[TECH] – ICA DeepDive & Acceleration September 14, 2009
Posted by Roel Gydé in Application virtualization, Server Virtualization, Storage Virtualization & Storage, datacenter, desktop virtualization.add a comment
Following a number of discussions with partners on ‘How does ICA work’ and ‘How can it be accelerated’, we bumped into the following ‘wedcast’ by Jo Harder & Jason Maynard. Register here for the recorded webcast
Virtualization & Cloud Computing Industry News [14.09.09] September 14, 2009
Posted by Roel Gydé in Application virtualization, Cloud Computing, Data Center Management, File Virtualization, I/O Virtualization, Memory Virtualization, Server Virtualization, Storage Virtualization & Storage, datacenter, desktop virtualization.Tags: App-V, Citrix, DaaS, Data Recovery, Desktone, IBM, Marathon Technologies, MDOP, Microsoft, VDI, VMware, Wyse
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It has been a while that we have posted here … for wich we offer our humble excuses. We’ll do our best to not let you down the following weeks, months, …
- Microsoft will release MDOP 2009 R2 shortly after the release of Windows 7 on October 22nd, instead of Q1 2010 as previously expected [Full article]
- VMware released the 1.0.2 (Build 188925) version of their VMware Data Recovery solution [notes] and vCenter Lifecycle Manager solution version 1.0.2 [notes]
- BriadMadden TV: Dive into PC-over-IP, which will be released with View 4 [Full media]
- Parallels announced the addition of Microsoft Office Communications Server R2 to its Parallels Automation offering [Full article]
- Marathon Technologies names new CEO and President: Jim Welch [Full article]
- IBM plans to launch the Smart Business Desktop offering in October 2009 with a subscription model, the solution is based on collaboration between IBM, Citrix, Desktone, Wyse and VMware [more]
EVENTS:
- October 13th, 2009 – Online – “CitrixLive: Secrets, Lies and VDI” - free virtual event – [register]
Citrix opens beta of next XenServer April 14, 2009
Posted by Yves Peeters in Server Virtualization.Tags: Citrix, virtualization, XenServer
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Citrix has just opened the beta program for the next version of XenServer.
The new product is codenamed Project George (but the final name will be XenServer 5.1 according to our sources), and features some interesting capabilities:
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Active Directory integration. Specify the AD domain to use for authentication by the pool and use your AD credentials to connect to the pool via XenCenter and ssh. You control which AD users/groups are allowed access.
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Workload balancing. Guest and host performance metrics are used to create star ratings for individual VM placement and balancing recommendations for resource pools to achieve optimal performance.
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LVHD. Fast cloning and snapshots are now supported on all Storage Repository types through integration of our software VHD stack and LVM-based Storage Repositories (SRs).
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StorageLink integration. CLI-only support for a new StorageLink Gateway SR that adds native standards-based support for HP MSA, HP EVA, EMC Clariion, and NetApp storage arrays over iSCSI and Fibre Channel with automated initiator/fabric/array management.
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Expanded guest OS support. RHEL 5.3, Debian Lenny, and SLES 11 Linux guests.
Citrix says that the RTM code is expected for the end of April. It’s clear that the company is anxious to have it ready for the Synergy 2009, to be held in Las Vegas in early May.
You can download the beta via MyCitrix.
Virtualization & Cloud Computing News [09.04.09] April 9, 2009
Posted by Roel Gydé in Application virtualization, Cloud Computing, Data Center Management, File Virtualization, I/O Virtualization, Memory Virtualization, Server Virtualization, Storage Virtualization & Storage, datacenter, desktop virtualization.Tags: BlueCat, Cisco, Citrix, Devon IT, ESX, StorMagic, Tidal Software, Veeam, Vimware View, XenDesktop
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- Thin clients from Devon IT Europe have been VMware View certified
- BlueCat launches its Proteus and Adonis products as virtual appliances for VMware ESX
- VMware View 3.0 has been arwarded a 7,5/10 by Infoworld Test Center (report), the last test of XenDesktop (version 2.0) resulted in 8.3 (report)
- Veeam introduces version 4.5 of nWorks Management Pack for integration in vCenter and SCCM (more)
- Cisco to buy Tidal Software, who have a focus on intelligent application management and automation solutions, which will be integrated into Cisco’s Data Center 3.0 view.
