Virtual machines, containers, functions. Market knowledge for IT decision makers since 2003
Oracle has released version 4.3.2. of its virtualization platform VM VirtualBox. Version 4.3.2. can be installed on top of version 4.3 which was released in October this year.
Version 4.3.2. is considered a maintenance release and provides fixes and added functionality as described in the changelog.
The Xen Project, the community which develops the Xen hypervisor under the GNU General Public License (GPLv2) and which is now transferred from Citrix to the Linux Foundation, today announced the release of version 4.3.1 of the Xen hypervisor. This so called Point release is the follow up of version 4.3 which was released in July this year.
Besides fixing some vulnerabilities, this release also introduces around 80 bug fixes and improvements, like adjustments to XSAVE management and bug fixes for nested virtualization, other low level system state handling and libxl tool stack.
VMware released VMware vCenter Server 5.5.0a. This is a minor maintenance update to vCenter Server 5.5 without having new features.
It solves for example a couple of single sign-on issues. Other issues resolved are related to upgrades from vCenter Server 5.1 to 5.5 and related to connection issues using the vSphere Web client.
Issues resolved with this release are as follows
The document contains a list of guidelines focused on improving the security of vSphere 5.5 components and covers the following elements:
Microsoft has published a paper titled: “App-V 5.0 and Citrix Integration“. The paper which contains 28 pages provides guidance for combining App-V 5.0 and Citrix solutions. It discusses the benefits of App-V 5.0 and Citrix, recommendations for Citrix images, App-V cache management, App-V management with Citrix, factors that impact user experience and administrative effort, and the Citrix XenApp Connector for Configuration Manger 2012 SP1.
IBM and VMware released a Reference Architecture titled: "IBM SmartCloud Desktop Infrastructure with VMware View". The paper, which contains 52 pages and describes the reference architecture for using VMware View 5.1 on the ESXi 5 hypervisor. It
gives an architecture overview and component model of the VMware View and then describes the deployment model of VMware View using different number of users on a variety of IBM® hardware platforms including IBM Flex System, IBM PureFlex System, IBM System x, IBM networking, and IBM storage.
Citrix and IBM have released a Reference Architecture called: "IBM SmartCloud Desktop Infrastructure with Citrix XenDesktop". The paper, which contains 56 pages describes a reference architecture for running Citrix XenDesktop 7 running on top of the IBM SmartCloud Desktop Infrastructure. It provides an architecture overview and component model of the Citrix XenDesktop and then describes the deployment model of Citrix XenDesktop using different numbers of users on a variety of IBM hardware platforms including IBM Flex System, IBM PureFlex System, IBM System x, IBM networking, and IBM storage.
PQR has released a paper titled:”Guidelines for local storage in VDI environments“. The paper written by Hugo Peter, Peter Sterk and Herco van Brug contains 29 pages and can be downloaded for free from the PQR website after registration. The goal of the paper is to provide a better insight into the key figures for resources that are applicable to design of a VDI solution. It describes sizing guidelines and the impact of the use of local storage for VDI.
Beginning this month 5Nine Software released version 3.6 of its Manager for Hyper-V, and now 5nine Software released version 3.7 of its management tool for the Microsoft Hyper-V hypervisor.
Version 3.7 provides the following new features:
5Nine also provides a free version of the Manager for Hyper-V with reduced functionality compared to the paid version which costs $149 per physical host per year.
Microsoft today announced the launch of a new effort with the goal to educate current VMware administrator to use the Hyper-V and the System Center tooling that comes with it. The effort which is called Virtualization2 (Virtualization squared) offers a free online training on the 19th and 20th of November and a voucher to take a free Microsoft virtualization certification exam (70-409) afterwards, which must be taken before June 30, 2014.
Microsoft states on the website that there are substantial career benefits for virtualization professionals who are comfortable with both Microsoft and VMware platforms referencing to research done by ESG called “Multiple Hypervisor Strategies“. Of course it must be noted that it is in Microsoft’s best interest to mention this.
Microsoft currently also offers a free training called “Microsoft Virtualization for VMware Professionals Jump Start” on their Microsoft Virtual Academy website.