virtualization.info Editors

As fast as wind VMware released a minor update for its most popular product, Workstation, mainly to revamp experimental support for Windows Vista, now available as RTM for MSDN subscribers.

The new release (build 34685) also introduces support for several other host and guest OSes:

Host OSes

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.0, Update 4 (AS, ES, WS), 32-bit and 64-bit
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3.0, Update 8 (AS, ES, WS), 32-bit and 64-bit
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.0, 32-bit and 64-bit (experimental)
• Mandriva Corporate Server 4, 32-bit and 64-bit
• Mandriva Linux 2007, 32-bit and 64-bit (experimental)
• Ubuntu Linux 6.10, 32-bit and 64-bit (experimental)

Guest OSes

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.0, Update 4 (AS, ES, WS), 32-bit and 64-bit
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3.0, Update 8 (AS, ES, WS), 32-bit and 64-bit
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.0, 32-bit and 64-bit (experimental)
• Mandriva Corporate Server 4, 32-bit and 64-bit
• Mandriva Linux 2007, 32-bit and 64-bit (experimental)
• Ubuntu Linux 6.10, 32-bit and 64-bit (experimental)
• Solaris x86 10 6/06 (Update 2), 32-bit and 64-bit (experimental)

Download it here.

Official support for Vista is expected with the release of Workstation 6, planned for early 2007.

Quoting from the Virtual Iron official announcement:

Virtual Iron Software (www.virtualiron.com), a provider of enterprise-class software solutions for creating and managing virtual infrastructure, today reaffirmed its support for advancements in multi-core technology at Intel?s Quad-Core Software Symposium.
…
Virtual Iron is among the very first virtualization software solution providers to commercially support the new Quad-Core Intel Xeon processor 5300 series.
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Virtual Iron?s comprehensive virtualization and management solution is very complementary to multi-core processing and enables end?users to fully exploit the power of quad-core technology. For example, Virtual Iron provides up to 96 gigabytes of memory per virtual server as well as the ability to do symmetric multi-processing where users can take advantage of up to eight CPUs in a single virtual machine, delivering the industry?s leading performance in a virtualized environment…

SWsoft released a Service Pack 1 for both Virtuozzo 3.5.1 for Windows and 3.0 for Linux.

The update introduces several features:

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.0 Kernel Support
  Virtuozzo supports Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.0 kernel, based on the 2.6.9 mainstream Linux kernel. This release provides a higher level of stability and security and increases the range of the compatible hardware and software
• Ethernet Layer Network Adapter Support
  Virtual environments now may use an Ethernet (packet switching based) network adapter, bridged to a selected physical network card. Virtual environments may run any Ethernet dependant application or service, including network load-balancing applications
• VLAN Support
  This release supports VE network adapters bridging with VLAN adapters. Virtuozzo administrators can create virtual networking infrastructure meeting strict security requirements with complete network traffic isolation
• Virtual CPU Management
  System administrators may assign any required number of Virtual CPUs up to the number of physical CPUs available

Service Pack 1 is available now for Virtuozzo 3.0 for Linux, while is expected within 1 month for its counterpart on Windows. Download trial here.

virtualization.info extensively covered Virtuozzo in its review of SWsoft Virtuozzo for Windows 3.5.1.

After introducing the feature in April for unstable branch, OpenVZ team now releases it for kernel 2.6.9 stable.

Quoting from the OpenVZ official announcement:

The OpenVZ project (http://openvz.org) today announced availability of its operating system-level server virtualization software in the form of a kernel based on Linux 2.6.9, including for the first-time in a stable branch, fully-tested and performance-tuned live migration and Virtual Ethernet device features.
…
With checkpointing and live migration, the state of a running virtual environment is frozen and the image stored on disk then restored on another server. The function executes between any two servers on a network, so the capability works for any server and any application. OpenVZ delivers this capability without additional requirements, such as a storage area network (SAN).

