Today we announced that the Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) format is now freely available for use under our Open Specification Promise (OSP), and can be used in any development model without license for free, and forever. This decision was the result of many conversations over the last several months with our customers, partners and the open source community. By adding the VHD to the list of specs covered by the OSP, we hope to expand the virtualization market and foster interoperability among all virtualization solutions.

As part of Microsoft's ongoing commitment to interoperability, we will continue to evaluate our broad list of specifications and consider them for use within the OSP model. We welcome feedback on this subject, as discussion with the community is critical to our vision of interoperability.

 

Surely you have heard by now, yesterday the unthinkable happened.

There are four main components to the deal: a Technical Cooperation Agreement (TCA), a Patent Cooperation Agreement (PCA), and a Business Cooperation Agreement (BCA). There are also specific commitments Microsoft is making to both the contributors of openSUSE Linux, as well as to non-compensated developers (aka "hobbyists").

The BCA provides a platform for joint reserach, marketing and support. 

The PCA provides patent coverage for one another's customers giving them piece of mind regarding IP issues.

Most interesting to me is the TCA.  Under the TCA, Microsoft and Novell will focus on virtualization technology, web services management, and document format compatibility (specifically Open XML). Novell's participation in the Ecma TC45 for Open XML has paid off and they are committed to producing the code allowing interoperability with OpenOffce, and providing this support back to the OpenOffice.org community. Additionally, Novell has agreed to active participation in the Open XML / ODF translator project.

This deal will improve interoperability in heterogeneous environments containing SUSE Linux and windows, as well as between office productivity suites more effectively meeting the needs of our customers. This is not something we could have or would have done without great interaction and feedback from our customers and partners.

One of the things me mate Dave has written a good bit about recently is virtualization.  Although I'm not an infrastructure expert, I find using virtual machines tremendously useful, for three reasons:

 

1. Managing my (Mini)-Infrastructure

My life at home is virtualized: I use the free Virtual Server 2005 to manage my humble server "infrastructure."  I run 3 different virtual machines on a low-powered server box which is sitting in the corner.  Distributed between those 3 virtual machines are my domain controller (and other router-y bits), my Team Foundation Server, and my media server, which streams tunes on demand to my XBox360. 

I find the setup extremely flexible, easy to manage and maintain.  As and when I need to upgrade my hardware, I will simply move those virtual PC images to a new box, fire them up, and away we go.

 

2. Demos that require elaborate setup

I also sometimes use virtual machines for demos.  Because it's easy to "freeze dry" a machine in a demo configuration (my terminology, not theirs), I can prep a virtual machine image until it's "just right," and then repeatedly restore it to that exact state a number of times.

 

3. Evaluating Software without hassle

The third thing I use virtual machines for is evaluating software. 

What's great about evaluating software via a virtual machine is that you don't have to bother with configuring the software.  Instead, you just copy in the monstrous VHD (virtual hard drive) file, fire it up, and jump straight into walkthroughs and hands-on labs, or just mess around.  And there's no need to clean up, because you didn't install any software (beta or released) on your PC - just the self-contained virtual drive image.

We've had a great Team System / Team Foundation Server virtual machine image available through MSDN Subscriptions for quite a while now.

Some great recent news is tha Microsoft has launched the VHD (Virtual Hard Drive) Test Drive Program, which will enable customers and partners to evaluate even more mainstream enterprise software from Microsoft and partners.  As this program launches, we have pre-configured VHDs of Windows Server 2003 R2 and key Microsoft applications such as SQL Server, ISA Server, and Exchange Server + Live Communication Server. 

"With the VHD Test Drive Program, we will also enable our partners for the first time to now be able to distribute their applications and solutions as a pre-configured VHD built on top of Windows Server 2003 R2 and leveraging other Microsoft applications."

Here's more information about the VHD Test Drive program.  For more announcements on virtualized life, check out Dave's blog.

 

For now, I leave you with this thought: You know that episode of Star Trek when yer man from the holodeck realizes he's living in a virtual world and wishes he could be out in the real world?  Do you think programs on a virtual machine ever realize they're on a virtual machine and wish they were running on a real machine?

