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Microsoft Releases Assessment and Planning Solution Accelerator MAP 3.1

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Microsoft has announced that its Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Solution Accelerator is no longer in beta mode, as it has been released to the general public as the MAP 3.1 tool.

As we wrote in previous coverage, the Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Solution Accelerator is a tool that makes it easy to assess your current IT infrastructure for a variety of technology migration projects. It includes the features previously provided with the Windows Vista Hardware Assessment Solution Accelerator.
The MAP Solution Accelerator is an agentless tool that will find computers on a network and perform a detailed inventory of the computers using Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI), the Remote Registry Service, or the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP).  Using the inventory data, the tool will assess and report whether computers can run Windows Vista, Microsoft Office 2007, Microsoft Application Virtualization (SoftGrid), and Windows Server 2008.  This includes assessment of device driver availability and recommendations for hardware upgrades that may be required.
This release also includes new features for gathering performance metrics from computers you are considering for consolidation using Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2.  Using the performance metrics and a model virtual server host computer, you can generate reports that recommend placement of the physical servers in a virtual server environment.
[Source: VMBlog]

From Virtualization to Cloud Computing: Q-layer Launches Delegation Manager

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Q-layer, enabler of cloud computing through Virtual Private Data Centers (VPDC), today announced the Q-layer Delegation Manager, a solution that turns virtual server environments into a cloud computing platform.

The first release of Delegation Manager provides complete support for VMware Infrastructure 3 environments, including the VMware ESX Hypervisor, with future support for additional Hypervisors including Xen, xVM VirtualBox and Hyper-V. The Q-layer Delegation Manager aims to enable fast browser-based provisioning of data center assets for helpdesk, technical end-users and non-technical end-users, with integrated credit-based charge-back capabilities, reporting and flash-based management controls.

Q-layer’s Delegation Manager is installed through the VMware Virtual Center as a Virtual Appliance and builds on Q-layer’s VPDC and Datacenter Abstraction Layer (DAL) technology. It enables model-driven orchestration capabilities for data centers, including workflows to cohesively orchestrate virtual servers, networks and storage.

According to the press release, the Q-layer Delegation Manager augments existing data center infrastructure, including hypervisors, networks and storage devices. The system provides complete orchestration of these underlying assets to enable data center agility for cloud computing. To facilitate this ecosystem, Q-layer is also working with leading technology partners to create complete virtualization solutions for the next generation data center.

“With Q-layer’s Delegation Manager, end-users can provision and deploy a complete data center within minutes,” said Paul Speciale, vice president of product management at Q-layer. “Our technology has been proven in leading data centers, and leverages the capabilities of existing data center infrastructures to provide the most simple and extensible cloud computing solution for data center operators.”

The Q-layer Delegation Manager will be generally available in the third quarter of 2008. Pricing starts at $1,995 per node, for any number of Virtual Machines.

SourceLabs Adds Support For Xen In Self-Support Suite

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SourceLabs, provider of technology to support open source software, today announced that its Self-Support Suite now supports the Xen hypervisor.

SourceLabs’ Self-Support technology aims to give developers, corporate IT pros and solution
providers an on-demand way to reduce the complexity of application development, deployment, troubleshooting and software maintenance for open source technologies.

“As data centers are moving toward a more dynamic model, they are increasingly doing so using server virtualization technology and Xen is the leading technology solution in the market today for running virtualized IT environments,” said Byron Sebastian, SourceLabs CEO and Founder. “The SourceLabs Self- Support Suite gives developers the ability to significantly drive down the costs of deploying and maintaining virtualized data centers with technology that seamlessly and effortlessly harnesses the power of Xen and other open source technologies.”

SourceLabs’ Self-Support Suite identifies issues and ranks potential resolutions from across a wide variety of projects in the open source development ecosystem. Indexing, managing, and storing the data, SourceLabs uses advanced pattern matching and predictive analysis algorithms to automate troubleshooting, reduces the time on routine tasks and analyzes data to flag any potential problems before they can impact systems or designs.

