Virtual machines, containers, functions. Market knowledge for IT decision makers since 2003
virtualization.info Editors As expected today VMware just announced Workstation 5.5
virtualization.info readers already know everything and probably downloaded it since 24th November 🙂
The bad surprise here is that VMware Player still stays at beta 2 (I thought VMware posticipated the release announcement to have enough time to complete Player 1.0 testing).
As you probably know virtualization.info relies on Google Blogger engine. Blogger is great and becoming better and better every day but has a missing killer feature: post categories.
I know even with search feature it’s very difficult to find articles about a certain topic so I implemented a new Tag Cloud feature: simply take a look at it and discover top 20 keywords on virtualization.info, linked to as many articles as possible about that subject.
I hope this can improve your experience (at least till Google won’t provide post categories or native tagging).
Enjoy your stay!
On September SWsoft released its virtualization products, Virtuozzo for Linux, introducing support to 64bit partitions (they call them Virtual Private Servers or VPS).
Now SWsoft introduces 64bit even on Windows with the release of Virtuozzo 3.5 for Windows.
64 bits support isn’t the only new feature Virtuozzo for Windows is now offering:
Read the whole SWsoft official announcement.
Just few weeks ago Microsoft released Virtual Server 2005 R2 introducing two killer features: a really aggressive pricing and host OS high availability.
The last one is particularly interesting and a definitely most wanted feature even by VMware customers.
VMware products could benefit the host OS high availability soon: EMC Corporation (controlling VMware since 2004) in August 2005 acquired a well-known firm for clustering solutions, Rainfinity.
EMC declared the acquisition is moved mainly because of the Rainfinity Network File Virtualization technology but the acquired company is famous in the IT security market mainly for two producs: RainWall and RainConnect.
Both tecnologies are aimed to provide host and application clustering and network fault tolerance to famous, commercial firewall products as Check Point VPN-1 and Microsoft ISA Server.
At this point EMC could use all Rainfinity know-how (hot backup, host and application clustering, network fault tolerance) to instill a very powerful high-availability technology inside upcoming VMware servers products.
I’m happy to annonce the first virtualization.info HowTo: Install Sun Solaris 10 inside VMware Workstation 5.5.
This is a very step-by-step guide (with screenshots) for configuring a virtual machine and installing on it Sun Solaris 10.
At the end you’ll be able to run the virtual machine inside Workstation 5.5 or inside VMware Player 1.0, which is a free virtualization product. And soon with VMware Server 1.0.
Download it here.
As NetBSD 3.0 is approaching (RC1 is just released) people start working harder on Xen integration.
NetBSD.org published a nice How-To for using NetBSD 3.0 current as domain0 of a Xen 2.0 environment:
http://www.netbsd.org/Ports/xen/howto.html
As I already reported Red Hat started to embed Xen 3.0 on Fedora Core 5, but the company plans to integrate the virtualization software also in upcoming Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL).
Quoting from NewsForge:
…Crenshaw said the “three pillars” of Red Hat’s vision were virtualization, stateless Linux, and encouraging developers to continue working on cutting-edge software through the Fedora Project. According to Crenshaw, the company has been working with users and client companies to determine where their greatest costs and difficulties lie. Most often, these issues have to do with network maintenance and optimal hardware usage, and Crenshaw said that Red Hat has solutions in mind for these problems.
The Xen virtualization software has been shipping as part of the Fedora Core for some time to allow customers to use, test, and further enhance it to work with RHEL. Having seen a need for virtualization that is “tightly integrated” with the operating system, Crenshaw said the company has “invested quite heavily in helping to add resources to the Xen community, as well as the Linux community, to bring it to market faster.”
“Xen is being integrated into Fedora and subsequently Red Hat Enterprise Linux as the virtualization capabilities will allow higher utilization across compute grids, as well as operational properties which are more agile and scalable,” Stevens said.
