What to expect at VMworld: ESX 4.0 beta, Intel six-core CPUs, and maybe Cisco virtual switches
This year the VMworld US conference broken all records for a virtualization conference: 14,000 delegates.
In front of them the new CEO Paul Maritz may have a hard time explaining why the company co-founder and Chief Scientist, Mendel Rosenblum, resigned or why the Executive Vice President of R&D returned to Oracle after less than one year or why ESX 3.5 Update 2 was mistakenly timebombed.
But Maritz may have something serious to distract the audience: ESX 4.0.
The product is currently in private beta and just a small, selected list of testers can access it.
Nonetheless virtualization.info has a partial list of the new, remarkable features included in the first beta build:
- 64bit kernel and console operating system (COS)
- clustered VirtualCenter Servers
- ESX hosts profile management
- cross-hosts virtual networking
- 8-way virtual SMP
- virtual machines fault tolerance across multiple hosts (the famous Continuous Availability presented last year)
- VMs and media library
- alarms on physical hardware faults
- access control on storage resources
- configuration change tracking
- full support for SATA local storage
We were informed that this is just a small list. And it seems already enough to keep the whole audience engaged for the entire event.
To help VMware in reducing to silence the rumor generated by Microsoft and its partners with the Monday launch of Hyper-V 1.0, Intel is expected to announce its six-core CPU, codename Dunnington (Xeon 7400), supported by the new ESX.
The new 45nm CPU will have a monolithic design and a much bigger cache (3MB Level 2 and a shared 16MB Level 3) to boost performance, Intel says close to 50% increase, and serve more virtual machines at the same time.
Last but not least, Cisco may have something really big to say to close any discussion.
(please note that his last point is totally unconfirmed at the moment)
Over one year ago, in time for the the VMworld 2007, virtualization.info published an article about the upcoming release of 3rd parties virtual switches for VMware ESX.
Following the rumors from trusted sources, it seemed perfectly logical that Cisco would be interested in releasing a virtual version of its Catalyst that customers could plug into ESX to enhance the limited networking capabilities that VMware offers today.
So far nor Cisco neither other networking vendors ever released such virtual equipment, but just two days ago an interesting comment appeared on our one-year-old post:
Will be announced on sept 16th. It will run NX class software and will offer cross host virtualization.
It may be just a rumor or a prediction but Cisco actually has a keynote scheduled for Sep. 16, and in the last period it acted in a pretty strange way.
We’d suggest to keep an eye open on them while at VMworld.
42 Comments
Anonymous
Friday, September 12, 2008 4:29:00 PM
ESX is FINALLY 64-BIT. Ok. Your competitors (Xen & Hyper-V) have been for a while.
What the heck is full SATA support? What doesn't it support now? Seems kinda weak.
Fault tolerance looks interesting but I wonder what the performance impact will be.
And how much is VMware charging for this upgrade?
Who cares if it wasn't entirely 64bit before, it outperforms everyone at the moment, this will only but increase that lead.
SATA support, yep, that's been missing, but again it's been slowly integrated to the point of stability, although that is something that should've been in ages go...
8 way smp, that's pretty awesome, as is cross host virtual networking!!!
Yup. Microsoft will make billions off the SMB market and infiltrate the high end over time.
VMware = Make millions off the high end and lose that over time.
Hyper-V = Microsoft
VMware = Linux
Plus ca change, c'est meme la chose.
Cisco will probably show DVN and DVS, for virtual management of switches
http://virtuanewsblog.blogspot.com/2008/09/en-vmworld-2008-what-to-expect-from.html
see you in Las Vegas, maybe !
Didn't miss it. But I didn't plan on buying a dedicated server to test it out considering the limited type of hardware it runs on.
Hyper_v runs on more hardware.
I put it on my Dell XPS Workstation (which costs less than 1000$).
VMware's HCL have a lot of common REAL servers... hey, wait a minute...are you using a "workstation" as server? LOL - if you want to compare Hyper-V role with something, please, compare it with VMware Server 2 RC that runs on top of any commom linux distro or even Windows itself. Baremetal Hyper-V dont even exist yet...
And ESXi is free dude and have much more functionalities than your ONE-POINT-ZERO "Hyper-V workstation"... humpf.
Hotplug CPU/Memory is availabe in the Beta.for those that wondered.
The list of enhancements and new features is very long and will get longer before GA.
Oh, and to Anonymous, good luck running Your fault tolerant Datacenter on Your Dell XPS WS
Very close. It will actually be known as Nexus 1000v.
Officially is the key word here.
Of the three machines I have ESXi running on right now, only one is on the HCL and even then it has an unsupported disk controller. It still works. This includes a Dell Dimension desktop purchased at Wal-Mart. I've also virtualized it (yea, what a laugh, virtualizing a hypervisor) in VMware Workstation which makes a great test platform for the higher end features that need more than one host.
I guess that´s what many many people are waiting for.
VMWare Server runs on even more hardware than that...
We're talking about serious infrastructure, i.e. ESX server. Hyper_v is no where near free, as it requires the purchase of Windows Server.
In a prodominant Linux based virtualised world; Hyper_v definitely takes the back seat.
