Bob Plankers from
lone sysadmin mentioned that VMware only will support 64-bit hardware for the host in future releases.
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Future versions of VMware ESX/ESXi will only run on 64-bit-capable CPUs.
You will still be able to run 32-bit guest OSes, but the ESX console OS will only work on CPUs capable of Intel VT & EM64T. This is a big deal for two reasons:
1. Dell doesn’t let you enable VT on anything but the PowerEdge 6850, and all ninth-generation servers (x9xx) and beyond. There are a lot of Dell PowerEdge 1850/2850s out there that will still be in use over the next few years. I suspect equipment from other manufacturers, like HP, is similarly affected. This means a lot of people will be stuck at current ESX levels (ESX 3.5.x) for a while until they can get new hardware. That also means that if you want to use some of the new features, like Continuous Availability, you might have to budget for an upgrade.
2. It’s pretty common to recycle old hardware down into test environments, but now you might not be able to do that in the next replacement cycle. If you have, or will have, hardware capable of Intel VT in production make sure you’ve done something to make your VMware test environment VT-capable, too. Even just budgeting now for a VT-capable test server is a good proactive move, to be purchased once the software is actually released.
I have no idea when the next version of ESX will ship, but it’s worth thinking about this sort of stuff now so you can budget for it and have a plan[0]. Even if you decide that the plan is to do nothing and wait.
If you want to test your CPUs to see if they will support 64-bit OSes you can use the VMware CPU Identification Utility. It’s a bootable ISO image that will tell you what you need to know.
To reiterate: ESX console OS going 64-bit, you will still be able to run 32-bit guest OSes, you will need recent hardware to support the 64-bit console OS, and VMware has a tool to tell you where you stand.
End quote
In case you hadn’t heard the news yet, The Brian Madden Company has just been acquired by TechTarget, Inc. Madden has been covering Citrix technology for a while now, even before the whole Virtualization craze when it was just plain old application presentation — not quite as cool as today’s application virtualization bucket.
If you have any skin in the game of desktop virtualization, I’m sure you’ve heard of Brian Madden, his BrianMadden.com web site, or his independent deskop virtualization conference held in Chicago – The BriForum event. Madden is also known for publishing virtualization books such as the popular VI3: Advanced Technical Design Guide from Herold, Oglesby, and Laverick.
So what happens next? … Read more at VMblog
From BrianMadden.com:
I’m happy to announce that we have been acquired by TechTarget. This is really cool because it means that Gabe and I can focus 100% on writing and interacting with the community, and we don’t have to be weighed down by all the operational minutia of running a business.
For those of you unfamiliar with TechTarget, they’re an IT Media Company. They have something like 60 IT-related websites, including IT Knowledge Exchange, NotebookReview.com, LabMice.net, and all those "Search" news sites (SearchWinIT.com, etc.) They also host about 300 events and conferences per year. (I actually attended one in DC today about desktop virtualization, with presentations from Mark Minasi and Barb Goldworm. Very cool!)
Read more at BrianMadden.com
Technorati Tags: virtualization,brianmadden,acquisition
Some time ago VMware together with Intel and AMD announced that they were taking steps towards enabling cross-platform vmotions. The intention was to move a vm from one host (intel) to another host (amd) with vmotion technology. The companies now announced they dismiss their plans towards cross-migration plans.
The reason why this effort is currently on hold is the way the migration becomes available. The idea is to hide all instructions from both processor types that differ. In that way you have two "equal" processors/instruction sets. Because the instructions that differ between the two architectures are growing in numbers these instructions are more and more being used. Some of these instruction are only detected by initialization (start/boot), if you then migrate a vm to another architecture the OS might still think that certain instructions are available and will do calls to these instructions. If this happens the VM becomes unstable and might crash depending on the instructions used. In terms of High available or fault tolerance (ESX4) this is something you don’t want.
AMD however said that it nevertheless will put a lot of effort in making it possible in the future, not surprisingly because they want to regain market share they lost with the delayed AMD quad core introduction.
Hopefully both parties do agree on developing some sort of solution for this, because the demands from the market are still there.
I had the pleasure to meet the guys of Transitive in february this year on VMworld Europe, they had a giveaway each day where they organized a prizedraw for an apple notebook because they introduced the Rosetta Software with which you can run POWERPC apps on your x86 (Apple) hardware. Transitive’s QuickTransit cross-platform virtualization solutions allow applications created for one CPU and OS to run on different platforms without modifications to source code or binaries.
Yesterday IBM announced the plans to acquire of Transitive. This acquisition is part of IBM’s strategy to help clients optimize the efficiency and productivity of their computing infrastructure and improve the utilization of the servers that run them. With this translation technology, along with existing migration capabilities, IBM systems give businesses a faster, easier path for server consolidation to reduce operational expenses, floorspace and energy costs.
Pano Logic a delivers a "zero software, all hardware" client solution as they call it. Pano Logic is a developer of a server-based desktop virtualization solution.
On november 17th Pano Logic announced Pano Virtual Desktop Solution (VDS) 2.5. VDS is a three piece concept.
- A piece of hardware (client device) without chips (software) that resides on the desktop of the user and is connected to external devices such as keyboard/mouse/video and to the network.