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

With the popularity of software like Apple's Boot Camp and SWsoft's Parallels, it's no secret that people want to run Windows and Mac OS on the same box, but who says that it has to be an Apple box? Well, Apple does, and the company has staunchly defended itself from the porting of OS X into the mad world of PC generics (not with total success, of course). But with mounting pressure from users and increasing software support from VMware and SWsoft, Steve Jobs might have to let go of his tight grasp on his shiny blue OS -- or at least turn the other way as OS X makes its way onto those vile, inferior, and cheaper x86 machines without his blessing. On that front, there's good news on the horizon: it turns out an upcoming version of Parallels just so happens to "make it easier to run Mac OS on a non-Apple computer," by some unknown but welcome means. VMware's own upcoming virtualization software for the Mac has been hamstrung by the trouble VMware has gone through trying to get Apple's blessing, and SWsoft's Parallels has been "crippled" in particular ways to make it more difficult to get Mac OS onto a non-Apple machine, but it seems like it's only going to get harder for Apple to have it both ways, and Intel's inclusion of virtualization in its own chips just compounds the "problem." Michael Dell has also reconfirmed his desire to pre-load Mac OS onto his own boring boxes "if customers wanted it and Apple would license it on reasonable terms," but that tantalizing offer doesn't seem to have swayed Apple yet.

[Via Techmeme]

 

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Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

With the popularity of software like Apple's Boot Camp and SWsoft's Parallels, it's no secret that people want to run Windows and Mac OS on the same box, but who says that it has to be an Apple box? Well, Apple does, and the company has staunchly defended itself from the porting of OS X into the mad world of PC generics (not with total success, of course). But with mounting pressure from users and increasing software support from VMware and SWsoft, Steve Jobs might have to let go of his tight grasp on his shiny blue OS -- or at least turn the other way as OS X makes its way onto those vile, inferior, and cheaper x86 machines without his blessing. On that front, there's good news on the horizon: it turns out an upcoming version of Parallels just so happens to "make it easier to run Mac OS on a non-Apple computer," by some unknown but welcome means. VMware's own upcoming virtualization software for the Mac has been hamstrung by the trouble VMware has gone through trying to get Apple's blessing, and SWsoft's Parallels has been "crippled" in particular ways to make it more difficult to get Mac OS onto a non-Apple machine, but it seems like it's only going to get harder for Apple to have it both ways, and Intel's inclusion of virtualization in its own chips just compounds the "problem." Michael Dell has also reconfirmed his desire to pre-load Mac OS onto his own boring boxes "if customers wanted it and Apple would license it on reasonable terms," but that tantalizing offer doesn't seem to have swayed Apple yet.

[Via Techmeme]

 

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Our favorite Windows on Mac virtualization software just got a second Release Candidate, adding loads of pretty awesome features make your Windows actually run like Windows.

Among them are full USB 2.0 support, which means you can use your Zune on your Mac with abandon, iSight support, so you can video-chat it up in XP, improved memory usage, sharing a Boot Camp partition, and better Coherence support.

That last part means you can actually add Windows apps to your dock, and if Parallels isn't running when you launch the app, it'll start up automagically for you. – Jason Chen

Product Page [Parallels]

I was told yesterday I can't possibly overestimate the importance of virtualization to the Enterprise. 

We're talking about scenarios like production server consolidation, business continuity management, enabling a dynamic datacenter, and of course, test and development.

Check this out.

http://vpc.visualwin.com

This is a list of over 1000 operating systems that work on Virtual Server 2005 R2, which you can filter and search.  Assembled by an MVP.  Wow.

Also, I always wondered what "Hypervisor" meant.  Hypervisor apparently means "bare metal."  It is a feature of the operating system, based on industry standards, and it's a role of Longhorn Server x64 Edition. 

If you want to sound cool around your IT Pro friends, you could just paraphrase The Graduate and say something like:

 "I want to say just one word to you.  Just one word.  Are you listening?  Hypervisors." 

I was told yesterday I can't possibly overestimate the importance of virtualization to the Enterprise. 

We're talking about scenarios like production server consolidation, business continuity management, enabling a dynamic datacenter, and of course, test and development.

Check this out.

http://vpc.visualwin.com

This is a list of over 1000 operating systems that work on Virtual Server 2005 R2, which you can filter and search.  Assembled by an MVP.  Wow.

Also, I always wondered what "Hypervisor" meant.  Hypervisor apparently means "bare metal."  It is a feature of the operating system, based on industry standards, and it's a role of Longhorn Server x64 Edition. 

If you want to sound cool around your IT Pro friends, you could just paraphrase The Graduate and say something like:

 "I want to say just one word to you.  Just one word.  Are you listening?  Hypervisors." 

czei writes "This just-released research report, Load Testing a Virtual Web Application, looks at the effects of virtualization on a typical ASP Web application, using VMWare on Linux to host a Windows OS and IIS web server. While virtualizing the server made it easier to manage, the number of users the virtualized Web app could handle dropped by 43%. The article also shows interesting graphs of how hyper-threading affected the performance of IIS." The report urges readers to take this research as a data point. No optimization was done on host or guest OS parameters.

