such as Symantec. The partnership allows Symantec to bundle Veritas storage management software with Citrix XenServer in order to offer some of the same functionality.

"Independently, Virtual Iron and FalconStor anticipated advanced data center applications driven by workload mobility and policy-based automation to reduce the cost and complexity of data center operations. We designed our next generation architectures accordingly," said Mike Grandinetti, chief marketing officer at Virtual Iron. "Our joint customers benefit from an integrated server virtualization and storage virtualization solution that leverages existing investments and doesn't break existing practices."

Virtual Iron and FalconStor will host a joint Webcast on February 7th, 2008, featuring the combined capabilities. Register for this upcoming event, here.

Posted by David Marshall on January 13, 2008 10:48 AM

January 12, 2008 | Comments: (0)

Can Parallels become the one virtualization to rule them all?

Today, when people talk about virtualization, more often than not, they are doing so by discussing VMware. But the server virtualization playing field has greatly expanded in the last year, and more people are starting to take notice of competing technologies such as those from Microsoft, Citrix, Virtual Iron and other Xen-based technologies.

But there is another company out there, who up until last year, was thought of and treated as two separate virtualization companies - SWsoft and Parallels. Now, the company is publicly under one corporate umbrella and will soon change its moniker to Parallels as it embarks on a quest of virtualization dominance under its new "Optimized Computing" vision.

Parallels is a global leader in virtualization and automation software. Its software is used by more than 700,000 customers in 125 countries and provides products for operating system virtualization, desktop virtualization and server control panels for Internet hosting solutions. Now, the company hopes to extend its virtualization market presence to include server virtualization.

At the beginning of this month, the Virtualization Report talked about Parallels kicking off its first round of beta testing on its long awaited Parallels Server product. Now, the company is ready to expand their beta testing of the company's hypervisor powered server virtualization solution.

The company is describing their beta server virtualization product as achieving a number of technical firsts:

Parallels Server is the first virtualization solution designed to run on Intel-based Apple hardware supporting Mac OS X Server, including Apple's new Xserve and Mac Pro lines recently announced. This will allow Mac OS X Server administrators to run workloads such as SQL Server and Exchange Server at the same time as their Mac OS X Server applications. The product is also the first to enable running Mac OS X Server in a virtual machine to allow users to run in a sandbox environment and test patches, new software and experiment with new Apple hardware configurations.

One interesting first is the way Parallels Server can be installed. During install time, users can choose between a Parallels lightweight hypervisor installation, where virtual machines run in tandem with a primary operating system, or a "bare-metal" installation, where virtual machines operate independently and don't require a host operating system to function properly. Parallels is the first to offer users this type of flexibility to choose their implementation at the time of install.

According to the company, Parallels Server is the first to offer experimental support for Intel second-generation virtualization technology, Intel Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O (Intel VT-d). The company says that by adopting and supporting technologies like Intel VT-d, Parallels Server will not only deliver high levels of performance and reliability, but also allow users to directly assign hardware resources such as a second graphics or network card to a virtual machine.

"Hundreds of thousands of customers are using Parallels virtualization software in their businesses and homes to get the most out of their Windows, Mac and Linux desktop computers and applications," said Serguei Beloussov, CEO of SWsoft. "Launching the Parallels Server beta is a key milestone in delivering on our vision of 'Optimized Computing' for servers and desktops across heterogeneous platforms."

Key features found in the Parallels Server beta include:

Run any combination of more than 50 different x86 and x64 guest operating in secure, high performing virtual machines, and have the option to run virtual machines in the headless mode via a "bare metal" hypervisor.
Take advantage of Parallels Server's industry first capability to simultaneously run multiple copies of Mac OS X Server, Windows Server and Linux on the same Xserve.
Users running Parallels Server on Apple hardware also have the industry-first option to run Mac OS X Server in a virtual machine.
Remote control of the virtual machines via the Parallels Management Console
Support for up to 64Gb of RAM on the host computer
Full support for x64 primary and guest OSes, as well as 2-way SMP in virtual machines. The final release version will support up to 4-way SMP
Multi-user access to the same virtual machine
Support for ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface) in virtual machines
Completely open, fully scriptable APIs for customized management
Full support for Intel VT-x, and experimental support for Intel VT-d.

