History

Just few days after ESX Server 2.5.2 release, VMware sends out the expected VirtualCenter 1.3.
There are few but important changes:

• Dual core processor support
  Newer processors have two CPU cores in each processor package. Systems with dual-core processors must use ESX Server 2.5.2 or later or GSX Server 3.2 or later.
• vmware-serverd process runs on an ESX Server host, even when managed by VirtualCenter, rather than the expcted vmware-ccagent.

This does not impact performance or operations of VirtualCenter, ESX Server, GSX Server, or virtual machines.
If you are using ESX Server 2.5.2 and VirtualCenter 1.3 to manage the host, you will not see the vmware-ccagent running, as you did in previous releases. You will see the vmware-serverd running. Also, if you are using VirtualCenter 1.3 to manage an ESX Server 2.5 or 2.5.1 version, you will see vmware-ccagent running on the host.

Look at the resolved issues here.

The new evaluation process still points to ESX Server 2.5.1 and VirtualCenter 1.2. I’ll update this post when VMware will upgrade to newer versions.

Yesterday world press announced the availability of the first USB keys with U3 platform.
The U3 platform will permit USB devices to run programs instead of just archiving data.

I’m already imaging a whole range of virtualization applications: think about a salesman going to the customer for a product demo with his U3 key. Inside the key is ready a virtual machine with the product. The customer doesn’t even need to install anything, just run the VM with its launcher and use it till expires.
Or imagine creating an enterprise emergency network on bare metal PCs (for simplifying business continuity), reading the U3 key at BIOS as easily as today we partially achieve the task with Linux livecd distros.

Now this future is around the corner.

Quoting from the Akimbi official announcement:

Akimbi Systems today unveiled a significant advancement in the field of software development and testing with the launch of an industry leading complex configuration capture-and-restore (C3R) system, which allows software developers and testers to capture “live” interdependent software systems and instantly store, restore and share them across the organization. Akimbi’s C3R system, Akimbi Slingshot™, automates the rapid setup, teardown and management of the most complex multi-machine software configurations, enabling organizations to shave months off software development projects, reduce development and test equipment costs and dramatically increase the quality of delivered software systems.

Enabled by the emergence of reliable virtual machine technology from vendors such as Microsoft and VMware, Akimbi Slingshot allows software developers and quality-assurance (QA) engineers to create, suspend and capture to a shared library any number of complex, multi-machine configurations. When a configuration in the library is later needed for development or test purposes, Akimbi Slingshot instantly deploys the entire configuration to the best available resources in a pool of shared servers. The machines are restored to exactly the state they were in when captured: running and ready for use, including operating system, software applications and data.

“With Akimbi Slingshot running on Microsoft Virtual Server 2005, customers will be able to build higher-quality software systems, more quickly and with a lower total cost than previously possible,” said Zane Adam, director, Windows Server Division at Microsoft Corp. “The combination of virtualization technologies and fully automated IT management can help deliver business agility, dynamic resource usage and higher levels of efficiency.”

Until now, the process of creating test configurations remained largely manual, with developers having to gather machines, install operating systems, install and configure applications and establish inter-machine connections. Additionally, with an increase in the number of complex distributed systems, these tasks have grown extremely tedious, time consuming and costly. As a result, organizations either restrict the scope of testing to maintain acceptable software development cycle times or they absorb the increasing software development costs of drawn-out projects.

“When testing software, a major challenge for Global 2000 organizations is the setup, configuration and management of systems on which the tests will be run,” said Melinda Ballou, program director for Application Life-Cycle Management at IDC, based in Framingham, Mass. “Departmental groups tend to hoard their configured systems, exacerbating existing testing bottlenecks. Facilitating the setup, management and coordination of testing systems can increase productivity, cut costs and time to production release for software.”

