This post was written by Denise Ross
VMware Infrastructure 3 (VI3) solution is aimed squarely at enterprises looking to consolidate full-scale production systems. As such it’s easily the most scalable of the VMware platforms with additional management, load balancing and high availability features, all designed to take full advantage of the underlying virtualisation technology. Installation of the ESX software is simplified in VI3 by a Windows-like, install routine. VMware High Availability (HA) is a worthwhile option, adding automatic failover in the event of a hardware or software problem.
Double-Take for VMware Infrastructure suite makes replicas by taking a snapshot of the VM’s disk and sending that along with the original disk to another ESX Server system. After installation, the software runs a wizard to create a new replica. The replication does not appear to run at the maximum speed of the disks or network. Unfortunately switching over to the replica uses a manual process and so requires some experience with VMware ESX Server and VirtualCenter. For example, replicas do not normally appear in the VirtualCenter hierarchy of VMs present on each server.
Reviewers found the Vizioncore esxRanger Professional backup suite particularly valuable. esxRanger Pro has three operating modes. Its GUI does not run the jobs - it merely creates a command line for esxRanger Pro’s command line interpreter (CLI), which takes commands and actually runs the jobs. Moreover, it’s not necessary to shut down or even quiesce the VM operating system while making backups. The bottom line is that, as with all backup suites, it’s important to test your backups to ensure they will actually restore if needed.
Sun Microsystems’ VirtualBox desktop virtualization software is a surprisingly full-featured, no-cost alternative to VMware Workstation and Parallels Desktop that’s well worth the consideration of software developers looking to test on multiple platforms and of IT managers who are evaluating the strategic value of desktop virtualization. From running business productivity applications to playing downloaded videos, VirtualBox performed without error on reviewer’s test systems. All in all, VirtualBox proved an able hypervisor for running guest OSes with a minimum of fuss and even less money.
Microsoft’s Virtual PC 2007 offers developers and administrators an inexpensive option for satisfying their testing, support and application compatibility needs through the magic of virtualization. The most notable addition to the product, which is a follow-on to Microsofts Virtual PC 2004, is support for Windows Vista as a host or guest operating system. Probably our favorite feature of VPC 2007 is its support for creating Differencing Virtual Hard Discs. During installation mouse and display may not work well. PC 2007 lags VMware Workstation in overall functionality.
VKernel’s Capacity Analyzer 2.0 can use VMware VirtualCenter statistics to offer clarity in virtualization deployments. However, the virtualization tool is not a cross-platform product; it doesn’t address Microsoft’s Hyper-V virtualization technology. But in VMware environments, the virtualization tool will help IT administrators get the most out of their ESX installations. The biggest difference between VKernel’s Capacity Analyzer and VMware’s Capacity Planner is that VKernel uses added technology to make predictions about when and where capacity problems will occur. Capacity Analyzer is best suited for small to midsize enterprises that have moderately sized data centers.
IBM is taking on VMware’s virtual desktop infrastructure with its own Linux and Lotus-based virtual desktop. VMware’s VDI, recently re-launched as View, ships a virtual Windows or Linux desktop to desktops, notebooks and thin client devices, and is built from a golden master file and linked clones, stored on a VMware ESX server’s disks. IBM is working with Virtual Bridges and its VERDE (Virtual Enterprise Remote Desktop Environment) product to ship a virtual Canonical Ubuntu Linux desktop, with Lotus email, unified communication, and social networking software included, to a variety of end-point devices.
VMware has released VMware View 3, new software aimed at providing desktop virtualization, application virtualization and management of virtual desktops in one product. VMware View is a reworking of the company’s VMware Desktop Infrastructure product that adds other components to solve the problem of managing virtualized desktop environments, said Raj Mallempati, a group product manager of desktop products for VMware. VMware View is part of an initiative that VMware is calling vClient, which it unveiled at its VMworld conference in September.
VMware Inc., the global leader in virtualization solutions from the desktop to the datacenter, has announced that its industry-leading virtualization and management suite VMware Infrastructure 3 was named the winner of the Best of Tech Ed 2008 IT Professional Award in the virtualization category by Penton Media’s Windows IT Pro and SQL Server Magazine. VMware Infrastructure 3 provides the capability for automatic load balancing, business continuity and power management and the ability to move a virtual machine across physical machines to minimize service interruption.
TheInfoPro (TIP), an independent research network and leading supplier of market intelligence for the Information Technology (IT) industry, has announced that VMware continues to be the lead virtualization provider throughout the remainder of 2008. In addition, approximately 50% of VMware customers have indicated that switching to a different vendor will be tough due to the time and money, apart from tools and training, which have already been invested in the VMware product.