Sun xVM

Will Oracle kill Sun virtualization too?

Oracle has stopped selling Virtual Iron products, terminated its Virtual Iron reseller agreements and seen the departures of two top Virtual Iron execs.

We still don’t know what Oracle’s plans are for the Virtual Iron technology it acquired in May, but in light of these developments, a much bigger question is arising about a much bigger acquisition: Will Oracle kill off Sun Microsystems’ virtualization line too?

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Oracle-Sun: A threat to VMware?

You may have heard this morning that Oracle acquired Sun Microsystems. Like Ron Burgundy, it’s kind of a big deal.

Most of the early reaction to the news has focused on the fallout in the database market. Oracle, the market leader, now owns the biggest thorn in its side, Sun’s open source MySQL.

But the real legacy of the Oracle-Sun acquisition could be its effect on the virtualization market — particularly on VMware.

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Out-of-band boot order configuration with Sun xVM VirtualBox

The configuration for virtual machine (VM) tasks that involve booting from anything other than the virtual disk can be inconvenient. Sun xVM VirtualBox offers a functionality that allows the boot order to be configured outside of the VM. For VirtualBox guests, the boot order can be configured in the VM’s advanced options. The figure below shows a VM’s configured boot order properties.

The limitation with this configuration is that the settings cannot be accessed through the VirtualBox interface while the VM is running, which makes advanced configuration a little difficult. Further, if the machine is in a saved state but not running, it cannot be configured. The vboxmanage command can perform this same configuration but it still requires offline access to the VM. VMware products have a BIOS for the VM, making configuration similar to that of a physical machine for boot order. With VirtualBox, there is not an accessible BIOS interface for the VM. During the boot process, however, there is a default option to access a boot menu by pressing F12. This functionality is shown below.

By VirtualBox not having a VM BIOS in a conventional sense, all relevant configuration is accessible from the interface. The four standard boot classes of hard disk, network, floppy or optical drive can be configured in the interface as shown above or with the earlier mentioned vboxmanage command. The following command will configure the boot order of the Solaris-Test VM:

vboxmanage modifyvm Solaris-Test -boot1 disk

I’ve mentioned the vboxmanage command before for amazing configuration options from the command line. In the case of boot configurations, virtual media (.ISO and .FLP files) can be configured as well.

Version 2.0.2 of VirtualBox was released on September 12, 2008. More information on Sun xVM VirtualBox can be found in the online user manual at the VirtualBox website.

VDI planning primer on DHCP scope options

Fellow virtualization expert Andrew Kutz has argued that future virtual desktop infrastructure technologies (VDI) need to lose the desktop to truly advance VDI technology, and I agree. But until that time, we have to deal with VDI as it exists today. And that means accepting certain hurdles, which means accepting additional support requirements that today’s VDI poses. Let’s consider devices and their support requirements.The key to determining how virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) devices interact with their connection broker is to identify the networking configuration. VDI devices use dynamic host control protocol (DHCP) scope options to get their configurations to the device that reflects where they go for the connection. Let’s dive into how the DHCP options are important to a VDI solution.

For starters, a DHCP scope option is a configuration that is defined on a networking server such as Windows Server’s DHCP server role. Traditional configurations for PCs and servers would have DHCP options such as subnet mask, default gateway and domain name server. VDI, however, allows the full range of DHCP scope options to be used. There are numerous scope options available for DHCP that are delivered to the requesting device in the acknowledgment message (DHCPACK), which is sent after the DHCP request message.

DHCP scope options vary by VDI device. Take for example the SunRay series of VDI devices. For VDI solutions in VMware implementations, the technology requires that at least DHCP options 49 and 66 are configured for connection to the Virtual Desktop Connector agent. Option 49 is for an X11 server window manager and 66 is a trivial file transfer protocol (TFTP) server for VDI device configuration files.