- StorMagic , who specializes iSCSI SAN management software for virtualized environments, launched an extensive channel program (more
From Citrix XenServer to Citrix Essentials … the implications April 8, 2009
Posted by Roel Gydé in Server Virtualization.Tags: Citrix, Citrix Essentials for XenServer, XenServer
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In March Citrix announced some major changes in the XenServer productline. We provide the following information, so that everything becomes a clear for those active installations and for future installations.
Changes in products:
No much changes within the products on feature-level, although that VM Lifecycle Management, LabAutomation, extended historical performance reporting, StorageLink and workflow orchestration have been added in the new versions of XenServer: Citrix Essentials for XenServer Enterprise and Citrix Essentials for XenServer Platinum.
Full product-feature-overview
Products have been rebranded and have some met the end-of-life date:
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Exit XenServer Express
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Exit XenServer Standard
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Exit XenServer Enterprise
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Enter XenServer at 0 USD (including multi-server-management, xenmotion, ..)
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Enter Citrix Essentials for XenServer Enterprise
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Enter Citrix Essentials for XenServer Platinum
For product information we kindly refer you to a Citrix Solution Advisor. Of course you can always reach us for more information through this blog.
Pricing
Citrix Essentials for XenServer (ENT/PLAT) is available in an ‘annual license’ and a ‘perpetual license’. Seen the fact that XenServer is cloud-ready, annual licenses can be best positioned within cloud-computing environments with a volatile usage. As soon as you are looking for an implementation that will run more than 12 months go for the perpetual license.
The perpetual license includes 1 year ‘Subscription Advantage’ which enables you to connect to the latest version of the Citrix Essentials for XenServer during the SA period. If your edition falls out of SA, you always have the opportunity to move your license again under SA with a small additional fine.
There is a pricing promotion on Citrix Essentials for XenServer Platinum: 3.000 USD instad of 5.000 USD, probably till the end of June, 2009. The financial uplift from Citrix Essentials for XenServer Enteprise to Citrix Essentials for XenServer Platinum has ben reduced to a minimum, one would be ***** not to go for the Platinum edition of Citrix Essentials for XenServer.
The S.A.R-program for Citrix Solution Advisor remains in effect, but only when this partner has been certified.
Support
The free version of XenServer will not be supported by technical support of Citrix without a technical support contract. The contracts are available through Citrix Solution Advisors. For those customers running an old version of XenServer (Std, Ent, Plat) and who migrate to the last version of Citrix Essentials and have an active technical support contract, can get technical support under the old contract for the new Citrix Essentials version.
Upgrades
from Citrix XenServer Standard (purchased before 23/2/9) with SA to Citrix Essentials: can migrate for free to Citrix Essentials for XenServer Enterprise. If you are not interested in the upgrade to Citrix Essentials for XenServer Enterprise you can always opt for the free XenServer edition. For those Citrix XenServer Standard editions purchased after 23/2/9, there is a free upgrade path to the free XenServer edition or a payable upgrade to Citrix Essentials for XenServer Enterprise. There is no direct upgrade path from Citrix XenServer Standard to Citrix Essentials for XenServer Platinum.
from Citrix XenServer Enterprise with SA to Citrix Essentials: are eligible to receive a Citrix Essentials for XenServer Enterprise
from Citrix XenServer Platinum with SA to Citrix Essentials: are eligible to receive Citrix Essentials for XenServer Platinum, there is no downgrade-path to Citrix Essentials for XenServer Enterprise
from Citrix Essentials for Xenserver (Ent/Plat) Annual to Perpetual: not possible
from Citrix Essentials for XenServer Enterprise to Citrix Essentials for XenServer Platinum: yes
We will try to post more on these changes in the following weeks.
