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After VMware, also Microsoft detailed a list of limits that Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 cannot exceed in complex configurations.
Despite the informantions are released in an informal way, through a blog post, they are really valueble for any serious project.
Read them here.
While waiting for new hypervisor codename Viridian, Microsoft is pushing more on Virtual Server 2005, and published a set of 10 whitepaper to provide guidance in several integration scenarios:
Thanks to Tony Bailey for the news.
CRN published a basic review of most popular virtualization platforms on the market today, assigning a rating to each one:
Reviewer provided following conclusion:
While all four virtualization solutions accommodate the needs of IT development, VMware stood above the others for providing the best end-to-end virtualized environment specifically designed for development.
The biggest challenge for IT is to build communications between a large team working on the same development project. VMware’s ESX server is built for that, including the most features by far. XenSource’s XenServer is the simplest product to use and has new features that enable it to compete on a more level playing field with VMware and SWsoft. XenEnterprise is price-competitive and also scales higher than VMware’s enterprise solution.
SWsoft offers an interface that’s easy to understand, but its capabilities don’t rise to the level many development teams would require. Virtual Iron’s interface just wasn’t friendly enough for engineers to build simple workflows.
Simply put, systems integrators and application providers can certainly use all four products to develop and test systems but on more complex distributed infrastructures, they will be hard-pressed to meet deadlines without VMware’s Lab Manager to monitor workflow, integration schedules and code assets.
Read the whole comparison at the source.
Quoting from IT Pro:
…
The Sun xVM hypervisor will be on general release by the second quarter next year, but will have two previews, the first by the end of this year and the second my May 2008. The system is already available in the Open Solaris community, but will be released as a separate commercial product from Sun.
The type-one hypervisor – which means it sits directly on the hardware – is based on technology developed by the Xen open source community, but has a Solaris-based kernel rather than a Linux one.
The xVM will run Linux, Windows or Solaris operating systems on any hardware, he said. Sun already has an agreement in place with Microsoft to ensure Windows works smoothly on the virtualisation system, that it is a “good guest”. The agreement will flip the other way when Microsoft announces its virtualisation products, to ensure Solaris is a “good guest,” too.
The xVM will also allow technology to be passed from the server to the operating system, so tools such as the ZFS file system, which is included on the hypervisor will be inherited by the OS.
Also in production as part of the virtualisation lineup is a set of management tools, called Ops Centre, which will be on general release from December 2007…
Read the whole article at the source.
The virtualization.info Virtualization Industry Roadmap has been updated accordingly.
Update: While IT Pro reports availability of Sun xVM in May 2008, IT Week declares it will be ready not earlier than June.
The new ESX Server 3i that VMware will distribute since December 2007, is build on top of a new architecture which makes superfluous the well-known Service Console (a customized Red Hat Enterprise Linux distribution which also serves as command line for interacting with environment local).
But the fact that VMware marketing pushes that ESX Server 3i as a prompt-less hypervisor doesn’t mean it really misses the shell environment: Richard Garsthagen, Technical Marketing Manager at VMware, revealed how to reach the hidden command prompt in new platform just a couple of days ago.
The small shell that replaces Red Hat one isn’t one developed by VMware from scratch, but is the popular BusyBox, an open source project which combines several utilities in a single executable, and which is included in an endless list of well-known open source tools.
Designed for embedded systems and featuring a modular architecture, BusyBox is developed by a brillant professional, Denis Vlasenko, and this is where security issue lays: can VMware puts security of a mission critical hypervisor in one man’s hands?
On top of that VMware is currently using a very old version of BusyBox inside ESX Server 3i: 1.2.1, while current version is 1.7.2. And this is possibly because Denis Vlasenko don’t enforce GPL2 license in BusyBox versions older than 1.2.2, which would pose VMware at risk of redistributing 3i under GPL as well, depending on the platform architecture.
While BusyBox may be replaced in following betas of ESX Server 3i or before RTM launch, it’s current presence is enough to start seeing host level security issues as a more concrete thing.
Massimiliano Daneri, the man behind VMBK.pl, the popular free script able to provide ESX Server virtual machines live backup, is now employed by VMware, virtualization.info has learned.
Besides VMBK, Massimiliano developed other critical utilities for VMware products like the VMCL, the first free tool for ESX Server high availability, and VMTS Patch Manager, which provides enhanced patching capabilities to ESX Server administrators until VMware will release its new Update Manager inside upcoming VI 3.5.
