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Should VMWare Watch Out For VirtualBox?

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Or for a lot more?

IT Wire has a good introductory article about VirtualBox.

Sadly their introduction is a bit wrong in the details, as VirtualBox obviously is not “the only professional virtualisation solution that is freely available as open source software under the GNU General Public License (GPL.) Why this matters is because it’s truly free, as in freedom.”

Amongst others Xen is also fully GPL, and given its backing from both Citrix and most of the major Linux vendors it’s also professionally supported.

Also it also isn’t the only one that can run unmodified guests , both KVM and Xen can do this, given the these days standard VT hardware support. VirtualBox however does not need VT support (and neither did Qemu).

However, it’s still a fairly good introduction and keeping these remarks in mind it’s a good read, and it shows that VMWare should watch its back, and not just for VirtualBox

Sun Offers Early Access to xVM Server, Public Version Coming Soon

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Sun Microsystems has begun an early access program for its xVM Server hypervisor, a key component of its upcoming virtualization product line, and intends to make a publicly downloadable version available within about a month, according to a blog post last week by Steve Wilson, VP of xVM at Sun.

Update: see RedMonk’s Michael Coté review and demo the xVM Server hypervisor.

“Given that we’re getting very close to shipping, it’s time to give everyone an update on progress and do a more in-depth sneak peek at features than I’ve done in the past.  First, a quick reminder about what’s included in the xVM Portfolio so you can see where xVM Server fits.  The picture below shows how this fits together.  We have xVM VirtualBox for small scale desktop virtualization, and VDI as a management layer that scales out to very large-scale desktop consolidation projects. Then, on the server side, we have xVM Server as the software to virtualize a single server, and xVM Ops Center as the management tool for large scale virtual and physical data center.  xVM VirtualBox, xVM Ops Center and VDI are all commercially available today and rapidly being deployed by customers.”

Sun Microsystems

Sun Microsystems Inks Bunch Of New OEM Agreements To Expand xVM VirtualBox Reach

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Sun Microsystems today announced new multi-year OEM agreements with Avanquest Software, Q-layer and Zenith InfoTech to expand the reach of Sun xVM VirtualBox.

Sun xVM VirtualBox is available via the OEM program or in a free, open source version here. Since its release in January 2007, Sun xVM (VirtualBox) has surpassed 5 million downloads, and the company boasts about it being the first free hypervisor to support all major host operating systems, including Mac OS X, Linux, Windows, Solaris and OpenSolaris.

Sun xVM VirtualBox software, which it acquired through its maker innotek earlier this year, is a key component of Sun’s broader xVM virtualization and management software portfolio, which includes Sun xVM Ops Center, Sun xVM Server and the Sun VDI Software.

Avanquest will produce and publish Sun xVM VirtualBox bundled with OpenSolaris and sell it via retail outlets in the UK, Germany, Italy, Spain and France. Beginning this fall, Avanquest will provide Mac users with a solution to run the Windows operating system through Sun xVM VirtualBox.

Q-layer is leveraging Sun xVM VirtualBox to deliver complete datacenter virtualization capabilities for its customers.

Zenith InfoTech has built its network attached storage appliance for small and medium-sized businesses using Sun xVM VirtualBox.

Emulex First HBA Vendor to Support Sun’s Solaris Containers

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Emulex recently announced that its LightPulse Fibre Channel host bus adapters (HBAs) now offer Virtual HBA technology within Solaris 10 Operating System environments. Enhanced capabilities such as virtual port management, available via Emulex’s HBAnyware management suite, are designed to enhance the overall functionality of Solaris Containers.

“Once again, Emulex is demonstrating leadership in the area of virtualization by providing enhanced capabilities for virtualized servers within Solaris environments,” said Scott McIntyre, vice president of customer marketing, Emulex Corp. “Emulex pioneered Virtual HBA technology and is the only HBA vendor to support Sun’s Solaris Containers for virtualized server environments.”

Emulex’s family of 4Gb/s and 8Gb/s HBAs support Virtual HBA technology, which allows users to effectively virtualize the HBA functionality so each virtual machine running on a server can independently access its own protected storage. Coupled with Solaris Containers, Emulex Virtual HBA technology, which leverages the NPIV standard, also allows customers to maintain usage of SAN management tools and best practices, such as fabric zoning and LUN mapping/masking.

