VMware ESX 3.5

VMware ESX First Hypervisor to Receive Microsoft SVVP Validation

September 3, 2008 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

VMware today announced it has qualified its VMware ESX hypervisor under the Microsoft Server Virtualization Validation Program (SVVP), shortly after they officially joined. VMware ESX 3.5 update 2 (ESX 3.5u2) is the first hypervisor to be listed under the program, providing VMware customers who run Windows Server and Microsoft applications with access to cooperative support from Microsoft and VMware.

Update: also see the post from Microsoft’s Virtualization Team blog.

Microsoft’s Server Virtualization Validation Program enables VMware and other software providers to test and validate their virtualization software to run Windows Server 2008 and previous versions of Windows Server. Under this program, Microsoft offers cooperative technical support to customers running Windows Server on validated, non-Microsoft server virtualization software, such as VMware ESX 3.5 update 2. Customers with support policies in place, and running Windows Server-based applications on VMware ESX 3.5u2, can receive cooperative technical support from Microsoft.

VMware also offers an extra layer of protection for customers, outside of Microsoft’s Server Virtualization Validation Program, who work directly with VMware for support. The additional protection is a part of the VMware Premier Support contract with Microsoft that enables VMware to escalate application issues rapidly and work directly with Microsoft engineers to expedite resolution.

Today’s move is expected to be particularly compelling for VMware’s tens of thousands of small and medium-size business (SMB) customers. Many of these customers turned to virtualization for the dramatic cost savings that virtualization can provide by reducing hardware requirements and power consumption.

VMware

Verari Systems Claims Blade-Based Solution Doubles VMware Efficiency

July 22, 2008 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

Verari Systems, developer of data center consolidation platforms utilizing blade-based computing and storage solutions, today announced that the Verari Systems’ VB1257 VMware ESX 3.5 certified blade – gasp -delivers twice the number of VMware virtual machines per blade than similar competitive blade offerings while consuming 50% less power.

On a per VMware image basis, the company claims the VB1257 for the BladeRack 2 XL (BR2-XL) platform provides better total cost of ownership than any competing blade server products. VMware provides TAP program members with tools to develop products that are complementary to VMware virtualization software and help deliver high-value solutions to our joint customers.

Verari Systems’ capability to run twice the number of virtual machines per blade provides organizations with compelling benefits including less capital expense through the reduction in the number of servers and the associated ongoing operational and environmental costs such as power, cooling, floor space utilization and management.

The VMware virtualization power of the VB1257 for the BR2-XL means users can combine up to 16 physical machines on to just one blade server, twice as many as competitive blade offerings while requiring only half the power of their offerings – reducing capital expenditure and operational costs by more than 50%. By doubling the number of VMware virtual machines to 16 VMs per blade, the VB1257 solution results in a cost savings of over $40,000 per year in power operational expense and equates to cutting 56,000 kilowatt hours, or approximately 32 tons of CO2 emissions, every year.

Tripwire ConfigCheck Now VMware ESX 3.0 Compatible

July 21, 2008 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

Remember Tripwire ConfigCheck, the nifty free utility that rapidly assesses the security of VMware ESX hypervisor configurations compared to the VMware Infrastructure 3 Security Hardening guidelines? Well, Tripwire today announced the availability of Tripwire ConfigCheck for VMware ESX 3.0.

“The massive popularity of Tripwire ConfigCheck speaks loudly to the market need for solutions that address the knowledge and skills gap in managing virtual infrastructure. With this latest release, we leverage the best practices of VMware’s hardening security guidelines for 3.5 and 3.0.x environments increasing the overall value of the utility,” said Mark Gaydos, Tripwire VP of Marketing.

In addition to offering immediate insight into unintentional vulnerabilities in virtual environments, Tripwire also provides a remediation guide containing the necessary steps to return both VMware ESX 3.0 and 3.5 hosts to a known, secure state.

Chelsio Communications’ 10GbE Adapters Get VMware ESX 3.5 Hypervisor Certification

July 7, 2008 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

Chelsio Communications, provider of 10-Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) adapters and ASIC solutions, today announced that its single- and dual-port 10GbE adapters are now certified for the VMware ESX hypervisor and have been added to the VMware ESX 3.5 Hardware Compatibility List.

With this certification, Chelsio offers VMware customers low-latency adapters for high-performance computing in virtualized environments. Chelsio’s adapters are powered by T3 ASIC technology, designed for virtualization at the silicon level and enabling line-rate performance for transmit and receive. Chelsio’s T3 architecture delivers a high volume of transactions per second., and its customers are able to use the same drivers for any host bus, any physical media, any offload protocol, and any number of ports and speeds of Ethernet. In addition to VMware virtualization support, Chelsio’s T3 technology provides support for RDMA, iSCSI, TOE, Traffic Management and packet classification. This enables Chelsio’s customers to future-proof their systems.

Dell Gets Down & Busy With Virtualization

May 7, 2008 by Robin Wauters 1 Comment

As expected, Dell today announced its broadest lineup of dedicated virtualization solutions ever. More than a dozen new servers, tools, and services aim to simplify the deployment and management of virtualization in enterprises of any size.

