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Ubuntu Releases “Hardy Heron”, OS Version 8.04 In Beta

March 21, 2008 by Robin Wauters 1 Comment

After four Alpha releases, Ubuntu has now released version 8.04 of the popular Operating System, code-named “Hardy Heron”, in beta. Apart from the boat load of new features, libvirt and virt-manager have been integrated in Ubuntu. They allow for easy guest creation and basic management of virtual machines out of the box. Virt-manager can be used to administer guests on a remote server.

The kernel also includes virtio, greatly improving I/O performance in guests.

The beta version of Ubuntu 8.04 also comes with the following new features:

Xorg 7.3

The latest Xorg, Xorg 7.3, is available in Hardy, with an emphasis on better autoconfiguration with a minimal configuration file. This Beta brings a new Screen Resolution utility that allows users to dynamically configure the resolution, refresh rate, and rotation of a second monitor. This will be particularly handy for laptop users that connect to a projector or external monitor.

Linux kernel 2.6.24

This Beta includes the 2.6.24-12.13 kernel based on 2.6.24.3. This brings in significant enhancements and fixes that have been merged in the last few months into the mainline kernel.

GNOME 2.22

Hardy Heron Beta brings you the latest and greatest GNOME 2.22 with lots of new features and improvements, such as a new Nautilus that uses GVFS as its backend. GVFS makes it possible to fix shortcomings of Nautilus such as the inability to restore files from trash, pause and undo file operations, and will make it possible to escalate user privileges for certain operations using PolicyKit for authentication. It also brings a significant performance boost to many operations.

PolicyKit

PolicyKit is now integrated in the administrative user interfaces. PolicyKit allows fine-grained control over user permissions and enhances usability and security, by allowing administrative applications to be run as a normal user and gaining extra privileges dynamically only for privileged operations instead of requiring the whole application to run as root.

PulseAudio

PulseAudio is now enabled by default. Some non-GNOME applications still need to be changed to output to pulse/esd by default and the volume control tools are not yet integrated.

Firefox 3 Beta 4

Firefox 3 Beta 4 replaces Firefox 2 as the default browser, bringing much better system integration including GTK2 form buttons and common dialogs. and icon theming that matches the system.

Transmission

The GTK version of the popular Transmission BitTorrent client comes preinstalled in Ubuntu, replacing the Gnome BitTorrent downloader.

Vinagre

The new Vinagre VNC client is installed by default in Beta, replacing xvnc4viewer. Vinagre allows the user to view multiple machines simultaneously, can discover VNC servers on the network via Avahi, and can keep track of recently used and favorite connections.

Brasero

The Brasero CD/DVD burning application, which will complement the CD/DVD burning functions of Nautilus and replace the Serpentine audio CD burning utility, is installed by default in Beta.

World Clock Applet

Integrating the features of the intlclock applet, the GNOME panel clock in Beta can display the time and weather in multiple locations.

Inkscape

Inkscape 0.46 introduces native PDF support, providing an easy, open source solution to editing text and graphics in PDF documents. Users will appreciate being able to draw up flyers, posters, and other docmuents, save them as PDF in inkscape, and send them to a print shop for printing without ever leaving Ubuntu or loading a proprietary tool.

ActiveDirectory integration

Likewise Open, available from the universe repository, enables seamless integration of Ubuntu within an Active Directory network. Users can use their AD credentials to log onto Ubuntu machines and access any kerberized services provided by an Ubuntu Server.

iSCSI support

iSCSI Initiator has been fully integrated in the kernel, allowing Ubuntu to mount iSCSI targets as a block device. iSCSI is available in the Ubuntu Server installer if iscsi=true is passed on the kernel command line at the beginning of the install process.

Firewall

Ubuntu 8.04 Beta includes ufw (Uncomplicated Firewall), a new host-based firewall application configurable from the command line which is designed to make administering a firewall easier for end users while not getting in the way of network administrators.

Memory Protection

Additional access checks have been added so that /dev/mem and /dev/kmem can only be used to access device memory. These changes will help defend against rootkits and other malicious code.

The lower 64K of system memory is no longer addressable by default. This will help defend against malicious code that attempts to leverage kernel bugs into security vulnerabilities.

Applications compiled as Position Independent Executables (PIE) are now placed into memory in unpredictable locations, making it harder for security vulnerabilities to be exploited.