The company is currently accepting registrations for new beta testers. For details about participating in the beta program, click here.

Posted by David Marshall on January 12, 2008 09:07 AM

January 06, 2008 | Comments: (0)

Citrix and HP team up on virtualization

Virtualization vendors continue to fight the fight for virtualization market penetration by creating bundling deals with leading hardware providers. Citrix Systems and Hewlett-Packard have announced such a deal and will be working together to push server virtualization adoption forward.

ComputerWeekly recently reported that Citrix XenServer Enterprise Edition 4 will be offered with HP's ProLiant and BladeSystem servers. Citrix XenServer Enterprise will offer HP customers live migration of virtual machines, a scalable virtual infrastructure management framework, and an open XenAPI for third-party add-ons. It also supports both 32- and 64-bit environments.

According to the news provider, vice president of Industry Standard Server Software at HP, Scott Farrand, said, "Virtualization has become a necessity for our customers to achieve desired business outcomes." And HP also claimed that the deal would give its customers the ability to purchase an entire virtualization solution from server to software.

I recently spoke to Simon Crosby, CTO of the Virtualization and Management Division at Citrix Systems, and he told me that 2008 is all about the hypervisor embedded in server hardware. Crosby added, "XenServer will be an option on over 50% of x86 server hardware in 1H08, 'baked in' during system assembly. This offers customers an incredible value proposition built into the box – and dramatically accelerates the adoption of virtualization."

If you missed my discussion with Simon Crosby over the holidays, you might want to give it a read to check out his insight into the virtualization market into 2008. You can read it, here.

Posted by David Marshall on January 6, 2008 06:57 AM

January 03, 2008 | Comments: (0)

Parallels starts beta testing of its server virtualization product

Parallels has officially kicked off the first round of beta testing for its long awaited Parallels Server product.

For those of you interested in participating in this beta, you'll have to wait for now. Parallels has kicked off Beta 1 to a small contingent of their most trusted, active beta testers -- the so-called hard-core Parallels supporters who have continued to play an important role in helping the company progress forward with their Workstation and Desktop products. Once these users provide Parallels with their feedback, the company will be ready to release Beta 2 to the general public.

Although no time frame was given, based on past experience with the company, you can bet that it won't be long. In typical Parallels fashion, expect that the quality and speed of their initial set of testing to conclude sometime within the next few weeks.

When asked about what type of people or companies they were looking for to participate in the Beta 2 round, Benjamin Rudolph, Director of Corporate Communications at Parallels, said, "We're looking for companies large and small to participate in the beta process. The broader the scope of beta tester, the more complete feedback we'll get, which means that we'll be able to modify and perfect the product faster." He continued, "As with all Parallels products, our users are key to getting a great product out the door on time. One of the biggest reasons we're successful is that we have a fiercely loyal user base helping us ready new products like this one."

Rudolph said that the product is looking very strong as it goes through its initial beta period. The Parallels Server product is currently offering enterprise features such as SMP, x64 support and scriptable, open APIs. The server class product is going to offer support for Windows, Linux and Apple Mac OSes.

The support of Mac OS X on the new server platform should prove to be a big selling point for Parallels, as the company continues to impress Mac users with their Desktop for Mac virtualization product. And remember, it was only a few months ago that Apple made an unexpected change in its licensing agreement, stating in its Permitted License Uses and Restrictions:

A. Mac OS X Server Software. This License allows you to install and use one copy of the Mac OS X Server software (the "Mac OS X Server Software") on a single Apple-labeled computer. You may also Install and use other copies of Mac OS X Server Software on the same Apple-labeled computer, provided that you acquire an individual and valid license from Apple for each of these other copies of Mac OS X Server Software.

Apple consumers look to be an obvious market for Parallels to continue their virtualization quest. And with the new Parallels Server product, they will also go after the SME and department enterprise space. However, the company doesn't plan to stop there as it has a much larger view in mind, specifically, their "Optimized Computing" vision.

According to Rudolph, Parallels expects to get the server product out the door in the next few months. He added, "Beyond that, though, this is a big step forward to achieving our goal of 'Optimized Computing,' in which we believe that through a well thought out deployment of virtualization, management and automation, companies large and small can optimize their business from desktop to datacenter. Having a hypervisor-powered server virtualization product that couples (and will work seamlessly with) our Virtuozzo container-based virtualization solution, and that compliments our desktop virtualization solutions, is a big part of making that happen."

