virtualization.info Editors

VMware and IBM: competitors or not?

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Quite a month ago IBM annonced will release its own Virtualization Engine (should be official name), competing against Microsoft and EMC/VMware.
Probably this surprising announce, after years of partnership IBM and VMware (just think about xSeries and ESX Server bundle), unleashed some reactions at VMware headquarter.
But after three weeks of silence VMware announce partnership renew for three years with IBM, extending virtualization product line that Big Blue can sell with xSeries and (new entry) BladeCenter.

Quoting an article from Web Hosting Industry News:

Virtualization software developer VMware (vmware.com) announced this week that it has extended its strategic alliance with IBM (ibm.com) for three years. The alliance was first formed in 2002.

Under the agreement, IBM will offer VMware VirtualCenter, VMware VMotion, VMware ESX Server and VMware Virtual SMP software products on the IBM eServer xSeries and BladeCenter systems worldwide. IBM will offer the BladeCenter license pack with VMware integrated solutions designed specifically for eServer BladeCenter systems.

“Being able to virtualize computing and manage systems remotely is a critical aspect of on demand computing,” says Leo Suarez, vice president of IBM eServer xSeries products. “Our partnership with VMware complements the IBM on demand strategy by bringing partitioning to the xSeries and Intel-based BladeCenter product lines. Combined with IBM Virtualization Engine, VMware extends IBM’s virtualization capability across the entire xSeries and Intel-based BladeCenter servers.”

According to VMware, IBM eServer xSeries and BladeCenter systems running VMware virtual infrastructure software help customers lower their total costs by reducing the size and complexity of their IT infrastructures. VMware ESX Server and IBM BladeCenter solutions can host more than 100 virtual machines in a single BladeCenter chassis with 28 CPUs.

“With the signing of our expanded agreement and the inclusion of VMware in IBM’s Virtualization Engine strategy, our relationship with IBM continues to grow,” says Diane Greene, president of VMware. “Most importantly, our shared customers will benefit from efficient and flexible IT resources and increased hardware utilization on the IBM eServer xSeries and BladeCenter systems.”

This is strange (but not too much). IBM moves against VMware, but VMware opens arms renewing and enlarging partnership. Some could think this was the right moment to focus on partnership with Dell (since Dell always had partnership with EMC Corporation), instead VMware prefers to lay in bed with a past-friend / future-enemy.
Strange even more thinking that IBM and EMC compete on storage market…

TwoOSTwo isn’t a dead project, it’s a renamed project

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Some weeks ago I noticed here that 2OS2 project was suddenly disappeared from Internet, without any notice.
Now, following a complex link path I discovered 2OS2 isn’t dead, just renamed (or restarted if you prefer): the new project name is Serenity Virtual Station (or SVISTA) and you can find it at the new website here.

Parallels Ltd. still is the development team, but on their site there’s no mention to SVISTA.
At this point we just sit and wait what’s happen to this new virtualization player.

PlateSpin announces the next generation P2V tool: PowerP2V

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As PlateSpin press released:

PlateSpin Ltd., a leading developer of solutions that bring flexibility and automation to the data center, announced the availability of PlateSpin PowerP2V(TM), the next generation platform for converting servers between physical and virtual machine architectures. The new platform allows data centers to dramatically accelerate their physical to virtual server consolidation programs by eliminating manual tasks, and reducing human error through automation.
PlateSpin PowerP2V brings increased scalability, flexibility, and extensibility to PlateSpin’s virtual automation technologies. It makes conversions between physical servers and VMware(TM) virtual machines quick and easy by offering a completely unattended conversion model that can scale to hundreds or even thousands of servers. The main features of the new PowerP2V platform include:

– Non-Invasive Discovery of Server Networks –
PowerP2V offers complete
auto discovery of physical and virtual machine servers, their hardware
configuration profiles, and their application profiles without the
need to manually install software agents. This enables users that are
performing migrations to see a 360 degree view of all their available
hardware assets instantly. PowerP2V does not require manual
installation of agents at any point in the conversion cycle,
eliminating human effort substantially, and removing the risk agent
software installation often entails.

– Dynamic Virtual Machine Configuration –
PowerP2V allows users to make
detailed changes to the destination configuration prior to the
conversion cycle, such as CPU, disk mapping, memory, and network
resources, from a single PowerP2V console from any machine in the
network. PowerP2V also handles SMP conversions so that you can scale
up or down the configuration during the conversion process.

– Support for Linux and Windows –
PowerP2V is the first solution
to allow the conversion of physical Linux machines to virtual machines
in addition to MS Windows 2003/2000/NT support.

– Virtual to Virtual Conversion –
In addition to its robust P2V
capabilities, PowerP2V has the ability to perform conversions
from virtual machine to virtual machine (V2V) which can help
with upgrading from older to newer VM versions or between different
virtualization technologies.

