Sun xVM VirtualBox

Right on time, the next major VirtualBox version is released – VirtualBox 3.0.0!

Major changes in VirtualBox 3.0

The two major improvements in VirtualBox 3.0 can be summed up like this:

• multi-processor VMs - guest SMP with up to 32 virtual CPUs (VT-x and AMD-V only)
• graphics improvements: Direct3D 8/9 (Windows guests only) and OpenGL 2.0 (Windows, Linux and Solaris guests)

Updated functionality in VirtualBox 3.0

There are, as always, quite a few bugfixes and new features. These ones seemed interesting to me, but be sure to check out the full VirtualBox 3.0 changelog:

• VMM: eliminated IO-APIC overhead with 32 bits guests (VT-x only) – looks like there won't be a performance penalty for using IO-APIC anymore
• VRDP: support Windows 7 RDP client
• Linux guests: new daemon vboxadd-service to handle time synchronization and guest property lookup
• USB: Support for high-speed isochronous endpoints (Linux hosts only, will help with webcameras)
• GUI: settings dialog changed – looks much better organized now, and obviously supports all the newly introduced features.

See also:

• VirtualBox
• More articles on Virtual Box
• Changelog for VirtualBox 3.0

Sun xVM VirtualBox

Another update for VirtualBox was released yesterday: VirtualBox 2.2.

OpenGL for Linux and Solaris guests

If you remember, 3D acceleration was introduced for Windows XP guests in VirtualBox 2.1, and now similar functionality had been ported for Linux and Solaris VMs. A quick experiment shows almost 4x performance improvement for 3D between VirtualBox 2.1.2 and VirtualBox 2.2 – I've simply booted Ubuntu live cd and used glxgears to get some idea about the efficiency of new 3D acceleration support.

Host-only networking

Another interesting feature added in 2.2 is the host-only networking. Similarly to a bridged networking, it allows virtual machines exchange network traffic with each other and with the host, but without a need for the real network interface on the host system.

Full support for the OVF

Open Virtualization Format (OVF) is now fully supported, which means you can import OVF systems or export any of your VMs into OVF.

This release brings a few more improvements, so please consult the VirtualBox changelog for all the details.

See also:

• VirtualBox 2.1.2
• VirtualBox changelog
• OVF page @ VMware
• Download VirtualBox
  

Why use Infrastructure Client to manage VMware Server

There are three reasons I can think of:

1. Web-based administration on VMware Server is awfully slow. I must admit it got better in 2.x betas of the server, but web-based management is still far from anything really comfortable. Infrastructure Client seems visibly faster.
   
2. Common management interface – Infrastructure Client provides a common interface to manage all your virtual environments, irregardless of the VMware virtualization platform supporting them – can be ESX/ESXi or VMware Server.
3. Access to a full range of configuration parameters – last time I checked, web interface only covered the most used options of managing your VMware Server and VMs. Infrastructure Client is bound to give you access to all the features available, not just the basic ones.

How to access VMware Server with Infrastructure Client

Many people attempt to access server using just the VMware Server hostname, like in this example below:

Attempt to connect VMware Server without the port specified

… they get connection refused error and give up.

To access your VMware Server from Infrastructure Client, you have to be a bit more specific, and provide a port number to connect to:

VMware Server with Infrastructure Client

That's it, hope this quick tip helps you!

For example, if I right-click the VM and decide to reset it, instead of getting something like "You're about to reset the HOSTNAME.DOMAINNAME.COM virtual machine. Are you sure?", I only see this:

Annoying Reset Confirmation

I wonder if it's really hard to make these dialogs to be VM specific?

Windows 7 in xVM VirtualBox

January 21st saw the release of 2.1.2 update of a popular desktop virtualization solution – xVM VirtualBox.

As usual, there had been numerous bugfixes and performance improvements, and among the new features came one of the most anticipated features – support for Windows 7 VMs.

Frankly, I am surprised as how well Win7 performed in a VM with just 512Mb!

See also:

• VirtualBox 2.1.0
• VirtualBox website

As you have noticed, I usually revisit various software solutions to confirm most recent developments and share the news with the community. From now on, I'll be maintaining the solutions page which will help anyone to navigate the options we currently have in desktop virtualization.

If you're a vendor with relevant product or a customer looking for an easy navigation in the world of virtualization – please check the DV solutions page out and help me expand it.

