Year: 2007

VMware published a remarkable 219-pages free book about storage tecnologies, design principles and implementation in VMware Infrastructure 3 environments:

This guide, or “cookbook,” describes how to design and deploy virtual infrastructure systems using VMware Infrastructure 3 with SANs (storage area networks). It describes SAN options supported with VMware Infrastructure 3 and also describes benefits, implications, and disadvantages of various design choices. The guide answers questions related to SAN management, such as how to:

• Manage multiple hosts and clients
• Set up multipathing and failover
• Create cluster-aware virtual infrastructure
• Carry out server and storage consolidation and distribution
• Manage data growth using centralized data pools and virtual volume provisioning

This guide describes various SAN storage system design options and includes the benefits, drawbacks, and ramifications of various solutions. It also provides step-by-step instructions on how to approach the design, implementation, testing, and deployment of SAN storage solutions with VMware Infrastructure, how to monitor and optimize performance, and how to maintain and troubleshoot SAN storage systems in a VMware Infrastructure environment. In addition, Appendix A provides a checklist of SAN system design and implementation.

Table of Contents

• Introduction to VMware and SAN Storage Solutions
• Storage Area Network Concepts
• VMware Virtualization of Storage
• Planning for VMware Infrastructure 3 with SAN
• Installing VMware Infrastructure 3 with SAN
• Managing VMware Infrastructure 3 with SAN
• Growing VMware Infrastructure and Storage Space
• High Availability, Backup and Disaster Recovery
• Optimization and Performance Tuning
• Common Problems and Troubleshooting

It’s a worthwhile reading before your first project, the VCP certification exam, and even non-virtualized implementations.

Read it here.

Quoting from the Virtual Iron official announcement:

Virtual Iron Software, a provider of enterprise-class software solutions for server virtualization and virtual infrastructure management, today announced that EqualLogic’s PS Series storage arrays are now certified for use with Virtual Iron virtualization and management software…

Microsoft published the definitive agenda for imminent Management Summit (MMS) 2007, taking place in San Diego March 26-30.

It contains a whole track about virtualization with several introductory sessions, mostly focused on SoftGrid and System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM).

Latter product may be the key of this year’s edition, with the announcement of beta 2.

Register for MMS2007 here.

Just 2 weeks before the start of TSX 2007, VMware finally publishes the agenda which includes several interesting sessions for who didn’t attend VMworld 2006 in Los Angeles:

• Introducing ACE 2
• Workstation 6 Technology Update
• VMware Lab Manager Technical Background
• Introduction to VMware Fusion – Virtualization on Macs
• VMware Capacity Planner
• VMware Consolidated Backup: Today and Tomorrow
• Architectural Directions for Virtual Infrastructure

anyway the most interesting session will probably be What should be VMware’s next big thing?, where VMware will unveil results of a poll conducted among customers, to understand what they are looking for in near future.

Check all other sessions here.

Despite such delay in sessions announcement, which obliged attendees to blindly register the event, this year edition records a huge success with over 1,000 attendees expected.

virtualization.info will be there and I’d be happy to meet as many readers as possible, as well as VMware employees, customers, partners, researchers and analysts. So be sure to stop by and say hello!

If you are in late and still have to register do it here.

The most famous liveCD Linux distribution, Knoppix, embraced virtualization completely with its 5.2 version.

The new release in fact sports all open source virtualization packages, including Xen, OpenVZ, QEMU (with KQEMU accelerator), VServer, and UML, up to most recent solutions KVM and Virtual Box.

This almost complete set (VMware Server/Player for Linux are the only missing since they are not redistributable), along with easiness of liveCD approach, makes Knoppix probably the best solution to approach virtualization for newcomers.

Unfortunately Knoppix 5.2 has been presented and distributed at CeBIT 2007 on physical support only. Who didn’t attend the event will have to wait April to download the DVD/CD ISO, free of charge as usual.

Take a look at the remarkable features list here.

Techworld published a brief review of VirtualCenter 1.4, last version of 1.x branch VMware is offering as management solution for its free vitualization platform, providing following conclusion:

…

Indeed it’s worth pointing out that, apart from centralised management, VirtualCenter adds very little in the way of extra functionality on top of what comes as standard in VMware Server itself. The only exception is the ability to monitor virtual machine activity and set alarms when, for example, a VM hangs or CPU/memory usage exceeds pre-set limits. There are also tasks you can’t perform from the VirtualCenter, such as take VM snapshots, which mean you can’t throw away the individual server console altogether.

Given its limitations and cost, VirtualCenter for VMware Server is far from an obvious purchase. Its main advantage is clearly the convenience of being able to manage a distributed virtual infrastructure from a single console, but you do need a critical mass of servers to make that worth having….

Read the whole review at source.

Quoting from the Novell official announcement:

…

With the latest update to the Xen* hypervisor (version 3.0.4++), organizations can reduce costs through server consolidation and improved system management. New paravirtualized network and block device drivers will allow Microsoft* Windows* Server 2000/2003/XP to run unmodified in Xen virtual environments on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 operating on Intel* Virtualization.

Seamless live migration is possible for paravirtualized virtual machines across distinct physical hosts.

…

SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 SP1 has many new features designed to support the workgroup services in Open Enterprise Server 2, including updates to the DNS, DHCP and LDAP modules, as well as support for paravirtualized NetWare 6.5.

Novell plans to release this service pack for May 2007.

Quoting from Security Focus:

Xen is prone to an unspecified vulnerability that lets attackers obtain arbitrary information. The issue stems from a flaw in the VNC server code in QEMU.

An attacker can exploit this issue to access sensitive information that may aid in further attacks.

Currently reported affected systems are:

• RedHat Fedora Core6
• RedHat Fedora Core5
• RedHat Enterprise Linux Virtualization 5 server
• RedHat Enterprise Linux Desktop Multi OS 5 client
• RedHat Enterprise Linux Desktop 5 client
• RedHat Enterprise Linux 5 server

Read the whole bulletin here.

It’s a sort of ironic that Red Hat, who had so much to say about Novell/Xen enterprise readiness, is exposing such Xen flaw just less than a week after its major OS release.

Quoting from the Thinstall official announcement:

Thinstall, the leading Application Virtualization solution provider, today announced its Distribution Partner Program, naming Centia as European Distribution Partner, and Lifeboat Distribution, a subsidiary of Wayside Technology Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: WSTG), as its North American Distribution Partner. The company also launched the Thinstall Certified Partner (TCP) program to give its distributor’s network of software resellers, VARs and system integrators the power of Thinstall’s certification to help corporate IT customers jump-start their virtualization programs…

Microsoft published a preliminary agenda for upcoming edition of TechEd US, taking place in Orlando in July 4-8.

Virtualization only takes a very short space, with mere 10 sessions on over 400. Half of them are interesting:

• High Availability for Physical and Virtual Environments with Windows Server Codename “Longhorn”
• Microsoft SoftGrid and Microsoft Systems Management Server 2003/System Center Configuration Manager: Better Together
• Running Paravirtualized Linux Guests with Microsoft Windows Virtualization
• Virtualization 360: Microsoft’s Vision and Strategy for Virtualization
• Virtualization Head-to-Head: Debunking Market Myths and Misperceptions

Register for the event here.