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The number of independent operating systems VMware Workstation currently can run is limited by how much memory a computer has, because each copy –called a virtual machine– needs as much memory as a regular standalone computer. VMware Workstation 5, however, will employ technology that lets the same memory be shared by similar virtual machines.

For example, a machine with 10 instances of Windows, each using 512MB, needs about 5GB of memory today, but typical tasks will let that be cut in half to about 2.5GB, said Michael Mullany, vice president of marketing at VMware. Under best-case circumstances, new virtual machines occupy only 8MB to 12MB, he added.

The new edition is due in the first half of 2005. Like predecessors, it runs only on computers using x86 chips such as Intel’s Pentium and Advanced Micro Devices’ Opteron.

The memory-sharing feature was first introduced in the company’s high-end product, ESX Server, about two years ago, said Srinivas Krishnamurti, the company’s workstation software product manager.

The EMC subsidiary’s basic virtualization technology has been available for years, but the company continues to refine it and add features as new competition arrives in the market. VMware faces competition chiefly from Microsoft, but also from SWsoft, Sun Microsystems and start-up VirtuOS Computing. But VMware is well entrenched in the industry through established partnerships with IBM, Dell, Hewlett-Packard and most recently Oracle.

Boosting memory efficiency is helpful for developers who might want to employ another new feature called Teams, Krishnamurti said. Teams makes it easier to use a single workstation for simulating a multiserver infrastructure–for example, one with a Web browser, a Web server, an application server and a back-end database server.

Teams lets a developer start and stop an entire collection of linked virtual machines, Krishnamurti said. They also can control factors such as boot order so foundational machines such as database servers start up before other modules. And networking links can be throttled to simulate low-speed dial-up connections.

Another feature coming with version 5 will be a better ability to save “snapshots” of the virtual machine, a useful technology for those who want to store a particular state before trying risky software. Currently, only one snapshot may be saved, but version 5 will allow any number, Krishnamurti said.

The new edition will include another tool called “V2V” that will make it possible to convert Microsoft virtual machines to VMware virtual machines.

VMware Workstation works with two categories of operating system: the hosts on which the software runs and the guests that can run as VMware virtual machines. Version 5 will add some new hosts, including SuSE Linux Professional 9.2, SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 9 and Mandrake Linux 10. It will come with experimental support for the beta version of Windows Server 2003 SP1 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.0, both due in 2005.

The software also will support 64-bit versions of host operating systems from SuSE, with experimental support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003.

The list of supported guest operating systems is the same as that for hosts, but also includes Sun’s Java Desktop System, VMware said. Sun’s version of Solaris for x86 chips isn’t on the list, though.

Dunes Virtual Service Orchestrator (Dunes® VS-O™) is a virtual service orchestration software solution for VMware VirtualCenter and Microsoft Virtual Server 2005. Dunes VS-O allows an enterprise to easily apply best practices and business policies. It provides an end-to-end IT service that automates business objectives to make the data center more efficient and adaptive to changing conditions.

Dunes VS-O is the first integrated development platform, based on open standards, that enables rapid design, validation and integration of business processes into the virtualized data center. Combined with an environment that allows virtualization and automation of the virtual infrastructure, it enables the delivery of IT services on demand.

Virtual Machine Teams
Workstation 5 introduces an easy way for you to configure complex multi-tier applications on your desktop by leveraging Teams. A Team is a collection of virtual machines connected by one or more private network segments. Once a Team is created, you can operate on it just like you would on a single virtual machine – you can power on/off and suspend/resume Teams with the click of a single button. View active thumbnails of all the virtual machines in a Team. Create private networks for teams, using individual LAN segments that simulate bandwidth caps and packet loss (e.g. network fault injection).

Multiple Snapshot Support (updated 2004.10.25)
Workstation 5 greatly enhances the snapshot functionality available in previous releases of the product. You can now take unlimited numbers of snapshots to capture the state of the environment at different points in time. In addition, you can restore to any previously taken snapshot with the new Snapshot Manager. When you create a new snapshot, a new branch is automatically created so that other snapshots continue to be available. With multiple snapshots, you can keep an arbitrary number of restore points for your virtual machines, allowing you to branch and explore many possibilities—all from the same virtual machine!