“Virtualization is quickly moving beyond hypervisors and hardware consolidation,” said Rick Becker, vice president of software and solutions, Dell Product Group. “Enterprises are looking for a broad array of servers, storage and services designed specifically for virtualized environments. Having been a leader in the first wave of virtualization, today we are signaling our intent to lead the second.”

Dell comes out with updated on-line tools, new e-commerce capability and expanded factory integration. With the updated Virtualization Advisor tool, customers have more options for building validated configurations online for virtualization deployments before purchase.

Through Dell.com/VMwareNow, customers can now upgrade PowerEdge servers purchased with VMware ESXi 3.5 to full VMware Infrastructure 3 enterprise licensing in a single click. Dell will also offer in coming weeks factory integrated VMware ESXi 3.5 or Citrix XenServer Dell Express Edition across a broad range of PowerEdge servers, including the PowerEdge 2950, R900, 1950, 2900, M600 blade and M605 blade.

The PowerEdge R805 offers 2X the memory and I/O capacity of Dell’s previous generation 2 socket servers. With a choice of VMware ESXi 3.5 or Citrix XenServer Dell Express Edition integrated hypervisors, the PowerEdge R805 and R905 servers can deliver the optimal platform for virtualized environments.

Dell EqualLogic storage arrays offer new advanced SAN-aware integration with VMware Site Recovery Manager for data protection and disaster recovery for virtualized environments at no additional cost in management tools.

Dell and Egenera are making virtualization and data center automation a reality beyond the blade chassis. The Dell PAN system is built on PowerEdge 1950 and 2950 servers and Dell/EMC storage, with Citrix XenServer and factory integrated as a complete, turn-key solution that consolidates and virtualizes server compute-resources into an entire Processor Area Network to be managed like hard drives in a SAN. The Dell PAN system can deliver rapid provisioning and re-deployment “in minutes”.

Dell today announced the expansion of its virtualization services to include:

Virtualization Simplification Workshop – for customers looking to determine which options are the most suitable for their specific business needs today, their technical environment and to meet future growth.
New Virtualization Operational Assessment and Process Automation accelerates selection of the right virtualization technology for their needs and define processes and tools to automate the management of virtualized environments.
New Virtualization Healthcheck – reviews existing virtualized production environments to identify technology, process and people issues impeding virtualization scale out and provides an actionable, results oriented plan.
Expanded Virtualization Assessment – taking into account multi-vendor virtualization considerations, advanced storage options, as well as green IT data center energy efficiency improvements.
Dell PAN Accelerator Service – integrating a full Processing Area Network within the customer environment to help ensure production readiness.
Expanded Design and Implementation Services – which features the latest Virtualization technologies, in addition to best-of-breed disaster recovery tools and techniques.
ProSupport Remote Advisory Services – fast access to technical experts for consulting on virtualization implementations.

These offerings are available today from Dell Global Infrastructure Consulting Services.

Trend Micro Enters Growing Market Of VMware Virtualization Security Providers

April 7, 2008 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

Trend Micro, a global leader in Internet content security, has announced a number of innovations in security solutions for VMware virtualized environments which it will debut at the 2008 RSA Conference in San Francisco.

The prototype technology consists of a virtualization security solution that operates in a VMware ESX 3.5 environment, scans for infected machines and remediates any that are found. With this technology, Trend Micro intends to provide greater protection for VMware virtual machines.

Trend Micro is also announcing that its enterprise security products for the endpoint, gateway and server are supported in VMware environments. This enables joint customers to gain the same level of support for Trend Micro products running in VMware virtualized environments as they would on physical hardware.

From the press release:

Trend Micro is integrating the recently announced VMware VMsafeTM APIs into its security technology in an effort to enable channel partners and customers to enhance the security of their VMware environments. VMsafe technology protects applications running on virtual machines in ways previously not possible in physical environments. The VMsafe APIs allow vendors to develop advanced security products that combat the latest generation of malware. VMsafe technology integrates into the VMware hypervisor and provides the transparency to prevent threats and attacks such as viruses, Trojans and keyloggers from ever reaching a virtual machine. The Trend Micro brand of security software will have the ability to run isolated from, and at a higher level of privilege than, the target malware. This will allow offline VMware virtual machines to be scanned and remediated prior to being reactivated.

“While organizations frequently use virtualization to help save energy costs and lower administrative IT expenses, they also have an opportunity to leverage this technology for improved security,” said Punit Minocha, vice president of business development for Trend Micro. “Most security solutions in the market underperform in virtual environments so, together with VMware, we want to help our customers to take advantage of the cost benefits of virtualization and to improve their organization’s security profile at the same time.”

VMware-support for existing Trend Micro products is effective immediately. For a complete list of these products, please visit www.trendmicro.com/go/virtualization. Current VMware-supported products use the existing licensing model. Trend Micro customers who purchase these versions and switch their deployments to VMware can do so at no extra cost or software. This provides customers a choice of running the applications on standalone hardware or on virtual environments, depending on their IT needs. Certain exceptions may apply.

The new Trend Micro technology securing virtualized environments is expected to be available in the second half of 2008.

[Source: SYS-CON]