“Working with Emulex to support its Virtual HBA technology provides Solaris customers with a robust virtualized server solution that delivers the most enhanced capabilities available today,” said Michael Wojnar, Networking Product Line Marketing Manager, Sun Microsystems.

“This collaboration is critical because of the high correlation between virtualized servers and networked storage, and ensures that our customers deploying Solaris Containers now have a superior solution.”

Server virtualization and blade server deployments continue to be a major driver for increased Fibre Channel SAN adoption. Leveraging Emulex HBAs with its next generation management suite, HBAnyware, provides customers with enhanced virtualization features, such as virtual HBA management across all major operating system platforms including Microsoft, VMware, Linux/Xen and Solaris. Further, customers may now leverage the benefits of NPIV management functionality within a centralized single console. Online boot from SAN and enhanced diagnostics features also enable unmatched scalability and efficient management capabilities.

“We looked at the capability of the Emulex Fibre Channel HBAs and management tools and saw features that were not available from other suppliers,” says Steven Ham, Senior Windows System Administrator at Home Interiors & Gifts, Inc. “With the HBA management tools, we get discovery and dynamic configuration capabilities that would otherwise require additional investment in tools running on other SAN components.”

In an effort to educate customers and channel partners on Emulex’s connectivity solutions and enhanced HBAnyware management suite functionality, Emulex is offering a series of whitepapers and webinars.

For details, visit: http://www.emulex.com/solutions/san/index.jsp.

[Source: VMblog]

LiveTime Software Ships New Service Desk Virtual Appliance for Sun xVM and VMware

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LiveTime Software, a provider of ITIL certified Service Management and Help Desk Software, today released version 2.0 of its integrated virtual appliance consisting of its Java technology based JeOS (Just Enough Operating System) and ITIL Service Management software. The new release features support for both Sun xVM and VMware, and aims to leverage the power of both virtualization architectures at both the desktop and server levels.

The combination of LiveTime’s ITIL based Service Management and Sun xVM gives customers and SaaS providers a way to leverage their existing resources. LiveTime says it has improved the performance of its JeOS by approximately 20% and has decreased the memory overhead to 128Mb, enabling higher concurrency and increasing the number of virtual machines per server. This is particularly important for SaaS providers who deploy separate LiveTime instances per client and for multi-tenant requirements. The appliance also includes support for symmetric multiprocessing for optimal performance across virtualized CPU’s.

LiveTime’s virtual appliance includes built-in debugging, configuration and management utilities. Guided menus provide easy access to networking, upgrades and general system utilities. The LiveTime Virtual appliance currently supports all Sun xVM and VMware virtualization platforms, including Sun xVM VirtualBox, VMware Player, Workstation, Fusion, Server and ESX Server.

The LiveTime Virtual appliance supports Sun xVM VirtualBox, enabling developers to easily build, test and run cross-platform, multi-tier applications on a single laptop or desktop computer.

Organizations can now leverage LiveTime’s ITIL Service Management software with the ease of installation of traditional software. The virtual appliance should provide the necessary scalability and security that is difficult to achieve when deployed on existing hardware and operating systems. Since the system has been hardened at the operating system layer, LiveTime provides Just Enough Operating System for its needs. This makes the system easy to update and maintain and provides a very small footprint and a 160MB download.

Microsoft Officially Launches Server Virtualization Validation Program

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Microsoft‘s Server Virtualization Validation Program, which was first announced in November 2007, has become operational yesterday, with the patricipation of Citrix, Sun, Novell and Virtual Iron.

The Server Virtualization Validation Program (SVVP) is open to any vendor who delivers a virtualization machine solution that hosts Windows Server 2008, Windows 2000 Server Service Pack 4 and Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 and subsequent service packs. The virtualization solution can either be hypervisor-based or a hosted solution.

The costs associated with joining the program include membership in TSAnet at Mission Critical level, so that the vendor and Microsoft can share support information, incremental costs, if any, to perform the validation tests, and a nominal expense (currently $250) to qualify each ‘configuration’ that is submitted for validation.