I/O Virtualization

Xsigo Upgrades VP780 I/O Director

September 8, 2008 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

Xsigo Systems (previous coverage), provider of data center I/O virtualization solutions, today announced the availability of an enhanced version of the company’s VP780 I/O Director. The enhanced product, called the VP780 x2, is designed to set new performance and ease-of-use standards for data center customers using virtual I/O technologies.

The new VP780 x2 offers all the benefits of its predecessor — greater data center agility, up to 50% less capital cost, and 70% fewer cables — now with a 100% increase in server connectivity speed. The VP780 x2 delivers 20Gbs of bandwidth to each server, making it the world’s fastest converged I/O fabric. The product also offers industry-first features that allow users to quickly monitor and manage their I/O topology with a single view that extends from the virtual machines to the physical switch ports.

The enhanced data center I/O management capabilities of the VP780 x2 include a single-screen view of virtual machines, virtual switches and I/O topologies. This view enables end-to-end visualization of resources extending from the virtual machine to a physical switch port. Enhanced performance monitoring now includes traffic statistics accessible through third party tools.

The faster server connection speed delivers greater throughput and increased VMotion performance for faster deployment of virtual resources.

Also new in the VP780 x2 are enhanced SAN and iSCSI boot capabilities that allow users to boot any server from any Fibre Channel or iSCSI LUN for fast re-purposing of server resources. Customers can now adapt to dynamic workloads, deploy resources on demand, and boost utilization by rapidly changing both a server’s I/O personality and its application workload, all within the Xsigo virtual I/O environment.
Xsigo is the only vendor to combine virtual I/O technology, a unified fabric, and a hardware-based platform to deliver data center-wide scalability and a single point of management for all I/O resources.

Xsigo launched its first virtual I/O product in September of 2007 specifically to address the I/O complexity and performance bottlenecks found in today’s data centers. Xsigo consolidates the I/O infrastructure and replaces physical network and storage interfaces (NICs and HBAs) with virtual resources that are remotely manageable from a single console. The Xsigo solution works with today’s existing infrastructure, and incorporates a modular design that is easily adapted to accommodate new networks, servers, and interconnect standards.

The beta version of the VP780 x2 is available immediately and sold directly through Xsigo Systems, Inc. and its qualified resellers.

Xsigo Systems

3Leaf Introduces V-8000 Virtual I/O Server 2.0

August 5, 2008 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

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3Leaf Systems today announced the general availability of 3Leaf V-8000 Virtual I/O Server version 2.0, a key component of 3Leaf Virtual Compute Environment. The new software release delivers disaster recovery, streamlined management, and enhanced availability for large x86 server deployments. The company claims the V-8000 version 2.0 software is the first I/O virtualization solution to run on standard off the shelf commodity x86 servers. 3Leaf’s new Virtual Compute Environment solution will be introduced at the Next Generation Data Center/LinuxWorld Conference & Expo in San Francisco.

Powered by V-8000 version 2.0, 3Leaf’s Virtual Compute Environment solution delivers the following features and benefits to enterprise data centers and server farms:

Greatly simplified management and provisioning of large-scale server deployments, with asset hierarchies and separation between infrastructure architecture and ongoing operations, bringing true relief to IT departments.
Disaster recovery solution that automates service recovery of production server farms and sites to a consolidated recovery site.
Boosted operational agility with accelerators such as building composite servers from modular building blocks, application level provisioning without server reboot, and easy drag-and-drop operations.
Improved availability and resiliency, with a novel multi-pathing approach that eliminates operating system dependent setup and brings cost-effective I/O high-availability to every server farm.
Ease of solution deployment and investment protection with proven software running on standard x86 servers. The V-8000 Virtual I/O Server software runs on a commodity platform available from 3Leaf or commercial channels.
Now with a backbone I/O fabric of up to 40Gb/s, servers running the new release will have a wider data path for I/O-heavy operations, especially for heavily loaded hypervisor hosts and where VM migration such as VMotion requires an uninterrupted path.

3Leaf V-8000 Virtual I/O Server version 2.0 is available now. Customers have the option to order a complete system from 3Leaf including hardware and pre-installed software, or purchase the hardware independently and order the software and any installation and deployment services they need from 3Leaf. Pricing begins at US $2,500 per managed server, excluding the hardware platform price.