If Hypervisor, running on bare metal, makes you uncomfortable, be glad you did not attend our Live Meeting on application and hardware virutalization a few weeks ago, led by presenter Allen Stuart, MCA. You can now find the recording on the MCP home page (see recent live meetings on the right side of the page). I owe some of you some follow up; I could make up answers for you but think it is prudent to wait to hear back from Allen.

In the meantime, I know there is interest out there in a certification specific to virtualization, as written by one gentleman: Is MS planning on creating a MCP certification for MS VS 2005 R2? Having worked extensively with the product it would be a benefit for me to have a professional credential that proves my experience. I think that a cert showing understanding of MS Virtual Server AND the way that virtual server applications abstract the physical server would be an excellent cert now that virtualization is becoming so prevalent.

As the plans stand now, virutalization will be covered in the Windows Server "Longhorn" Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS) series certifications rather than being broken out separately. These are still a long way out, so things can change. Your thoughts?

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

In an aggressive move aimed at wooing the millions of smartphone users who would be interested in owning a BlackBerry -- just not all the time -- RIM will be releasing an innovative piece of software that allows its OS to run inside Windows Mobile 6. To many cellphone addicts this news is the equivalent of Parallels opening up Windows on Apple machines, as Pocket PC phones will not simply be skinned or loaded with BlackBerry Connect, but rather endowed with the full capabilities of a standalone BlackBerry -- including the ability to run third party programs. While so far the virtualization software -- slated for drop this fall, possibly free with subscription -- will only work on Crossbow, it's possible that the company could decide to support other platforms in the future, such as the Palm OS or its Linux-based successor, though no promises have been made. Bottom line is that this looks to be good news all around: RIM gets more unsuspecting users hooked on the Crackberry mentality, consumers can now have the best of both worlds when it comes to hardware / software combos, and even old Microsoft may come out on top, with the new members of the WinMo ecosystem potentially outweighing the flight from Exchange servers.

 

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joaguilar posted a photo:

Filed under: Desktops

Nah, it's no BlueGene L supercomputer, but IBM's latest dual-core microprocessor runs at a cool 4.7GHz while sporting 8MB of total cache per chip. The device reportedly runs "twice as fast" and packs four times the cache as the POWER5, and boasts a processor bandwidth of 300Gbps. Interestingly, the massive power increase doesn't seem to come with a boost in energy requirements, as IBM claims that the 65-nanometer POWER6 somehow ups its game while "using nearly the same amount of electricity" as its predecessor. The company plans on shoving the new darling into the System p570 server, and preliminary testing showed that all four of the "most widely used performance benchmarks for Unix servers" were shattered by its CPU. Unfortunately, there's no word on pricing nor availability just yet, but we're anticipating a bit of sticker shock when it does finally land.

[Via LinuxDevices]

 

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One of the main reasons why Mac users still use Boot Camp to run Windows Natively instead using virtualization software likeParallels is its lack of 3D gaming (OpenGL and DirectX) support. In Parallels Desktop version 3.0, now in final candidate development, you can finally use 3D gaming without rebooting.

The other major feature is "SmartSelect", which allows users to open a file in either a OS X or Windows program directly from OS X. You won't have to fire up the Windows program first and open it the long way. New versions cost $79 and upgrade versions are $39 if you buy before June 6. – Jason Chen

Product Page [Parallels via MacWorld]

Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Macintosh

Parallels Desktop 3.0 is due out in a few weeks, with over 50 new features. But some features are cooler than others, so here are a few of the good ones:

• 3D graphics - play Windows OpenGL and DirectX games on a Mac without shutting down OS X
• SmartSelect - set file types to open with your preferred applications on any platform
• Snapshot - back up or restore your virtual machine

A full copy of Parallels Dekstop 3.0 will set you back $80, but current users can upgrade for $50. If you preorder, you can save a few bucks get get your upgrade for $40.

[via tuaw]

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We had a chat with the Parallels guys earlier today, and got some new information that should be very interesting to people who are even the slightest bit interested in running Windows on your Mac.

We went over some of the stuff we covered yesterday, but there's lots of new stuff and even one major feature we didn't mention: Snapshots.

First off, the three major features are 3D graphics support, SmartSelect, and Snapshots.

3D graphics support is the shiniest feature everyone's talking about now. Yes, it will support 3D games like Quake and Half Life, but no, right now it doesn't support Vista Aero—that's coming in a later release.