Posted by David Marshall on January 3, 2008 07:38 PM

January 01, 2008 | Comments: (0)

Xen Project Roadmap and Status

If you weren't able to make the fall Xen Summit in November of 2007, don't worry, you can catch up on the presentations that were given at this event by downloading them from the xen.org Web site.

Ian Pratt, leader and chief architect of the Xen project, did a presentation titled "Xen Project Status" where he discussed among other things, the Xen project status and roadmap.

One of the things I learned more about while at the Citrix iForum was the continued building of community around Xen. And in Ian's Xen Summit presentation, he talked about the xen.org Web site and how all community related activities were being located and consolidated here. Things like Web site material, source repos, the wiki and bugzilla... with more to follow soon enough. The objectives of this site are to show the independence of the Xen project from any commercial organizations, offer better community tools and to foster independent oversight.

After the Citrix acquisition of XenSource, many questioned what would happen to the open source Xen project. And like the xen.org Web site, the project itself is remaining independent, as is evident by the Xen Project Advisory Board, made up of the largest contributors and key vendors that deliver Xen in the market: Citrix, IBM, Intel, HP, Novell, Red Hat and Sun. The group is also responsible for defining procedures for evolving the group over time.

The Xen Roadmap is also clearly defined in Ian's presentation. It discusses the following:

Server

Performance and scalability optimizations

Enable Smart IO devices

SCSI pass-through

Security

Domain0 disaggregation; XSM Xen Security Modules

Secure boot, TPM, certification, multi-level secure systems

Client

Power management: Suspend and hibernate; clock management

3D video: direct hardware access; high-performance guest virtualization

USB device pass-through

And perhaps equally important as the roadmap is the Xen Project's overall Mission Statement which reads:

Build the industry standard open source hypervisor: Core "engine" that is incorporated into multiple vendors' products
Maintain our industry-leading performance: Be first to exploit new hardware acceleration features and help OS vendors paravirtualize their OSes
Maintain our reputation for stability and quality - Security must now be paramount
Support multiple CPU types; big and small systems: From server to client to mobile
Foster innovation: Be a great platform for research and experimentation
Drive interoperability: Between Xen-based products and with other virtualization products

The Xen Project and all the commercial implementations and applications around it are going to prove important in 2008. As virtualization continues to grow and expand, more companies are going to look to the open source solution and more vendors are going to jump on board as well.

You can find this and other Xen Summit presentations, here.

Posted by David Marshall on January 1, 2008 06:59 AM

December 24, 2007 | Comments: (0)

InfoWorld Looks at VMware VI3 3.5 and Microsoft Hyper-V

As virtualization heads into 2008, what can you expect from virtualization giant VMware and all around giant Microsoft?

VMware recently announced VMware ESX Server 3.5 and VirtualCenter 2.5 going GA. And we've already talked about all of the great new features and the packaging and licensing that goes along with it here in the Virtualization Report. But in case you didn't see it, check out Paul Venezia's review of the product as he put it through the test in the InfoWorld Test Lab.

In his latest VMware review, Paul wrote:

I've been running ESX Server 3.5 and VirtualCenter 2.5 in the lab for weeks now, using the code provided from VMware's beta program. The highlights of the new VI3 release include new features such as live storage migration and distributed power management, plus a bevy of new add-ons – for example, an automated patch manager and a tool for capacity planning and P2V migration.
The big news in the updated VI3 isn't the core functionality – VMotion, Distributed Resource Scheduler, High Availability, and Consolidated Backup have been in customers' hands for more than a year now. There are a few little additions here, such as Cisco Discovery Protocol support on ESX hosts (which makes switchport location trivial), but the larger story is in the management additions to the base packages.

To find out more, read Paul's full InfoWorld Test Review of this product, here.

