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30% reduction to attend Profoss, the European Virtualization Conference in Brussels

January 11, 2008 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

As a reader of Virtualization.com you receive a 30% discount to attend the European Virtualisation Conference in Brussel on 22 and 23 january 2008.

Participation to this 2 day event normally costs 290 euros excluding VAT, but is now reduced to 203 EUR ,when you use our promo code VIRTDOTCOM at registration. Participation for one day only is possible at half this cost. This unique conference is organised by Profoss at the Thon Hotel Brussels City Centre (walking distance from the North Station). Major players will be present such as Sun Microsystems, AMD, HP, Unisys, Oracle, Citrix and Microsoft to name just a few.

Day 1: 22 january 2008: Strategy Day

09:45 Current state and evolution of the virtualisation market by John Abbott
11:00 Virtualization: Shift happens by Tarry Singh
12:00 Lunch break
13:00 Networking and discussion time
13:30 Case study by Kris Buytaert
14:30 Closed and open source solutions: an open discussion. panel
15:30 Coffee break
16:00 The impact of virtualization on the enterprise infrastructure by Duncan Hardie
17:00 The future is in the management tools by Niko Nelissen

Day 2: 23 january 2008: Technical Day

09:30 Integrating virtualization in the OS by Frank Kohler
11:00 Coffee break
11:15 Conform deployment of virtual and physical machines with openQRM and Xen by Matthias Rechenburg
12:15 Lunch
13:00 Networking and discussion time
13:30 Optimal storage platform for a virtualized environment by Kristof De Spiegeleer
14:30 HA clustering made simple with OpenVZ by Werner Fischer
15:30 Coffee break
16:00 Linux-VServer: light-weight and resource efficient OS level virtualization by Herbert Poetzl
17:00 Hardware Acceleration for optimal Virtualized Performance by Mike Kreiten

We hope to meet many of you in real life as we will cover this event on-line.

Today the future of Virtualization was demoed by VMWare

September 13, 2007 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

Over the last few years virtualization became a mainstream tool for IT administrators looking to consolidate applications within a data center and continues to be adopted as companies expand the technology to plan for business continuity and create high-availability servers.
At the same time virtualization becomes more available in desktops and mobile devices, where the increased flexibility allows businesses and consumers to reduce costs and increase security.

At VMware’s conference in San Francisco today, their chief scientist Mendel Rosenblum demoed an impressive step ahead in raising the high-availability capabilities of Virtualization technology.

Rosenblum saw the future of Virtualization and named it continuous high availability

He demonstrated two servers running Microsoft Exchange Server being replicated in real time from one virtualization host to another. The primary server on stage that was running the equivalent of 50 users pounding on Microsoft Outlook. The server’s ongoing activity was being mirrored on a secondary server, which was receiving a live stream of events as they were entered into the log of the virtual machine on the first server.

Through a new twist on VMware’s management software, Virtual Infrastructure 3, he unplugged the primary machine, and the second detected a failure and shifted handling the users to the secondary server. Since this secondary server was already receiving a stream of log events, it could pick up at the precise point where the other had left off. The pause between one virtual machine stopping and the secondary server’s virtual machine starting appeared to be about a second. This is basically extending to memory and input devices interaction what is applied to storage data with continuous data protection (CDP) solutions well-known in the security industry. Read the above twice and show of your knowledge of the latest acronym to your tech-savvy friends and explain what CHA or “continuous high availability” stands for in Virtualized environments.

“Ultimately, virtualization will bring about a vision that server makers years ago presented–a dynamically adjusting, self-managing data center…since this approach works not for a few select applications but for anything that runs in a VMware virtual machine! By adopting an approach in between streaming and software-as-a-service, the application starts to run after about 10% of the download occurs, making virtualized applications more palatable to end users…What we’re effectively doing is taking things that were statically assigned in the past and turning them over to a piece of software that makes decisions about how to schedule it. We’re moving toward this idea of a data center that really manages the hardware itself.” Rosenblum added.
Although this much applauded technology is far from being shipped to their customers, VMware seems to have set another milestone in the Virtualization history.
Detailed reports of his keynote are written by the editors Stephen Shankland, Charles Babcock and industry blogger Alessandro Perilli .

Enomalism Beta-Released Management Console for Xen

May 16, 2006 by Robin Wauters 1 Comment

Virtualized Management Console (VMC)

Enomaly, a Canadian innovator in virtualization solutions, announced the Beta deployment of Enomalism Virtualized Management Console , a pre-packaged virtualization infrastructure solution based on Xen 3.0 and available under LGPL open source license. The Enomalism VMC is a powerful web-based systems administrator management tool for XEN hypervisor that enables the management of multiple isolated Virtual Private Servers (VPS) to be managed from a central web based interface. Enomalism brings the performance, stability, security and openness of the Xen hypervisor to the market in a product that emphasizes ease of use, effortless deployment and management of Xen-based virtual infrastructure.

