News

Next VMware Fusion 2.0 Beta Will Support Mac OS X Leopard Server

June 13, 2008 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

Last January, at Macworld, VMware delivered a preview of Mac OS X Leopard Server installing and running as a virtual machine on Mac OS X. In honor of Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference, the VMware Fusion team has announced that Mac OS X Leopard Server support will be available in VMware Fusion 2.0’s next beta.

This is a result of changes in Mac OS X Leopard Server’s license agreement, which now allows users to run multiple copies of Mac OS X Server on a single Apple computer.

“Virtual Leopard Server is a huge leap forward for Mac server administrators, developers, and more, and we’re truly excited to bring this to the Mac community, in VMware Fusion 2.0, which will be a free upgrade for all VMware Fusion 1.x customers.”

Here’s a short video the team put out:

[Source: VMTN Blog]

Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager Updated, Now Supports Hyper-V

June 12, 2008 by Robin Wauters 1 Comment

Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM), released in beta end of April, has been updated to enable it to function with Release Candidate 1 (RC1) to the Hyper-V role. Note that the VMM server and all of the hosts in your environment must be running Hyper-V RC1. After you install the update, you will not be able to add hosts running Hyper-V RC0 to your VMM environment.

[Source: Windows Virtualization Team blog]

CloudShield Helps Service Providers Virtualize Network Appliances

June 12, 2008 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

CloudShield Technologies, a provider of services management and infrastructure security solutions, has announced (PDF) a new release of CPOS, a packet processing operating system which aims to reudce the cost and environmental impact of implementing high-traffic converged IP networks.

The new version of CPOS enables service providers and federal organizations to run multiple stand-alone applications simultaneously on a CloudShield platform or blade, with the ability to share applications across different departments or with other organizations. The latest version of CPOS also features a graphical ‘Virtual Patch Panel’ configuration environment, enabling the installation or reconfiguration of virtual appliances without service interruptions.

To guarantee reliable service, service providers deploy these appliances in pairs each sized with surplus processing capacity. Each would likely have a different management interface. With CloudShield, all of these functions can be delivered as discrete applications running on top of CPOS on a single CloudShield platform
or blade. Also, the total amount of processing capacity can be reduced because surplus capacity can be shared across these four applications, thereby reducing the carbon footprint.

The new Virtual Patch Panel enables service providers to graphically add, reconfigure or re-sequence applications in real-time without requiring any network downtime. Previously, it wasn’t possible to completely repurpose a network device without taking it off-line or without dropping any packets.

CPOS is available immediately for service providers and national governments.

[Source: VMBlog]

IBM Releases New Storage Virtualization Software

June 11, 2008 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

As part of the company’s “Project Big Green” offerings, IBM today announced new storage virtualization software that helps clients manage and consolidate volumes of business data, providing clients with a storage solution designed to help improve utilization rates, energy efficiency, availability, and scalability of critical applications.

According to the press release, the capabilities of the new IBM System Storage SAN Volume Controller (SVC) 4.3 software can help significantly improve the

flexibility and responsiveness of IT infrastructures by creating consolidated, virtual pools of information across the enterprise. Storage virtualization technology can reduce requirements for additional physical storage hardware systems, which can ultimately reduce overall energy usage in the data center.

Virtualization is confirmed as one of the five pillars of IBM’s Project Big Green offerings, and a key component of IBM’s new enterprise data center model, which is based on best practices for virtualization, green IT, service management and cloud computing.

Since its introduction to the market in 2003, IBM has shipped over 12,000 SVC engines running in more than 4,000 SVC systems.

The new IBM SAN Volume Controller 4.3 functions will be available for download on June 27, at no additional charge, and existing SVC customers will be able to take advantage of these improvements when they upgrade to SVC 4.3.

[Source: CNN Money]

Microsoft Officially Launches Server Virtualization Validation Program

June 11, 2008 by Robin Wauters 3 Comments

Microsoft‘s Server Virtualization Validation Program, which was first announced in November 2007, has become operational yesterday, with the patricipation of Citrix, Sun, Novell and Virtual Iron.

The Server Virtualization Validation Program (SVVP) is open to any vendor who delivers a virtualization machine solution that hosts Windows Server 2008, Windows 2000 Server Service Pack 4 and Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 and subsequent service packs. The virtualization solution can either be hypervisor-based or a hosted solution.

The costs associated with joining the program include membership in TSAnet at Mission Critical level, so that the vendor and Microsoft can share support information, incremental costs, if any, to perform the validation tests, and a nominal expense (currently $250) to qualify each ‘configuration’ that is submitted for validation.

Symantec Teams Up With Citrix, Enhances Veritas Virtual Infrastructure Suite

June 11, 2008 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

Symantec has announced Veritas Virtual Infrastructure, which it claims to be the first solution to offer advanced storage capabilities for virtual server environments that effectively manage storage in large scale, x86 production environments.

Veritas Virtual Infrastructure combines storage management capabilities from Veritas Storage Foundation with Citrix XenServer technology. Veritas Virtual Infrastructure aims to preserve all of the key storage management benefits enterprise customers rely on in their physical environments, but are not available in current file-system based virtualization approaches.

Veritas Virtual Infrastructure uses a new distributed volume manager specifically designed to deliver advanced storage management capabilities for virtual servers. It uses a client/server architecture that establishes a unique, individual relationship between each virtual server and its underlying storage, just as if it were a physical server. Since it leverages Storage Foundation, Symantec claims its users can realize all of these benefits from their existing, heterogeneous SAN storage.

Veritas Virtual Infrastructure is expected to be available in the fall of 2008 with proposed pricing starting at $4,595 per 2 socket server.