Virtually Blogging

XenEnterprise 3.1.0 in VMWare Workstation 5.5.3

paulm — Fri, 29 Dec 2006 23:19:00 GMT

I’m interested in XenSource because they give me, a Linux and Xen novice, a simple way to play with Xen. Ignoring the fact that their CEO says “Since we are going after the Windows market, installation has to be absolutely simple, simple, simple…” (source) implied slant aside it is a very simple installation.

Since the management tools and virtualization platforms are where everyone is trying to get to I wanted to see what XenSource had done for Xen. I am aware of some other Xen management tools out there both open and closed but most of them require me to install and configure Xen seperately, and while I while I might be able to pull that off eventually, a couple trips down that road had me looking for something else. Then earlier this month I come across XenSource’s new XenExpress, a free version of their XenEnterprise product with some capacity limitations. You can get it here.

Since I didn’t have a box I was going to wipe for a Xen test I wondered if I could get it running in virtualized environment. I’ve been to the “you can’t emulate an emulator” school but I thought I’d give it a go anyway. I could not get it going in any flavor of MS Virtual Server or Virtual PC, including the 07 beta. So I power up VMWare 5.5.3 on an Intel-VT enabled box, I don’t know that VT is required because I can turn it off and it still runs but I mention it anyway, the short of it is that it worked. Here’s what I did.

Create a new virtual machine using the recommended settings.
Select Linux as the guest operating system and Other Linux 2.6.x kernel as the version
Then you specify you disk capacity XenSource requires a 25GB minimum so I gave it 30GB and select Allocate all disk space now.
Once that was done I gave it the required minimum 1GB Ram, and pointed the CD to the XenSource ISO.

When it boots it goes through the normal hardware checks and give you a notice that it does not detect any hardware acceleration but it can in stall anyway. Presumably I won’t be able to get a Windows machine running on it but I haven’t tried yet.
Once the install starts it is a simple (simple, simple) click wizard and about 13 minutes and a reboot later you are at the XenServer login prompt and your IP is presented.

After that all you do is install the client console form the ISO on your local machine or another virtual machine and point to the XenServer VM.
I configured the Debian template and have been playing with that.

Now I have a XenServer running in a VM that I can play and test with as needed. Of course it does not perform like it does on native hardware or on a good IntelVT or AMDv enabled server and I concede there is no good reason (beyond testing) to do this but if you are cramped on hardware and want to run a Xen/XenSource test it does provide an option.

Preparing a Windows VMDK for Conversion

paulm — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 21:18:00 GMT

I was preparing to write the pre-requisite steps for converting a Windows VMDK into a VHD with our tool. Since the tool itself does not remove anything in the process or fix any HAL issues a Windows machine will fail to boot without some preliminary steps taken.

As I’m preparing this Andrew Dugdell (aka Dugie) writes his piece on our tool and points me to a tip article written by Chris Wolf for SearchServerVirtualization that basically explains the steps needed to prepare a Windows VMDK for conversion into a VHD.

Chris’ overall conversion plan is an imaging one using Ghost, which oddly enough is the same method we used to use and the exact reason we developed this converter. Still the first part of his guide is really good; he even provides a script for disabling VMWare drivers from the image and nine simple steps to follow to get the whole thing ready, which includes resetting the HAL. His guide is located here and is useful for those of you working with Windows VMDKs.

http://searchservervirtualization.techtarget.com/tip/0,289483,sid94_gci1225164,00.html?asrc=SS_CLA_303373&psrc=CLT_94

We may still put out some of our steps for doing this but if it is in the community already lets use it.

Thanks be to Dugie

paulm — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 21:04:00 GMT

Well we owe a huge thanks to Andrew Dugdell (aka Dugie) over at Dugie's Pensieve for writing up his experience with our tool and basically putting it on radar. Thanks Dugie!

If you haven't read his post it is almost a step by step (he calls it a "Thumb in the air guide") for using the tool.

Thanks again Dugie for the great post, and sharing it with the community.

Validation of the concept

paulm — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 20:51:00 GMT

I saw this and thought I should offer some congratulations to the folks at Emergent OnLine. I realize other companies have deployed VDI solutions and use virtualization as a desktop alternative but this is exactly where it needs to be used. Depending on how this solution is deployed we should be done hearing about hundreds of thousands social security records being lost on a laptop. It can now be imagined that if an employee of this agency leaves a laptop in a cab, that laptop may have only an operating system and a desktop shortcut. Leave the hardware to do things hardware needs to do but put your work into a virtual solution hosted on the server with all the redundancy and data policies of the enterprise.

It is a good idea to use the horsepower we have in hardware this way. The machine is used for the operating system and whatever hardware intensive tasks we engage in, video editing, image work, gaming, etc… For tasks that don’t require the horsepower we use virtual machines. When a user sits at a workstation they connect to whatever VM represents the work their about to do, the VM stays on the server and they disconnect when their done. The environment is preserved, and available for them where ever they go next, be it home, another office or the customer’s location. They can work from home with corporate rules enforced but disconnect and be back to the rules of the home, everyone wins.

I’m not sure if this is the type of deployment Emergent is doing with the DoD but I read the PR that way. If it is then they are using the right tool for the right problem and getting recognized for it, and in turn helping to validate the efforts of the industry overall.

The press release: http://www.prnewswire.com/news/index_mail.shtml?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/12-04-2006/0004484877&EDATE

Server Abstraction with Virtualization

paulm — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 23:29:00 GMT

I may be oversimplifying things, but the concern over the “complexity of virtualization” confuses me. I recently read an article titled “Virtualization dangers and how to avoid them” published at Computerworld by a couple of Avanade guys. The article points out the risks of managing a data center, (the same risks we all know and love) but points to these risks as being heightened by using virtualization to consolidate your datacenter. Virtualization doesn’t add to these concerns. If you have a DC without an SLA, a data recovery plan and operational processes then you have problems with or without virtualization.