Parallels couldn't give me an exact number when I asked for how much of a performance gap there'd be between running a game in Parallels and running it in native Boot Camp, but they did say that it's very close to native and you wouldn't really notice any gameplay problems. That, of course, depends on the game, but Half Life 2 ran fine on his machine.

One thing to note is that not all games will be supported by default. They'll have a list of games they support, and the list will be updated whenever there's a new build available. Hopefully your game will be supported at launch, but Parallels has a reputation for releasing frequent, and top notch, updates.

The second major feature is SmartSelect, which allows you to set a preference for opening any file in any application, no matter which OS it's in. Example: you can set text files to open up in Windows Notepad, so even if you double click it in OS X, it'll still pop open Notepad. Think of it as an extension of Coherence, which lets you run Windows apps in its own window on OS X.

On a side note, if you're in Windows and you look in your start menu, you'll be able to see all of the OS X apps listed under a Parallels folder, and have a similar option for opening Windows apps in OS X. Neato.

The third major feature is Snapshots, which lets you take a snapshot of your virtual machine so you can revert to it if something's wrong. Do this before you install apps or make any major changes, and you'll have something to fall back on in case anything goes wrong.

It's super useful for software testers or people who make modifications to their OS, and only takes up minimal room on your hard drive per snapshot.

All in all, the guys tell us that besides the new features, everything else is more robust than even version 2.5, which just came out recently. With their track record, we believe them. – Jason Chen

Product Page [Parallels]

Let's say you want to install a few things and want UAC to stop bugging you while you install them.  Should you turn off UAC and install the apps?  Since that disables UAC's virtualization, it can destabilize things that depend on data written to those virtual locations.  Here's an alternative that keeps all the virtualization intact while getting UAC to lay off for a while.

Fire up gpedit.msc and adjust this policy (pictured below):

Change it to be Elevate without prompting:

Of course, remember to turn it back when you're done! :)

Cheers,

James

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

We've seen our fair share of flip-flopping in the past, and Microsoft is yet again adding its name to the frowned upon list by retracting previous intentions to allow Windows Vista Home and Home Premium operating systems to run under virtualization. After reportedly stating that it would "change the EULA after listening to customer feedback on the issue," it appears that the suits in Redmond have thought better of said decision. Now, the firm has "reassessed the Windows virtualization policy and decided that maintaining the original policy announced last Fall" would be best. Ben Rudolph, Parallels director of corporate communications, noted that he was "obviously disappointed" in Microsoft's change of heart, but if the two-faced Mac users out there can persuade Google to take their side, we're sure this little spat could be cleared up in no time.

[Image courtesy of ElliottBack]

 

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Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Productivity

If you love your Mac but still need or want to run Windows, Linux, or Solaris, then VMware's Fusion is worth a look. Though it's still in beta and not expected to launch until later this summer, this virtualization tool gives you access to all the apps in a second operating system without requiring a reboot to access them.

We downloaded it to a MacBook Intel Core 2 Duo and then installed Windows XP without a hitch. Fusion will find and run the existing Windows OS that ships with Boot Camp, so a separate Windows installation isn't necessary in that case. According to the VMware website, Fusion also works with Vista. Once your OS of choice is installed, let the fun begin.

Continue reading Access a second operating system on your Mac with VMware's Fusion

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Thanks to the magic of VMWare and Parallels (which let you run other operating systems on top of your own), you can try the OLPC operating system without actually having to be a child in a Third World country. All you have to do is download a pre-configured image, change some settings, and you're set. Possible uses (besides as a prop when you play Angelina Jolie and the Adopted Child) are developing OLPC-specific software and web apps for the upcoming market. [UneasilySilence]

Filed under: Business

Cisco, ever looking to stick its stubby fingers in a winning pie, is acquiring a stake in VMWare, makers of the ever popular line of machine virtualization software.

According to the press release, "Upon closing of the investment, the computer-networking company will own about 1.6 percent of VMware's total outstanding common stock. Palo Alto, Calif.-based VMware also agreed to consider the appointment of a Cisco executive to its board in the future"

Virtualization is becoming a hot commodity, and VMWare is in a healthy position to capitalize. Everyone wants to be on the winning team, eh?

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PALO ALTO, Calif. and SAN JOSE, Calif., July 27, 2007 - VMware, Inc. today announced that Cisco Systems will acquire an equity stake in the company.