“By using Enomalism, organizations can clearly implement a controlled and easy to manage virtualization environment resulting in increased server utilization, reduced IT cost and improved operational performance,” said Reuven Cohen, CTO of Enomaly. “Enomalism supplies customers with a superior virtualization solution that provides open access to source code and price performance benefits over proprietary offerings. By leveraging Xen virtualization technology and open source standards, Enomalism increases flexibility and reduced total cost of ownership for our enterprise customers”.

Xen is an operating system level server virtualization solution that makes efficient use of your hardware, software and management resources. Xen lets a computer run several operating systems simultaneously, sharing the same hardware and more effectively utilizing its capacity than is typically the case for stand-alone servers. In the Xen virtual environment independent servers perform and execute with their own memory and I/O, configuration files, users and applications running on a single operating system.

Enomalism enables customers from a single interface to start, stop and move virtual machines from one physical computer to another without any interruption in service or availability. Enomalism comes equipped with a provisioning wizard which deploys new virtual machines and centralized user management. Customers can manage memory resources changing virtual machine behavior so priorities are easily met.

Download a free copy of the Enomalism beta or visit their website for more information

Is Virtualization the miracle cure for software set-up?

March 31, 2006 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

Stephen Shankland at News.Com reports:

Most talk about virtualization these days centers on using server hardware more efficiently. But the technology also has the potential to ease another headache: software installation woes.

Today, administrators installing software typically must ensure beforehand that it’s certified to run with their particular hardware and operating systems, then configure and optimize it afterward. The hidden benefit from virtualization is that users can unpack a ready-to-run collection of software components–operating system and all–and drop it onto a fresh, empty partition of the computer called a virtual machine. No muss, no fuss, no driver updates, no configuration file tweaking, no conflicts with other software.Virtualization essentially lets the companies selling the software handle the tricky part also provides a clean slate for installation.There’s one problem, however: Some software licensing plans aren’t designed to accommodate such schemes, though that could eventually change.One convert to the approach is Open Xchange, a server software company that lets customers download its software packaged into a virtual machine so they can quickly get to the evaluation stage. Within the next six months, the company plans to release software for production use, not just testing, said Dan Kusnetzky, executive vice president of marketing strategy. “We send an image that (has) a complete stack of software preinstalled, set up and ready to go,” Kusnetzky said. “We felt it would be an advantage in the competitive marketplace,” he said, because without the virtual machine approach, “it took a level of expertise to install it.” Representatives from three powers in the virtualization realm–EMC subsidiary VMware, its XenSource with the open-source Xen software and Microsoft with the proprietary Virtual Server software–all believe at a minimum that the idea has potential. But it’s VMware, which leads the virtualization market, that’s working hardest to make virtual machine-based installation a reality–and to make its underlying virtual machine technology the foundation of choice. It has a Web site where people can download sample virtual-machine-based packages from Oracle, IBM and others. “The reasons it’s going to become mainstream is you can now package your application with the operating system it really wants. You get the exact patch level and everything in the OS that you want,” said VMware President Diane Greene. And it’s particularly useful for small software companies that don’t have engineers to support a wide variety of systems. “They don’t have to necessarily port their software to every possible operating system and every possible version of the operating system.” In recent months, VMware started offering two free ways that customers can try out virtual-machine-based software packages, which it calls virtual appliances. First came VMware Player in 2005, good for desktop applications, such as an isolated partition for safely surfing the Internet. In February came part two: VMware Server for server tasks. Xen programmers are currently stabilizing their core virtual machine software, but virtual-machine-based installation will happen with Xen, too, predicted Simon Crosby, XenSource co-founder and chief technology officer. “That’s equally possible in Xen…I definitely think it’s going to happen,” Crosby said, though he acknowledged Xen doesn’t yet have VMware’s mature virtual machine management software or established presence at many customer sites.

