History

Quoting from Windows IT Pro:

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The current version of the Data Protection Manager disk-based backup solution is targeted at file servers only, but the upcoming version, (2.0) reaches a much broader audience. It will work with both disk and tape storage devices and will back up Exchange Server 2007 and Exchange Server 2003, SQL Server 2005 and SQL Server 2000, and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and Microsoft Office SharePpoint Server 2007, in addition to Windows Server 2003 and Longhorn Server file servers and Windows Vista and Windows X-based file shares. But the big news is that Data Protection Manager 2.0 will also back up Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2-based virtual servers as well. Beta 2 is expected publicly in April with the final release expected in late summer…

Read the whole article at source.

Bink.nu provides more details:

• No downtime
• VSS consistant inside VM
• VSS outside (VHD vss writer)
• For non win2k3 VHDs: Offline backups: pause VM, VSS shadow copy of VHD, unpause, copy blocks to VM replica

This capability depends on new Virtual Server 2005 R2 Service Pack 1, which provides a Volume Shadow Service (VSS) Writer. The interface is not usable by Windows native NTBackup but can be fully exploited by third party backup solutions, including Microsoft DPM 2007 itself.

After detailing what to expect from System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) beta 2 and when, at MMS2007 Microsoft took time to provide scattered but interesting informations about SoftGrid integration in its software offering, after one year since Softricity acquisition.

A MMS2007 blogger is reporting:

• Availability of pre-sequenced applications for the Softgrid application virtualisation platform next to the current installation methodes and engines
• Softgrid full integration in System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R2 (formerly Systems Management Server or SMS)

Update: The Micosoft SoftGrid development team also published some details about upcoming versions of server, client and sequencer:

SoftGrid 4.1 SP1 is mostly a hotfix and critical updates release, improving overall system stability and compatibility. A noteworthy improvement is the ability to sequence applications using Side by Side assemblies (aka WinSxS), including Visual Studio Express and Office 2007, among many other applications from both third party ISV’s and Microsoft. Expected availability is in the second quarter of this year and the release will be made available for download as soon as test is completed. We will release the Sequencer, Desktop Client, Terminal Server Client and Server at the same time.

SoftGrid 4.2 builds on the 4.1 improvements by adding Windows Vista compatibility, both on the sequencer and client. There is not going to be a 4.2 version of the Server or the Terminal Server client as the moniker 4.2 is reserved for the components adding Windows Vista compatibility. We expect a final release some time around Q3 of this year…

First fruit of Microsoft unprecedented partnership with Novell is a new version of Virtual Server 2005 R2 Virtual Machines Additions for Linux, which includes support for Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise 10.

Download it here.

Thanks to Andrew Dugdell for the news.

Before VMware is able to release second version of its Assured Computing Environment (ACE) as part of Workstation 6.0 (so to reach a much wider audience than first one), Kidaro promotes its alternative with the new To-Go offering.

Quoting from the official announcement:

Kidaro, provider of desktop virtualization solutions for the enterprise without boundaries, has announced the availability of the Kidaro Corporate “To-Go” for a USB flash drive. Using this new offering, organizations can hand out a USB drive with a fully operable, encrypted corporate-managed desktop to any user – work-at-home employees, road warriors, and subcontractors – instead of giving them a corporate laptop or
building a server infrastructure for remote desktops. End-users just plug the USB drive in to their workstation, regardless of hardware or setup, authenticate and gain immediate access to policy-based corporate applications and resources, right from their Start menu or web browser, without any “virtual machine” training required….

Similarly to VMware ACE, Kidaro Managed Workspace provides a security wrapper with centralized policies for virtual machines, and now, just like ACE 2.0 will do, allows users to run them from a USB drive. The biggest difference is Kidaro it’s not stick on a specific virtualization platform, supporting both VMware and Microsoft virtual machines.

Quoting from the Intel official announcement:

…Intel Corporation will begin producing its next-generation Penryn family of processors in the second half of this year. These new processors benefit from enhancements to the Intel Core microarchitecture and also Intel’s industry-leading 45nm Hi-k process technology with its hafnium-based high-K + metal gate transistor design, which results in higher performance and more energy-efficient processors.