Clones: Full and Linked (updated 2004.10.25)
Workstation 5 allows you to clone virtual machines in two different ways – linked and full. If a virtual machine (parent) is available on shared storage, you can get up and running quickly by creating a linked clone of the virtual machine instead of copying it to your PC. Any changes made to the cloned virtual machine are then saved locally. You can now easily collaborate with team members by simply passing along just the changes saved locally instead of the entire virtual machine. Your team members can clone the parent virtual machine and copy your saved changes to their local disk to share your configuration. Linked clones make it easy to set up a single virtual machine as a template and reuse it multiple times with minor modifications, using little additional disk space for each clone. Workstation 5 also supports full clone whereby you can make a complete copy (disks, etc.) of a virtual machine from the user interface.

Support for Isochronous USB Devices
Workstation 5 offers support for Isochronous USB input devices such as web cams and microphones, and output devices such as speakers. Use your webcam or work with multi-track audio—within a guest operating system!

Support for 64-bit Hosts
Workstation 5 improves the experimental support offered in version 4, supporting 64-bit host hardware including the AMD Opteron, Athlon 64 and Intel IA-32e. Workstation also supports new 64-bit host operating systems, including SUSE 9.1, and Windows XP 64-bit edition (experimental support), and Windows Server 2003 64-bit edition (experimental support).

Performance Enhancements (updated 2004.10.25)
We’re constantly improving performance. Workstation 5 reduces guest operating system memory footprint, while enhancing audio, increasing network bandwidth, optimizing disk and memory cache, and much more.

– Snapshot and suspend resume have enhanced performance, and are now background operations whenever possible.
– Enhanced networking performance – Workstation 5 offers enhanced networking performance by leveraging our custom network driver. Once you install the updated VMware Tools, the necessary network drivers install seamlessly to offer improved network performance.
– Better memory utilization when running multiple virtual machines concurrently – Workstation 5 includes significant improvements in memory utilization when multiple virtual machines are used concurrently. This allows you to efficiently run multiple virtual machines with much less total memory.
– Shared folders and Sound features are improved in Workstation 5.

We want you to have the best experience possible, whether you run multiple virtual machines or only one at a time.

Enhanced Guest OS Support (updated 2004.10.25)

– Java Desktop System — support now included in VMware Workstation.
– Mandrake 10
– Experimental support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 beta
– Experimental support for SUSE 9.2

New Linux Features (updated 2004.10.25)

– Workstation 5 offers a gtk2-based user interface on Linux, which provides an improved look and feel, and enhanced usability
– Workstation 5 streamlines VMware Tools installation for Linux virtual machines by allowing you to install VMware Tools without exiting the X session.
– Now you have a choice how to install VMware Tools on Linux guests: use the new rpm installer, or the traditional tar installer.

VMware V2V Assistant
Now you can convert a virtual machine created in Microsoft® VirtualPC™ or VirtualServer™ for use with Workstation 5! The V2V Assistant—a separately-downloadable Windows application—creates a VMware virtual machine without changing your VirtualPC virtual machine.

Windows Upgrade Installs
On Windows hosts, you can automatically install a new release over an existing Workstation release. The installer automatically uninstalls the previous version before installing the new version.

Movie Capture
Workstation 5 now offers you the ability to record all activity in a virtual machine and save it in an .avi format. The resulting .avi file can then be replayed on any Windows PC running our playback codec. The codec is installed automatically with Workstation 5, and you can also download a stand-alone installer from the VMware website.

Movie capture has many uses, such as giving you the ability to record steps to reproduce defects in a particular configuration, or to record configuration steps prior to running an application, etc. (Note this release does not include recording audio with movies.)