Licensing lumps

Not so fast, cautions Illuminata analyst Gordon Haff. “This is a direction, but not a near-term mainstream change in the way that everyone installs their applications,” Haff said. “There are too many details to work through. Licensing is one issue.” The licensing hurdle stems chiefly from the fact that the installation method requires the inclusion of an operating system, and although software companies might delight in distributing them willy-nilly, operating system companies are more finicky. Microsoft, for example, permits only evaluation copies of Windows to be distributed, and then only within a company and only to test and evaluate software, said James Ni, group product manager for server virtualization at Microsoft. “Currently there is no redistribution of the Windows Server operating system,” Ni said. Right now, the virtual installation idea is about testing software rather than full-on production use, so the evaluation software approach is appropriate, Ni argued. He’s not alone in his assessment. “I would expect this to be primarily about experimentation,” said Forrester analyst Frank Gillett. Ni didn’t close the door to virtual-machine-based software sales. Market forces dictated major changes to Microsoft licensing policies before. For example, Microsoft in 2004 began charging the same price for a dual-core processor as for a single-core processor, and in 2005 started permitting customers with one license for Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition to run as many as four copies on a single server partitioned with virtual machine software. But Microsoft’s policy is an impediment to VMware’s aspiration. Greene sees companies distributing virtual-machine-based software internally today and expects customers will eventually buy it that way, Greene said. “Microsoft is not letting their operating system be used in this model,” Greene said. And though it’s had a more permissive position in the past, it has backed off that stance: “Microsoft did not renew our license to (redistribute) Windows.” Open-source software, of course, has fewer restrictions. “Linux makes it easy,” Gillett said. …

Not just the operating system

Microsoft, Xen and VMware virtualize a computer’s hardware. But some companies tackling the problem at a higher level are offering a different revamp of software installation. SWsoft sells a product called Virtuozzo that essentially virtualizes the operating system rather than the underlying hardware. That lets several programs run at once in separate zones on one instance Linux or Windows. Sun Microsystems has taken the same approach with its “containers” technology in Solaris 10. “We have templates for close to 100 different solutions and applications for various configurations,” said SWsoft Chief Executive Serguei Beloussov. “When you apply a template to a certain virtual private server (a partition), this solution will immediately become available.” …Softricity is another company that tries to break the hard link between operating system and applications. Its software first captures all the modifications a software package makes to Windows, letting companies store employees’ configurations on a central server rather than directly modifying a PC and potentially causing conflicts among different programs. “The applications are no longer bound to the operating system,” said David Greschler, co-founder and vice president of corporate marketing. That lets administrators quickly set up new PCs or update existing ones, he said. It also means employees can move from one PC to another without disruption, because their software is automatically enabled when they log on to a new PC.

Different standards

Yet another complication comes from the fact that VMware, Xen and Microsoft use a different file format for their virtual machines. In August, VMware began trying to standardize its format. That was shortly after Microsoft began offering royalty-free licenses to use its format, called Virtual Hard Disk. And Xen uses a third format, XVM. Barriers between these formats are not insurmountable. For example, XenSource licensed Microsoft’s VHD and will offer the ability to import virtual machines created with Microsoft Virtual Server, Crosby said, and VMware shared its format as well. At the same time, VMware offers support for that feature with its Virtual Machine Importer software. Insurmountable, yes, but barriers nonetheless. “It will tend to retard the movement toward a standard hypervisor level that just sits on top of x86 hardware,” Haff said, adding that low barriers would mean customers could more easily substitute one virtualization company’s product for another. “It is not in VMware’s (or Microsoft’s) business interest to be able to have someone’s free, native hypervisor just slip in to replace ESX Server.” Another hitch stems from cultural obstacles to virtualization in general, Red Hat Chief Executive Matthew Szulik said. “The customers I’ve talked to over the last six months are challenged by the human issues: How will they deal with the sharing of physical resources across the enterprise? We’ve all gotten conditioned to having our own server environments,” he said. Virtual installation will happen, but XenSource’s Crosby understands the change won’t happen overnight, “I think it’s going to be a fairly profound change for the industry to get there.”

Read this full article at source

Virtualization all the way to Kyoto?

March 30, 2006 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

Blade servers

Although blade servers are not directly related to virtualization, they are often considered since the Blade-concept also involves around several kinds of consolidation (physical, logical, partitioning, etc…). Any one who ever stood behind an open rack filled with running blades can certainly testify about the generated heating. If you happen to pay the electricity bill, you certainly now about the extravagant energy cost! Also bear in mind that all this heat needs to be cooled down again requiring even more energy for your datacenter. I wonder how long it will take before chipmakers will manage to include energy consumption in their equation of “moore’s law”. Now the technology sector is only starting to become a little more environmentally concerned, thus making the Kyoto goals more reachable. Intel recently announced Conroe, a desktop processor that is 40% faster than the current generation while using 40% less power and unveiled a server processor, Woodcrest, which boasts 80% more power and 35% less power consumption.

Energy consumption

Joan Goodchild at SearchWinIT.com & SearchDataCenter.com reports on the high energy consumption of blades.