I’ve always thought of the virtual machines running in our environment as physical machines from a management and maintenance perspective. We use the same rules of patching, managing, deploying etc… we even use the same tools to do it, MOM and SMS in our case. So when people ask “how much more difficult is it to run virtual machines in production?” I usually reply by saying it’s not more difficult at all, it just takes less space. I imagine this to be abstraction. David is always telling me to “abstract it out” which I assume he means in the developer sense of reducing the details to focus on the manageable pieces one at a time. So to me, fifteen servers in three racks are just the same as 15 virtual machines in three servers. That is oversimplifying but it is a simpler conversation to have rather than starting with all the details and caveats.

The one thing the article does point out is the provisioning puzzle, understanding your hosts and how your guests are going to impact them is an art form and a detail you will want to address eventually but if your considering consolidating start by building a virtual machine and thinking of it as a server, that’s what the rest of us did.

Here’s the Computerworld article: http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9005255&pageNumber=1

And another one (in Computerworld) which talks about how data center managers love virtualization:

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=112821

What a difference six months makes

paulm — Mon, 27 Nov 2006 17:53:00 GMT

Six months ago people were tripping over themselves to prove virtualization was everywhere. The Yankee Group, Forrester Research, IDC everyone had a piece on the prevalence of virtualization in the enterprise. For a while I thought I missed a memo and the industry had grown up without me noticing. Now it appears it was a bit of the tail wagging the dog to get some barrier to entry up.

In June, 62% of respondents to a Yankee Group virtualization survey had a virtualization plan and/or were using virtualization within the organization. On first read I ignored the possibility that respondents to a virtualization survey would be virtualization users naturally.

Yankee Group Affirms Server Virtualization Is Transforming Today’s Enterprise IT

http://www.yankeegroup.com/pressReleaseDetail.do?actionType=getDetailPressRelease&ID=PressReleases/news_servervirtualization_07_12_06.htm

Then Silicon.com confirmed the numbers and added 13% points of their own to get to 75% of orgs using virtualization.

Silicon.com - Server virtualization used by three-quarters of businesses

http://hardware.silicon.com/servers/0,39024647,39160051,00.htm

Others started to “pile on” at this time and all we heard about for a couple months was how prevalent virtualization was in the enterprise. “It’s not the next big thing it’s the big thing now and all the platform players are staking their claim”.

Then market reality set it. You should go and stand in a virtualization booth at the next technical conference you attend and count how many folks ask “What is virtualization” and “What do you mean by a virtual machine? What can I do with it?” It’s humbling to have these conversations and realize that you are not swimming in the big pond yet.

Now we have people quietly taking their foot off the pedal. We are down to less than 30% of enterprises using virtualization because it is too much trouble and difficult to manage.

Server virtualization "a worry" for IT directors

http://www.itpro.co.uk/news/97860/server-virtualisation-a-worry-for-it-directors.html

And Microsoft is trying to make sure individual users don’t get too excited about it by stating it is “not mature” for consumers. A recent ZDNet Asia article just makes you shake your head, Microsoft’s marketing undo is to have mid-level non us region folks make corrections and clarifications. http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/software/0,39044164,61969665,00.htm

The kicker is that if you have been in virtualization all along you are still in it, you just aren’t in control of the spin any more.

The commodity of virtualization tools.

paulm — Wed, 15 Nov 2006 19:48:00 GMT

The industry must be moving into the tools and utilities phase of virtualization. Everyday someone introduces a new utility. This could be mostly pre and post VMWorld buzz but there are a lot of new players in the space, and this is a space that seems to have turned “commodity” overnight. Every tool or utility can be had for free somewhere and those that can’t are being integrated into a platform by somebody.

Platform or virtualization services are the only spaces where customer money is left. There will probably be some acquisitions of tool companies to get the investors a return but the platform, VMWare, Microsoft, Xen and even Parallels to some extent are the only true “pay me” plays left until the rest of us come up with a marketable service (besides consulting) to offer.

This week it is VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure) which is just a re-visit of the virtual-lab managers we have out there but that’s a whole other thread.

Last week alone we had HP enter:

http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/press/2006/061108xa.html

WYSE enter:

http://www.wyse.com/about/news/pr/2006/1107_Pilot.asp

and NEC:

http://www.nec.co.jp/press/en/0611/0601.html

All this on top of the previous weeks Virtual Lab Manager buzz:

Where VMLogix signs in:

http://www.vmlogix.com/company/press_release_2006_11_06.php

With an “oh yeah” by VMWare:

http://www.vmware.com/news/releases/labmanager.html

All this in a space where Surgient pretends to be the only player:

http://www.surgient.com/news/20061002-v5.asp

In a space invented by Microsoft for their partners:

https://training.partner.microsoft.com/plc/ you’ll want to look at what they call Hands-On Labs Online (HOLO).

First Post

paulm — Thu, 09 Nov 2006 03:29:00 GMT

My first post, thanks for coming.

I’m a technical consultant and generalist who’s been using virtualization as a training and demonstration tool for the past 4-5 years. I started with VMWare, moved to Connectix then Microsoft. I’ve used Xen and more recently Parallels along the way for specific projects.

I’ve never had a consistent favorite my opinion changes by release cycle; it depends mostly on what I’m working on. Every platform out there has some benefit over the other but none of them are all things just yet. All the “big guys” are playing now though, and there is a new company everyday with VC funding trying to expand the space. Good things are on the horizon and I'm excited to have a space to watch (and participate just a bit) from.