3Leaf Systems

Denali Bundles I/O Virtualization Technology Solution With PureSpec PCI Express Verification IP

August 1, 2008 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

Denali Software, provider of electronic design automation (EDA) software and intellectual property (IP), today announced that its PureSpec PCI Express (PCIe) verification intellectual property (VIP) product, supports the complete PCI-SIG I/O Virtualization (IOV) specifications, now including Multi-Root IOV (MR-IOV).

The PCI-SIG IOV suite of specifications minimizes system hardware and software requirements, allowing the simultaneous sharing of peripherals across multiple microprocessors and operating systems, increasing the performance of virtualized systems and enabling significant power savings. Denali’s PureSpec VIP allows verification engineers to verify their next-generation designs, ranging from server processors and network chipset to communication systems, for compliance to the latest PCIe standard, and take advantage of the newest set of IOV technologies.

Denali Software

Xsigo Partners With Carahsoft to Bring I/O Virtualization to Government Agencies

July 29, 2008 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

Carahsoft, a government IT solutions provider, today announced that it has expanded its VMware Complementary Solutions team to include Xsigo Systems, which specializes in I/O virtualization.

Xsigo Systems is the latest vendor to be added to Carahsoft’s VMware Complementary Solutions Team, which provides public-sector buyers with one-stop shopping for related technologies that address agencies’ virtualization needs across servers, desktops, applications, networks, and storage.

“As VMware’s master government aggregator, Carahsoft offers proven expertise in virtualization technologies and in marketing and selling to the public sector marketplace,” said Jon Toor, vice president of marketing at Xsigo. “We look forward to working with the Carahsoft team to bring our innovative I/O technology to bear on the challenges facing IT managers interested in deploying VMware software faster, on more servers, and across more applications.”

Dell Introduces Blade Chassis Virtualization Tool FlexAddress

July 1, 2008 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

Dell has followed on the introduction of its PowerEdge M-Series blade server solution with Dell FlexAddress, a tool for blade chassis virtualization and persistent identity. Dell FlexAddress is in essence an I/O virtualization tool for its blade servers, making it easier for IT managers to install new blades and swap out servers.

Dell FlexAddress is enabled by a special SD card for the PowerEdge M1000e Chassis Management Controller (CMC) and the latest firmware. The FlexAddress SD card is now available worldwide with a starting price of $499.

Dell says FlexAddress allows any M-Series blade enclosure to abstract the Fibre Channel World Wide Name (WWN) and Ethernet/iSCSI Media Access Control (MAC) from the blade hardware and, instead, tie it persistently to a slot in the M1000e chassis. This feature provides customers with an efficient, flexible and consistent infrastructure. Dell FlexAddress is managed by the Chassis Management Controller (CMC) in the PowerEdge M1000e, keeping it agnostic to the I/O module and avoiding the need to “switch your switch.”

Since Dell FlexAddress is controlled by the Chassis Management Controller (CMC), it doesn’t add a management layer. This means it can seamlessly integrate into the network management tools already used in any data center today, such as CiscoWorks.

VirtenSys and Neterion Demonstrate PCI Express Based I/O Virtualization Utilizing Standard 10Gb Ethernet I/O Adapter

June 16, 2008 by Robin Wauters 1 Comment

VirtenSys has developed the first PCI Express based I/O technology that virtualizes and shares I/O adapters among multiple physical servers without the need for adapter, device driver, or server modifications. The press release touts VirtenSys’ PCI Express I/O virtualization products to dramatically improve I/O utilization to greater than 80 percent; enhance throughput, and reduce I/O cost and power consumption by as much as 50 percent.

As a part of the VirtenSys go-to-market strategy, the company is demonstrating its technology to a number of server and storage Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and System Integrators (SIs). Later this year, VirtenSys aims to launch products that virtualize and share off-the-shelf Ethernet, Fibre Channel, and SAS/SATA PCI Express based I/O adapters. The products will be available in both rack-mount and blade server form factors.

VirtenSys collaborated with Neterion to provide virtualized 10GbE connectivity. VirtenSys developed, tested, and validated its virtualized I/O technology using the Neterion 10GbE Xframe E adapter. The two companies are working to speed the adoption of I/O virtualization.