Wubi

There is a new installation option for Windows users. Wubi allows users to install and uninstall Ubuntu like any other Windows application. It does not require a dedicated partition, nor does it affect the existing bootloader, yet users can experience a dual-boot setup almost identical to a full installation. Wubi works with a physical CD or in stand-alone mode, by downloading an appropriate ISO to install from. It can be found on the root of the CD as Wubi.exe. A full installation within a dedicated partition is still recommended, but Wubi is a great way to try Ubuntu for a few days and weeks before committing dedicated disk resources.

umenu

WinFOSS and the Windows open source software have been replaced by umenu, a simple launcher that lets the user install Ubuntu from Windows using Wubi, install Ubuntu to a partition without having to make their CD-ROM the first boot device.

To download the Ubuntu 8.04 Beta check out this page. The full and final OS is expected to be released next month.

[Source: TechConnect Magazine]

Citrix Raises the Bar on Integrated Server Virtualization with HP Select Edition

March 20, 2008 by Toon Vanagt Leave a Comment

This morning Citrix and HP jointly announced a long awaited strategic development and distribution agreement that will integrate an enhanced version of Citrix XenServer™ into 64-bit HP ProLiant servers, which they ‘simply’ named the Citrix XenServer HP Select Edition.

The subtitle of the press-release proudly claims “Jointly Developed Solution Offers Unparalleled User Experience and Out-of-the-Box Integration with HP Insight Control Management Software”. We are not sure if Citrix tries to hint at Virtualization vendor Parallels with this interesting choice of wording…

This new solution supposedly features an easy-to-use graphical management console and is seamlessly integrated with the same HP Insight Control management software that customers already use to physically administer their HP ProLiant servers. With this new solution, new and existing HP and Citrix customers will be able to deploy and manage a virtualized environment faster and easier than before. This virtualization bundle follows the VMware partnership with HP, which was announced a few weeks ago during the VMworld Europe Event in Cannes.

Seems like there are interesting times ahead, when you purchase servers at the major hardware vendors… Upon ordering, you will be able to select which virtualization vendor (VMware or XenServer) you want to bundle you new hardware with. Dell already opened a Virtualization price war, as it announced to cover the full cost of certain VMware ESX server 3i licenses and bundles it for free with its newest servers.

The Citrix XenServer HP Select Edition is part of the HP ProLiant iVirtualization offering and according to the press release below, it provides extensive advantages over alternative solutions.

