Year: 2006

Release: Xen 3.0.1 released!

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Quoting from the XenSource official mailing list:

We’re pleased to announce the release of Xen 3.0.1 !

This is primarily a bug fix and cleanup release.

Although many of the fixes had already been cherry picked into 3.0-testing, we felt it was time to roll a new release and encourage people to upgrade.

You can download src and binary tarballs along with RPMs for common distros from http://xensource.com/xen/downloads/

As usual, you can download the source using mercurial from http://xenbits.xensource.com/xen-3.0-testing.hg

Since branching the code for the release, the -unstable tree has had some fairly major merges: support for AMD SVM virtualization extensions (3.0.1 only supports Intel VT), and an upgrade to the latest linux version (with xen as a subarch of i386/x86_64 rather than a seperate architecture). The tree is likely to be unstable for a little while as we absorb these changes, though we’d certainly appreciate feedback from users.

Actually 3.0.1 are still on their way to the download server.

VMware changes the playing field

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Quoting from Redmondmag.com:

Released in mid-December of last year and with one major exploit already announced and patched, VMware’s Player tool has taken the Internet by storm. A restricted version of the well-known and full-featured VMware Workstation application, the freely distributable Player brings the core functionality of VMware to the masses at a very reasonable cost.

VMware Player won’t allow you to build new virtual machines (VMs) or reconfigure the hardware on existing ones — you’ll need VMware Workstation or a similar app for that. But if you’ve created a compatible VM, the freeware Player license suddenly opens a whole new realm of possibilities for leveraging VM technologies in the workspace. Imagine a few of the architectural possibilities now available that may have been previously financially unattainable:…

Read the whole article at source.

The author also mentioned virtualization.info quoting part of the How to improve disk I/O performances with VMware Workstation 5 article: thank you!

Vizioncore improves backups of VMware virtual servers

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Quoting from CRN:

Vizioncore on Tuesday said it has enhanced its application for virtualizing the storage environment that sits behind servers virtualized using VMware software.

Vizioncore’s esxRanger Professional now enables users to improve their ability to track the movements of virtual servers created by VMware’s ESX Server application and better optimize their virtual IT infrastructure, said David Bieneman, CEO of Antioch, Ill.-based Vizioncore.
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New in esxRanger Professional is compatibility with VMware’s VirtualCenter, a VMware tool that lets virtual servers be moved from one physical host to another. Bieneman said this compatibility allows his company’s application to track the movement of those virtual servers to ensure they are backed up properly.

Vizioncore also added a new database for tracking the success and failure records of the virtual server backups, as well as to show which virtual servers were backed up by who and to where, said Bieneman. The database also includes information on the size of both the original and compressed backup images and on how long the compression and the backup took.

Also new is a rules optimization engine that lets IT administrators look at the tree structure of their VMware virtual server environment and increase the efficiency of the server backups. For instance, Bieneman said, an administrator can specify that 100 virtual machines should be backed up immediately, with 15 virtual machines per host at three virtual machines per SAN LUN (logical unit number)…

Read the whole article at source.

UltraBac Software brings true dissimilar hardware restore to market

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Quoting from the UltraBac official announcement:

UltraBac Software today released UBDR Gold v3.0, bringing true dissimilar hardware restore to market. UBDR Gold end-users will no longer need to buy and maintain identical hardware spares as part of their disaster recovery readiness plan, which can help cut expenses. Other significant enhancements to the company’s award-winning software include expanded virtual machine restore support and Online Index based restore capability.
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In 2005, UltraBac Software broke new ground with UBDR Gold v2.0 by providing the first Windows backup software to offer physical-to-virtual (P2V) based disaster recoveries. Version 3.0 expands on P2V to also include virtual-to-virtual (V2V) and virtual-to-physical (V2P) restores. With V2V and V2P, administrators literally have every virtual disaster recovery option at their disposal. Restoring and emulating a failed machine virtually can be executed in as little as 15 minutes.
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Further expanding on its virtual machine support, UBDR Gold v3.0 also integrates seamlessly with Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2. Users of VMware and Microsoft Virtual Server have a new and affordable option for disaster recovery protection from either natural or man made disasters that can incapacitate or destroy a computer facility. To restore a physical server virtually, an administrator need only create a new target virtual environment on the host for the server to be restored. Restores can be 100 percent scripted or an administrator can boot from the universal UBDR Gold CD and run the recovery wizard. Quick and easy restores can be performed from tape, disk, libraries, UNC path, SAN, NAS, USB/FireWire devices, FTP, or TSM servers. No special setup or other considerations are required when recovering to a virtual environment.

OpenVZ beta tests Linux kernel 2.6.15

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Quoting from the SWsoft official announcement:

We are opening a new development kernel branch, based on 2.6.15 vanilla kernel. This branch allows OpenVZ users to benefit from upstream Linux kernel abilities and makes OpenVZ kernel patches to be more in line with the latest Linux kernel.

The Linux kernel 2.6.15 provides the following benefits in comparison with 2.6.8 (which our stable kernels are based on):

  • better hardware support, including AMD dual-core fixes and improved x86_64 support;
  • I/O schedulers, which makes it possible to assign different I/O rates to virtual private servers (VPSs);
  • ext3 online resizing;
  • improved memory management, such as 4-level tables support and performance enhancements;
  • new extended bind mounts;
  • improved locking scheme, better scalability for big SMP systems;
  • support for filesystems in userspace (FUSE)

Thanks to OSNews for the news.

Surgient named finalist for two 2006 SIIA CODiE swards

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Quoting from the Surgient official announcement:

Surgient, the leader in virtual lab applications for automating software demo, test and training labs, today announced that its applications had been named by the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) as finalists in the 2006 CODiE Awards for the second consecutive year.

Surgient’s Virtual QA/Test Lab Management System (VQMS), which automates the provisioning and management of software testing labs, has been selected as a finalist for the award “Best Application Management Solution.” Surgient’s Virtual Training Lab Management System (VTMS), which automates the provisioning and management of hands-on software training labs, has been named as a finalist for the award “Best Technology Solution, Corporate Learning.”…

Thanks to David Marshall for the news.

IBM to launch 2nd blade generation next week

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Quoting from CNET News.com:

The launch of the system, confirmed by sources familiar with the plan, is scheduled to take place at a press event in New York. The blade server upgrade is key to Big Blue’s attempt to stay ahead in the strategically important and fast-growing market. Blades are clearly a priority for Big Blue
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IBM declined to comment for this story. However, Big Blue said last year that it planned an overhaul expected to improve the BladeCenter’s networking and flexibility. In particular, the communications “backplane,” which links the blades to each other and to an external network, is expected to increase data transfer capacity tenfold to 40 gigabits per second. Earlier blade models will fit into the new BladeCenter chassis, and new blade servers will fit into the older chassis…

Read the whole story at source.

Tool: Ultimate-P2V

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Qui Hong, Chris Huss and Mike Laverick produced a free physical to virtual (P2V) application, a must-have in your virtualization toolbox:

Ultimate-P2V is a free plug-in that allows you to clone a physical machine to virtual machine – and perform the neccessary “system reconfiguration” required to make it bootable. Without this tool or a commerical P2V tool the virtual machine would just give a blue screen of death.

Read the manual and download it here.

Thank you guys!