Ensuring Quality in Diverse and Distributed Systems

Ensuring the quality of a new software system requires that it be built and tested in the context in which it will (or could) eventually be deployed; making sure it will perform as expected when interacting with the systems that will surround, support and depend on it. Akimbi Slingshot, which is optimized for software development and testing, simplifies and accelerates this process, allowing developers to more quickly certify software code across a greater number of potential system environments. With Akimbi Slingshot, customers are able to:

• Significantly Reduce Software Development Time: Akimbi Slingshot automates the rapid setup and teardown of complex, multi-machine software configurations for use in development and testing, freeing developers and QA engineers from time-consuming manual tasks, and giving them more time to write, test and debug code.
• Decrease Equipment-Related Expenditures: Akimbi Slingshot allows organizations to pool and share server, networking, storage and other resources between software development and test teams, and individuals.
• Reproduce Every Bug, On Demand: Akimbi Slingshot allows QA engineers to capture any multi-system configuration exhibiting a bug or other unexpected behavior during test, ensuring that every bug can be reproduced reliably at debug time. This not only reduces time spent in the debug phase, but also reduces the number of latent software defects that slip into production.
• Rapidly Troubleshoot Customer Production Problems: By maintaining a comprehensive library of customer and production system environments, Akimbi Slingshot helps prevent upgrade breakage and rapidly troubleshoot production problems.

“Akimbi is laser-focused on addressing a set of key problems overwhelming software development teams in Global 2000 enterprises and packaged software development companies,” said James Phillips, co-founder and CEO of Akimbi. “Across the board, the strong demand for Akimbi Slingshot has exceeded our expectations and suggests that our solution is inspiring organizations of all sizes to rethink the way they develop and test software.”

Pricing and Availability

Akimbi Slingshot is available in two editions: Akimbi Slingshot Personal Edition (PE) and Akimbi Slingshot Team Edition (TE). Pricing starts at $4,995 for Akimbi Slingshot PE and $20,000 for Akimbi Slingshot TE. Akimbi Slingshot supports Microsoft Virtual Server 2005, Standard and Enterprise Editions, and VMware GSX Server. Organizations that desire a complete out-of-the-box solution can opt for a version of Akimbi Slingshot bundled with Microsoft Virtual Server 2005. Akimbi Slingshot is currently available and free evaluation software is available at www.akimbi.com.

VMware just changed the way to obtain an ESX Virtual Infrastructure Node (VIN) evaluation. An ESX VIN is composed by a single ESX Server, the VirtualCenter server and the VirtualCenter agent for ESX.

Till today obtaining an evaluation copy of both product was quite complex, interacting with VMware Sales folks or the worldwide distributors and waiting for a manual activation of your account.
Now this procedure is much simplified thanks to an online webform, automating the account activation for both products download.

Request your VirtualCenter and ESX Server evaluation copy here: http://www.vmware.com/programs/7/ESXVinEval.do

Update: the evaluation form finally provides access to ESX Server 2.5.2 and VirtualCenter 1.3.0

Ben Armstrong, Program Manager on the Virtual Machine team at Microsoft and author of the Virtual PC Guy blog, presented a session at Microsoft Professional Developers Conference (PDC) 2005 titled Developing and Testing with Virtual PC.

You can download the slides at this location: http://216.55.183.63/pdc2005/slides/TLNL07_Armstrong.ppt
No other speeches about virtualization were presented at PDC05.

Quoting from Fabrice Meillon blog (french language):

Access FREE Virtual Server 2005 e-learning with TechNet Plus (US, Canada, and EMEA only)

With TechNet Plus, you’ll receive 90-days of free access to Microsoft E-Learning with hands-on learning to help you build your Virtual Server skills and knowledge. The following course is available to TechNet Plus subscribers from October 1 to December 31, 2005:

Course 2288: Using Microsoft® Virtual Server 2005

Note: Microsoft E-Learning courses are available in English only. Availability of learning resources may vary depending on your geographic location and subscription level

Microsoft released yesterday Automated Deployment Service (ADS) 1.1. It now includes Virtual Server Migration Toolkit (VSMT) and the package is in fact called ADS_VSMT_1.1.exe

The unique change related to Virtual Server 2005 is the resolution the resolution of the support article 875533:
Virtual Server 2005 virtual machines cannot contact the Automated Deployment Services controller during the Pre-Boot Execution Environment startup process

The VSMT included in in ADS 1.1 seems unchanged.

VMware sent out a new minor release of its flagship product: ESX Server.
What’s new:

• Support for new servers from HP, IBM, and Dell, including servers using AMD dual-core Opteron processors such as the HP ProLiant DL585.
• ESX Server 2.5.2 supports new storage arrays, guest operating systems, backup software, and management software.
• If you are managing ESX Server with VMware VirtualCenter, you must use VirtualCenter 1.3, available soon.