Also, the Virtual Ethernet device function allows for network devices to be created inside virtual environments using designated names and hardware (MAC) addresses that are different from the actual physical device…

Download new kernel patches here.

Quoting from ITPro:

…
The survey of 100 IT directors by research company Vanson Bourne found these figures were even higher within financial services organisations with 81 per cent saying they were not using virtualisation technology throughout the business because of the perceived risks involved.
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Others cited concern that virtualisation would cause a degradation in application performance (57 per cent) or that the technology would be too expensive (31 per cent). Almost one third (29 per cent) said they feared that managing a virtualised environment would be too complex. The fear of downtime was the biggest worry for IT directors in the manufacturing (80 per cent) and financial services (71 per cent) sectors…

Read the whole article at source.

virtualization.info will soon publish results of its 1st Virtualization Industry Survey, trying to provide a better picture of ongoing trends and market status. Stay tuned.

HowtoForge posted a useful 3-parts guide on how to install and use Xen-Tools on a Debian system where Xen 3.0.3 is installed:

This guide describes how to install and use xen-tools, xen-shell, and Argo on a Debian system. All three packages provide useful tools for the administration of virtual Xen machines.

Xen-tools is a collection of Perl scripts that allow you to easily create, update, and delete Xen guest domains.

The xen-shell provides a command-line interface to owners of Xen domains so that they can manage their Xen domains without the help of the server administrator.

And with Argo, you can control Xen domains through a web interface or through a menu on the command line. All three packages were developed for Debian systems, but might work on other distributions as well….

Read the whole guide at source.

Richard Garsthagen, Technical Marketing Manager at VMware, posted some interesting articles about the new VMware Infrastructure 3 Perl Toolkit, disclosed in September, the company is developing:

• Code: report virtual machines free space inside the VirtualCenter client
• Code: report physical CPUs features for VMotion migrations
• Webcast: The VI Object Model

VMware released a security bulletin about a security vulnerability affecting its flagship product: ESX Server:

The instructions fxsave and fxrstor on AMD CPUs are used to save or restore the FPU registers (FOP, FIP and FDP). On AMD Opteron Processors, these instructions do not save/restore some exception related registers unless an exception is currently being serviced. This can lead to a security hole that allows local attackers to monitor the execution path of FPU processes, possibly allowing them to obtain sensitive information being passed through those processes.

This vulnerability exists for all AMD Athlon, Duron, Athlon MP, Athlon XP, Athlon64, Athlon64 FX, Opteron, Turion, and Sempron processors but the AMD Opteron processors are the only AMD processors supported with ESX Server.

It only affects version 3.0.0 and patch ESX-2533126 has already been issues.

Check details for patching procedure here.

The vulnerability is actually related with a Linux kernel bug prior to 2.6.16.9. More details are available here.

Secunia reported a security advisory about file permissions issue with Parallels Desktop:

The security issue is caused due to /Library/StartupItems/Parallels/prl_dhcpd creating the file “/Library/Parallels/.dhcpd_configuration” with insecure file permissions (set to 666).

The security issue is reported in Parallels Desktop for Mac Build 1940. Other versions may also be affected.

No patch is available at the moment of writing. Check the advisor for updates at source.

Microsoft Windows Vista finally made its way to MSDN subscriptions (and warez circuits…) and within a couple of months the whole world will be able to access it.

A virtual machine is the very first place where to try a new operating system, even if in this case virtualization products (VMware, Microsoft, Parallels) will not be able to show you the new graphic interface Aero.

At the moment of writing none of existing platforms is supporting Vista as host or guest OS, but current beta versions (Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 and VMware Workstation 6.0) do the trick.
A Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 public beta is available now, while for one of VMware Workstation 6.0 you’ll have to wait December. Parallels Workstation is expected as well to support Vista very soon.

While waiting for these updates, Jason Brooks of eWeek Labs, posted a nice suggestion to install Vista RTM on VMware Server 1.0.1 starting from the ISO.
Read it here.