Archives for June 2010

Citrix earlier this week announced the availability of Citrix XenServer 5.6.

Unveiled earlier this month at Citrix Synergy 2010, the latest release adds new features across the entire product line, enhancing the enterprise-ready, cloud-proven virtualization platform with all the capabilities needed to create and manage a virtual infrastructure at a fraction of the cost of competing products.

Last year, Citrix introduced the Free Edition of XenServer, offering an enterprise-ready, cloud-proven server virtualization platform for no cost.  Since then, XenServer has been activated for production use in more than 45,000 enterprise datacenters worldwide, including 45 percent of the Fortune 500.

Key Facts and Highlights:

·         XenServer 5.6 delivers enhanced virtualization management capabilities for both the free XenServer, as well as the more advanced Enterprise and Platinum editions.  The new low-priced XenServer Advanced Edition makes it easier and more cost-efficient for enterprise and cloud customers running free XenServer to add more advanced high availability and management capabilities.  A full list of features in each edition can be found here.

·         XenServer 5.6 is available immediately.  The new XenServer Advanced Edition is $1,000 per server, or $30 per month for cloud service providers.  The Enterprise and Platinum editions are $2,500 and $5,000 per server, respectively.

·         The XenServer Free Edition or a 30-day trial of the Platinum Edition can be downloaded here.

Parallels, the global leader in automation and virtualization software, announced recently that it is offering VMware Fusion users a free trial of Parallels Desktop 5 for Mac and a limited-time opportunity to upgrade to for $39.99 until June 15.

It includes $175 worth of additional software for free: Parallels Internet Security 2009 by Kaspersky (1 year subscription); Acronis Disk Director Suite 10.0 (Disk Management); and Acronis True Image 11 Home (Backup and Recovery Solutions).

Go here to take them up on it.

VMware last week announced the worldwide availability of VMware Fusion 3.1 as a free update to all VMware Fusion 3 users.

With more than 20 new features, key highlights of VMware Fusion 3.1 include:

• Faster: With faster application launching, more seamless scrolling, quicker resume from suspend, and better overall disk performance, VMware Fusion 3.1 delivers 35% better end-to-end performance compared to its predecessor, VMware Fusion 3.0.
• Better 3D Graphics Performance: Greatly improved Windows Aero performance and OpenGL 2.1 support for Windows Vista and Windows 7 delivers up to 5X better 3D graphics performance. VMware Fusion 3.1 is also supported and recommended by Autodesk for AutoCAD 2011.
• Switch to Mac with Ease: The fastest and least expensive way to bring a customer’s entire PC to a Mac, VMware Fusion 3.1 includes all of the software tools needed to migrate over a standard Ethernet cable, FireWire cable or even wireless network — saving customers from purchasing special cables that will only be used once.
• USB EasyConnect: Makes it easier than ever to assign a USB device to a virtual machine or a Mac and remembers preferred choice.
• Unity: Exclusive support for Mac OS X Snow Leopard’s Dock Expose makes it even more seamless to use Windows apps like Mac apps.
• Support for Larger Virtual Machines: With added support for 8-way SMP and an increased virtual hard disk size from 950 GB to 2TB, advanced users get more power and punch out of the Mac Pro and Xserve from Apple.

VMware Fusion 3 users can automatically download the free update to VMware Fusion 3.1 via the built-in software update feature.

Users who wish to upgrade from previous versions of VMware Fusion may do so online at vmware.com/fusion for $39.99 (USD).

For new users, VMware Fusion is available at vmware.com/fusion, the Apple.com, Apple retail stores, Amazon.com, and other authorized resellers. The suggested retail price of $79.99 (USD) includes all of the software needed to switch from a PC to a Mac.

Digital Networks has released a new version of its server virtualization platform, Openvirt 2.0.

Openvirt provides commercial quality virtualization that is completely free of license fees and a web based control panel that makes for easy management.  Full virtualization of unmodified operating systems includes support for Linux, Windows, Solaris and FreeBSD virtual machines.

Live migration is supported even between hosts with completely different CPUs. A high availability service will automatically restart virtual machines which were running on a physical host that failed.

Integration with iSCSI, Fibre Channel and InfiniBand SANs is supported. Most networks including 10 Gigabit Ethernet and InfiniBand are supported.

“Not only can Openvirt save your organisation serious money in license fees, it also gives you real access to your data.” said Lee Chisnall, CTO of Digital Networks. “There are no proprietary control panels restricting access to your data. The open design of the platform allows you to build completely bespoke solutions.”

Openvirt is now based on Ubuntu 10.04 Server LTS. This is supported until April 2015.

Release 2.0 platform components:

• Ubuntu 10.04 Server LTS base OS
• Linux kernel 2.6.33
• QEMU-KVM 0.12.3
• Libvirt 0.8.0
• Control Panel Release 11

Release 2.0 includes these new features:

• High availability service
• Kernel Samepage Merging for reduced memory usage
• Guests disk usage monitor
• Centralised SQL server for monitoring records
• Full system logging
• Power distribution units support
• Cluster test
• Pre-built templates for CentOS, Debian, Fedora, openSUSE and Ubuntu
• Detailed template creation tutorials
• Batch cloning
• Release check service
• Plus many other minor improvements and refinements

VMware recently announced a new certification program, VMware Certified Advanced Professional (VCAP), to allow IT professionals to deepen their knowledge and expertise of VMware virtualization solutions.

This advanced level of certification will enable organizations to transform IT environments through virtualization to help them better realize the greater value from flexible, agile IT-as-a-Service and cloud computing models.

Building upon VMware’s existing certification levels: VMware Certified Professional (VCP), of which there are over 50,000 individuals worldwide, and the elite VMware Certified Design Expert VCDX) of which there are approximately 50 worldwide, the VCAP certification is being added to the VMware Certification program to differentiate and acknowledge those professionals that have continued to grow and develop more cognitively complex skill sets beyond the VCP certification, while also serving as a stepping stone to the VCDX level.

“We expect that the addition of VCAP certification will increase the skills of thousands of IT professionals,

To start, the VCAP program will offer two certification specialties for virtualization partners, end- users and consultants. VMware Certified Advanced Professional Datacenter Administration (VCAP-DCA) is directed toward System Administrators, Senior Consultants and Technical Support Engineers who are capable of working with large and/or more complex virtualized environments and can demonstrate technical leadership with VMware vSphere technologies.

Successful candidates will also be capable of using automation tools, planning and designing virtualized solutions and administering all VMware vSphere Enterprise components. The exam for VCAP-DCA opens July 12, 2010. The other specialty, VMware Certified Advanced Professional Datacenter Design (VCAP-DCD), is directed toward IT Architects and Consulting Architects who can demonstrate their skills in designing VMware solutions in a multi-site, large enterprise environment. Successful candidates will have shown a deep understanding both of VMware core components and their relation to storage and networking, and also of datacenter design methodologies.

They will also have shown knowledge of applications and physical infrastructure, as well as their relationship to the virtual infrastructure.  Registration for the VCAP-DCD exam opens in August.

VMware has designed several courses to help VCPs ramp their skills in preparation for taking the VCAP exams. Courses include VMware vSphere: Troubleshooting [V4] and VMware vSphere: Manage for Performance [V4] in prep for VCAP-DCA and VMware vSphere: Design Workshop [V4] to prepare for VCAP-DCD. While these courses are strongly recommended to help prepare individuals, they are not required to take the exam.