VMware

VMWare Kernel Isn’t Linux … Mostly

A pretty common misconception is that VMWare is based on Linux. That isn’t “officially” true. While there have been some rumors otherwise the official word from VMWare is that ESX (their bare-metal product) boots the system on a small “micro-kernel” they call the VMKernel. According to everything that I can find VMWare runs their OS off of their own manufactured product and use Linux to interact with or manage their product.

With ESXi they have stripped out large chunks of that the managing OS that is Linux and are working on beefing up their own OS. The idea is a good one but if you were to strip out all off the management of the product would you still have a product? One of the things that makes ESX great is it’s ability to be easily managed. If you take that away what are you left with?

So I would say that VMWare isn’t based on Linux … mostly.

Links
One person stepping through the architecture
http://it20.info/blogs/main/archive/2007/06/17/25.aspx

VMWare forum discussing the topic
http://communities.vmware.com/thread/93870

Wikipedia article
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware_ESX_Server

Enhanced VMotion Compatibility (EVC) processor support

EVC – The KB article on EVC (1003212) has been updated to be more comprehensive.

The KB article on EVC processor support has been updated with more information on the specific models of processors that are supported. You can find the info here.

Microsoft-HyperV versus VMWare Workstation

How does the performance of Microsoft’s Hyper-V technology stand up against some of the more entrenched companies? Well, a not-so-scientific study was done recently to answer this very question. While I admit that this isn’t a “study” the results are interesting.

Here is a link to the actual article.

VMWare Releases Enhanced Vmotion

The ability to VMotion between dissimilar processor types has been a limitation for VMWare’s ESX server. Just recently they released an announcement that they will be releasing an update to their product which will allow VMotion between certain types of dissimilar processor types.

VMWare’s Release

VMWare Converter for System Backups

While there are several ways to image a desktop or server there are only a few that can go from the backup file to a running state without being converted or restored using a simlar method as the backup. VMWare converter is a free tool that allows you to take running OS’s and “convert” them to virtual versions of themselves.

While it may be a bit unorthodox using VMWare converter to backup your systems before a major change can really save you some time. The nice thing about using VMWare converter is that apart from being free it will give you a running OS as soon as it is done if you need recover from a failure.

VMWare ESXi - Now Free

The tech world is abuzz with the news the VMWare will make their ESXi product free. The previously 500.00′ish product will be free to the general public by the end of the month.

For more information you can use these links:
http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/server_virtualization/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=209400823
http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Infrastructure/VMwares-ESXi-Hypervisor-for-Free/

VMWare Hardware Compatibility List

When looking at virtualization it is important to make sure that the hardware that you are going to use will work properly. If it doesn’t then all of the servers/desktops that rely on that hardware will crash or act erratically.

VMWare’s hardware compatibility list found here will allow you to make certain that there wont be any hardware related issues with compatibility.

VMWare 1.0.6 Released

The newest version of VMWare’s free virtualization server has been released. While this new version might not resolve a lot of issues it is worth checking out.

http://register.vmware.com/content/download-106.html

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