virtualization.info Editors

Anthony Liguori is confident we’ll have Xen 3.0.2 sometimes this week:

I dropped my latest (and hopefully final) version of the XML-RPC enablement for Xend this afternoon. The XML-RPC support is one of the last features to be merged before the 3.0.2 release so I expect we’ll see 3.0.2 go out sometime this week.

I’m quite happy that we’re actually keeping to our 4-8 week release cycle. Unfortunately, we’re probably going to slip a tiny regression into the 3.0.2 release. Last week, I noticed that our block-attach code is failing…

Read the whole post at source.

Quoting from the PlateSpin official announcement:

PlateSpin Ltd. today announced the general availability of its next generation data center analysis and optimization solution.
…
PlateSpin PowerRecon 2.0 remotely collects a wealth of relevant hardware inventory data, resource utilization and workload statistics that create the foundation for one-time consolidation or continuous server optimization projects. It allows users to remotely identify what resources exist in the data center and presents a complete hardware, software and services inventory with absolutely no manual effort or disruptive agent technology required. When used in conjunction with PlateSpin PowerConvert, data center users and consultants can identify consolidation candidates, and perform fully automated migrations from a single product suite.

PowerRecon 2.0 features:

• identify under-utilized and over-utilized servers quickly and easily
• generate time-based graphs which include individual or combined server workload, allowing users to consolidate servers that have staggered workload characteristics
• visualize host and virtual machine hierarchies for Microsoft and VMware virtual platforms
• completely agentless architecture eliminates the need for software to be installed on any data center servers
• measure and analyze over 1,000 servers with minimal impact on network traffic
• completely new graphical interface provides users with highly effective visualization of workloads and resources
• customizable resource and workload reports for speedy capacity planning analysis

…
PlateSpin PowerRecon 2.0 is generally available today through our global partner network and is packaged on a per-use and on a per-server basis to offer our customers and service provider partners licenses that best fit their needs. Per-use pricing starts from $1 per day for each individual server. PlateSpin is also offering perpetual PowerRecon licenses and specially priced bundles when purchased together with PlateSpin PowerConvert.

Ben Armstrong explains once and forever issues with Windows Network Load Balancing (NLB) and Microsoft Virtual Server 2005:

…Virtual Server / Virtual PC will not utilize any NLB capabilities on the host operating system. This is because Virtual Server / Virtual PC perform their network operations at a lower layer on the host network stack than NLB. Note – Virtual Server and Virtual PC will function correctly when NLB is present on the host – they will just not benefit from it.

Virtual Server / Virtual PC have some network optimizations that actually cause problems when running NLB systems inside of virtual machines. These optimizations are simply that if we see a network packet that is going from the host to a virtual machine, or from a virtual machine to another virtual machine, we will send the packet directly to that virtual machine – without sending a copy of it on to the physical network connection. Similarly if we see a network packet coming into the physical computer that is destined for the host operating system – we will not send it on to any of the virtual machines…

Read the whole article at source.

CIO reports OpenVZ is going to release on Thursday a kernel patch for SuSE Linux Enterprise 10.

Take care to monitor the OpenVZ official blog (or read this blog) to know details.

Quoting from BetaNews:

Sun will finally launch its much-hyped yet much-delayed public version of its Grid product later this week, its president said. Users in the United States would be able to purchase processing cycles at the rate of $1 USD per hour each on their choice of AMD Opteron or Sun UltraSPARC processors.

The company would initially be making 5,000 CPUs available for use, with plans to increase that number as necessary. Users would be able to access the grid from the Internet at Network.com. Payment for use would be accepted through PayPal…

Read the whole article at source.

Read more from the Sun President, Jonathan Schwartz, blog.

Quoting from CRN:

Novell will include its “Beagle” search engine and virtualized server and storage features in SUSE Linux Enterprise 11, one Novell executive said.

As it officially launched SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 at Brainshare 2006 Monday, Novell vice president Holger Dyroff gave an overview of features planned for SLES 11, expected to ship in mid-2008.

For instance, SLES 11 will offer virtualization for servers and storage, enhanced security via support for AppArmor’s profile management and CIM, a compiler and run-time, and identity management and provisoning, Dyroff added…

Read the whole article at source.

For that time Microsoft could be (quite) ready to resease its Windows Hypervisor (codename Viridian) as add-on for codename Longhorn Server. So Novel should use these 2 years in the best way to offer a consistent Xen management infrastructure.

Quoting from the Bull official announcement:

Bull today announces the NovaScale® 5005 series, representing the second generation of large NovaScale servers.
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“The NovaScale 5005 servers, announced three years after the first generation, are a proof of Bull’s innovation capabilities. This announcement is in line with Bull’s positioning as an Architect of an Open World. Running present and future generations of Intel® Itanium® 2 processors, they are naturally at the heart of the most complex IT infrastructures, both in the Linux and Windows open environments”
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The combination of physical partitioning and virtualisation software makes the NovaScale® servers uniquely flexible to use and enables users to fully optimise the resources installed:

• The very thin partitioning of the NovaScale 5005® servers – a minimum of 4 sockets per partition, compared to 8 with the previous series – makes it possible to partition a large server into two to eight servers within a few minutes. Each server being able to run a different application environment. On the other hand, multiple servers can be united into a single server to face an increased need in power for a given environment.
• Bull also announces the availability of the SWsoft’s Virtuozzo solution for the Linux environments on the new NovaScale servers. The Virtuozzo virtualisation solution operates at the Linux operating system level to generate multiple private virtual servers, on a single physical server or on a physical partition…

Thanks to Virtuozzo Blog for the news.

Acronis has just launched TrueImage 9.1 Workstation, Server and Enterprise.

This new version features the new Acronis Universal Restore option, able to restore a saved computer image on a different hardware (included a virtual machine), modifying on the fly the HAL and other drivers needed by your operating system:

1. Boot into our recovery environment
2. Select the image to restore and the replacement system
3. Acronis Universal Restore initiates the restore process
4. Acronis Universal Restore detects the hardware and installs drivers
• The product detects the machine type and installs appropriate drivers for Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL)
• The product detects hard disk controllers (SCSI and IDE)
• The product prompts you for driver locations
5. The machine reboots and Acronis Universal Restore begins mini-setup to load drivers into the Operating System.

Quoting from the HP official announcement:

HP has enhanced its HP Integrity server line and HP-UX 11i operating environment with significant capacity, virtualization and management upgrades.

The enhancements offer customers greater server capacity as well as faster deployment of enterprise software within an HP Virtual Server Environment (VSE) running on the HP-UX 11i operating system – some virtualization projects can be brought online in less than half the time.
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The next-generation chipset for Integrity servers delivers significant enhancements to performance and availability. The chipset enables customers to get 30 percent more work done across multiple workloads, while using the same number of Intel Itanium 2 processors. Featured and available today in the cell-based HP Integrity rx7640, rx8640 and Superdome servers, the chipset delivers single system availability features to improve memory availability, interconnectivity and fault tolerance…

Directly from BriForum 2005, the Brian Madden conference, here the Timothy Mangan session about performance measurement comparison of a Terminal Server in a real and a virtual infrastructure.

The session is really interesting. Download video, audio or PowerPoint slides here.

Timothy has also a related whitepaper on this topic available here.