With Microsoft's announcement about their next generation hypervisor, Hyper-V, it was back to the test lab for Paul. Here at the Virtualization Report, we've covered the new features coming down the road with this virtualization platform, and we described how Hyper-V is going to be a part of the new Microsoft Windows Server 2008 operating system. But thanks to Paul's thorough analysis, we can find out more about this new hypervisor without having to install it ourselves. Paul wrote:

The basis of Hyper-V is the new Windows Server 2008 platform that carries with it a host of new features and a vaguely Vista-esque look and feel. Love it or hate it, Vista-ness is apparently here to stay. Installation of Hyper-V on Windows Server 2008 is as straightforward as you would think, requiring only that an admin add the Hyper-V role to the server and designate which network interfaces to use for virtual machines. After installation, the server reboots and Hyper-V is ready for action.
I installed the beta on a solid, middle-of-the-road server, a Dell PowerEdge 2950 with two dual-core 3GHz Intel CPUs, 4GB of RAM, and a single 72GB U320 SCSI drive. I had newer and more powerful hardware in the lab, but I wanted to run the beta on hardware that was virtually guaranteed to have built-in driver support. I wasn’t disappointed -- everything worked right out of the box. From there, I had the system ready to handle virtual machines in a matter of minutes. A few minutes later, I ran into problems.

To find out more about Hyper-V and see what happened when it was installed in the InfoWorld Test Lab, click here.

Posted by David Marshall on December 24, 2007 05:03 AM

December 17, 2007 | Comments: (0)

SWsoft - New Name with Added Vision

SWsoft, perhaps the second largest virtualization software producer in the market, recently decided that it would change the company name, its logo, its product names and its vision all in one fell swoop.

In January 2008, the company will adopt the Parallels name for its new corporate name and image. It wasn't long ago, the beginning of this year, that SWsoft officially announced that it had quietly acquired Parallels several years earlier. And now, the acquired becomes the name and face of the acquirer.

When asked why the change, SWsoft CEO Serguei Beloussov said that they want to look like one company with a single vision and a single brand.

At the same time as the name change, the company also announced its new initiative called "Optimized Computing", which focuses on providing consumers, business and service providers with what the company describes as the industry's broadest portfolio of multi-platform virtualization and automation software.

"This means enhancing Windows, Linux, Mac, x86 and ia64-based bare metal systems with innovative hypervisor-based virtualization, container-based virtualization and a suite of complementary automation solutions," said Beloussov. "Truly optimized computing requires virtualization, system automation and business automation components - which our company is unique in providing."

SWsoft said that 2008 would be a big year for the company. They will release a new version of Virtuozzo, the company's container or operating system virtualization application; major updates to Parallels Desktop and Parallels Workstation; a server based hypervisor; and a new virtualization management software that will manage not only Virtuozzo and Parallels, but also other popular third-party virtualization platforms from a single, flexible interface.

Multiple SWsoft products will soon be renamed gradually to foster clarity, simplicity and strength.

Parallels Desktop (no change)
Parallels Workstation (no change)
Parallels Server (no change)
Parallels Virtuozzo Containers (Virtuozzo)
Parallels Management Console (VZMC)
Parallels Infrastructure Manager (VZCC)
Parallels System Automation (PEM)
Parallels Business Automation (PEM/HSPc)
Parallels Plesk Control Panel (Plesk)
Parallels Plesk Expand (Expand)
Parallels Plesk Sitebuilder (Sitebuilder)
Parallels Ensim Pro (Ensim Pro)
Parallels HSphere (Hsphere)
Parallels Confixx (Confixx)
Parallels Open Platform (Fusion)
Parallels Technology Network (SWDN)
Parallels Partner Network (PartnerNet)
Application Packaging Standard (no change)
OpenVZ (no change)

These names will be phased in with new program releases.

You can find out more information, here.

Posted by David Marshall on December 17, 2007 08:13 PM

December 16, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Virtual Iron Version 4.2 Strengthens Business Continuity

With a growing list of who's who in the virtualization platform market, virtualization vendors like Virtual Iron have been trying to carve out their own niche market to help them expand their sales efforts.

Moving beyond the server consolidation use case, Virtual Iron is introducing the latest version of its product, 4.2, to help production environments with business continuity by focusing on increased support for disaster recovery, high availability and dynamic capacity management.

The new version of the company's virtualization suite includes a new management tool called LiveSnapshot which provides virtual server snapshots for hot backups and patch management. These capabilities enable offloaded, space efficient and no-downtime backups on live virtual machines running in production environments and it also reduces the time needed for virtual machine patching in development and test processes.