Virtualization & Cloud Computing News [07.04.09 - UPDATE 2] April 7, 2009
Posted by Roel Gydé in Application virtualization, Cloud Computing, Data Center Management, File Virtualization, I/O Virtualization, Memory Virtualization, Server Virtualization, Storage Virtualization & Storage, datacenter, desktop virtualization.Tags: Apple, Linux, OpenGL, OVF, Snow Leopard, Solaris, Sun Microsystems, VirtualBox
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- Sun Microsystems has update its x86 VirtualBox with support for OVF 1.0 and performance enhancements (3D graphics acceleration for Linux and Solaris using OpenGL. Support for Apple’s Snow Leopard (more)
- The GRIDS Laboratory of the University of Melbourne has released CloudSim: a novel framework for modelling and simulation of cloud computing infrastructure and services (more)
Proposal for “OSI alike”-model for Data Centers April 7, 2009
Posted by Roel Gydé in Application virtualization, Cloud Computing, Data Center Management, File Virtualization, I/O Virtualization, Memory Virtualization, Server Virtualization, Storage Virtualization & Storage, datacenter, desktop virtualization.Tags: Data Center Pulse, Data Center Stack, OSI
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Data Center Pulse released their proposal for the Data Center Stoack, an OSI-model a-like stack to describe the involved architecture. As the OSI-model the proposed Data Center Stack has seven layers.
- Data Center Pulse – Proposal for Data Center Stack
Virtualization & Cloud Computing News [07.04.09 - UPDATE] April 7, 2009
Posted by Roel Gydé in Server Virtualization.Tags: Citrix Essentials for XenServer
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- Citrix launches promotion on Citrix Essentials for XenServer Platinum till end of June. Customers can purchase Citrix Essentials for XenServer Platinum at a discounted rate of 3.000 USD (listprice) instead of 5.000 USD.
- SalesForce.comlaunches a mobile application for all theirs users free-of-charge
Virtualization & Cloud Industry News [07.04.09] April 7, 2009
Posted by Roel Gydé in Application virtualization, Cloud Computing, Data Center Management, File Virtualization, I/O Virtualization, Memory Virtualization, Server Virtualization, Storage Virtualization & Storage, datacenter, desktop virtualization.Tags: Amazon, Desktop Analysis Pack, EC2, FastScale, Lanamark, Server Virtualization Design Module
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- Lanamark releases Desktop Analysis Pack for accelerating desktop virtualization projectes by offering extensive analytics. It also offers insight to the type of device, associations between devices (PC-monitor, …), installed apps vs used apps … Once the analysis has been performed, this analysis can be used with the Server Virtualization Design Module of Lanamark to roll out the ideal server infrastructure (more)
- FastScale optimizes software stacks for Amazon EC2, 95% smaller environments, 75% less memory needed (more) There is beta-program available
- SaaS will be good for 20% of the commercial email market by 2012, coming from only 1% in 2007. Report by Gartner
- HyTrust releases the HyTrust Appliance, an appliance offering insights into the behaviour of VMs with full control of all the ‘events’, single point of control and visibility for hypervisor configurations, compliance and access management. The solution works with Symantec, Citrix and VMware (more)
Virtualization & Cloud Computing Industry News [06.04.09] April 6, 2009
Posted by Roel Gydé in Application virtualization, Cloud Computing, Data Center Management, File Virtualization, I/O Virtualization, Memory Virtualization, Server Virtualization, Storage Virtualization & Storage, datacenter, desktop virtualization.Tags: Citrix, DTMF, IBM, Pano Logic, Sun
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Virtualization & Cloud Computing News [03.04.09] April 3, 2009
Posted by Roel Gydé in Application virtualization, Cloud Computing, Data Center Management, File Virtualization, I/O Virtualization, Memory Virtualization, Server Virtualization, Storage Virtualization & Storage, datacenter, desktop virtualization.Tags: Branch Repeater, Citrix, Netscaler, SAP, VMware, vSphere, WANscaler
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- SAP certifies Citrix Netscaler 9.0 and Branch Repeater/WANscaler as a complete solution to improve the delivery of the SAP applications. The SAP Portal response times were significantly better with the Netscaler technology (more)
