Virtualization.com

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

sun microsystems

Sun Releases xVM VirtualBox 2.1

by Leave a Comment

Sun Microsystems has introduced an updated to xVM VirtualBox, now at version 2.1 (download here).

The latest release offers several enhancements, including:

  • 3D acceleration graphics adaptor uses Open Graphics Library (OpenGL) to run high-performance graphics applications, including CAM-based imagery software.
  • Better network performance speeds up network-intensive apps like videos.
  • Bridged networking configuration makes it easier to deploy Web stacks like LAMP or SAMP.

Also, xVM VirtualBox 2.1 supports:

  • Sun Storage 7000 unified storage systems
  • Intel’s new Nehalem-based processors
  • Mac OS X on Intel Virtualization Technology
  • VMware’s virtual machine disk (VMDK) and Microsoft’s virtual hard disk (VHN) file formats
  • 64-bit guest OSes on 32-bit host platforms

Sun Microsystems Updates Solaris, ZFS

by Leave a Comment

Sun Microsystems has introduced a new version of its Solaris operating system offering enhancements to virtualization support and the company’s ZFS file system. The open source version of the platform has also been demonstrated on IBM mainframes for the first time.

Available now on Sun systems and as a download, Solaris 10 10/08 includes numerous enhancements over the core Solaris 10 code. These include tighter integration of Sun’s large-scale ZFS file system, enabling systems to boot from the software and operate it as the sole file system. ZFS also now offers increased data integrity and integrated disaster recovery capabilities.

Sun has also worked with Intel to ensure that the new Solaris release is optimised for the latest Xeon processor chips as well as Sun’s own Sparc architecture.

Sun and IBM have also demonstrated OpenSolaris, the open source version of Solaris, running on an IBM System Z mainframe. The move follows a joint announcement in August that IBM was expanding support for Solaris.

Sun and Fujitsu Introduce SPARC Enterprise T5440 Server, Aims to Redefine Midrange Enterprise Computing

by Leave a Comment

Sun Microsystems and Fujitsu Limited today announced the SPARC Enterprise T5440 server, the first server to deliver the scalability and reliability of traditional midrange systems with the breakthrough performance and radical energy efficiency of the UltraSPARC T2 Plus architecture.

According to the press release, the SPARC Enterprise T5440 server with the Solaris 10 Operating System (OS) delivers world record performance and enables customers to consolidate and virtualize midrange applications, including large scale OLTP databases, CRM and ERP. In a compact 4U package, the SPARC Enterprise T5440 server increases server utilization while reducing energy consumption and lowering operating costs. Additionally, the SPARC Enterprise T5440 server is the first chip multi-threaded (CMT) server to scale up to four processors.

The SPARC Enterprise T5440 server, with up to 32 cores (256 threads) and 512 GB of memory, is one of the first systems to incorporate unique power management features including the ability to park idle threads. The server also features Intelligent Fan Control (IFC) which adjusts rotational fan speed according to changes in temperature thereby reducing power consumption. Running fans at lower speeds saves significant amounts of energy, and also reduces noise and vibration which helps extend component life. An additional design element that maximizes power savings is dividing the chassis and fans into cooling zones which allow a response only from those fans needed to compensate for changes in temperature. The SPARC Enterprise T5440 server also features a redesigned power distribution subsystem with highly efficient digital regulators which reduce wasted energy over previous analog designs.

With built-in, open source, no-cost virtualization via Solaris Containers and Logical Domains (LDoms), the SPARC Enterprise T5440 server is an ideal platform for consolidating hundreds of existing enterprise class workloads onto a single system. Additionally, for existing Solaris customers, the Solaris 8 and 9 Containers capability enables customers to run multiple Solaris 8 or 9 environments on a single SPARC-based system. As a result, customers can quickly and easily move existing physical environments to virtual containers on Solaris 10 and take advantage of the performance, scale and cost savings of new SPARC Enterprise CMT-based servers today. Solaris 10 10/08, to be released later in October, also enables improved virtualization performance and includes an enhanced Solaris ZFS file system which offers increased data integrity and a fully integrated disaster recovery capability to help ensure business continuity.