Cisco will purchase $150 million of VMware Class A common shares currently held by EMC Corporation, VMware's parent company, subject to customary regulatory and other closing conditions including Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) review. Upon closing of the investment, Cisco will own approximately 1.6 percent of VMware's total outstanding common stock (less than one percent of the combined voting power of VMware's outstanding common stock). VMware has agreed to consider the appointment of a Cisco executive to VMware's board of directors at a future date.

Cisco's purchase is intended to strengthen inter-company collaboration towards accelerating customer adoption of VMware virtualization products with Cisco networking infrastructure and the development of customer solutions that address the intersection of virtualization and networking technologies.

In addition, VMware and Cisco have entered into a routine and customary collaboration agreement that expresses their intent to expand cooperative efforts around joint development, marketing, customer and industry initiatives. Through improved coordination and integration of networking and virtualized infrastructure, the companies intend to foster solutions for enhanced datacenter optimization and extend the benefits of virtualization beyond the datacenter to remote offices and end-user desktops.

Earlier this month, Intel Corp., the world's largest semiconductor company, also announced it will make a major investment in Palo Alto-based VMware. Intel said it will pay $218.5 million, giving it 2.5 percent of VMware after the initial public offering.

News@Cisco

When we double the speed of our computers, our customers don't buy half as many, they tend to buy twice as many. Hold that thought.

I was with a variety of external audiences yesterday - our business results stirred up some questions, partially based on comments we made about virtualization's impact on the quarter. Which I thought I'd clarify in a quick note, before a broader summary next week.

I'd like to go on record saying virtualization is good for the technology industry - which seems to be counterintuitive. The general fear is that technologies like Solaris 10 or VMware that help people squeeze more work from the systems they already own is somehow bad for Sun. In my view, quite the opposite is true.

As I said, when we double the speed of our computers, people don't buy half as many - they tend to buy twice as many. To companies that see information technology as a weapon (that's not everyone, btw), increasing the power of the arsenal without increasing its price incents more purchases, not less. The same applies to efficiency - a computer in use only half the day is less valuable than one used throughout the day. The objective of virtualization is to increase the level of utilization in pursuit of more value, efficiency and affordability.

And that's exactly the theory behind the newly bundled virtualization features in Solaris 10 - from Xen to ZFS, Crossbow to Java (fancy names for the same idea - reducing complexity to increase productivity). Solaris 10's virtualization enables customers to consolidate the sprawling Linux, Solaris and Windows boxes laying around their datacenters, without having to pay exorbitant software licenses for add-on products. We built virtualization in to Solaris 10 not to encourage fewer computer or storage purchases, but instead, more - systems that are twice as utilized are twice as affordable. (When you double the mileage of a car, more people can afford it.)

What impact did those features have on Sun during Q4? When you use Solaris to consolidate lots of small, poorly utilized computers, into a smaller number of bigger computers, you may depress unit volumes. But you bulk up the configurations of the systems you sell (more memory, more cores and threads, more storage, etc.). That's exactly what we saw in Q4 - fewer, but more richly configured systems, and not just at Sun. But at HP, Dell and IBM, too.

Why? Because Solaris 10 is now running like a champ on their hardware, as well. It's being used to consolidate Solaris, Linux - and with this release of OpenSolaris, Microsoft's Windows, as well. (You can get more info here.

As an integrated feature in the operating system.

Because this is all about efficiency - and the most efficient virtualization solution is the one you didn't have to pay extra to use.

I read an interesting article on computerworld today. I understand what it is trying to say but I don't by the theme of the article. But it is a good article, extensive, I think you should read it too, if you are interested in Grid computing. Let the author know what you think. Link is at the end.
August 14, 2007 (Computerworld) -- Depending on who describes it, grid computing has grown from its roots in high-performance computing into an enterprise technology that provides for shared resources. Or it's an overhyped, meaningless term that will soon disappear in the wake of advances in virtualization and utility computing.

Arguments abound on what constitutes grid computing. But at its core, grid is really an enabling technology that provides on-demand access to computing resources -- including systems, storage and networking -- and data, regardless of location. And because that sounds so similar to how most vendors currently define virtualization, some analysts say the term grid computing may not stick.

The concept behind the technology will likely live on, though, as customers tap into compute power available on underutilized servers, primarily through virtualization. William Fellows, an analyst at The 451 Group and author of a report entitled "Grid Computing: State of the Market" (download PDF), maintains that the term will likely be both more significant and less used in 2007. "Grid computing will be more relevant as grids are used to support far more than high-performance computing tasks, but less used as vendors seek to be associated with far more activity, far higher up the stack, than grid computing."

Grid computing: Term may fade, but features will live on