Don't forget that all SRM needs is an appropriately coded SRA. If you can get an SRA for any data replication service (even a host over IP based one) then SRM can be used for that replication service.
Thanks. But I don't have a fault tolerant datacenter now. Can't afford it. But I might be able to afford one based on Hyper-V.
"Hyper_v is no where near free, as it requires the purchase of Windows Server."
Nope. Within a few days Hyper-V Server will be downloadable and free.
"They should be fired from their job."
Actually, people who squander 10s of thousands of dollars on an unnecessary product should be the first to go.
Do all of your servers require 24/7 high availability? Some do sure, but in 99% of environments all virtual machines do not require all the features VMware provides at a significant cost.
If someone chooses to use Citrix XenServer for one half to one fourth the cost of ESX and get most of the features VMware ESX provides, that has nothing to do with how good a IT professional they are. It simplies acknowledges the fact that not all environments have the budgets nor the need for VMware. Same goes for those that consider free or lower cost solutions.
If VMware continues to play to the "IT elitist" attitude they will will find themselves in the same boat as Apple. Great product, but a lot less market share than the competition. It is a lot more ignorant and stupid to buy a product blindly just because it is more expensive and is the safe solution. That mindless nobody ever got fired for buying brand X, so I should be safe and do the same thing might work for some, but don't criticize those that might choose to explore their options.
If you can afford one based on Hyper-V then you can surely afford one based on ESXi which is also free!
I am very happy to say that I was able to build a very resonably priced computer that runs ESXi.
I spent $50 on a motherboard and $100 on a Dual Core AMD CPU. Add 8Gbs of RAM and a < $100 SATA card and a couple of SATA drives and there you go!
ESXi allows me to get a better return on my hardware as I can run linux server operating systems such as Ubuntu JeOS which uses 300Mb of disk space and 30Mb of RAM with a vanilla install.
Hyper-V only supports SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 with Service Pack 1 or 2 x64 Edition: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/hyperv-supported-guest-os.aspx
I can throw pretty much any OS you care to imagine at ESXi ;p
I can't wait to see what is in ESXi 4 - it sounds like that SATA card may not be required anymore ...
I care to imagine 64-bit OpenSolaris. Try throwing that at ESXi 3.5u3. :(
The tests we did on VMWare just showed the technology advantages of this product. I have no doubt that Microsoft will improve but for the moment I wouldnt use Hyper V out side of my development network. I also think that VMWare looks after there engineers in terms of acreditation far better than Microsoft. For example you cant do the VMWare exam unless you have been on an official course. This means that you have at least used and played with the product and also helps to make it harder to get. It may seem like an elitist thing to say but makign qualifications more difficult to achieve is a good thing because it helps to maintain your value. When I started in IT in November 1999 the MCSE for example was still a relatively well respected and paid qualification. Now it seems to have little or no value other.
Now my only question is does the Enterprise support I have for ESX 3.5 entitle me to version 4?
yes, all platinum and gold support includes all major & minor upgrades.
just to chime in a bit, my company uses a full blown VI3 infrastructure with FC SANs, FC boot, blades, DR & SAN replication. some people respectivally dont need that level of performance & HA (high avalability). but there are quite a few people who do. i have not looked into the H-V options, but can say unless it offers the same functionality then why bother looking? call it luxury, convinence, productivity, or what ever you want. bottom line is you need to engineer and design your network to taylor to your needs / wants. people can make the same arrguments about Cisco when it comes to cost etc. they have proven themselves time and time again as the forefront in IP technology. so they stay at the top. does everyone need it? no, but those who do trust it and continue to use it. Microsoft is this anomoly that has time and time again shown to be less then fully functional but still holds a high level of marketshare soley based on usability. so the core question is, do you want it to be cheap and easy or do you want it to just work?
I am doing just that. Had to convert it from Workstation 6.5 to ESXi with vCenter Converter and voila! :)
These issues are reported as being fixed in R2 which is still a year away. We are currently looking at using Hyper-V for Domain Controllers only. This is the only way that we can justify using it in the interest of saving money and not reducing functionality too greatly. When R2 comes out we will reevaluate. But by then I expect VMWare to have many more features again. VMWare has a tough battle ahead of it and if they keep innovating they have a chance at staying ahead. Microsoft has a long way to go to catch up. They need to drop NTFS in favor of the ability to share a volume between hosts. This seems like a very basic requirement of clustering.
Yeah, we have ESX cluster (four Dell servers), VMware Server, Microsoft Virtual Server and one two servers Xen Source cluster. All systems have own places in the our IT ecosystem. ESX/Vi is expensive, but it really works, VMware Server is good test enviroment (cheap hardware), MS Virtual Server have fansy NIC config (try change your vmware guest MAC address...). If you likes vmware, MS V, Xen, etc. I don't care, it's only piece of software not life :-)
If you wonder about licensing... then try the datacenter edition of Server 2008 R2, available for normal people by Q4 2009, you pay the cost per processor on the host (about 1000$/processor/host), unlimited Windows VM's at 0$ / VM Windows license !!!
Byebye VMWare in 2012...
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