virtualization.info Editors

The Server Blade Summit, reached the 5th anniversary, is starting to seriously attract virtualization vendors.

It’s pretty relevant that this year will be present:

• Cassatt
• PlateSpin
• Virtual Iron
• VMware
• XenSource

Virtual Iron Founder and CTO, Alex Vasilevsky, will speak on the event.

Kevin Gehrke, Senior Technical Support Engineer at VMware, posted an unsupported (but working) method for importing virtual machines created with VMware Server beta inside an ESX Server 2.x:

First remove snapshots and make a backup of the virtual machine.

A unsupported option is to use vmware-vdiskmanager to convert your virtual disk into a type 1 (growable split into 2Gb file) or type 2 (Single pre-allocated) or type 3 (Pre-allocated split into 2Gb files)
Type 1,2 & 3 have a text file for the first .vmdk file, which is a disk descriptor file. You can edit the .vmdk file and change.

ddb.virtualHW = 4

to

ddb.virtualHW = 3

Note: Type 0 virtual disk would require you to use a hex editor.

You will need to use the virtual hardware wizard to remove your original virtual disk and add the one you converted.

Now edit the .vmx file and change the following from

config.version = “8”
virtualHW.version = “4”

To

config.version = “7”
virtualHW.version = “3”

Be sure to read the original post for comments and updates.

Quoting from the OpenVZ blog:

We have just pushed the kernel checkpointing stuff to git.openvz.org.
…
It’s a huge pile of code that lets you checkpoint your virtual environments — in the same way you do “suspend to disk” or “hibernation” on your laptop. This is cool, but what’s the use of it for VE? Here it is: you can actually restore (“wake up”) a VE on a different machine! The process is called live migration; newer vzctl will have a tool called vzmigrate for that…

Read the whole article at source.

David Wang published a great script for achieving following requested tasks:

• start / restore from saved state if machine is not running (preferably disconnected from network in order to preserve resources)
• run on the guest the VHD maintenance utility (manually done by mounting the ISO from the virtual server directory and pressing next on the guest)
• save state / ( shut down only if necessary for next stage)
• compact the VHD

Be sure to read the original post for comments and updates.

Hi everybody!

I finally achieved to attend VMware TSX 2006 conference in Paris (courtesy of VMware, and huge help from Vizioncore) and I sincerely hope to meet you there during the event.

I’ll be in Disneyland since 26th morning and will leave 29th morning (reserved at Séquoia Lodge since New York Hotel was already full).

If you see me walkin’around feel free to shout hey you, blogging boy!!

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A big missing point in the Microsoft virtualization strategy is the enterprise management capability.
At today there is a MOM 2005 Management Pack to handle some tasks, but there isn’t a product created for specific virtualization needs (like rationalized provisioning).

Now CRN reports Microsoft is working on a new product called Virtual Server Manager (codename Carmine):

Microsoft is preparing a Virtual Server Manager code-named Carmine that will enable users to add, move and manage virtual machines on its virtualization platform.

The product, currently called Microsoft Virtual Server Manager, will allow broad support for administration via “Monad,” Microsoft’s next-generation scripting platform for Window Longhorn Server and Exchange 12, according to Microsoft’s Web site.

Other sources in the partner community familar with Carmine said it willl contain some of the basic features of VMware’s management capabilities in VirtualCenter, but it won’t be as sophisticated.
…
Microsoft Virtual Server Manager will allow users and partners to add, remove, drag and drop, and patch a virtual machine without “too much” downtime, he added…

Read the whole article at source.

At this time it’s not clear if codename Carmine will be able to manage just Windows Hypervisor (codename Viridian) platforms or also Virtual Server 2005 R2 installations.

OpenVZ, the SWsoft Virtuozzo open source subset, already adopts GPL for its kernel part.

Now also the user-level tools vzctl, vzquota and vzpkg dropped QPL license and adopted GPL.

Read the official announcement.

KernelTrap interviewed Andrey Savochkin, devepment lead of the kernel portion of OpenVZ, the open source subset of SWsoft Virtuozzo, a OS partitioning platform:

…
KT: Is there any plan to try and get OpenVZ merged into the mainline Linux kernel?

AS: Yes, we’d like to get it merged into the mainstream Linux and are working in that direction. Virtualization makes the next step in the direction of better utilization of hardware and better management, the step that is comparable with the step between single-user and multi-user systems. Virtualization will become more demanded with the growth of hardware capabilities, such as multi-core systems that are currently in the Intel roadmap. So, I believe that when OpenVZ is merged into the mainstream, Linux will instantly become more attractive and more convenient in many usage scenarios. That’s why I think OpenVZ project is so interesting project, and that’s why I’ve invested so much of my time into it.

KT: How large are the changes required in the Linux kernel to support OpenVZ? Can they be broken into small logical pieces?

AS: The current size of the OpenVZ kernel patch is about 2MB (70,000 lines). This size is not small, but it is less than 10% of the average size of the changes between minor versions in 2.6 kernel branch (e.g., 2.6.12 to 2.6.13). OpenVZ patch split into major parts is presented here. OpenVZ code can also be viewed and downloaded from GIT repository at http://git.openvz.org/. One of the large parts (about 25%) is various stability fixes, which we are submitting to the mainstream. Then comes virtualization itself, general management of resources, CPU scheduler, and so on.

KT: What efforts have been made so far to try and get OpenVZ merged into the kernel?

AS: OpenVZ patch was split into smaller pieces, easier for us to explain and for the community to accept. Then, in the last couple of months, some virtualization pieces have been send to the linux-kernel mailing list and actively discussed there.

The biggest argument was whether we want “partial” virtualization, when VPSs can have, for example, isolated network but common filesystem space. In my personal opinion, in some perfect world such partial virtualization would be ok. But in real life, subsystems of Linux kernel have a lot of dependencies on each other: every subsystem interacts with proc filesystem, for example. Virtualization is cheap, so its easier to to have complete isolation, both from the implementation point of view and then for use and management of VPSs by users.

The process of submitting OpenVZ patches into the mainstream keeps going. Also, we are working with SuSE, RedHat (RHEL and Fedora Core), Xandros, and Mandriva to include OpenVZ in their distributions and make it available and well supported for maximum number of users…

Read the whole interview at source.

Quoting from Enterprise Network & Servers:

…
Driven by the compelling value proposition, a number of IT organizations have started pilot implementations of virtualization technology in an attempt to realize higher infrastructure ROI. Virtualization is still an emerging technology and the industry has not yet reached a level of maturity, with deep experience in the system, processes and tools, to tackle the challenges of managing wide-scale virtual infrastructures. As a result, some organizations are hesitant to move from pilot to the production stage because of a lack of technical expertise and process maturity, inadequate integration of virtual infrastructure management with standard operating processes, poor visibility and inconsistent performance monitoring practices. Virtualization represents an organizational and operational paradigm shift where IT administration is required to deal with near real-time changes in the infrastructure driven by application demands and powered by the fluidity of virtualized platform. IT administration, accustomed to managing the more static “physical” infrastructure, can perceive the dynamic nature of virtualization technology as a source of uncertainty.

To date, the challenge of managing virtualized infrastructure has been to cost-effectively meet application service level objectives (SLOs) in an environment where an increasing number of business-critical applications are competing for the shared infrastructure. A service-centric performance management solution can tackle a number of these challenges to help facilitate this transition from pilot to production stage. The key service-centric capabilities include: Performance Management, Automation, Capacity Planning, Predictive Analysis and Change Management. These capabilities can be applied across the entire management lifecycle to realize the full potential of virtualization…

Read the whole article at source.