VM /ETC

Posts Tagged ‘cloud’

By now you’ve seen the pictures, video (VMworldTV), and posts about the hardware in the datacenters that hosted the VMworld 2009 Labs. You should already know about the staggering number of virtual machines ( > 37,000 ) running on the ESX 4 servers ( > 770 ). But enough about the hardware.

If you are like me you probably would have loved to get the opportunity to use the vSphere client to connect to a vCenter server managing that entire virtual infrastructure (VI). Although I did not get to do just that, I did get the opportunity to do the next best thing – talk to the manager of the team that does. My VMworld ended by talking to Randy Keener, Group Manager of VMware’s GETO team (Global Engineering Technical Operations). Keener explained to me some of the VMworld 2009 virtual infrastructure design details that VI administrators would be interested to know.

Nested ESX in the Lab Manager Cloud

What Keener revealed somewhat surprised me. Although vCenter 4 server was a piece of the design, the true magic that supported the self paced labs, instructor led labs, and the Solutions Exchange was (arguably) an example of a private cloud created by

Read the rest of this entry »

The fact that Microsoft has embraced virtualization is an understatement. The fact that Microsoft has been slow to embrace other virtualization vendor’s capabilities to run Windows operating systems as guests is equally an understatement, but what if this wasn’t the case? That is, what if Microsoft abandoned the licensing strategy of anchoring Windows to physical hardware? What if the folks at Redmond recognized virtual hardware and virtual machines (VMs) as equals to physical devices when assigning licenses? Taking it a step forward, what if specialized versions of the various Windows operating systems and applications were specifically developed for VMs along with special licensing? Maybe it will never happen, but there have been a few signs recently that give one hope for the possibility.

Like crop circles, the following are some posts that caused me to wonder “what if?”. Read the rest of this entry »

VM /ETC is probably the last virtualization blog to talk about VMware’s April 21 live via Simulcast web event. Nevertheless, there might be a few that have not heard about it yet. I’ve already registered, and I recommend all vmetc.com readers do the same.

Quickly, here is my speed read keywords from the verbiage on the official event web page:

• bringing cloud computing to businesses of all sizes.
• Transform your IT infrastructure into a private cloud
• dramatically reducing capital and operating costs and maximizing IT efficiency—with the freedom to choose any application, OS, or hardware.
• unveil the next generation of virtualization technology from VMware.
• one of the most groundbreaking events this year.
• Register Now >>

The virtualization community has exploded with theories and hype about what this announcement and event is really about. I’ll admit, it is exciting, but I have my doubts that this unveiling is really anything I have not heard already. I’m expecting to hear the same message I heard at VMworld 2008 in Las Vegas back in September, then again during VMworld Europe 2009 in February. I feel this is a “Microsoft” style web event that is designed to reach the masses that have not attended a VMworld conference recently. I have my fingers crossed that we’ll get an official name and a release date on VI 4 (next version), but I fear that is best case scenario. Maybe we’ll have a public beta?

Here’s what VMware employees are saying (or understandably being told to say) on their blogs to promote this event: Read the rest of this entry »

A couple of weekends ago an email discussion started among the authors at GestaltIT.com about cloud computing. As I remember it (yes, I am too lazy to check for the actual first email) we started on Friday and replied back and forth until Sunday night. The results of those replies are slowly forming as posts about real world, enterprise infrastructure concerns and opinions about implementing and migrating to Infrastructure As A Service (Iaas). Governance And Peaks In The Cloud written by Joerg, Martin, and Stephen is the first post to be published from this dialogue.

“As large organizations begin to look towards cloud computing, many find themselves questioning the suitability of the infrastructure for their business needs. As consumer-focused services like Carbonite lose data and startup-focused systems like Amazon EC2 and Microsoft Azure suffer outages, the image of the cloud has darkened. How are providers protecting the data? What RTO and RPO is offered? Are these sufficient for the types of applications being considered for the cloud?”

Read the entire post, and check out GestaltIT for much more about Cloud Computing infrastructure – both in posts already published and in the posts yet to come!