Virtual Iron 4.2 also adds multi-pathing for virtual server Ethernet and Fibre Channel networks to better support business continuity and redundancy and help speed up the I/O process. The company has also added the ability to dynamically increase the size of both disk groups and virtual disks to provide increased storage on demand. And they've broadened support to include new operating system support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10.

"Well over half of our customers today are leveraging Virtual Iron's comprehensive virtualization platform to support more advanced use cases such as disaster recovery and high availability," said Mike Grandinetti, chief marketing officer at Virtual Iron Software. "Version 4.2 adds to these already robust capabilities to extend support for our many end users running demanding workloads in production environments while making Virtual Iron even easier to install, deploy and manage."

The company is still offering the same pricing structure with the latest version. They offer a free version of the software that supports up to 12 virtual machines per physical server, an Enterprise Edition for $499 per socket, and an Extended Enterprise Edition with all of the tools for $799 per socket.

Posted by David Marshall on December 16, 2007 08:04 AM

December 15, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Does Microsoft's Early Release of Hyper-V Help Combat VMware?

Microsoft fired an unexpected shot that was heard around the world when it announced the early public beta release of its widely anticipated virtualization hypervisor, Hyper-V.

Originally expected sometime in Q1 of 2008, Hyper-V is Microsoft's hypervisor virtualization technology that works with the latest release candidate of Windows Server 2008 Enterprise (x64 edition). And according to Microsoft, the company is still on track to launch Hyper-V within 180 days of the RTM of Windows Server 2008.

In their official announcement, Microsoft called the news delivery a "holiday surprise" for its customers and partners. "Delivering the high-quality Hyper-V beta earlier than expected allows our customers and partners to begin evaluating this feature of Windows Server 2008 and provide us with valuable feedback as we march toward final release," said Bill Laing, general manager of the Windows Server Division at Microsoft.

Microsoft said they have expanded the features and capabilities in Hyper-V since its September 2007 Community Technology Preview. Some of the new features added include: 'Quick Migration' and high availability to help provide for planned and unplanned downtime, volume shadow services support, integration with Windows Server Manager and support for running Hyper-V with Server Core in the parent partition.

Virtual machines can now be imported and exported, and they have grown up to offer new capabilities themselves. They now support up to 4 virtual SCSI controllers, multiple network adapters and up to 64GB of memory. In addition, they've changed the emulated video card from an S3 Trio to a more generic VESA compatible device to help resolve video issues with some operating systems like Linux.

Microsoft said Hyper-V is designed to provide a broad range of customers with familiar and cost-effective virtualization infrastructure software that can help reduce operating costs, increase hardware utilization, optimize infrastructure and improve server availability.

But the big question that remains is, with virtualization being built into the Microsoft Windows operating system, will it change the way consumers use virtualization? Analysts say that only about 5% of today's x86 servers are virtualized. That leaves a lot of room on the table. But the market is quickly getting seeded with virtualization platforms from Citrix, Novell, Red Hat, Oracle and Sun, all trying to take away market share from VMware while trying to capture the remaining 95% of x86 servers.

VMware believes that Microsoft is late to the virtualization party and isn't offering anything new to combat what VMware already has in place. VMware's Senior Director of Product Marketing, Bogomil Balkansky said, "Microsoft is now releasing a beta version of a first generation product when customers need production proven, reliable, mature virtualization solutions."

He added, "Hyper-V provides only server partitioning while VMware Infrastructure is a third generation platform with a complete array of capabilities to simplify IT management and improve infrastructure availability. Tens of thousands of VMware customers have leveraged VMware infrastructure to reduce capital and operating costs to implement high availability solutions, deliver on the promise of the virtualized desktop, and better automate and manage their software applications."

Balkansky also pointed out in the interview that the beta version of Hyper-V is somewhat comparable to VMware's Infrastructure 3 Foundation Acceleration Kit. However, he said one significant differentiator of the VI3 Foundation Acceleration Kit over a Microsoft Hyper-V offering is ESX Server 3i. ESX Server 3i is built on a next-generation thin architecture that delivers strengthened security, improved reliability and simplified management.