– Extensive driver support –
PowerP2V offers a wide array of support
for data center hardware configurations including mass storage
devices. New drivers that are released from hardware vendors can
be supported by PowerP2V quickly and easily.

– Enhanced user interface –
PowerP2V provides exclusive “drag-and-drop”
functionality through its graphical user interface. Users can
discover, deploy, and configure virtual machines anywhere on the
network and track each conversion based on granular details during
each step of the conversion process.

– Open Application Programming Interface –
PowerP2V offers
a comprehensive application programming interface (API) for customized
integration with third party applications. The API enables third party
applications to monitor and trigger tasks within the PowerP2V engine
and enables OEM providers to integrate PlateSpin’s conversion
technology into their own product offerings.

I really hope to publish a full review of it here soon. Stay tuned!

Microsoft delays Virtual PC 7 for Mac

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Quoting whole article from The Mac Observer:

The Macintosh Business Unit (Mac BU) of Microsoft Corp. has confirmed the release of Virtual PC 7.0, Microsoft’s PC emulation software, has been delayed from the first half of this year until the second half of 2004 due to longer-than-expected development and testing, a company spokeswoman said.

“Virtual PC for Mac Version 7 will be available in the second half of 2004,” Jessica Sommer, Product Manager for the Mac BU, told The Mac Observer, Tuesday. Sommer would not be more specific on a time frame or month.

In explaining the delay, Sommer said, “This is the first version of Virtual PC for Mac developed by Microsoft. Initially, our development and testing timeline was estimated based on our experience with development of Office. The developing, testing, and bug fix cycle with Virtual PC is longer than that of Office and the testing more vigorous than previous versions of Virtual PC. Because of this, we have adjusted our release timing to match a more realistic schedule.”

In addition, there is an edition of Virtual PC 7 that ships with Windows XP in a box by itself, as well as Windows XP being included in the Office 2004 Professional Edition,” she commented. “We are waiting for the release of Windows XP SP2 in order to offer the most recent, most secure version of Windows XP to our Virtual PC for Mac customers. Windows XP SP2 release has moved to the end of July which has impacted our schedule as well.”

Sommer would not confirm the amount of manpower that is working on completing Virtual PC 7.0 for release. “There are 165 people in the Mac BU some are focused on Office, some on VPC, some on MSN Messenger,” Sommer said.

The company announced at Macworld Expo last January that it planned on releasing Microsoft Office 2004 Standard Edition, Office 2004 Student and Teacher Edition, Virtual PC 7.0 and its associated Office 2004 Professional Edition in the first half of 2004, targeting the month of May.

With the delay in finishing and releasing Virtual PC 7.0, Sommer confirmed to TMO the decision was made to go ahead and ship Microsoft Office 2004 Standard Edition and Office 2004 Student and Teacher Edition now and not to delay customers from purchasing the product. Customers waiting on the new Office upgrade began receiving notification their orders were being shipped beginning today, as earlier reported by TMO, and many customers were able to buy the products at Apple’s retail stores as well beginning Tuesday.

Office 2004 is a bundled suite made up of Word 2004, PowerPoint 2004, Excel 2004, Entourage 2004 and MSN Messenger Version 4.0. Office 2004 for Mac Professional Edition is the same offering as the Standard Edition, but includes Virtual PC 7.0 with Windows XP Professional.

Virtual PC enables Mac users to emulate the operating characteristics of a Windows-based PC, providing Mac users with a way to run software that won’t run natively on their Macs. Few details of Virtual PC 7.0’s enhancements have been divulged, but Microsoft had previously confirmed it would be compatible with Apple’s Power Mac G5 systems.

Really seems Connectix virtualization technologies are much harder to manage and develope than what expected at acquisition time…

VMware releases HyperThreading whitepaper

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As you know the new ESX Server 2.1.0 introduces HyperThreading support, improving virtual environment up to 30% according with Intel official benchmarks.
Before ESX 2.1 release many users asked in newsgroups and web forums informations about how HT impacts on virtual machines performances, and many skilled users on computer architectures or kernel development tried to answer the important question.

Now, some weeks after ESX release, VMware releases an interesting paper about HT. A must read, for all VMware customers.
Go on and read it here!

MacOS goes virtual (well, not exactly)

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Yes, everybody knows virtualization technologies can’t help when you want to run a MacOS over a common x86 architecture. This is because MacOS runs on PowerPC architecture and server virtualization don’t aim to emulate different hardware. Anyway have a MacOS in a box won’t hurt…

Now we can try the Apple experience on Linux or Windows systems thanks to PearPC project, which has just released its first public version (0.1).
So go on and give it a try but remember: emulation is much slower than virtualization, so don’t expect great performances.