Year: 2006

Quoting from Server Watch:

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Virtual Iron Software has secured IBM ServerProven status for version 2.5 of its virtualization and management software of the same name, Virtual Iron Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer Mike Grandinetti told ServerWatch. Virtual Iron is in the process of pursuing ServerProven status for version 3, which is scheduled to go into beta in July, Grandinetti said.

The “ServerProven” designation means the solutions have been deployed on an IBM system, in this case, IBM BladeCenter and System X…

Read the whole article at source.

Quoting from the QLogic official announcement:

QLogic® Corp. (Nasdaq:QLGC), the leader in Fibre Channel host bus adapters (HBAs), stackable switches and blade server switches, today announced that its storage networking products support newly released VMware Infrastructure 3.
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Optimized for virtualized environments, QLogic SANblade® Pro 2400 Series 4Gb HBAs and SANbox® 4Gb switches are a strong complement to VMware Infrastructure 3…

Quoting from the Parallels official announcement:

Parallels Compressor, released today, is a powerful, easy-to-use, universally compatible management tool that helps companies using almost any server and workstation virtualization platform conserve valuable hard disk resources and optimize the performance of their virtual workstations and servers by reducing the size of virtual hard disks by 50 percent or more,

Compressor works by automatically deleting temporary and unnecessary files within Windows, and then compressing the actual virtual hard disk image file.

As part of its goal to bring virtualization to everyone, Parallels is making Compressor available to any individual or enterprise using Parallels, VMWare and Microsoft solutions running Windows 2000, 2003 and XP. The company plans to expand its portfolio of tools over the coming months, and pledges to make those tools compatible with all of the industry’s major virtualization solutions, including the open-source Xen hypervisor, and a broader variety of operating systems.
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Compressor is available in two versions. Compressor Workstation, which retails for $49, is specifically optimized for virtual workstations. It is compatible with any Parallels, VMware and Microsoft virtual workstation running Windows 2000 or XP. Compressor Server, available for $179, is a professional-grade tool that optimizes any virtual server built using Parallels Server (due late 2006), VMware GSX Server, VMware Server, Microsoft Virtual PC, or Microsoft Virtual Server, or any virtual workstation built with Parallels Workstation 2.1 for Windows or Linux, Parallels Desktop for Mac, or VMware Workstation. Compressor Server is compatible with Windows 2000, 2000 Server, XP, and Server 2003.

Download Compressor for Windows and Linux here. Compressor for Mac OS is already included in Parallels Desktop for Mac.

The virtualization.info Virtualization Industry Roadmap has been updated accordingly.

SWsoft just launched the beta program of its complete solution for hosting services, HSPcomplete 3.3, and among 100 new features there is the Virtuozzo integration:

The latest features of Virtuozzo are supported in HSPcomplete 3.3 including EZ templates management, simplified SLM, Zero-Downtime Migration (ZDTM), centralized distribution of Virtuozzo for Windows OS, and application templates.

You can download the beta here.

The final version of HSPcomplete 3.3 is planned to be released in July.

If you are interested in Virtuozzo you may want to read the virtualization.info review of SWsoft Virtuozzo for Windows 3.5.1.

Mike Kol write a nice article about managing Sysprep utility and avoid Virtual Machine Additions to be disabled in the process:

If anyone has tried syspreping Windows Vista Beta 2 inside a VM, you may have noticed that the VM Additions are still installed but not functional afterwards.
This is because of the way that the new Sysprep Generalization phase works. The idea here is that the system starts with a totally clean slate, and PnP detects the “best” driver for the hardware all over again.

For some reason, the drivers included with the Additions are not detected as the “best” fit. I’m not on the setup team, so I’m not sure why, but that’s what seems to be happening.

There are a few ways to work around this…

Read the whole article at source.

Mike Kol unofficially announces the release of highly expected Virtual Server 2005 R2 Virtual Machines Additions for Vista beta 2.

Download as usual on Microsoft Connect (Additions for Vista beta 2 are included in the Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 beta program).

MacDailyNews reports about a new tool to optimize just released Parallels Desktop for Mac: PD Tweaker.

The tool has two major features:

• Optimizes caching for HDD and SAV files
• Always writes HDD and SAV files all the way to disk

Download it here.

Note that this is not an official Parallels release and the company is not actually endorsing the tool in any way.

Quoting from the Emulex official announcement:

Emulex Corporation, the most trusted name in storage networking connectivity, today announced that the Emulex LightPulse® family of HBAs , including the latest 4Gb/s PCI-X and PCI Express models, are fully supported as part of the new VMware Infrastructure 3.
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In March 2006, Emulex contributed its virtual HBA API to the VMware Community Source program to help drive standardization of SAN connectivity solutions for server virtualization environments.

The Sun branded version of LightPulse HBAs have been certified as well.

Gear Live published an iterview with Benjamin Rudolph, Marketing Manager at Parallels, about the just released Desktop for Mac.

Read the whole interview at source.

Quoting from the Virtinium official announcement:

– Virtinium, a solutions developer focused on the creation of products that extend and enhance the management of virtualization technologies, today announced the commercial availability of the Nirvana VSAN and VM Manager products.
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In addition, the VM Manager is a web based operation management component to allow access to VMware virtual machine management from any browser or small form factor device. “The VM Manager is a great tool for your virtualization toolkit and enables IT managers to check the performance of their virtual machines. It is the first component available in our Vixen development project, which will be a complete enterprise resource management suite specifically created for virtualized environments,”
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More information will be released on Vixen in November 2006 at VMWorld in Los Angeles, California.
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The VM Manager is available for free download on the company’s website (www.virtinium.com).