Microsoft does have one thing on its side. Almost 2 million customers from around the world have already downloaded Windows Server 2008 evaluation code. Only time will tell if Microsoft's current Hyper-V feature set is enough to propel them into becoming the dominant virtualization vendor. Or as VMware claims, is the feature set too immature and too unproven compared to what VI3 already offers today?

If you want to find out more about Hyper-V, you can attend a Webcast with Microsoft's Mike Neil on December 18th at 12:30PM PST. Register for the event, here.

The beta is available for download, here.

Posted by David Marshall on December 15, 2007 05:49 PM

December 12, 2007 | Comments: (0)

VMware Announces Major Updates to its Flagship Product - VI3

VMware finally announced the general availability of its highly anticipated upgrade to its flagship product Virtual Infrastructure 3 - which includes VMware ESX Server 3.5 and VirtualCenter 2.5. The company said the new release provides additional capabilities for increased levels of automation, improved overall infrastructure availability and higher performance for mission critical workloads.

Two of the more interesting and commented on features include Storage VMotion and Update Manager.

Storage VMotion does what it sounds like. It basically provides the same functionality as VMotion for storage arrays. In other words, you can dynamically balance storage workloads and resolve storage related performance issues by migrating virtual machines to the best available storage device. It helps eliminate the problems of planned downtime when you need to work on a storage array.

Update Manager is another new feature that has long been requested from VMware users. It helps automate the patch and update management for the VMware ESX Server hosts and the virtual machines in your datacenter. Patching has long been a headache in a virtual environment, so this is a welcomed feature.

In addition to the ESX 3.5 hypervisor, VMware has also made available an update to its management platform, VirtualCenter 2.5, as well as a host of new features to its VI3 suite.

VMware ESX Server 3.5 and VirtualCenter 2.5 provides the following new features:

Virtualization platform enhancements help deliver significant performance gains for the most memory and I/O intensive workloads:
- Large memory pages for both ESX Server as well as guest operating systems improve memory processing for memory intensive workloads such as databases
- Support for TCP Segmentation Offload and jumbo frames reduces the CPU overhead associated with processing network i/o, and benefits workloads such as Citrix and Windows Terminal Services
- Support for paravirtualized Linux improves the performance of Linux workloads

VMware Storage VMotion enables live migration of virtual machine disks from one data storage system to another with little to no disruption or downtime. Administrators can dynamically balance storage workloads and address performance bottlenecks by migrating virtual machine disks to the best available storage resource, minimizing service disruptions.
VMware Update Manager automates patch and update management for VMware ESX Server hosts and virtual machines by tracking certain patch levels and manually applying the latest security/bug fixes. Patching of offline virtual machines enforces higher levels of patch standards compliance than physical environments. Integration with VMware Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS) enables zero-downtime VMware ESX Server host patching capabilities.
VMware Guided Consolidation, a feature of VMware VirtualCenter enables smaller companies to easily and quickly get started with server consolidation in a step-by-step tutorial fashion. A wizard discovers physical servers, identifies consolidation candidates, converts them to virtual machines, and intelligently places them onto the optimal VMware ESX Server or VMware Server hosts.
VMware Distributed Power Management is an experimental feature that reduces power consumption in the data center through intelligent workload balancing. Working in conjunction with VMware DRS, distributed Power Management is designed to automatically power off servers not currently needed in order to meet service levels, and automatically power on servers as demand for compute resources increases.

At the same time of the release, VMware also announced changes to its naming and pricing of the VI3 suite. The product is available for purchase in the following editions:

VMware Infrastructure 3 Foundation (previously called "Starter") will include VMware ESX Server or VMware ESX Server 3i, VMware Consolidated Backup and the new VMware Update Manager. VMware Infrastructure Foundation list price will be $995 per 2 processors.
VMware Infrastructure 3 Standard will include the capabilities in VMware Infrastructure 3 Foundation plus VMware HA which provides automated restart of virtual machines affected by hardware failure. VMware Infrastructure 3 Standard list price will be $2,995 per 2 processors.
VMware Infrastructure 3 Enterprise includes the capabilities in VMware Infrastructure 3 Standard, plus VMware VMotion, VMware Storage VMotion, and VMware DRS with Distributed Power Management (DPM). VMware Infrastructure 3 Enterprise list price will be $5,750 per 2 processors.
VMware Infrastructure 3 Foundation Acceleration Kit: Three 2-processor licenses of VMware Infrastructure 3 Foundation as well as VMware VirtualCenter Foundation Server, which includes VMware Guided Consolidation and the ability to manage up to three VMware Infrastructure server hosts. List price is $2,995.
VMware Infrastructure 3 Standard High Availability Acceleration Kit: Two 2-processor licenses of VMware Infrastructure 3 Standard, which includes the above features of the VMware Infrastructure 3 Foundation Acceleration Kit plus VMware High Availability (HA). List price is $5,995.
VMware Infrastructure 3 Midsize Acceleration Kit: Three 2-processor licenses of VMware Infrastructure Enterprise as well as flexible training and consulting credits that can be applied to classes to learn how to deploy and use VMware Infrastructure 3, such as the "VMware Infrastructure 3: Install and Configuration" course. List price is $14,495.
VMware VMotion, Storage VMotion and DRS with DPM will also be available for standalone purchase with VMware Infrastructure 3 Foundation and Standard.
Existing VMware Infrastructure customers with valid support and subscription contracts will receive the new products and features included in each edition at no additional cost.
VMware supports VMware Infrastructure 3 in all main operating system locales and is expected to release Japanese, simplified Chinese and German versions in the first half of 2008.

Posted by David Marshall on December 12, 2007 05:16 AM

November 28, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Hardware Vendors Continue to Sign Agreements with Virtualization Vendors

The server virtualization software market is expected to grow to as much as $7 billion in 2011 from $800 million in 2006. Current penetration of virtualization on installed x86 servers is estimated at just 6% today. And most analyst firms conclude that VMware has control of an estimated 80% of the current server virtualization market.

Whether you believe those numbers or not, it remains quite evident that VMware is the dominant player in this space. But as it always happens, there are others gunning for position against the top player, looking for ways to gain more of a percentage control of their own. One way for virtualization platform providers to do that is to make sure they get onto the server hardware before it ships to the end customer. And so, we watch as all the key virtualization platform providers begin to rally around the hardware vendors and sign various partnership agreements to try and provide customers with a choice of platform - and in many cases, pre-installed and ready to go out of the box.

"End users are asking for a choice in server virtualization solutions as they look to refresh and 'virtualize' their data centers at multiple tiers including servers, network, and storage," said Mark Bowker, Analyst with Enterprise Strategy Group.

Fujitsu Computer Systems Corporation announced a technology partnership with the application delivery giant, Citrix. According to a recent press release, the agreement has Citrix providing support for its XenServer Enterprise Edition virtualization platform running on the Fujitsu PRIMERGY RX300 S3 server, and the two companies also plan on collaborating on future products. This model Fujitsu server is now Citrix certified for XenServer Enterprise Edition.

"As a leader in bringing virtualization solutions to market, Fujitsu is continually looking for new ways to ensure our customers have the ability to choose a virtualization technology that meets their specific needs," said Richard McCormack, senior vice president of marketing for Fujitsu Computer Systems. "A technology partnership with Citrix provides Fujitsu customers with access to a highly reliable, industry-leading virtualization platform, while companies first looking to implement virtualization now have a powerful, fully tested combination of Citrix XenServer software and Fujitsu hardware to turn to."

Virtual Iron Software, a provider of enterprise-class server virtualization software solutions, also made an announcement about their new worldwide authorized reseller agreement with Dell Corporation. Dell will work through Virtual Iron's distribution channel and resell the software to end-users as part of an extensive portfolio of server virtualization and storage offerings.

According to the company, Dell servers provide an ideal platform for Virtual Iron. And virtualization is a key component of Dell's scaleable enterprise strategy that aims to help customers cost-effectively scale, improve utilization and simplify IT operations.

"Many Dell customers are leveraging Virtual Iron's comprehensive virtualization capabilities to improve their operational efficiency and business agility," said Mike Grandinetti, Chief Marketing Officer at Virtual Iron Software. "These companies are able to take advantage of comprehensive virtualization capabilities in a very easy to use and easy to afford solution. Working with Dell, we are able to further enhance this value proposition and bring enterprise-class capabilities to a much larger segment of the market."