Beyond basic configuration, it may be worth tweaking some other network options based on the architecture of the VDI implementation. What has particularly caught my attention is a blog post by Sun’s Thin Client and Server Based Computing group, which points out that some environments may need to configure the maximum transmission unit (MTU) of network packets. This can also be assigned by DHCP and is of particular importance if the VDI implementation is to be a remote site with limited bandwidth. The default MTU of most configurations is around 1,500 bytes, yet performance may be better with a smaller number for maximum packet size from the endpoint VDI device. This and other factors make a fully representative pilot sound like a really good idea!

However, other platforms may use a new set of options to interact differently with the VDI device firmware. One example is the Pano Logic desktop device, which only requires the creation and configuration of option 001 as a vendor class. This is different than the example above in that there is no X11 window manager resident on the device.

While these DHCP configuration options are not overwhelming when viewed individually, it is worth considering the larger picture in the case of these options already in use. The most common example is an IP telephone at a remote site. While in central offices, IP telephony is usually split to a separate network, but this may not be the case for remote sites that have two or three VDI stations and the same number of phones. It may make sense to have only one IP network.

DHCP is critical to effective network management, including a VDI solution. Some planning on scope and configuration can go a long way to ensure that the technology will function as expected.

Sun xVM VirtualBox 2.0 released with new features

Sun has released version 2.0 of the xVM VirtualBox workstation hypervisor. This major release offers new features including support for 64-bit guest operating systems, an improved GUI console, some performance enhancements, support for VHD disk images as well as some fixed issues from the previous 1.6.6 release.

The installation of version VirtualBox 2.0 is seamless, quick and is still only a small download at 32 MB. The version 2.0 series still lacks the robust native bridged networking offered by VMware products. Further, an upgraded Windows host will lose any bridged network interfaces and will need to be recreated as in prior upgrades of VirtualBox. If you are upgrading a previous version of VirtualBox and used bridged network interfaces, run this command to enumerate your devices:

Here is a previous blog entry about creating network interfaces, which would need to be run again on the new environment. More information on version 2.0 of VirtualBox can be found in the online user manual available on the VirtualBox website.

Xen version 3.3 enhances performance, scalability to open source hypervisor

Xen.org announced the release of a new version of the project’s open source hypervisor, Xen 3.3 today, with enhancements to security, performance and scalability.

The release is now available for download from the Xen.org community site and is the product of a distributed development effort by senior engineers from more than 50 hardware, software, and security vendors.

The new Xen 3.3 release provides users with the new features including:

* Power management in the hypervisor
* Hardware Virtual Machine (HVM) emulation domains for better scalability, performance and security
* Shadow pagetable improvements for the best HVM performance ever
* Hardware Assisted Paging enhancements
* Device passthrough enhancements
* CPUID feature levelling that allows safe domain migration across systems with different CPU models (within the same vendor brand - Intel or AMD)

Xen 3.3 provides virtualization for x64, IA64 and ARM-based platforms, and through close links with CPU and chipset vendors in the Xen project, Xen 3.3 also supports the latest hardware virtualization enhancements, like Intel Virtualization Technology (Intel-VT).

With Xen’s memory ballooning feature, the hypervisor can reallocate memory between guest Virtual Machines (VMs) to guarantee performance and allow greater density of VMs per server. Xen 3.3 also offers CPU portability to allow live migration of VMs across different CPUs, active power optimization to reduce server power consumption, and significant security enhancements.

Simon Crosby, CTO, Virtualization and Management Division, Citrix Systems, said in a statement, “In just two years, Xen has rapidly gained share in virtualization, much as Linux did in operating systems - and in the same period Xen has driven the price of competing hypervisors to zero, allowing any vendor to include virtualization for free.”

In addition to its growing development community, Xen hypervisor is the standard virtualization platform used by cloud computing providers like Amazon.com. It is also used in virtualization products from Citrix (XenServer), Fujitsu, Novell, Oracle (Oracle VM), Sun Microsystems (Sun xVM), and Virtual Iron, and is available as an embedded option in many x86 servers.