“Blade servers, which are deemed the next big thing in hardware, are also a big energy drain in an enterprise, according to a recent study that looks at the latest advances in server technology. The results of the study by TheInfoPro (TIP) Inc., a New York research firm, reveal that these new server technologies have not provided heating and cooling advantages. TIP recently released the second half of a server study it conducted in 2005. The research examined the concerns of 133 server professionals.
…
Despite their intense heat production, the slim servers are indeed a priority for IT managers. According to TIP’s survey, 62% of the respondents said they will spend more money on blade servers in the next year.
Bob Gill (TIP’s chief research officer) said blade vendors are realizing that excess power is a problem in terms of energy efficiency, and there is an initiative among them to create blades that are more energy-efficient. A number of groups have suggested that vendors should develop a standard for measuring energy efficiency and then develop technology accordingly. He also noted that virtualization technology would alleviate some problems with power efficiency and consolidation.Overall, the research found that power and energy pose the biggest challenges for server administrators. Thirty-eight percent of users said power requirements are the greatest challenge to the data center. Thirty-one percent cited cooling requirements, and just over 20% cited heat output.”It’s a vicious cycle,” said Gill. “While systems become denser, their energy efficiency has decreased. Devices are getting smaller and smaller, but they are getting hotter.”

Read the whole SearchDataCenter.com article at source.

Virtual Server RDP Administration Annoyance

March 22, 2006 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

Quoting from a Q&A column from Chris Wolf at MCPmag.com

Question to Chris:

I’m having a strange problem with the Virtual Server 2005 Administration Web Site. I’m accessing the server remotely using remote desktop and can connect fine. However, when I try and open the virtual server administration web site from within the RDP session, I get a “Page Cannot be Found” error. Other users on the local LAN don’t have any problem accessing the site using IE. Is this one of those strange Terminal Services problems?
— Steve

Anwer to Steve:

Your prediction is right on the money. Remote Desktop and Terminal Services can do some strange things. Many of us at one time or another have found ourselves scratching our heads over a particular program or installation sequence that would not work when launched from within a Remote Desktop connection.

With your particular problem, connecting to the Virtual Server host using IE directly or through a VPN connection would be your best bet. If this isn’t possible, you can get the Virtual Server Administration Web site to run inside an RDP session by running the RDP session as a remote IE console. In other words, you’ll need to configure Remote Desktop to launch IE at the time the RDP connection is made. While this will prevent you from accessing the actual desktop of the remote Virtual Server host, it will allow you to access the Administration website through the RDP connection. You can always set up a second RDP connection for complete access to the Virtual Server host’s desktop.

Instructions

To set up Remote Desktop to start IE once a connection is made, follow these steps:

1. Click Start | All Programs | Accessories | Communications | Remote Desktop.
2. In the Remote Desktop Connection dialog box, click the Options button.
3. Now click the Programs tab in the Remote Desktop Connection dialog box.
4. Click the “Start the following program on connection” checkbox and enter the following information:
Program Path and File Name:
iexplore.exe https://localhost/virtualserver/vswebapp.exe

Start in the Following Folder:
C:Program FilesInternet Explorer
5. Now click the General tab and enter the name or IP address of your virtual server in the Computer Name field.
6. Enter a user name and password (check the Save My Password box if desired), and then click the Save As button. In the Save As dialog box, browse to your desired save location such as the Desktop, enter a name for the connection such as RDPIE.rdp, and click Save.

At this point, you can double-click on the saved RDP connection to initiate an RDP connection to your virtual server host. I like to save RDP connection settings so that I don’t have to retype them over and over again, which could interfere with any personal tasks I’m trying to do while at work.

Note that I’m assuming an HTTPS connection here (shown in Step 4). The default method for connecting would be via HTTP; however, my Virtual Server Web site is configured to only allow SSL. If you’re looking for a simple way to set up SSL support for Virtual Server, take a look at the article, “Configure SSL for Virtual Server 2005 Using SelfSSL,” at thelazyadmin.com.

With Remote Desktop configured to launch IE and connect to the Virtual Server Administration Web site once you log on, you’ll see IE open up inside the Remote Desktop window once your login is authenticated. If you close IE, you’ll automatically be logged off from the RDP session.

With this approach, you’ll be able to access and work with the Virtual Server Administration Web site through a Remote Desktop connection. For some, seeing an application work correctly when run as a stand-alone program via RDP when it does not work in a normal RDP session, is considered nearly magical. Who knows? Maybe even David Blaine can show off a little RDP trickery as part of his street magic.

Chris Wolf, MCSE, MCT, CCNA, is an instructor with ECPI Technical College and a leading industry consultant and writer in the areas of enterprise storage, virtualization solutions and network infrastructure management…