- Rumours in the market indicate that VMware vSphere will be announced on April 21st
Virtualization & Cloud Industry News [02.04.09 - Update] April 2, 2009
Posted by Roel Gydé in Application virtualization, Cloud Computing, Data Center Management, File Virtualization, I/O Virtualization, Memory Virtualization, Server Virtualization, Storage Virtualization & Storage, datacenter, desktop virtualization.Tags: brokers, Cloud Computing, Cloud Security Alliance, ESX, ESXi, IBM, LotusLIve Engage, SaaS, VMware
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- IBM announced yesterday their first move to cloud computing with a SaaS offering for contact management, instant messaging and file sharing program in their own data centers. The fee per user per month will be between 10 USD and 45 USD, general availability of the suite is foreseen for April 7th and it will be marketed under the brand LotusLive Engage (more)
- VMware changes the number of supported virtual CPUs to 20 virtual CPUs per core across a board. The maximum number of vCPU remains unchanges: 192 (ESX) and 170 (ESXi Update 3) (more)
- Cloud Security Alliance formed to promote security best practices a cloud computing environment. Founding members include eBay and ING, furthermore PGP, Qualys and vScaler are also member (more)
- VDI Connection Brokers have been analyzed (more)
Virtualization & Cloud Industry News [02.04.09] April 2, 2009
Posted by Yves Peeters in Data Center Management, Server Virtualization, datacenter.Tags: ESX, Hyper-V, Intel, VKernel, VMware
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DMTF Releases OVF 1.0 Standard (more).
Intel releases new CPUs and NICs with nested page tables and I/O virtualization (more).
5nine Software today announced 5nine P2V Planner for Microsoft Hyper-V (more).
VKernel Ships Virtual Data Center Modeling Tool for VMware ESX Environments (more).
Virtutech Defines Full Systems Virtualized Development With Simics 4.2 (more).
Virtualization & Cloud Industry News [30.03.09] March 30, 2009
Posted by Roel Gydé in Application virtualization, Cloud Computing, Data Center Management, File Virtualization, I/O Virtualization, Memory Virtualization, Server Virtualization, Storage Virtualization & Storage, datacenter, desktop virtualization.Tags: Apple, Citrix, Gartner, HP, ICA, iPhone, XenServer
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Citrix released the technical preview kit for the Apple ICA client to the Apple iPhone App Store, if you are looking for more technical information visit the following review by Michael Keen or go get your ICA client at the Apple Store.
Parallels is launching “Parallels Workstation Extreme”, a desktop workstation virtualization offering developed jointly with HP and NVIDIA (more).
Neterion Launches Third Generation I/O Virtualized X3110 10 GbE Server Adapter to the World-Wide Channel (more).
HP SNMP Agents for Citrix XenServer Retail Available (more).
Gartner predicts that the hosted virtual desktop (HVD) market will accelerate through 2013, reaching 49 million units (read the report)
Virtualization & Cloud Industry News [26.03.09] March 26, 2009
Posted by Yves Peeters in Server Virtualization, Storage Virtualization & Storage.Tags: Citrix, Datacore, SANmelody, Xen
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Cisco Project California [Part IV - Unified Computing System] March 17, 2009
Posted by Roel Gydé in Application virtualization, Data Center Management, I/O Virtualization, Server Virtualization, Storage Virtualization & Storage, datacenter.Tags: Cisco, UCS, VMware
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So Project California has seen the light (previous post) … yesterday there was a gigantic-buzz across blogs, twitters and the web on Cisco’s UCS … Unified Computing System. A digest of the most important things-to-know …
· The system consists out of Fabric interconnects, Fabric extenders and Blade Servers, which work as 1 big unit within the data center. The Fabric Interconnect holds the “service profiles”, which are frameworks including paramets for power, cooling, network parameters, storage parameters, … These profiles are used for coordination and automation of each layer of the hardware stack (which includes the interconnects, the extenders, the NICs and the blade servers).