Since this month Massimiliano serves as Senior Consultant for VMware EMEA, mostly involved with Southern Europe customers.
virtualization.info reached him by phone and asked what will happen to his personal work in this new position:
My tools are not part of the agreement with VMware so I will continue to develop them independently.
As in the past, I work on them on my spare time, but this doesn’t mean I will put less effort in development. Instead I’m planning new tools and important improvements on existing ones. I hope to release something in the coming months.
Besides talented developers, is VMware starting to hire popular professionals on the market before someone else will do?
The upcoming major update in VMware Infrastructure 3.x, called 3.5, and new ESX Server 3i will be available to general public in December 2007, virtualization.info has learned. An official announcement is expected next week.
virtualization already broke the news about new features and enhancements that will appear in VI 3.5, including ESX Server 3i integration into servers from popular OEMs like Dell, IBM, HP. But the biggest news emerges only now: VMware will also sell ESX Server 3i as stand-alone product, with support for SATA storage devices, at less than $500.
What will change in details with new VI 3.5 offering:
On top of that VMware will announce special bundles for SMBs, trying to make its offering more interesting before XenSource reorganizes after Citrix acquisition and Microsoft comes on stage with codename Viridian:
Unfortunately the biggest bait to attract the SMB market, ESX Server 3i stand-alone, will probably not appear before beginning of 2008.
The virtualization.info Virtualization Industry Roadmap has been updated accordingly.
Update: As expected VMware announced VI 3.5 features and SMB bundles, as virtualization.info readers know since months. What VMware is still vague about is release date.
CNN Money published a very long, well-written and interesting article inside Fortune magazine about Diane Greene and how she got involved in VMware fortune, becoming one of the most powerful woman in the world (#22 actually).
Besides the enjoyable story, there are a couple of very important points that emerge. One confirms why EMC is not pushing VMware brand despite the acquisition happened years ago:
…The deal worked because after buying VMware, EMC has mostly left it alone. The reason: It had to. Greene says she realized only after the deal was announced that a close association with EMC carried enormous risks for VMware.
The penny dropped when she called Bill Zeitler, an IBM senior hardware executive, and told him of the sale. Zeitler politely hit the roof. Like HP, Dell, and others, IBM had been enthusiastically selling VMware together with its products. IBM is a key VMware partner – and bitter competitor of EMC.
Greene and Tucci quickly crafted rules of engagement that keep the companies separate. Most important, they agreed to prohibit EMC’s aggressive salesforce from selling VMware, which would have given EMC a weapon against its competition but hurt VMware…
The second and most important point seems to confirm tensions between EMC and VMware:
…The biggest headache just might be EMC. The two companies continue to have as little to do with each other as possible. Greene and her acolytes butt heads frequently with EMC’s senior executives, who remain annoyed they cannot benefit more directly from owning VMware by selling its software. Tucci manages to keep a tenuous peace, but even his praise hints at the tension. “The No. 1 item that makes anyone successful is passion,” he says. “Never bet against a person with passion. She [Greene] has an intense desire to win.”
Greene herself doesn’t talk much about EMC; she points out that she ceased to be an EMC officer when VMware went public. Still, EMC has the right to approve all major transactions and expenditures. The companies tussled, for example, over the cost of VMware’s new Palo Alto headquarters, designed to be environmentally light-footed…
Read the whole article at the source.
Before this article, The Register reported rumors about VMware and EMC tensions as well.
System Center Data Protection Manager 2007 is slowly approaching the RTM launch, and hits today the release candidate status. This means that users adopting Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 will soon be able to perform live backup of their virtual machines, as known since this March.
In details SCDPM will be able to perform virtual machines backup acting at host-level, live if the VM contains a Windows Server 2003 guest OS, offline if it contains any other operating system.
SCDPM 2007 will be the only Microsoft product able to perform such operation since the company disallowed the use of free NTBackup for the task.
Enroll for the beta program here, and watch a video about this capability here.
Richard Garsthagen, Technical Marketing Manager at VMware, just published some useful tricks for ESX Server 3i beta that VMworld 2007 attendees received in a nice 1GB USB key.
So, after running ESX Server 3i in a Workstation 6.0 virtual machine, you now can get a command line (despite 3i is supposed to not have a command line), customize the logon screen and reset the pre-configured root password.
Read the whole post at the source.