- On the server side there is a Pano Manager. A web-based management interface, deployed on your VMware VI3 infrastructure which enables administrators to automate virtual desktop deployment by integrating with existing directory services and VMware Virtual Center.
- A Pano Desktop Service which is a lightweight service residing within each Windows desktop virtual machine that links peripherals attached to the Pano device to the unmodified native Windows drivers.
In the new version Pano said goobye to the Microsoft RDP-protocol and delivers a near native windows experience.
Pano VDS 2.5 is now available with pricing starting at $300 for a single Pano desktop.
Quote from Virtualization.info:
Almost one month after VirtualCenter, VMware updates also ESX to version 3.5 Update 3.
Pretty much like for VirtualCenter, this new build (123630) is mainly for bugfixes. Nonetheless there are some important improvements:
- Support for 20 vCPUs / core (previous limit was 8 or 11, in case of VDI workloads)
- Support for Solaris 10 Update 5, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.7 and Ubuntu 8.04.1
- Support for Broadcom 5771x 10GB NICs (despite the TOE aboard is not supported)
- Support for Broadcom HT1000 and Intel ICH-7 SATA controllers
- Experimental support for Intel MFSYS25 SAS networked controller
- Experimental support for a new VMDK Recovery Tool (a script that recovers deleted VMDK data stores on VMFS volumes)
- and more
Download the trial here.
The
Dutch VMUG organizes the 4th Official Dutch VMUG Meeting on december 12th 2008.
The sessions will be mostly in Dutch (except those with English speaking presenters),
but even if your not capable of understanding the Dutch Language there will probably be someone there to help you understand the basics.
I have already signed up for the event and will give ‘act de presence’.
For more information and registration look
here, don’t wait too long to register because places are limited to 600 and the event is almost sold out.
The meeting has a couple of timeslots and three different ‘tracks’ for each timeslot
I have already made a personal schedule that I’d like to share:
Keynote – VMware
Richard Garsthagen, VMware
ESX Server en Virtual Center Server Best Practices
Willem van Engeland, VMware
VMUG Sessie: Streaming Smackdown 2009
Ruben Spruijt – VMUG / PQR
Virtualisatie en Storage
Frederik Vos – XTG
Virtual Center Database – There is more than meets the eye
Bouke Groenescheij – VMUG/Jume
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure in het Onderwijs (Education)
Leo Smit – Penta College
Quest subsidairy Vizioncore released a new major upgrade of vConverter 4.0 since the acquisition of invirtus by mothership Quest in mid 2007.
As of november 9 2008, Vizioncore is shipping this new version of vConverter.
Recently VMware announced VMware Mobile Virtualization Platform (MVP). After introducing vCloud and the vClient initiative, VMware is entering the mobile market. A for VMware new type of hypervisor based on a non-x86 architecture like MIPS and ARM processor architecture has been added to the portfolio.
Some time ago VMware acquired a company called TRANGO Virtual Processors which develops a hypervisor using paravirtualization for use with Mobile devices (embedded software). VMware positions it as a mobile (handheld) device solution, Trango on their website also mentions the automotive industry as a possible benifitiator.
The strategy behind the hypervisor for mobile devices is to stimulate the application development on mobile platforms by shortening the time to market through seperating the hardware from the OS & applications.
Besides the stimulation of mobile app development the possibility of running two different and isolated profiles next to each other is a strong selling point. This way corporate and personal configurations of the mobile device can run next to each other on the same mobile device. From security and manageability point of view this is an interesting feature for businesses dealing with questions wether or not to allow mobile devices on their (wireless) network. Using a specific business profile controlled by the business in a way reduces risks.
Looking into the future and combining it with techniques like VDI(offline desktop) or ACE this is a huge step in mobile device management and control. It will make it possible for the user to use a device how he/she likes (personal profile) and on the other hand (company profile) complying to rules and settings issued by the company by running an (always) up to date profile/vm.
Lots of people contacted me lately about my previous article about my Poweredge T105 running VMware ESXi. Most of them were concerned about the system being able to run ESXi properly. It seems that a lot of people have posted items on their Blog or in a Forum about the difficulties they experienced running ESX on a Poweredge T105.
Am I lucky? I’m not sure, the one thing I do know is that I have it running for a couple of months now.
An issue I can confirm is that you have to have a certain buildnumber (or above) to get it running, i.e. one of the earlier versions of ESXi did not run properly as stated in one of my earlier posts. When the T105 came to the market the version of ESXi available at that time, did not recognize most of the hardware that’s inside the T105 (broadcom nic, SATA controller etc.).
The version of ESXi(3.5.0 build-110271) I use does not have any difficulties of whatsoever. The PowerEdge T105 runs ESXi from a USB-stick plugged in onto the motherboard inside the case. It’s just plug and play, no additional drivers were used. To give you an idea of how it looks like (and proof of operation) I made some screenshots I’d like to share with you.
Looking into the future I think more and more hardware is able to run ESX(i), that’s logical if you look at the strategy Vmware has developed in the client corner of IT. Vmware’s currently developing a client hypervisor as part of the VDI/Desktop strategy and looking at the different hardware vendors producing laptop/client hardware the support for other hardware in that hypervisor which probably is based on ESXi (just guessing here) must be broadened. It’s most likely that you can run your ESXi hypervisor on nearly any piece of hardware in the near future.
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