As expected, several news releases from VMware can be found this morning to coincide with the first day of the VMworld Europe 2009 Conference under way in Cannes, France. The initial reports I have seen of Paul Maritz’s opening Keynote session (mostly via live blogs and Twitter) indicate that most, if not all, of the content in these press releases was presented to the thousands of VMworld Europe attendees. I plan to watch the recorded Keynote when it becomes available on Vmworld.com.

Here is my early take on what has been announced.

• VMware has confirmed that the VDC-OS initiative will ship in 2009 and foster the adoption of internal, private cloud infrastructure. VMware envisions this shift in infrastructure to include the desktop with technologies that provide the vClient initiative. I am hoping to hear a clearer message about the VDC-OS / vSphere / ESX naming of initiatives / technology layers / products, but news provided today does not seem to offer any additional clarity.
• VMware has a bare metal desktop hypervisor and it’s name is CVP. Working with VMware View, CVP will allow users to work offline and be managed centrally by VDI administrators.
• VMware and Neverfail have developed a high availability solution for VirtualCenter (VC) in the form of an active / passive host based cluster named VMware vCenter Server Heartbeat. This solution appears to be primarily designed for VC to fail over to a standby server on the LAN, but apparently a WAN configuration is also available. Previously, virtual administrators would have to rely on MSCS Clustering solutions to provide high availability for physical instances of VC.
• The introduction of VMware vShield Zones in ESX Clusters will allow for a more efficient mix of virtual machines without compromising security. VI design in the past has presented challenges when considering how to isolate VMs in the DMZ from VMs in production for example, and this has lead to the creation of additional ESX hosts and Clusters to insure isolation and prevent system compromise. Now with the vShield Zones virtual appliance, different security policies can be created and enforced even as guests migrate between ESX hosts thus allowing the consolidation of ESX hosts and VMs.
• Fujitsu Siemens Computers and VMware have announced Flexframe for SAP which allows companies to virtualize SAP. Flexframe is a solution that provides guaranteed resources for the best end user experience under dynamically changing conditions.

In the rest of this post I am providing a link to all the announcements along with some key quotes from each press release. For full details read the original announcements in their entirety. Read the rest of this entry »

Rumored last week to be one of the early major non VMware announcements of VMworld Europe 2009, today Citrix has officially announced it’s next version of XenServer will be free. Obviously a strategic move to bolster production deployment of the XenServer hypervisor, Citrix is also confident that today’s move will ultimately provide a low cost enterprise class virtual infrastructure alternative, improve hosted cloud services already using Xen Server (such as Amazon EC2), and enable cost effective private cloud infrastructure. XenServer will also apparently be included with XenApp solutions in the future as well.

Citrix plans to make the new release available for download around the end of March 2009. You can download a free trial version today at http://www.citrix.com/freexenserver.

New management and automation products, such as Citrix Essentials for XenServer and Hyper-V which were also announced today, are expected to generate revenue for the Citrix virtualization products.

Citrix is not holding back on the features available in the free release either, thus immediately making VMware’s free ESXi Read the rest of this entry »

Mark Shuttleworth, founder of the Ubuntu Project, has announced via the Ubuntu Development List that Ubuntu Server 9.10, which will be available in October 2009, will allow companies to build their own open source, private clouds. Mark explains in his announcement, “Ubuntu aims to keep free software at the forefront of cloud computing by embracing the API’s of Amazon EC2, and making it easy for anybody to setup their own cloud using entirely open tools.” Mark states that official Ubuntu based revisions of Amazon Machine Images (AMI), the operating system and software stack currently deployed on Xen Server in the EC2 cloud, are currently in beta.

However, Mark indicates that plans for the new Ubuntu Server include more than just providing for the hosted Amazon Cloud service:

“What if you want to build an EC2-style cloud of your own? Of all the trees in the wood, a Koala’s favourite leaf is Eucalyptus. The Eucalyptus project, from UCSB, enables you to create an EC2-style cloud in your own data center, on your own hardware.”

Ubuntu 9.10 ‘s official distribution name will be “Karmic Koala” thus explaining the mascot refrence in the previous quote. (I can’t help but think about dining at the Rainforest Cafe when considering all of the Ubuntu distro names and mascots!) Eucalyptus is a cloud management interface in development by Ubuntu which will enable private EC2 style clouds. Eucalyptus is actually an acronym for Read the rest of this entry »