Look at the resolved issues here: http://www.vmware.com/pdf/esx2x_fixed_bugs_list.pdf

VirtualCenter 1.3, anticipated by VMware, will implement dual-core licensing support for management of ESX Server 2.5.2 and GSX Server 3.2 hosts.

Quoting from uk.builder.com:

Microsoft on Wednesday detailed changes to its Virtual Server plans, announcing it will shift its next update of the software from a maintenance release to a paid upgrade.

The software maker, which had earlier announced plans to issue a service pack for Virtual Server 2005, said it will instead release a product in the fourth quarter of this year known as Virtual Server 2005 R2. Microsoft said the new version, already in beta, will offer improvements to performance and availability.

“There are a number of new features in the product we’re introducing that make this much more full featured and robust… than a service pack,” Microsoft group program manager Mark Kieffer said in a presentation at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco.

Virtualisation software such as Microsoft’s Virtual Server, EMC’s VMware and XenSource’s Xen lets a server simultaneously run multiple operating systems. Advocates argue that virtualisation lets companies reduce the number of servers they need by letting jobs run more efficiency on a smaller number of machines.

Next year, Microsoft will issue another, larger update to the Virtual Server product, the company said. A beta version of that update is planned for the first half of the year and a final release slated for the second half of 2006.

In a keynote address earlier on Wednesday, Intel general manager Pat Gelsinger demonstrated an early version of that next-generation Virtual Server release, which he called Virtual Server 2006, saying the software will support Intel’s virtualisation technology, simply called VT — a chip feature that makes virtualisation simpler and faster. Microsoft said the software also will support AMD’s equivalent to VT, called Pacifica.

Microsoft said that new version of the software will also offer strengthened isolation so the corruption of one virtual machine will not affect other virtual machines on the same system.

The Virtual Server 2006 release, though, will act as a bridge as Microsoft works to shift the work of virtualisation into the Windows platform itself, using a technology known as a hypervisor. Kieffer said that Microsoft is aiming to have that technology be a part of the server version of Longhorn, which is scheduled for release in 2007, though, unlike the client version, it has not yet been officially named.

Microsoft also is adding support for Linux, following through on a pledge chief executive Steve Ballmer made in April. Linux and other non-Windows operating systems already work with Virtual Server, but Microsoft has not offered support for any problems that customers might encounter with other operating systems.

Kieffer said Linux support would probably come by the end of this year.

“We’re probably talking about Red Hat and Novell,” Kieffer said, adding that the company is still deciding which specific distributions will be supported.

Microsoft shipped the first version of Virtual Server last year, following several delays. The company obtained the technology as part of its February 2003 acquisition of assets from Connectix.

Kieffer also listed several future Windows server virtualisation features. Among them:

• An individual virtual machine will be able to run powerful multiprocessor work loads — likely as many as eight processors for a single machine.
• Users will be able to move virtual machines as they run from one computer to another “with no visible downtime.”
• Users will be able to store a virtual machine’s state on a hard drive, letting a user stop and restart a virtual machine or take “snapshots” of a machine at a particular time.
• Microsoft will support both 32-bit and 64-bit virtual machines, though a 64-bit operating system will be required to host the system.
• Microsoft will compensate for different memory access speeds that are increasingly common in mainstream servers. This computer design principle is called nonuniform memory access, or NUMA, and Kieffer said it’s a complicating factor with multicore processors.

The public beta program about P2V Assistant reached its next beta phase.
The new and refreshed features:

• Added support for booting the P2V Boot CD from USB CD-ROM devices (including HP iLO remote lights-out access virtual CD-ROM devices).
• Updated P2V Boot CD Hardware Compatibility list for new machines supported in 2.1. (See updated HCL link on website).
• Fixed issue where SCSI disk model names did not always match between the Boot CD and P2V Assistant application.
• Fixed Boot CD not recognizing Adaptec ServeRaid 6i card (ips driver).
• Fixed warning about evdev.ko input driver when booting on Dell 1850.
• Added information to README about “sudo” program used to run ethtool as root (ethtool fails if run as a non-root user).

You can grab P2V Assistant beta 2 here: http://www.vmware.com/programs/6/p2vBeta.do
Remember this beta will expire on 11/15/2005. After that date we can expect the RTM.