Virtualisation

Microsoft may lift the VM Licensing Restriction on the 19th August.

Dave Oliver — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 23:57:48 GMT

The word on the mean streets of Rumoursville town is that Microsoft is going to lift the licensing restriction where currently software is licensed to a physical device.

Why? With technologies such as VMotion and XenMotion, a VM is moved around a farm automatically to where it can make the best use of available resources such as CPU and memory.

With Microsoft products you are required to license all the physical machines that the software is likely to run on, this isn't just Windows but SQL Server, Exchange, Biztalk etc. If it does move to another physical machine by rights it's going to be another 90 days before you can move the software again. A nightmare when in reality you are only using it once in a VM.

So a costly exercise? Potentially but in reality it doesn't happen. Infact what does happen is that other vendors are chosen instead and the migration from Microsoft software starts.

I'm hoping the change in licensing will also help in cold & warm standby DR (Disaster Recovery) scenarios when a license is transfer with the VM via things like Symantec Veritas Netbackup solution.

This rumour is unconfirmed so don't shoot me if it doesn't happen. However it would be an extremely popular move on Microsoft part if they did this.

Microsoft is been behind in matters of VM, it's time for them to catch up and plug a hole that is making them lose out.

Technorati tags: Microsoft, VMware, Citrix, Symantec, VMotion, XenMotion

Why Developers and Testers will LOVE VMLogix LabManager MORE !

Dave Oliver — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 04:12:50 GMT

VMLogix LabManager is in same space as VMware Lab Manager what I reviewed recently. However, its key differentiators is around automation – enabling developers, testers and IT Pro staff to entirely automate the process of setting up synchronized multi-machine deployment (including the software stacks in the virtual machines) no matter what virtualisation technology.

Yes, VMLogix LabManager is virtualisation platform agnostic! So if you decided on VMware, Hyper-V or Citrix you will still be able to benefit from using this product.

Feature for feature the VMLogix product does compare favourable against the VMware product, however I haven't as yet determined the difference in price and when I do I will update this post.

So the moral is, if you are going to eval VMware LabManager you will want to compare the VMLogix product against it especially if you haven't made the jump to ESX.

Anyone like to guess how long it will be before Microsoft or Citrix will buy this company?

Technorati tags: Developers, Development, Testers, VMware, VMLogix, Virtualisation, Testing, LabManager

Why Developers & Testers will LOVE Vmware's Lab Manager

Dave Oliver — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 02:02:20 GMT

Vmware currently is going through the wars. A change of CEO, a plunging share-price and a competitor getting alot of attention with their new product, that being Microsoft with Hyper-V. However, I just don't get it!? ESX Enterprise is still out in front in terms of features and pricing is very competitive. Any organisation performing their own unbiased product comparison evaluations is going to be hard pushed to discount Vmware's flagship product. The killer feature for many is ofcourse Vmotion that sadly none of the competitors have an answer for. So Vmware has it all to play for.

Another area that the competition hasn't got an answer for is meeting the specific virtualisation needs in the development and testing arena's. Vmware has an offering here with the Lab Manager products.

Vmware Lab Manager enables Software Developers, Testers and Support Personnel to suspend, then capture to a shared storage library, a complete state of configurations – or collections of running interdependent systems that span multiple servers.

Over time, a library of configurations, including test scenarios, production environments and system configurations can be built. When a configuration in the library is needed later for development or test purposes, for example to test a new software build in the context of an .Net developed environment, Vmware Lab Manager can deploy an exact copy of the entire configuration to the best available resources in a pool of managed servers, running and ready for use. Further, the network fencing technology of Vmware Lab Manager can let multiple users deploy copies of the same library configuration simultaneously, without having to change machine characteristics such as IP addresses, MAC addresses, or security IDs and have normal network access.

The main benefits of Vmware Lab Manager are,

Reduce equipment-related capital and operating expenditures
Accelerate integration and system testing
Shave time off software development projects
Increase the number of configurations a new system supports
Enabled for unit and functional testing
Reproduce bugs and reduce time spent in the debug phase
Reduce the number of latent software defects that slip into production
Reduce upgrade breakage
Better management of joint resource across teams

Indirect benefits are,
Delivering better product support
Easer troubleshooting for customer production problems
Improved productivity and efficiency
Reduce time finding spare servers
No need to hoard servers and storage
Save power, space & HVAC

The technical benefits are,
Provision systems quickly.
Restore previous configurations.
Restore previous sessions “in state.”
Quickly make changes to a configuration, possibly via user self-service.
Dynamically expand and contract resource allocation
Quickly save existing configurations via hot-saving capabilities
Schedule usage
Recycle system resources for other uses.

With VI3, systems are handled as single images (i.e., not as an interconnected “set” of systems that comprise a particular multi-tier environment), so there is still a lot of manual configuration required. Further, without Lab Manager’s centralized library of multi-tier systems, organizations run the risk of “VM sprawl” – that is, VMs that are randomly stored on file servers, which are difficult to manage and share effectively.

