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News and insights from the vibrant world of virtualization and cloud computing

“Benchmarking” The Citrix / XenServer Combo with Ian Pratt (Video Interview – Part 4)

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During the Fosdem 2008 conference, we had a chance to sit down (on a bench) with Xen Guru Ian Pratt. Below is the fourth and last part (see part 1, part 2 and part 3) of our exclusive interview, where Ian shines his light on Citrix Xenserver, relocating virtual machines (VM), VM-mirroring, OVF, page tables algorithms, open source community involvement, management frameworks, the Citrix take-over, Virtualization marketing with OS-enlightment, FUD-tactics by VMWare, self-healing servers, Xen embedded in firmware, why Amazon goes with Xen, the Xen GPL license, OracleVM, xVM (Sun), Parallels and the future of virtualization…

We cut the interview into 4 digestable pieces, which we publish one at a time (see part 1, part 2 and part 3). As said, this is the final part (soon, you’ll also find a written transcript below for your convenience):

The video is also up on YouTube and Steamocracy.

Large Majority of Applications Don’t Work In Virtual Environments

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According to application compatibility tools developer Changebase AOK, a staggering 87% of applications may have issues when deploying in a virtualized environment. Evidently, the source implies that the results may have to be taken with a grain of salt, but still.

Changebase AOK says it has sponsored an independent study, which used a random sample of 100 key applications working with enterprise systems – and ran those through its AOK Virtualise-IT testing suite. It found that two thirds could be virtualized but half would need some remedial work or deployment with dependent components. At least we know that’s true as far as Brain Fitness goes.

“Of the issues and information revealed by AOK, the largest group was the identification of the need for Microsoft Office availability – meaning an application wants to use an Office application, and that if this is not loaded in the Virtual environment the application will experience problems,” explains Grant Ford.

“131 informational messages were raised across 16 of the applications that could be virtualised, showing that they had a dependency on Office components being available to them – which proved interesting, as the biggest concern that clients had voiced was the ability to be able to identify dependant middleware or missing dependencies,” he adds.

[Source: Manufacturing Computer Solutions]

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

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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

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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]

Open Kernel Labs Receives $2.5M Research Grant, Aims To Embed OS And Virtualization In Mobile Devices

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Open Kernel Labs (OK Labs), a provider of embedded systems software and virtualization technology, announced today that it has won a $2.5M research grant under AusIndustry’s “Commercial Ready” program, which awards funds to enterprises that demonstrate the highest potential for innovation and its commercialization. The funds will be used to initiate a research, development and commercialization project centered on a technology transfer agreement with Australian research lab NICTA.

Open Kernel Labs

This investment will support research, prototyping and early stage commercialization, which will add unprecedented capabilities to OK Labs’ Secure HyperCell technology. Work under the grant will include the complete formal verification of the OKL4 microkernel and support enhancements to OKL4 that enable “better-designed and more secure software for mobile devices and consumer electronics”. The outcome aims to be a platform uniquely able to support resource-constrained, security- and safety-critical embedded devices.

Secure HyperCell technology provides a secure environment for operating systems, applications and drivers on mobile devices. More details regarding the development and commercialization from the project and its integration with OKL4 are expected to be announced at a later date. We’ll keep you updated!

[Source: VMBlog]

CloudShield Helps Service Providers Virtualize Network Appliances

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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.

CloudShield

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]