· The provisioning of the OS within a virtual machine or a physical blade is not part of the solution, in order to provision these OS and applications, the user will have to work with XML APIs.
· Cisco claims that they can reduce CAPEX with 20% and OPEX with 30%, this is not that surprising. A general automated and consolidated data center can obtain these ratios.
As this is a complete Cisco-centric-solution there are some catches involved:
· In order to maintain uptime it advised to have a cluster of Fabric Interconnects that work in an active/passive mode
· Cisco only supports VMware at present, although that certain reports claim that the solution will also be available for Hyper-V. The Nexus switch is included within the UCS solution but the Nexus works best with VMware
· What about vendor-lock-in?
Other items that have to be seen are:
· Pricing ! General availability of the solution is foreseen for Q2/09.
· The solution is aimed at server virtualization, what about solutions for application virtualization?
· The specifications of the blade servers
Additional information can be found at Cisco Press Releases, Cisco UCS Homepage, Data Center Knowledge, VMblog, Scott Lowe, Stephen Foskett,
Stay tuned for more …
Citrix Open Sources Their VHD Implementation February 20, 2009
Posted by Yves Peeters in Server Virtualization.Tags: Citrix, XenServer
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Simon Crosby announced that Citrix has open sourced their optimized VHD support. This means that XenServer’s robust VHD implementation is now available to any developer under the BSD license. In case you don’t already know, VHD is the same virtual disk technology Microsoft uses in Hyper-V, and which Microsoft is using even more extensively in future versions of Windows.
In my opinion, this is an excellent move. It addresses the perception of failing to give back to the open source community, and it puts what appears to be a valuable piece of technology into the open source world. Making XenServer’s VHD implementation available for other open source developers to use in their projects puts VHD on the fast track to being the de facto virtual disk standard. Assuming that other virtualization platforms adopt VHD support—and I’m not sure why many of them wouldn’t adopt VHD support, except for VMware—we’ve now removed a huge barrier to interoperability. That’s a good thing.
Not being a lawyer, I’m a bit worried about the compatibility of the BSD license—which is generally regarded as quite generous—and the Microsoft Open Specification Promise, but I’ll leave that for others to hash out.
It will be interesting to see if Citrix also open sources some of their other XenServer-related technologies. Time will tell…
More information can be found here.
Cisco Project California [Part III - the release] February 18, 2009
Posted by Roel Gydé in Server Virtualization.Tags: Cisco, EMC, HP, i7, IBM, VMware
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Cisco has been working on entering the servermarket for over the past months with their project California. The final product will probably be released to the public on March 16th in the States, this news surfaced in the shades of rumours about Cisco taking over EMC or VMware (recently Cisco has increased it capital with 4 billion USD through external financing).
Specs of the new blades servers that surface: include Intel Core i7 processors, 192GB Memory, PCI Express connectivity (providing access to Cisco Unified Fabric Architecture with direct communication between the blades and the storage servers. There will be a tight integration with VMware (Cisco owns around 1,6% of VMware at present), but it remains unclear if the VMware solution would be OEMed in the product
More on the following pages [InternetNews]
Virtualization & Cloud Industry News [04.02.09] February 4, 2009
Posted by Roel Gydé in Application virtualization, Cloud Computing, Data Center Management, File Virtualization, I/O Virtualization, Memory Virtualization, Server Virtualization, Storage Virtualization & Storage, datacenter, desktop virtualization.Tags: 3D graphics, Citrix, Clustered Systems, fanless cooling system, HDX, McAfee, SaaS, XenDesktop
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McAfee launches internal division which will focus on SaaS, the division has the goal to increase the number of applications which the company will offer as a SaaS concept.