VDI process selection revolves heavily on the endpoint device

Selecting a VDI environment is a daunting process. As I begin to evaluate technologies for VDI design and implementation for an upcoming project, the first step is often to identify the requirements from the end-user perspective.

Administrators frequently get wrapped up in the server side of a technology that the experience end of the solution may be overlooked. Two specific pieces of functionality such as screen resolution and dual monitor support can be incredibly important to the endpoint experience, and may make an implementation fail if it does not meet the requirements of all applications involved. By comparison, other topics such as USB device support, printing and sound are more of a policy decision rather than a device selection process decision.

We strategically arrive at determining device capabilities to match the requirements. At that point, we can then ‘back into’ various backend VDI solutions. Take for example the Sun Ray 2FS Virtual Display Client, which offers two DVI-I (digital video interface) ports that can provide a resolution with one monitor at 1920 x 1200 resolution, or two monitors at 3840 x 1200. Among VDI devices the standard offering is a 1600 x 1200 resolution which will satisfy most resolution situations, however. The dual DVI-I monitor may seem like overkill for a VDI-based thin client, but for many systems that perform archival by scanning documents, the high resolution and dual monitor functionality may be a requirement. Just ask any accounts payable clerk.

Some of this functionality may be circumvented by the use of existing devices, specifically VDI solutions that allow a Windows or other operating system PC to connect to the VDI broker. In this regard, if there are a very limited number of systems with requirements that may not be accommodated with standard endpoint devices, the typical PC can be used to provide the VDI connection from a full install PC. While not ideal, it is a decent stop-gap measure and a way to use of existing equipment.

Powerful scripting options with the VBoxManage command

Sun xVM VirtualBox offers a powerful command-line interface (CLI) component, VBoxManage, which can perform most functions within VirtualBox. Having a robust CLI is key to automation and scripting, even in a workstation virtualization product. In my continued coverage of VirtualBox, this blog will highlight some of the parameters of VBoxManage with some examples and areas where this command can be of use.

Modifyvm parameter
Probably one of the more versatile commands for VBoxManage is modifyvm. This parameter can set memory, operating system type, pae settings, monitor quantity, hardware inventory as well as snapshot configuration. Here is a sample command that sets a memory amount, makes the CD-ROM disk the first boot device and disables USB support:

vboxmanage modifyvm XP-TestSystem -memory 512 -boot1 dvd -usb off

The modifyvm parameter also has extended options such as BIOS display time, network interface driver type, host network interface assigned to the VM and enabling or disabling of the clipboard. Overall, modifyvm has over 50 parameters for an individual VM.

Controlvm parameter
From an automation standpoint, the controlvm parameter would be used to start a VM at host system boot. Controlvm can also be used to attach USB or DVD devices. The entry below will disconnect the media of the two virtual Ethernet adapters and reset the power state:

vboxmanage controlvm XP-TestSystem reset setlinkstate1 off
vboxmanage controlvm XP-TestSystem setlinkstate2 off

Note that in the case of an inventory of multiple devices of the same type, a separate entry would be required as in the case of disabling the network interface.

Snapshot parameter
The snapshot parameter can be used to manage all elements of a snapshot. In the case of a frequently used test system, it may be a good idea to automate the change back to the base snapshot. The following command would revert a VM to the existing snapshot:

vboxmanage snapshot XP-TestSystem discardcurrent -state

This command cannot be executed while the VM is running, yet a leading with a power down controlvm parameter can get the system to a state where running the snapshot parameter will do the trick.

Powerful Stuff
This is a very quick sample of what is capable with the VBoxManage command. I don’t know of anything that can be done in the interface that cannot be done with this command. VBoxManage commands also interact the same way across different platforms of xVM VirtualBox. This flexibility offers a compelling solution for an automated deployable solution at the zero-cost of xVM VirtualBox. The online user manual has the entire chapter 8 dedicated to the VBoxManage command, which can be downloaded from the VirtualBox website.