The SPARC Enterprise T5440 proves its mettle with world record performance on seven benchmarks including the best four processor result on two-tier SAP Sales and Distribution (SD) Standard Application Benchmark, Oracle’s Siebel CRM Release 8.0 Platform Sizing and Performance Program (PSPP), and single node SPECjAppServer2004.

The SPARC Enterprise T5440 server is available today directly from Sun and Fujitsu and their authorized resellers starting at $44,995 (U.S. List). Sun and Fujitsu are also offering a number of promotions on the new SPARC Enterprise T5440 server.

Sun and Fujitsu also provide a full suite of services to help customers maximize their infrastructure investments. Services from both companies include consolidation, virtualization, maximizing data center efficiency and migration to Solaris 10.

Sun Microsystems

IBM Adds More Virtualization Capabilities to Power Systems, Eyeing Sun and HP

by Leave a Comment

IBM, which combined its System i and System p server product lines earlier this year, is revamping its Power Systems to offer more systems for enterprise and midmarket customers. The enhancements include additional processors based on the IBM Power Architecture as well as more virtualization capabilities. These IBM Power Systems compete against both Hewlett-Packard and Sun Microsystems in the Unix market.

IBM is looking to widen its offering for the Unix market with new Power Systems that support more processing cores based on IBM’s Power Architecture as well as new management and virtualization features.

IBM Power Systems were introduced in April as a new set of offerings that combined the older IBM Systems i and System p under one product portfolio. The combination of these two systems gave IBM a set of offerings for enterprises and midmarket companies that not only can run AIX—IBM’s version of Unix—but also Linux and the i OS—the renamed version of the i5/OS operating system.

While the overall Unix market pales in comparison to servers based on x86 processors, this market remains important for three major OEMs: IBM, Hewlett-Packard and Sun Microsystems. According to Gartner, while shipments of Unix-based servers fell in the second quarter of 2008, worldwide revenue increased nearly 10 percent year over year to about $4.2 billion for the quarter. Not surprisingly, IBM, which has been pushing its Unix platforms beyond the enterprise into the midmarket and even the small and midsize business, saw its revenue increase 29 percent in the second quarter for a total of $1.5 billion.

By combining the two systems into one product portfolio, IBM is looking to further strengthen its position in the Unix market. It was also a way to absorb some losses for IBM, which had seen its System i revenue slip in 2007, while System p continued to grow.

HP has its Integrity Systems that use Intel’s Itanium processors, while Sun, which has been struggling selling its high-end servers, offers its SPARC-based products and Solaris operating system.

IBM listed the starting price of the Power 560 Express with the AIX operating system at $47,216. There was no pricing information for the updated version of the Power 570.

In addition to the new hardware, IBM also rolled out several management and virtualization features of its Power Systems. These include an update for IBM’s PowerVM—the company’s virtualization software for Power Systems—called Active Memory Sharing. While only in beta now, Active Memory Sharing allows the system to access more memory in virtual environments by pooling compute resources between the partitions.

IBM is also offering a new management console called Systems Directory. This management tool works across all three operating systems—Linux, i, and AIX—and allows IT managers to control and check the resources both in the physical hardware and within virtual environments.

Finally, IBM is rolling out an Enterprise version of the AIX operating system, which includes the OS itself plus Tivoli and PowerVM software.

Sun Announces xVM Server, xVM Ops Center 2.0 — Public Release Coming Soon

by Leave a Comment

Sun Microsystems today announced the availability of Sun xVM Server software and Sun xVM Ops Center 2.0, key components in its strategy. Sun also announced the addition of comprehensive services and support for Sun xVM Server software and xVM Ops Center 2.0 to its virtualization suite of services . Additionally, Sun launched xVMserver.org, a new open source community, where developers can download the first source code bundle for Sun xVM Server software and contribute to the direction and development of the product.