Citrix releases Citrix HDX with XenDesktop 3.0, which enhances multimedia, video, voice, 3D graphics and “adaptive orchestration” that sense the underlying capabilities in the data center (more)
Clustered Systems is developing a fanless cooling system for servers using a cold plate, which contains a tubing system filled with liquid coolant. By removing fans and dedicating more power to processors, the company says its product will support power densities of up to 80 kilowatts per rack (more)
Virtualization & Cloud Industry News [03.02.09] February 3, 2009
Posted by Roel Gydé in Application virtualization, Cloud Computing, Data Center Management, File Virtualization, I/O Virtualization, Memory Virtualization, Server Virtualization, Storage Virtualization & Storage, datacenter, desktop virtualization.Tags: Citrix, EMC, Gartner, Independence, Lanamark, Memory Virtualization Platform, Microsoft, mRemote, Netapp, Parallels, Remote Desktop, RNA networks, RNAmessenger, Solid State Disk, View Open Client, Visionapp, VMware, Xenocode
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It has been a while since we posted the last ‘virtualization & cloud industry news”, our excuses for this, here are the most important announcements:
Following project Independence of Citrix (a baremetal client hypervisor in collaboration with Intel), VMware released its open source VDI client: VMware View Open Client. VMware hopes to maximize its return by focussing thin client vendors, these thin clients will form an important number of all installed devices according to Gartner. So the battle moves from the server-side to the desktop. (more)
EMC and Microsoft extend their collaboration into 2011 (more)
Following the European Code of Conduct for Data Centers, the Green Grid initiative will be announcing on the 4th plans to develop a new metric for data center productivity and a data center 2.0 design guide.
RNA networks specializing in memory virtualization software (transforming server memory into a shared network resource) announced the launch of its Memory Virtualization Platform (MVP) and first product, RNAmessenger, based on the MVP (more)
The partnership between Xsigo and Dell will result in additional I/O ports on PowerEdge servers on the fly without the need for extra network interface cards, providing increased I/O virtualization. (more)
Parallels will preview its new hypervisor which was initailly scheduled for 2006 on its Summit 2009, furthermore its new orchestration product (Virtual Automation) will also be previewed.
Visionapp has released Remote Desktop 2009 with additional support for Citrix ICA, VNC, SSH, Telnet and HTTPS furthermore there are features of mRemote included in the new release (more)
Lanamark specializing in virtualization capacity planning and IT assessment software, the availability of Lanamark Suite 2009, including support for monitoring Citrix XenServer and VMware ESX, supplements server information with power consumption, form factor, age and warranty metrics, and simplifies capacity planning with significant user experience and reporting automation enhancements. (more)
XenoCode has released Virtual Application Studio 2009 building further in the application virtualization market (more)
Texas Memory Systems and NetApp partner on solid state disk
Virtualization Olympics: Vendor bitchslapping event February 3, 2009
Posted by Roel Gydé in Application virtualization, Server Virtualization.Tags: ESX, Hyper-V, XenApp, XenServer
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Following our post on December 19th last year on virtualizing XenApp on XenServer, VMware and Citrix are at it again. VMware recently posted an article on the performance of XenApp on ESX and XenApp on XenServer.
It may not be a suprise that the VMware findings were boldly in favor of ESX and not in favor XenServer. It would be one step to far in this world that vendors confirm that their product might not be a good a fit to virtualize a specific application. Following the VMware post, Simon Crobsy (CTO Citrix) took his pen and opened the virtualizing-olympics with the following statement and challenge:
So I’ve decided to issue an open challenge to VMware CTO Stephen Herrod: Steve, it’s time to rein in the monkeys behind the keyboard, end VMware’s indefensible EULA restrictions and allow independent performance comparisons of your products with others, by third parties with a vested interest in accuracy and independence.