These advantages include faster implementation of Citrix XenServer virtualization technology on HP ProLiant servers, increased ease-of use for HP ProLiant customers utilizing Citrix XenServer, and leveraged investments in HP management tools such as HP Integrated Lights-Out (iLO) for remote server management.
“This integrated solution from Citrix and HP promises to have a significant impact on the industry by making the virtualization of servers as easy as managing physical servers,” said Mark Bowker, analyst, Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG). “By enabling virtualization to be simple from the very beginning, it not only helps proliferate virtualization technology, but also enables enterprises to adopt it faster and easier.”
Integrated Virtualization Done Right
Citrix XenServer is a simple, efficient way to virtualize servers and help deliver a dynamic data center—a flexible, aggregated pool of computing and storage resources. Citrix XenServer supports 64-bit and extends the development and testing resources of the open source Xen virtualization engine, delivering easy-to-use dynamic virtualization solutions.
By tightly integrating Citrix XenServer into ProLiant platforms, Citrix and HP will provide a simpler deployment and management environment that speeds adoption of flexible, cost-saving server virtualization technology, making it the optimal choice for virtualization on HP systems. Highlights include:
• New HP ProLiant iVirtualization – This offering integrates virtualization capabilities into the ProLiant server platform, empowering customers to virtualize their server environments. It allows customers to quickly and easily boot up a Citrix XenServer environment, either on a single server or as part of an end-to-end Citrix solution for server, application and desktop virtualization (see today’s related announcement from HP).
• New HP ProLiant Virtual Console – The newly developed HP ProLiant Virtual Console (PVC), unique to Citrix and HP solutions, provides the same simple-to-use GUI interface to set up and manage virtual machines as HP customers already use to set up and manage individual physical servers. HP PVC further removes complexity from virtualization installations by offering single server virtual machine management using the server’s local keyboard, video, and mouse, or remotely using HP iLO that comes standard with every ProLiant server. This reduces the need for a dedicated management server or even a network connection, as it can be handled directly on the virtualized server.
• Pre-Integrated HP Management – Citrix XenServer HP products are the only integrated virtualization solutions to feature pre-integrated HP management agent technology. As a result, customers can use the same familiar management systems for virtualization that they have been using on their existing HP ProLiant servers, such as HP Systems Insight Manager (SIM). HP SIM provides a consolidated view of system hardware health, configuration, performance and status information for individual HP servers. In addition, HP Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) now supports Citrix XenServer and can be used to perform advanced management of virtual machines.
• Transparent Distribution of Virtualization Technology – The HP version of Citrix XenServer will be available on ten models of ProLiant servers, enabling customers to order systems with XenServer already integrated. The integrated solution will transparently power on as part of the system start-up, without any user intervention. This approach enables fast and straightforward virtual deployments with a consistent, reliable, and familiar ProLiant experience. Additionally, select models of existing HP ProLiant servers will be upgradeable with the XenServer technology.
• Seamless Upgrade – Citrix XenServer HP Select Edition provides a simple license-key upgrade to more powerful enterprise-class features included in Citrix XenServer Enterprise and Platinum editions, such as dynamic provisioning of both virtual and physical servers. – This makes it the only integrated virtualization solution to allow customers to upgrade and leverage enterprise features without having to shutdown and re-install new software or backend management systems.
• End-to-End Virtualization – After implementing Citrix XenServer, HP customers can also easily take advantage of Citrix’s application and desktop virtualization solutions to make the IT infrastructure more flexible and dynamic. Citrix XenApp™ for application virtualization stores all Windows applications in a single central store in the datacenter and then delivers them to end users on-demand via innovative application virtualization technology. Citrix XenDesktop™ is the industry’s first comprehensive, fully integrated desktop delivery system, moving beyond the limitations of existing virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) point solutions to ensure the simple, secure, fast delivery of Windows desktops to any office worker over any network.
“HP is the largest x86 server vendor in the world, and by embedding Citrix XenServer into 64-bit HP ProLiant servers, HP and Citrix will make virtualization available to enterprises of any size and accelerate the adoption of server virtualization,” said Peter Levine, senior vice president and general manager, Virtualization and Management Division, Citrix. “Citrix and HP share the belief that virtualization should be a natural extension of the hardware platform, and the integration of XenServer with ProLiant uniquely combines the industry’s deepest integration with a seamless user experience.”
“We have made significant efforts to ensure our customers have the leading options for deploying and managing virtualization,” said Scott Farrand, vice president, Industry Standard Server Software, HP. “HP ProLiant and BladeSystem servers with Insight Control management tools, combined with the unique architecture of Citrix XenServer, deliver a truly integrated user experience that makes virtualization feel like a seamless capability within the infrastructure.”
In addition to these comprehensive server virtualization capabilities, the two companies are also working to strengthen existing storage capabilities for customers. Citrix is a member of the HP Information Management and Storage Partner Program and is working closely with HP’s StorageWorks division on compatibility and certification testing across HP’s enterprise storage product portfolio.
Availability
Citrix XenServer HP Select Edition will be available and supported worldwide from HP on March 31, 2008. The Citrix XenServer HP Select Edition offers a low cost, all-in-one solution with integrated Citrix XenServer and HP ProLiant Virtual Console for single server management. HP Select Edition allows creation of an unlimited number of virtual machines per server, with up to 32 GB memory per virtual machine. For optimum enhanced data center flexibility, HP Enterprise Edition enables additional functionality such as resource pooling and live migration. This functionality leverages both ProLiant Virtual Console for single server management and XenCenter for virtual machine management across multiple servers. HP Enterprise Edition also includes HP technical support and services.
About Citrix XenServer
Citrix XenServer, a member of the Citrix Delivery Center™ product family, is an enterprise-class solution for virtualizing application workloads across any number of servers in the datacenter as a flexible aggregated pool of computing resources. With the new Platinum Edition, XenServer becomes the first and only solution on the market to address both virtual and physical servers, making the entire datacenter more dynamic.

McAfee Wants To Secure Virtualization

March 17, 2008 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

McAfee, one of the world’s leading security companies, today unveiled what it refers to as the industry’s first service designed to help organizations securely deploy virtualization technologies.

As part of its strategy to provide the most complete solution for secure virtualization, McAfee Foundstone Professional Services also outlined a set of security guidelines covering people, processes and technology to educate enterprises adopting virtualization technologies.

“With the popularity of virtualization and the rush to reap its benefits, companies may not always follow the best security best practices,” said Patrick Hayati, Regional Director McAfee, Middle East. “Many of the security practices that work in physical computing environments also work in the virtual world, yet there are some unique requirements. Our new service will help customers meet the security requirements of these new virtual environments.”