The key components in a Lab manager configuration are,
Lab Manager Server – A server that provides Web and SOAP interfaces to interact with Lab Manager. The Lab Manager Server system manages and deploys configurations against a pool of Managed Server systems.
Lab Manager Managed Server – A server running Vmware ESX Server and the Managed Server software. The Lab Manager Server system uses the Managed Server system to deploy configurations and their virtual machines. You can have multiple Managed Server systems.
Lab Manager Storage Server – Storage for virtual machines (for example, an ESX Server SAN or NFS server) and storage for media (CD, DVD, and floppy images). You can have multiple storage servers.
Lab Manager Client User – Clients who can use the Lab Manager Web console and the Lab Manager SOAP API. You can access the Lab Manager Web console with Internet Explorer (IE).

The licensing costs aren't horrendous being approximately £9000 for Lab Manager server and approximately £600 per Lab Manager Managed Server. However don't quote me as they are rough ballpark figures just to give you an idea.

This software is ideal for any developer or tester that has tried to stuff multiple applications on the same bunch of servers or screwed up servers trying to take them backwards to a previous released version to try and fix a live bug or the tester that wants to try things out without having to hinder anyone and any number of daily pre-production scenarios where you darn well wished you had your own private set of servers to figure stuff out on.

My last message is to Vmware ... pull yourself together and market this product because it is going to save a lot of good people a lot of hair.

Technorati tags: vmware, hyper-v, microsoft, development, developers, testers, testing, lab manager, virtualisation

Can Developers Work Inside Virtual Environments?

Dave Oliver — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 00:35:14 GMT

As I've been helping out with VMware I wanted to consider the old question of whether developers really could work inside virtual environments?

As we know virtual environments can help maximise under utilised resources, CPU, RAM, diskspace and save on space, power, HVAC and TCO with centralised support and maintenance.

Another main advantage of virtualised environments that is particularly attract to many developers is the ability to remote work which is a requirement that has become far more common with companies wishing their employees to travel less to reduce carbon footprint or to offshore work. But as development environments are resource intensive it has always been felt that they wouldn't make a reasonable virtualisation candidates.

Also, by moving development operations off local desktop means that developers do not have to carry around the weighty desktop replacement laptops, they have far more options from, a large screen, thin client, keyboard, mouse and network access or sitting in the local coffee shop on their Wifi with the trusty Asus Eee or any combination in between.

After some investigation I've determined that normal code writing isn't very resource intensive at all! Infact the only part that is, is compilations. Even with the wealth of utilities and tools at a developers disposal, the modern day processor handles it with some aplomb. Candidacy looks even better when realised that most development environments are running under 32bit operating systems on typical desktops and laptops with up to 4GB RAM and this is the exception rather than the rule, the average being 1-2GB RAM. This puts things into perspective when the modern day virtual server spec is 4 x quad core with 64GB RAM, so you can see there is potential.

In the Lab

On the flip side of the coin, virtual environments can give the developer access to more options than they currently have! No reason now not to run both Linux, Windows and Solaris, Java and .Net! SQL Server and Oracle! All at once! Or an IDE with as many tools and utils running as possible. Why not the whole darn multi-server application! Why not the Testing and pre-prod environments as well! All of which can be replicated as many times as you wish so you can kit out your team, your division, your company! To a certain point the limit is the imagination! And this is exactly where tools like VMware Lab Manager come in!

Lab Manager has been specifically written for the developer and tester in-mind where whole environments can be built and teared down again quickly. You can even have multiple copies of the same environment running at the same time so no need to fight over servers.

Cutting it with a blade

Dave Caddick pointed out to me that where virtualisation environment like VMware and Citrix still suck is graphically intensive operations.

Citrix has a few more years of experience over the marturist of virtual server and software virtualisation technologies that are still using RDP which doesn't perform as well graphically as ICA.

Dave offers an alternative solution to virtualised environments that still offer many of the savings in power, HVAC and TCO that servers have and that is the concept of the Blade PC's.

Blade PC , is a computer that is entirely contained in a thin, modular circuit card placed in a centralised, secure location such as a server rack. A cable connects the card to the user's display, keyboard and mouse. Vendors of blade PCs include ClearCube and HP .

A blade PC, in contrast to a thin client as it is a complete computer that includes all the components normally found in a desktop PC including the microprocessor, memory chips, hard drive, video card and network card. The blade PC concept is similar to the blade server paradigm, except that the ratio of cards to end-users is one-to-one rather than one-to-many.

Blade PCs are initially more expensive to deploy than the conventional arrangement, in which each station has its own computer box, because associated infrastructure, cards and cabling must be installed. Once installed, however, the blade PC offers a number of advantages over the traditional approach and they are,

Lower administrative, operational and maintenance resource demands
Space savings at the workstation
Ease of adding and relocating end users
Reduced workstation noise caused by fans and hard drives
Reduced work area heat generation
Sharing of certain accessories such as uninterruptible power supplies
Improved physical security by placing critical hardware in a central, locked location.

Be Brief

Amazingly, some software companies do not offer licensing for virtual environments which is pants! And very often virtual environment don't support specialised hardware so do your homework.

So you can see there is a number of different avenues open to the developer which are easy to justify. There is no point in trying to stuff everything into that 'paving slab' of a laptop as there is no longer any need, I believe once you get over the fear of giving up a bit of control you will feel the liberation! However it's not like going commando as virtual environments offer amazing support, eventually you'll hardly notice the difference and wonder what all the fuss was about!

Technorati tags: VMware, Blade PC, Lab Manager