Sun xVM Virtual Box expands reach with global OEM agreements

Santa Clara, California-based Sun Microsystems, Inc. announced a handful of multi-year original equipment manufacturer (OEM) agreements with Avanquest Software, Q-layer and Zenith InfoTech Ltd. to allow them to deliver Sun’s xVM VirtualBox virtualization platform.

Sun xVM VirtualBox software is a component of Sun’s broader xVM virtualization and management software portfolio, which includes Sun xVM Ops Center, Sun xVM Server and the Sun Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) Software. The xVM VirtualBox software is the free, entry-level offering into the Sun xVM platform.

Sun xVM VirtualBox supports whichever operating system and application stack a user chooses, and has a small enough footprint to be an embedded component in OEM equipment. 

Since its release in January 2007, Sun xVM VirtualBox has surpassed 5 million downloads, and is the first free hypervisor to support all major host operating systems, including Mac OS X, Linux, Windows, Solaris and OpenSolaris.

The 20 megabyte download installs in less than 5 minutes, and has received positive third-party reviews and awards, and is being used by the Texas Advanced Computing Center, or TACC on part of its 4,000-node supercomputer.

La Garenne-Colombes, France-based Software publisher Avanquest Software will produce and publish Sun xVM VirtualBox bundled with OpenSolaris and sell it in retail outlets in the UK, Germany, Italy, Spain and France. Beginning this fall, Avanquest will provide Mac users with a solution to run the Windows operating system through Sun xVM VirtualBox.Mountain View, Calif.-based Q-Layer, a provider of cloud computing through Virtual Private Data Centers (VPDC), is using Sun xVM VirtualBox to deliver virtualization capabilities for its customers.

Bombay, India-based Zenith InfoTech Ltd., a managed services and business continuity software provider, has built its network attached storage appliance for small and medium-sized businesses using Sun xVM VirtualBox.

Sun xVM VirtualBox is available free of charge under a Personal Use License. OEMs have two options for licensing xVM VirtualBox: open source edition under GPLv2 or under a commercial license.

VBox 1.6.4 upgrade fixes folder sharing, VRDP

Sun has released VirtualBox 1.6.4, and the upgrade process requires some forward planning. Version 1.6.4 is a collection of fixes to the previous release that mostly revolve around shared folders and the VRDP (VirtualBox Remote Desktop Protocol) implementation. Here is what you need to know if you are upgrading:

During the upgrade installation, you are presented with the familiar message about installing a device that has not passed Windows logo testing. These messages are common across virtualization platforms, as these drivers and devices enable the hypervisor to present the virtual machines. A typical message is shown below:

After these messages are accepted, the installation will continue and allow you to access your existing VMs from the previous version that you may have. 

The one unfortunate point of the upgrade process is that any host interfaces created on an existing installation of 1.6.2 or earlier will be removed by the upgrade process. Overall, I think VirtualBox’s networking implementation is a little short of both VMware Workstation and VMware Server’s VMware bridge protocol. Before you embark on the upgrade, I recommend you enumerate any host interfaces that you have created. Then, make a quick script in the following fashion that will recreate them with the same names you already have:

VBoxManage createhostif "VM-Bridge1"
VBoxManage createhostif “VM-Bridge2″
VBoxManage createhostif “VM-Bridge3″

Any VMs with a bridged interface will be configured to an invalid network interface after the upgrade to 1.6.4. I have an earlier blog posting about bridged networking on VirtualBox, and the commands and planning points are unchanged from 1.6.2 to 1.6.4.

The VMs will not need to be upgraded directly, but it would not hurt to get the 1.6.4 version of Guest Additions installed to optimize the corrected functionality between these two versions. Once the new version is installed, the systray icon and the VBoxControl getversion will show the 1.6.4 release.

Version 1.6.4 is still lean, at only 23 MB, it remains a ready to go virtualization platform and is still freely available from the Sun website.