virtualization.info Editors

Virtual Server is actually in a pre-beta phase accessible via Customer Preview Program since May.
Expected beta phase is now shifted to mid November while official release is shifted from end 2003 to first half 2004 (some sources reports this could happen during first quarter, around February).

Yes,
it’s true: Microsoft Certified Trainers and Linux User Groups members can receive a full Workstation license absolutely at no cost.
Here’s official announcement:

As a Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT) or Linux User Group charter member, you’re on the forefront of developments in information technology, and your colleagues depend on you for guidance on critical systems decisions.

http://www.vmware.com/wl/offer/427/0

VMware already done this some years ago for MCTs. Now we are here again.
Maybe they are trying to attract as much experts as possible before Microsoft releases Virtual Server…

Virtual Driver Disk (VDD) is a free utility developed by Kenji Kato, one of unofficial VMware supporters that answers on newsgroups.
VDD permits you to mount a virtual disk and see it as a physical disk on any physical machine you want, reading, writing, etc any file inside it.

From 3.0 release notes:
Now you can use up to 22 virtual disk drives at the same time. You can increase/decrease the number of drivers while the driver is running.
New “write-block” virtual disk open mode. In this mode, the virtual disk appears to be writable to the OS, but every write command is silently ignored and data is not actually written to the image file.
Now you can use raw sector image devided into multiple files. This is in effect the same thing as VMware 2.x Plain Disk or VMware 4.x Flat Virtual Disk, but with a very simple list of component files as the descriptor file.
Now you can see the partition structure of a disk image without actually opening it as a virtual disk.

Red Hat, the most widely used commercial Linux distribution, has announced that it will not release any more products in the Red Hat Linux line.
They will continue to sell Enterprise Linux line (version 3.0 is just released).

This could means that VMware ESX Server (based on a custom Red Hat Linux) could switch to another base OS in its next releases.

A really hot FAQ is:
How can I enlarge a default 4GB virtual disk in a VM?

Usually answer is:
1. Create a secondary virtual disk (larger than first one)
2. Grab a program like Symantec Ghost
3. Clone VHD1 inside VHD2
4. Remove VHD1 and go happy with larger virtual disk

This solution is good, but Ghost (or DriveImage or Altiris products) are expensive.

I just found a free tool tha is OS indipendent, fits in a single floppy and clone a disk from smaller to larger dimension.
It’s called HDClone Free Edition.

I finally managed to enter in VMware beta programs.
I’ll not disclose informations about developing products since I’m under NDA (Non Disclosure Agreement), but at least I could tell if a most wanted feature is seen at horizont 🙂

The fixes include the following issues:

Introduces internationalization of the shared folders and drag and drop features. These features now support localized guest operating systems, including locales such as Japanese that use double-byte characters.

VMware Tools for Windows guests uses less memory than in previous releases.

This product will be available as a download from http://www.vmware.com/download/ starting on 10/3/2003.

VMware Workstation customers, if covered under the VMware Workstation Product Upgrade Policy as described at:

http://www.vmware.com/vmwarestore/pricing.html

are entitled to download and install this updated version.

Release notes are at: http://www.vmware.com/support/ws4/doc/releasenotes_ws4.html

FAQ:

Q: The previous public release of Workstation was 4.0.2. This version is 4.0.5. Were versions 4.0.3 and 4.0.4 released?

A: Version 4.0.5 is the first public release after version 4.0.2.

Many VMware and VirtualPC users are in need of simulating a WAN connection: introducing delay in virtual environments is useful to better test scenarios like Active Directory replication, VPN tunneling and so on.
There are at least three solutions to do that:

1. (only for VMware users) Use virtual serial ports
This isn’t the best method since you cannot choose any delay you want.

2. Buy an expensive solution called Shunra\Cloud
It works on Windows OS and costs about $5,900.

3. Create a new virtual machine for a liveCD OS called m0n0wall
It’s a FreeBSD custom environment created to be a light (only 5mb ISO) and secure solution. It has a traffic shaper feature, ideal to simulate a WAN connection.

4. Download (and eventually buy) a software called MikroTik RouterOS. A free license exists with some limitations.
While m0n0wall can route statically this one can route using RIPv1 and v2, OSPF and BGP.

A rumor exists about a Physical to Virtual and viceversa tool to be released for Microsoft Virtual Server (expected for Q4 2003).

At the same time another voice whispers VMware is working on a V2P tool (to do the opposite task of actual P2V Assistant).

No dates are available for both companies products.

Photo Credit: Peter C. Brandt – Getty Images

This is a particular day to start my blog…
I just wanna remember here 11 September 2001.