See also:

• Desktop Virtualization solutions
• Desktop Virtualization glossary

Sun xVM VirtualBox

Another major release of Sun xVM VirtualBox, the 2.1.0 version, is now available for download.

From the list of major improvements, I'd like to highlight comment a few.

VirtualBox 2.1.0 major improvements

• Experimental LsiLogic and BusLogic SCSI controllers – a long awaited feature which means VMs from VMware and many more virtualization solutions can now work in VirtualBox even if they had these controllers emulated at the time of initial VM configuration
• Mac OS X users can now enjoy the support for hardware virtualization (VT-x and AMD-V) – to me, this looks like VirtualBox is taking all the right steps to attract more and more users of Mac OS
• It is now possible to run 64-bit guest VMs on 32-bit host operating systems. Only recent CPUs with hardware virtualization support will allow you to give this a try. I'll have to wait a bit myself – my home PC turned out to be so old that it doesn't even support AMD-V.
• Experimental 3D acceleration via OpenGL – so far provided only in a form of a specialized Windows XP/Vista VM driver, this feature hints that there may be similar approach added for Linux and Solaris VMs.
• Intel Nehalem virtualization enhancements support (EPT and VPID) – this means those ones of you who are lucky enough to already own the latest generation of Intel CPUs, the Inte; Core i7 ones, can enjoy even more of a performance advantage
• Full VMDK/VHD support including snapshots – again, snapshots is a common practice in managing VMs these days, so it's great to see it fully supported in VirtualBox

For more details, be sure to visit the official VirtualBox site and read the full VirtualBox 2.1.0 changelog.

My verdict: Just most major VirtualBox updates, this one is a must have for any user looking for a serious desktop virtualization solution.

See also:

• Sun xVM portfolio
• Running VMware Windows VMs in VirtualBox

VMware Workstation 6.5

If you were thinking of getting yourself a VMware Workstation, here's your chance to do it 25% cheaper!

If you go to the VMware Workstation Product page and click Buy Now, proceeding to the checkout will allow you to type in a promo code. Use this one to get a 25% discount: CyberMondayDeal.

There's not much time left though, this offer expires at 11:59PM PT on Monday, December 1, 2008.

Acquisitions

• IBM is to acquire Transitive via InformationWeek
  I'm really impressed with the flexibility Transitive gives you: it's a cross-platform virtualization solution, which in my experiments allowed an x86 Solaris-based system to run a SPARC Solaris environment. This is extremely useful when you need to support old third-party solutions but your hardware is irreversibly growing old. I understand IBM already uses Transitive's solutions, so it's quite a logical step for both companies.
• TechTarget Acquires The Brian Madden Company via VMblog
  TechTarget have quite a portfolio of websites and events around virtualization, and surely the desktop virtualization angle brought by Brian Madden will make a great addition.

VMware News

• VMware Convertor 4 public beta 1 (you will need your VMTN account to access it though)
  New release of VMware Convertor brings the long-awaited support for VM conversion of Linux systems (RHEL, SUSE and Ubuntu) and Windows Server 2008. The list of supported third-party image formats had been substantially updated to support the latest versions of products. Flexibility in VM configuration would allow for a smooth workflow when doing P2V on larger scale.
• VMware Referrals program
  If you love VMware products and want to earn something for introducing someone to them, it's going to be much easier to do with the just announced referrals program: VMware @ TellAPal

Virtualization Software news

• Wyse updates their virtualization software suite
  Quite a few directions have been successfully explored and covered in the most recent update of software suite by Wyse: USB Virtualizer, Multi-display and Rich Sound are the modules added to ensure the delivery of a more integrated solution. In terms of typical desktop user productivity, I would say that RIch Sound (bi-directional audio over RDP) is the most significant improvement – I hear this as one of the main complains from customers when it comes to various desktop virtualization solutions and particularly remote access to virtual desktops sessions.

I don't own a Mac (yet), but it looks like the latest release of Parallels virtualization software, Parallels Desktop 4 for Mac, caused quite an excitement among the fans. I thought I'd share the links with you.

Parallels Desktop 4 for Mac reviews

• Dan Kusnetzky talks about Parallels Desktop 4 on Virtually Speaking pages.
• InformationWeek has a great review: Parallels Desktop 4  for Mac Boosts Stability, Performance
• Mac Observer runs a First Look Review – Life With Microsoft Vista in Parallels Desktop 4

See also:

• Parallels Desktop 4 – official page