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Penryn speeds up virtual machine transition (entry/exit) times by an average of 25 to 75 percent. This is all done through microarchitecture improvements and requires no virtual machine software changes…

As already happened for first generation of virtualization extensions, it has to be seen when and how virtualization vendors will adapt their products to take the most out of new technology.

The new Linux kernel 2.6.20, already featuring the new KVM virtualization module, can now count also on OpenVZ.

New patches include:

• Support for read-only bind mounts, which allows a read-only view into a read-write file system
• Namespaces technology, resulting from on-going work on Linux kernel containers virtualization
• A new I/O prioritization feature that makes it possible to set priorities for each virtual environment so that some can be set as high priority for disk access, and others as lower priority

Download OpenVZ for Linux kernel 2.6.20 here..

After less than a month, the russian startup Veeam already updated its Reporter.

The new 1.5 version extends support to VMware Infrastructrure 3.0.

The pricing starts at $120 per CPU including the first year maintenance plan.

Check a sample report here. Download a trial here.

The virtualization.info Virtualization Industry Roadmap has been updated accordingly.

After announcing it in November 2006, Emulex finally release its HBA management solutions for Microsoft Virtual Server 2005: VMPilot.

This first release, which supports LightPulse 4GB/s HBAs, allows users to:

• create SAN-attached virtual machines
• migrate VMs without reconfiguring storage or copying files
• centrally manage multiple Virtual Servers virtual machines operations in SAN environment
• apply zoning per virtual machine

Emulex also revealed future versions of VMPilot will support upcoming System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM).

Download it here.

Red Hat approach to Xen has been very confused so far.

Now, after release of first enterprise distribution, RHEL 5, featuring the open source hypervisor for the first time, tech magazine are starting to publish their reviews.

First one is from SearchServerVirtualization which details the guest OS creation and installation process, highlighting som glitches:

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At this point, the installation is just like a standard installation of the OS. There is, however, one tricky point in the process. After you go through all the standard screens asking for your time zone, etc., you are presented with a final standard installation screen asking you to begin the final install. At that point, the console window you’ve been working in disappears! You then need to go to the host OS shell and execute “xm create guestname”, which in our case the entire string was “xm create RHELguest1″…

NetworkWorld goes further, comparing Xen implementation of Red Hat Enterprise Linux against Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise one:

..we found, is that Red Hat’s Xen implementation is far more evolved than what we found in SUSE 10, although it does lack comprehensive instrumentation.

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When we tested the RHEL5 native kernel for performance (using OS install time-chosen defaults, as we normally do) against SUSE 10, we found little notable differences in our LMBench results.

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The impact of introducing Xen’s hypervisor to the subsequently Xen-ified RHEL5 kernel represented only nominal latency from the native RHEL5 results. We measured the Xen impact on performance, and found that the ‘insertion loss’ of the hypervisor layer and ‘Xenified RHEL5 kernel’ are nominal: performance isn’t affected much. Adding guest operating systems to the Xenified RHEL5 kernel dragged down performance…

InfoStor magazine published an extended and interesting review of Scalent Virtual Operating Environment (V/OE) 2.0, providing following conclusion:

Using Scalent V/OE, we had virtualized our SAN connections to create a wire-once fabric to simplify data-center system management. Through its Web-based GUI, Scalent Console provided us with a single-pane-of-glass interface for numerous system administration tasks. More importantly, the console provided a unified context for both the physical and logical topologies of our IT infrastructure, as well as a better understanding of the real-time relationships between the physical and virtual IT environments.

IT will increasingly apply virtualization to increase the utilization of new and existing resources and simplify systems/storage management. By extending virtualization to the way infrastructure resources—both physical and virtual—connect, Scalent V/OE ensures virtualization schemes work as expected, are easily managed, and provide all of their cost-savings potential.

Scalent is applying datacenter automation capabilities, first appeared in virtualized enviroments, to traditional. physical infrastructures. If you are not confident with this approach this review worths a reading.