NX Bit Support
Workstation 5 offers guest operating system support for the “no execute” NX page table protection bit, also called Execute Disable Bit (EDB) technology. Aimed at thwarting malicious buffer overruns, NX/EDB allows properly-written applications to designate memory space as executable, preventing execution of any code trying to access other memory space.

Command Line Utility for Teams
Use the new vmrun command line utility for automating team operations.

Founded in 2003, Katana has developed software that runs directly on computer hardware, beneath the operating system. The software can run a number of virtual machines on a single server. A virtual machine is a self-contained operating environment consisting of software that appears, to an application or an operating system, as though it’s an entire computer.

Software from rival developers also accomplishes the feat of managing multiple virtual machines on servers, but Katana’s technology can also be used to make a large number of smaller PCs appear to be a very large, symmetric multiprocessing machine, Katana’s president and chief technical officer, Scott Davis, said.

Katana’s approach to virtualization is similar to that pioneered by Digital Equipment’s VAX clusters, but the technology is designed to work with hardware and software that is much more widely adopted than Digital’s proprietary products, said Davis, who once served as the technical director for VAX clusters.

The initial release of the Katana product, expected in April, will work with Red Hat and Novell’s distribution of the Linux operating system and with hardware based on Intel’s x86 microprocessors, he said.

One of the key benefits of the Katana technology is that it can be used to take applications that are normally installed on large multiprocessor systems and run them on a number of smaller, less expensive dual-processor machines, according to Davis. Such applications include database or enterprise resource planning systems.

“Trying to split an application across multiple systems is hard,” Davis said. “We’ve done that through virtualization, and that’s one of the key differentiators that we have that nobody else has.”

More details on the Katana products will come during an official company launch in February, by which point Katana expects to have changed its name to VirtuOS Computing.

The technology, currently being tested in a number of pilot projects, will only work with computers that use network-based storage, Davis said. Servers in a Katana-managed system will start up a virtual machine instead of an operating system. That virtual machine will be managed by special hardware that will pool data center resources into “virtual computers” that will, in turn, start up the operating system, according to Davis.

“They are really virtualizing the hardware below the operating system, which makes them different,” analyst with The Yankee Group, Dana Gardner, said. Because Katana makes it possible for users to gradually add more processors to their virtual server environment it will be particularly appealing to users who are looking for a flexible way to add computer power to their applications, and who are looking for a way to make more efficient use of their data center resources, he said.

Because of limitations in a portion of the Linux kernel, called the scheduler, Katana’s virtual SMP (symmetric multiprocessing) machines can be no larger than 16 processors. Gardner, however, believes the technology may appeal to users who are looking to build the equivalent of 4-processor or 8-processor SMP machines out of inexpensive dual-processor systems.

Katana joins a growing number of vendors hoping to sell this kind of technology. Research firm IDC estimates that virtualization software sales amounted to US$4.3 billion in 2003, and will grow to US$14.2 billion by 2008.

In addition to major vendors like IBM, Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft, a host of smaller vendors, including Cassatt, Platform Computing and VMware, have entered the market.

“Each one of these people has come up with a way to build a virtual environment,” said Dan Kusnetzky, an IDC analyst also briefed by Katana. “The trickiest thing about any of these approaches is how do you take applications that were never written to be virtualized and somehow create a virtual environment that they can flow into without requiring changes.”

Davis believes that his engineers accomplished this.

“Sometimes you want to carve up a physical system into multiple smaller systems; other times you want to aggregate systems together, other times you want to create high available virtual computers,” he said. “We do all of those things and it’s all transparent to the applications because we’ve done virtualization at the right level.”

IT has started to regain the upper hand in the battle against costly, inflexible and disorderly infrastructure. As a first step, IT organizations have generally centralized their IT infrastructure into fewer locations for better visibility. As a second step, they are adopting a new generation of infrastructure technologies and methodologies including server consolidation.

This redpaper discusses server consolidation options and considerations using VMware ESX Server on IBM ^ BladeCenter and xSeries 445 hardware. In addition, systems management options using VMware VirtualCenter, VMotion, P2V Assistant, and IBM Director with VMM are also discussed.