Both posts resulted in a flood of responses of the virtualization-community, but there are some general correct remarks in all these responses from the community:
- Why virtualizing XenApp? It obviously performs better natively (even proven by the VMware tests)
- Benchmarking should be done by independent companies/organization like http://www.virtualrealitycheck.net (2 experience system engineers working with Citrix and VMware)
- Selecting a virtualization platform for your XenApp, if you decide to do so it is not only abou performance, decissions will aslo be influenced by investement in the virtualization layer, automation, management, …
One thing however keeps me wondering … why virtualizing everything? Todays server come (in most cases) with 2x 4 cores, offering 8 cores which enables you to provide XenApp to more than a decent number of users. When adding virtualization to the stack for sure you will lose some performance (wether it is hyper-v, xenserver or esx).
I strongly believe that for those users that haven chosen to work with XenApp as a strategy a minimum number of XenApp servers should be physically, use a virtualized XenApp as escape-mode when something goes wrong. Furthermore keep in mind that when it comes to automation you might require an automatic launch system to rollout new servers in second.
Perhaps both CTOs need to read a report released by Aberdeen today on the advantages of virtualization and what about business critical applications, a quote from a researcher: (full report)
“Even though organizations could experience significant cost savings from conducting virtualization projects, these benefits could diminish if they don’t have capabilities in place for effective management of application performance. One of the key challenges for these organizations is that the effective management of application performance in virtualized environments requires a set of capabilities and functionalities that were not required when these organizations were looking to achieve same performance goals in physical environments. Understanding what these capabilities are is making the difference between success and failure of virtualization projects as measured from business prospective,” said Bojan Simic, research analyst, Aberdeen.
Virtualization & Cloud Industry News [29.01.09] January 29, 2009
Posted by Roel Gydé in Application virtualization, Cloud Computing, Data Center Management, File Virtualization, I/O Virtualization, Server Virtualization, Storage Virtualization & Storage, datacenter, desktop virtualization.Tags: 6fusion, CiRBA, Double Take, EMC
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6fusion Launches Virtualization Utility Computing Node — The Infrastructure Node consists of an enterprise class hardware architecture that is federated by 6fusion’s Utility Computing software, UC6. UC6 turns any virtualized computing infrastructure into a fully accessible utility computing system (more)
EMC reports 45% drop in profits in fourth quarter (more)
Double-Take Software announced that it is extending its GeoCluster offering to support failover clustering and the hypervisor-based virtualization in Windows Server 2008. GeoCluster is a software-based replication solution designed to integrate seamlessly with failover clustering (more)
Citrix shows nice results, 10% of the workforce has to go
Virtualization & Cloud Industry News [28.01.09] January 28, 2009
Posted by Yves Peeters in Data Center Management, Server Virtualization.Tags: security, virtualization
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IGEL Introduces Groundbreaking Universal Desktop Thin Clients for Virtualization (more)
Arkeia Software Delivers Industry’s First Virtual Appliance for Backup of your Virtualization Environments (more)
Double-Take Software’s New GeoCluster Enables Cost Effective Stretch Clustering for Microsoft Hyper-V Virtualization (more)
Reflex Systems Announces Virtualization Management Center with Performance Monitoring (more)
CiRBA Version 5.1 Addresses New Capacity Management Demands (more)
Virtualization & Cloud Industry News [27.01.09] January 27, 2009
Posted by Roel Gydé in Application virtualization, Cloud Computing, Data Center Management, File Virtualization, I/O Virtualization, Server Virtualization, Storage Virtualization & Storage, datacenter, desktop virtualization.Tags: VMware, Citrix, Virtual Computer, NxTop, Sybase, Parabon
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Citrix invests (together with capital investment companies) for 15M USD in Virtual Computer (more)
Sybase releases Sybase Adaptive Server Enterprise Virtualization Cluster Edition (more)
Parabon releases version 4 of Frontier Grid Virtualization Platform (more)
VMware released fourth quarter and full year results (more)
VMware & Teradici threaten Citrix? January 26, 2009
Posted by Yves Peeters in Application virtualization, Server Virtualization, desktop virtualization.Tags: Citrix, VDM, virtualization, VMware, XenApp, XenDesktop, XenServer
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Tom Valovic posted an interesting article about an interview with Stuart Robinson of Teradici on the purported benefits of Teradici’s PC over IP protocol licensed by VMware. Tom reports on a Teradici claim that PC over IP has a lead over ICA in that it has an ability to dynamically adjust the bandwidth needed by the remoting protocol, in response to available network bandwidth. Specifically, Robinson (who actually knows better) claims that ICA has no such ability.