Sun xVM Server software and xVM Ops Center 2.0 join Sun’s xVM product portfolio, which includes Sun xVM VirtualBox software for desktop virtualization and Sun Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) software for virtual desktop consolidation and management.

Sun offers standalone subscriptions for Sun xVM Server software and Sun xVM Ops Center, as well as additional options that offer the combined benefits of the two products. Commercial subscriptions are priced annually in four-socket increments and provide premium 24X7 support, access to the latest, up-to-the-minute patches and updates, as well as installation and training.

Available pricing options include:

  • Sun xVM Server software: Priced at $500/year per physical server.
  • Sun xVM Infrastructure Enterprise Subscription: Priced at $2000 per physical server per year, the enterprise subscription is designed to simplify the management of large scale virtualized environments and includes advanced features, such as management of live migration and of multiple network storage libraries.
  • Sun xVM Infrastructure Datacenter Subscription: Priced at $3000 per server per year, this option includes all the features in the Sun xVM Infrastructure Enterprise Subscription in addition to physical server monitoring, management and advanced software lifecycle management capabilities.
  • Sun xVM Ops Center: Available from $100 per managed server up to $350 a year, depending on customer selected features, along with a required $10,000 Satellite Server annual subscription for Sun xVM Ops Center.

Good news also for licensing, straight from ‘Virtual’ Steve Wilson’s blog:

“xVM Server is comprised of several open source components, and some have different source licenses, but the bulk of the code specific to xVM Server (including the all-new management UI) is being distributed through xvmserver.org under GPL v3.”

As for actual public availability:

Sun started early access testing with a limited number of customers last month. The company will now be increasing the number in the EA program and selected several additional customers already from those who have registered.  For those who’ve registered for the early access, more details on the program will be informed shortly.  Sun is aiming for a generally available binary EA release from xvmserver.org in about 30 days and a release candidate within 60 days.

Sun Microsystems

eG Innovations Adds XenServer and Sun LDoms Support to Its VM Monitor

by Leave a Comment

eG Innovations today announced that its eG VM Monitor now supports Citrix XenServer and Sun Microsystems’ Solaris Logical Domains (LDoms).

The enhancements are part of v4.2 of the company’s eG Enterprise Suite, which already supports VMware ESX and ESX 3i servers as well as Solaris Containers. The new software release also strengthens management of VMware environments. eG Enterprise agents can now be integrated directly within VMware’s Virtual Center. This greatly simplifies configuration of the monitoring for VMware server farms.

Also, the eG VM Monitor software now monitors the VMware Virtual Desktop Manager to provide an end-to-end view of a Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) deployment. A new VM Search capability makes it easier to track the status and performance of virtual machines (VMs) as they move from one physical server to another.

The eG Enterprise Suite monitors Citrix XenServers and Sun LDoms in much the same way it monitors VMware ESX servers. eG Enterprise v4.2 offers agent-based and agentless monitoring of CitrixXen server v4.0 and 4.1. For agent-based monitoring, an eG agent on the control domain of a XenServer monitors the hypervisor and all its virtual machines (VMs).
Administrators can also choose to monitor their XenServers without agents, with either a Linux or a Windows system being used to host the remote data collector. Citrix XenMotion activity is tracked to determine when, how often, why and where VMs migrate to.

eG Enterprise v4.2 provides many other improvements and new features. These include: tracking and reporting uptime of individual VMs, ability to share customized views and reports among all or specific administrators, allowing administrators to select a console display “skin” (color) of their choice, providing selectable alert modes (e.g., email and SMS) to accommodate preferences of administrators who work in shifts; and custom monitoring of the BlackBerry Enterprise Server.

The eG Enterprise v4.2 will be available at the end of September. Pricing for any virtualization platform supported is per server monitored, regardless of the hardware capabilities (e.g., CPU, memory, socket) of the server, or the number of virtual machines or virtual desktops it supports. Pricing for a 25-node environment starts at $50,000.