Posted by David Marshall on November 28, 2007 08:31 PM

November 21, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Thinsy Announces Latest Xen Based Virtualization Platform

California based Thinsy announces that it is joining the growing list of Xen based virtualization platforms. Just after Oracle announced the introduction of its Xen based platform, Oracle VM, Thinsy becomes the seventh commercial virtualization platform announced making use of the Xen hypervisor technology.

The company has announced the EnSpeed VM family of products which is made up of the EnSpeed Virtual Machine Monitor (VMM) server and the EnSpeed VM Orchestrator.

The EnSpeed VMM is a Xen based virtualization server that is installed on bare metal. The company is taking a different approach with its virtualization platform offering than its competitors. Rather than focusing on an expensive SAN solution, Thinsy is providing enterprise grade features using direct attached storage (DAS) and its LiveSync technology. They offer:

High Availability Backup for VMs to failover to a secondary VMM, should the primary VMM server fail – all without SAN or NAS external storage.
Live Migration of powered up VMs from the primary VMM server to the backup VMM server.
VM Snapshots - enables full backups, without powering off the VM
Daily Incremental backup of VMs – without powering off the VM.

The EnSpeed VM Orchestrator is the company's java based Web server hosted application. It provides the following functionality:

Create and load Virtual Machines onto EnSpeed Virtual Machine Monitor Servers. The Virtual Machines are created using Virtual Appliance Images stored in the Orchestrator's Virtual Appliance Library
Power On/Off of Virtual Machines loaded onto the EnSpeed Virtual Machine Monitor Servers.
Open a remote console to the Virtual Machine within a web browser window.
Take a snapshot of a running VM, in order to download a full backup. This is done without powering off the VM.
Download incremental backup images of the VM

The company hasn't reached a 1.0 release version yet, but the products are both available for download, here.

Posted by David Marshall on November 21, 2007 02:44 PM

November 17, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Microsoft's Virtualization becomes Hyper-V

During Microsoft's TechEd IT Forum conference in Barcelona, Spain, the company finally named its upcoming hypervisor virtualization platform. What was once code-named Viridian and then announced as Windows Server Virtualization (WSV) will now be officially known as "Hyper-V".

At the same time that Microsoft announced the new name for the virtualization hypervisor technology, it also announced packaging, licensing and pricing information. In addition, Microsoft also squeezed in an announcement about a complementary program called the Server Virtualization Validation Program that allows virtual machine vendors to validate their solutions with Windows Server operating systems.

In addition to shipping with Windows Server 2008, Microsoft will also offer Hyper-V as a separately shipped add-on product, available for an oddly priced fee of $28. Microsoft is also going to ship three other versions of Windows Server 2008 without the Hyper-V technology. All in all, Microsoft is expecting to have eight different versions of its Windows Server 2008 product which could leave customers dazed and confused.

Versions of the operating system will be available in both 32- and 64-bit editions, with the exception of an Itanium-based version. However, if you want to own and make use of Hyper-V, you are going to have to use a 64-bit version, as only that edition of Windows Server 2008 will support it.

When thinking about editions of the operating system without the Hyper-V technology, the question in my mind is why would someone want to purchase a version of Windows Server 2008 without it for a savings of a mere $28? The unbundling and the nominal fee for Hyper-V probably has more to do with government anti-trust issues as opposed to any customer related issues, although it still seems like it will ultimately cause more confusion to end-users in the end.

Officials have stated that Windows Server 2008 is still on track to meet its current delivery date of the first quarter of 2008. And Hyper-V is scheduled to ship within 180 days after the release of Windows Server 2008.

Much like the announcements from VMware, Citrix and others, OEM partners are also getting in the mix, ready to offer Hyper-V to their customers. Partners including Dell, Fujitsu Siemens, Hitachi, HP, IBM, Lenovo, NEC and Unisys are already committed to working with Microsoft to offer Hyper-V solutions once it is available.

And in response to industry and customer demands for more comprehensive technical support of virtual machines, Microsoft also announced the Server Virtualization Validation Program. Beginning June 2008, vendors will be able to self-test and validate certain technical requirements of their server virtualization software running Windows Server 2008 and prior versions. The program will enable Microsoft to offer cooperative technical support to customers running Win