SourceLabs’ supports all current and previous releases of Xen technology, including auxiliary projects
such as ‘libvirt.’ SourceLabs’ Self-Support Suite for Xen references solutions from Xen.org as well as
solutions from across multiple Linux distributions that ship with Xen integration including Debian,
RedHat, Fedora, Ubuntu, and OpenSuSE, as well as the Linux Kernel mailing list and bug database,
providing Xen users an exhaustive resource for troubleshooting and analysis of their virtualization
platforms. SourceLabs’ Self-Support Suite supports the most popular open source Java and Linux
technologies including Apache httpd, GCC, MySQL, Sendmail, and the Linux Kernel among others.

Basic support includes 24×7 global coverage and is available from $399 for one developer seat.

Release: CentOS 5.2, Free Red Hat Enterprise Linux Clone

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The CentOS development team has released CentOS 5.2, which is based on and promises full compatibility for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 5.2. Available for i386 and x86-64 architectures, the release offers new drivers and bug fixes, as well as improvements to the Xen virtualization kernel, according to the team.

The fresh clone comes with updated software support for Apache, Gnome, KDE, OpenOffice, MySQL and PostgreSQL. Also, you won’t be paying the $350-$2,500 per year subscription fee for RHEL 5.2!

Documentation can be found here, release notes here, download mirrors here.

[Source: The Register]

Virtual Iron Wants To Educate You In A Virtual Classroom

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Virtual Iron Software today announced the immediate availability of a new, dedicated eLearning portal called the “Virtual Classroom“, which intends to expand upon Virtual Iron’s existing online training offerings to help technical personnel quickly learn about their solutions.

The training is available to any Virtual Iron user on an annual subscription basis.

“We pride ourselves on our ease of use; however, server virtualization lives in a complex ecosystem touching servers, networks, storage, and more,” said Tony Asaro, Chief Strategy Officer at Virtual Iron. “That is why we’ve put such an emphasis on our online training and education. It is core to our strategy and Virtual Iron will continue to create courses and content to provide our customers with easier implementation, operation and optimization.”

With the new Virtual Classroom, Virtual Iron users get all the information they need to be self-sufficient on the Virtual Iron software platform—in just five hours. The company takes a stab at VMware by measuring these five hours to the five days of onsite classroom training “that is typical for comparable solutions such as VMware”.

Check out the modules in the rest of the news release, or download this PDF which contains more information.

Virtual Iron has also made available a series of free eLearning videos covering the basic steps for preparing, installing and configuring a Virtual Iron environment. These vignettes are freely available for general consumption right here.

[Source: BusinessWire]

Microsoft Shipping Hyper-V Tomorrow? (Update: Yes)

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Does Microsoft intend to start shipping Hyper-V tomorrow?

Update: no official news out of Redmond just yet, but both ZDNet and NetworkWorld have confirmed.

Update 2: finally confirmation by Microsoft

The Redmond software giant’s proprietary hypervisor is currently in Release Candidate mode, but the final, nonbeta version could be shipping tomorrow, according to SearchWinIT. That would be well before the company’s projected release date (which would be in about 2 months).

The software is part of the Windows Server 2008 license, although here is a standalone version of Hyper-V expected later this year that will sell for (only) $28. The Microsoft hypervisor is highly anticipated, and lots of analysts are expecting Hyper-V to (finally) give VMware a run for its money. Of course, let’s not forget Hyper-V was initially scheduled to be part of Windows Server 2008, but was ultimately delayed and rescheduled for availability about six months after its introduction.

PCWorld points out that the upcoming release for tomorrow has not been confirmed by Microsoft officials, so we’re a little hesitant to run with the story just yet. We’ll update the post when more information is available.

Update: no official news out of Redmond just yet, but both ZDNet and NetworkWorld have confirmed.

Update 2: finally confirmation by Microsoft

Update 3: It’s all over the wire! Get more perspective on the milestone release and how it will compete with VMware, Xen and others from The Register, Virtually Speaking, OStatic, Virtualization.info, InformationWeek, Computing, Network World, VMBlog, GigaOM, Virtualization Review, DaniWeb, ChannelWeb, Reuters, Forbes, Washington Post, Virtual Strategy Magazine, Microsoft Watch, Virtual PC Guy, Scott Lowe, Intel Software Network, Dugie’s Pensieve, NetApp Blogs, The Hypervisor, PC World Forums, Dustin’s Tech Notes, Vinternals, The System Administrator, ArsTechnica, Silicon, ITwire, VolkerW’s Weblog, ChrisWolf, InternetNews, etc.