Another Microsoft Licensing Policy Update: What’s Good? What’s Left? January 23, 2009
Posted by Yves Peeters in Application virtualization, Server Virtualization, desktop virtualization.Tags: Hyper-V, Licensing, Microsoft, virtualization, VMware, XenServer
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Last Friday, Microsoft’s latest round of licensing changes were released to the public as two documents:
- “Licensing Windows Server 2008 to Run with Virtualization Technologies“
- “Licensing Microsoft Server Products in Virtual Environments“
There is definitely some good news here. CAL requirements for “indirect access to Windows 2008″ were lifted. So organizations will only need CALs for Windows guest OSs and the applications that run within them. The previous policy impacted customers running Microsoft’s Hyper-V hypervisor and did not affect licensing on any other hypervisor.
Virtualization & Cloud Industry News [22.01.09] January 22, 2009
Posted by Yves Peeters in Data Center Management, Server Virtualization.Tags: HP, HyPerformix, Marathon Technologies, Rackable Systems
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Rackable Systems Launches MicroSlice – What it calls “Physicalization” (more)
HyPerformix, a leading provider of IT capacity and performance solutions, joins HP Software Marketplace Referral Program (more)
Marathon Technologies, the only provider of fault-tolerant, high availability software for physical and virtual servers, today announced that its customer, The Sullivan Group, will be the featured speakers for a live webcast, “Customer Spotlight: How the Sullivan Group Got Reliable High Availability without Breaking the Bank.” (more)
Xen-based hypervisors push performance limits – Citrix XenServer 5.0 Top Finisher January 21, 2009
Posted by Yves Peeters in I/O Virtualization, Server Virtualization.Tags: Citrix, ESX, Hyper-V, Microsoft, Novell XEN, Virtual Iron, virtualization, VMware, Xen, XenServer
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Tom Henderson and Brendan Allen of Network World Lab Alliance conducted an extensive performance testing of Citrix XenServer 5.0, Novell’s Xen 3.2 and Virtual Iron 4.4. Two other vendors — Sun and Red Hat — were invited to participate but because of varying timing problems, declined to participate.
The testing confirmed that open source Xen is a formidable challenger to the closed code VMware and Microsoft hypervisors. When the performance of business transactions running on top of the hypervisors was measured, Citrix’s XenServer 5.0 was the top finisher in nine out of 12 test runs.
Citrix VMs are tops in transaction processing, Novell’s in I/O speed.
Read the full article here.
Virtualization & Cloud Industry News [21.01.09] January 21, 2009
Posted by Roel Gydé in Application virtualization, Cloud Computing, Data Center Management, File Virtualization, I/O Virtualization, Server Virtualization, Storage Virtualization & Storage, datacenter, desktop virtualization.Tags: Citrix, Independence, Intel, Qsan, Sun, VMware
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Virtualization & Cloud Industry News [20.01.09] January 20, 2009
Posted by Roel Gydé in Application virtualization, Cloud Computing, Data Center Management, File Virtualization, I/O Virtualization, Server Virtualization, Storage Virtualization & Storage, datacenter, desktop virtualization.Tags: Citrix, hypervisor, Igel, Intel
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Citrix is working together with Intel on a Type-1 hypervisor, the product is scheduled to be released in 2H2009 in two versions: an open source version to the Xen project and a commercial Citrix product. (more)
Earlybert pointed to us that it is an Type1 hypervisor and not a Type2, he is absolute correct, we have corrected the remark. Thanks Bert.
Igel Technology will release a new productline on January 28th, 2008 with increased flexibility and management.