McAfee offers additional insight into securing virtual environments in “Virtualization and Risk – Key Security Considerations for your Enterprise Architecture,” a new paper available at http://www.mcafee.com/virtualization. For more information about the Foundstone Virtual Infrastructure Security Assessment service visit www.foundstone.com/virtualization.

[Source: Al Bawaba]

VMworld Europe 2008: The Sessions

March 17, 2008 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

As pointed out by VMblog, the VMworld Session & Labs are now online. You can check out a pile of videos & presentation slides as a nice addition to our own video coverage of VMworld.

HP Wants To Power ‘Next Generation’ Data Center Transformation

March 17, 2008 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

HP today announced ‘a set of products and services designed to help customers transform their data centers from a standalone collection of physical assets into a virtual and adaptive infrastructure designed to rapidly meet changing business needs’, which it dubs the next generation data center (NGDC).

From the press release:

HP is providing businesses with the technology tools and strategies needed to address top data center initiatives: energy efficiency, automation, virtualization, consolidation and business continuity.

Coupled with HP’s current systems, storage, software and services, the new products and services make up the HP Data Center Transformation portfolio, which helps enterprises to manage and transform their data centers.

“Today customers are facing multiple challenges – the explosion of data, a growing mobile workforce and the need for access to real-time information,” said Ann Livermore, executive vice president, Technology Solutions Group, HP. “HP is uniquely qualified to help CIOs dramatically change the way they create, manage and operate their data centers.”

HP infrastructure additions include new services, plus a powerful HP ProLiant server:

HP Critical Facilities services – As a result of its February acquisition of EYP Mission Critical Facilities, HP is expanding its Data Center Services offering with three new critical facilities services focused on consulting, design and assurance. The services help customers create scalable facilities that reduce the cost of data center operations through energy-efficient power and cooling technologies contained in space-efficient facilities.⁽²⁾

HP Data Center Consolidation services – These include design, transition and support services to help customers reduce the number of their facilities. As a result, customers reduce energy and operating costs while maintaining the ability to support business growth with a robust, flexible infrastructure.

HP Data Center Virtualization services – The HP virtualization portfolio has been enhanced with new design, support and education services that help customers create a virtual infrastructure from their physical technology assets. This includes virtualization across servers, storage, networks and applications.

HP ProLiant DL785 G5 server – The HP ProLiant DL785 G5 is a powerful and scalable eight-socket x86 server based on Quad-Core AMD® Opteron™ processor technology. The server is an ideal platform for virtualization due to its processing power, large memory footprint, storage capacity and expandable input/output. The DL785 improves server utilization by consolidating multiple servers and reduces the management, energy and space issues associated with server sprawl.

New software provides single view of physical and virtual world, enhanced automation:

HP Insight Dynamics – VSE – This is the industry’s first software to analyze and optimize physical and virtual resources in the same way. The software helps customers extend the life of their data centers with advanced energy-aware capacity planning. HP Insight Dynamics – VSE will support multi-vendor hypervisor technologies and can reduce costs of common data center tasks by as much as 40 percent. Previewed today and expected to be available in the second calendar quarter of 2008, HP Insight Dynamics – VSE seamlessly plugs into HP Systems Insight Manager, the world’s most popular platform management tool.

HP Operations Orchestration enhancements – New integrations extend comprehensive automation across all physical and virtual infrastructures. By automating manual and error-prone processes across clients, applications, servers, networks, and storage, these integrations help customers better manage and automate business services. Additionally, these enhancements help customers reduce labor costs, increase service availability and meet compliance requirements by providing auditable, standardized processes.

[Source: ZDnet Blogs]

Arrow ECS Launches V-PWR Program To Help NetApp Resellers Sell Virtualization

March 17, 2008 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

The Enterprise Computing Solutions (ECS) business of Arrow Electronics today launched “V-PWR”, a program to help its North American NetApp reseller partners capitalize on increasing demand for virtualization.

From the press release:

Through the V-PWR program, Arrow ECS provides education, training and tools to help NetApp partners pursue and close sales for virtualization solutions with their customers. Partners receive educational sales materials about virtualization challenges and solutions; onsite sales and technical training; personalized sales coaching; and marketing support, among other program services.

In addition, partners gain certification to resell virtualization software that complement NetApp(R) environments, such as VMware, distributed through Arrow subsidiary Alternative Technology Inc. NetApp virtualization accreditation is also available for partners that are seeking to increase profits by offering storage virtualization solutions.