Crenshaw said the drive toward virtualization has been further invigorated by data that shows the average server uses between 15% and 25% of its CPU capacity. Virtualization, on the other hand, could improve that to 80% or more, “so you can get more productivity from less hardware,” he said, adding that “it comes down to more productivity at less cost. [You can] take advantage of faster, better, cheaper hardware more quickly and without extensive qualification cycles because the software is qualified to the virtual machine rather than the hardware.”
Where cost really drops, Crenshaw said, is when a virtualized network improves service levels to the point that peak loads, outages, and downtime can all be handled without affecting users. The level of hardware isolation he said this provides, allowing companies to spend less time and money on requalifying application stacks on new hardware, is also in line with the stateless Linux push…
Read the whole article at source.
VMware organized a couple of Partner Days in Italy, in Milan and Rome, to present new strategies and new sales tools (like the revamped part of the official site for the whole Channel, now dubbed Partner Central).
I’ll be present at the Partner Day in Rome, 29th November (the announcement day for Workstation 5.5).
Quoting from DevX:
If there’s one word in IT that’s stuck around for decades, it’s “virtual.”
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Why now? Why is Intel making such a fuss about virtualization and its new VT-x and LaGrande technologies? Why should we care?
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VT-x, and a variety of other hardware technologies, are what’s behind Intel’s LaGrande initiative.
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Intel’s LaGrande is part of Intel’s Safer Computing Initiative, which enhances various chips within a desktop, notebook or server to boost security. It comprises several components. One part includes improvements to the microprocessor, including execution protection and the VT-x instructions for virtualization. Another is a sealed storage subsystem, which uses embedded encryption to foil attackers; if the VMM is the only part of a system that has the key, this would stymie any attempt to bypass the VMM by a guest operating system or malware.There are other aspects to LT as well, included controlled access to the keyboard, mouse and video subsystem; this is vital when you have multiple guest operating systems running on a desktop or notebook PC, and where they must be completely isolated from each other, while still sharing the same display and I/O devices. Another important element is memory protection, which controls how direct memory access (DMA) can read or modify specific memory pages.
The LaGrande technology is a work in progress; some parts of it, such as VT-x, are farther along, while others are still under development. Intel’s working on a two-three year timeframe for creating the whole set of LaGrande enhancements. From the perspective of trusted virtualization, however, the technology is imminent. So, when you think about system security, think about virtualization; and when you think about virtualization, realize that there’s more to it than simply saving money and electricity through hardware consolidation. Virtualization, to coin a phrase, is the Real Thing.
Read the whole article at source.
Quoting from Architosh:
Intel has launched this week the beginnings of its future line of processors that will support “virtualization”. These new chips are known as Intel Pentium 4’s 672 and 662. Essentially virtualization technology (or VT) enables a processor to run multiple operating systems or applications in independent partitions, or what is often called “containers”, on the same chip. This type of technology has been around for years on big iron servers from Sun Microsystems and IBM, for example. Intel is not creating anything new in that regard.
However, what is new is this type of technology inside of a typical personal computer. And this begs the question: was this part of the consideration in Apple choosing Intel?
Today Apple has mastered the art of moving from one computer user’s space to another with its graphic cube effect. This is commonly known as Fast User Switching and is a system preference in Mac OS X. This feature, unique in OS X, allows a truly graceful way in which multiple users can utilize one shared computer, and Apple’s Expose technology is at the heart of this interface transformation.
But imagine a world wherein you can cube the cube? Imagine that each user account can have multiple instances of operating systems (perhaps OS X and Windows, or Linux and OS X) running simultaneously. From the Apple menu a user would select an OS environment and an Expose cubic switch would literally swing around a different OS environment, just like today’s Fast User Switching.
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An interesting fact about VT in Intel’s chips is that data inside a given partition can be completely erased after use. Information such as banking data, personal identification, codes, et cetera, can all be deleted after a given session. This may tie in to what Apple would like to do with video via it’s iTunes Music Store. Critical code attached to a downloaded movie or television show may sit in a separate partition that is erased after the movie or TV show is played one time, thereby ensuring that customers get what they pay for and no more. And also ensuring that hackers don’t try to reproduce video content…
Read the whole article at source.