vSphere

Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 released to manufacturing

Microsoft announced the System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 release to manufacturing (RTM) yesterday.

The release comes a month after the Hyper-V R2 RTM. Microsoft has been stressing that the biggest Hyper-V R2 benefits will come when used in conjunction with Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) 2008 R2, and this release shows that the two products are roughly on the same track. (VMM 2008 R2 will hit general availability Oct. 1, and Hyper-V R2 is expected to do so sometime in September.)

But it’s important to note that Microsoft isn’t targeting just Hyper-V users with VMM 2008 R2. The software will also support VMware vSphere 4.

Why does VMware care about Virtual Iron customers?

Good news, Virtual Iron customers: In the words of Tom Petty, you don’t have to live like a refugee.

VMware is reaching out to Virtual Iron users, following Oracle’s decision to kill off the Virtual Iron product line last week. (Oracle acquired Virtual Iron in May.) As my colleague Alex Barrett reports today, VMware is offering Virtual Iron customers 40% off the list price of vSphere and vCenter.

The offer is an apparent attempt to keep Virtual Iron’s customers from moving to Oracle VM (which is what Oracle wants them to do). But that raises the question: Why does VMware care?

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Can you afford vSphere?

vSphere is out, and it contains lots of new features and functionality. But can companies afford to upgrade right now?

vSphere is a great release — if your hardware is supported and you have the money you may need to pay for additional licensing and training. If you do, then by all means upgrade and check out all the new features and functionality that is has to offer. If you don’t, consider these issues:

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Get virtual with Sid Smith

Looking for another expert perspective on server virtualization? Sid Smith, who runs the Daily Hypervisor, now has a new blog here on IT Knowledge Exchange.

Virtualization with Sid Smith will focus on the storage, networking and other issues related to deploying and managing VMware, Hyper-V and Xen environments. His first post is about upgrading from ESX to vSphere.

In addition to writing for two blogs, Smith is also a senior systems engineer with VIRTERA, a New York-based solutions provider, and the author of an upcoming book on virtualization. He’s been working in virtualization for nearly a decade, so check out what he has to say.

VMware engineers caution IT pros: Use Fault Tolerance sparingly

One of the most anticipated features in the next version of VMware Virtual Infrastructure, vSphere, is Fault Tolerance, but VMware engineers caution IT pros to use it sparingly.

During the New England VMware User Group meeting in Newport, RI on April 30, VMware engineers who gave a session called “What’s Next for VMware Virtual Infrastructure” said not to use the upcoming fault tolerance (FT) feature as a general replacement for High Availability because it requires more resources. Instead, only use it where absolutely no downtime can be tolerated.

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Microsoft: With vSphere, now we’re even cheaper than VMware!

Microsoft is nothing if not persistent.

The folks up in Redmond have fired yet ANOTHER salvo against VMware. This time it’s in the form of a blog post by Edwin Yuen, the senior technical product manager for Microsoft’s integrated virtualization team. (You may know him as “Laughing Guy” from the now-notorious “Microsoft Mythbusters” video.)

Microsoft has always said VMware is more expensive than Hyper-V, and Yuen uses the upcoming release of vSphere 4 to drive that point home even further in his post, “VMware vSphere pricing - Meet the new price; same as the old price, only more.”

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VMware bristles at suggestions of lousy IOPS performance

When it comes to IOPS performance, VMware has its proverbial panties in a bunch. Plagued by the public perception that IO-intensive workloads don’t perform well in a virtual machine, the company is on a mission to prove otherwise, throwing tremendous amounts of engineering resources at the task.

With vSphere 4, VMware is publicly stating that a single virtual machine can drive an outlandish 300,000 IOPS, up from 100,000 IOPS with ESX 3.5. Then, at the vSphere launch last week, VMware CTO Steve Herrod told the audience that his engineers had just broken the 400,000 IOPS mark that very morning.

Clearly, VMware cares about IOPS.

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