virtualization.info

In April 2009 a new company called HyTrust entered the virtualization market with primary focus on access control and configuration management.

Earlier this month the startup released the first consistent update for its flagship product: Appliance 1.5.

This new version introduces:

• label-based policy enforcement 
  (each object inside the virtual infrastructure can receive one or more labels, labels are embedded to virtual machines even if they are migrated across multiple hosts, only the objects with same labels can interact with each other)
• two-factor authentication using RSA SecureID
  (for direct-to-host and vCenter management)
• support for VMware vSphere 4.0 (including ESXi 4.0)
• support for Cisco Nexus 1000V

Like for version 1.0, HyTrust offers a free version of its Appliance 1.5 which is capped to 3 ESX hosts.

Labels: Configuration Management, HyTrust, Releases

In the last months the security vendor Tripwire took several steps to shift its business focus on the virtualization market, where its configuration management and compliance technology is badly needed.

At the beginning the company extended the capabilities of its flagship product, Tripwire Enterprise, to support VMware virtual infrastructures, but this approach is rarely the best option to enter a new market.

So the company developed and launched a new solution, just for virtualization, called vWire.
This new product extends the capabilities of two free tools that Tripwire released so far, OpsCheck and ConfigCheck, to offer something that goes beyond the configuration management.

In this first version in fact vWire is able to track changes and critical events in the virtual infrastructure, allowing the user to automate a reaction (like restoring a previous configuration), but in a future release the product will be able to correlate the configuration changes with the performance measurement of the virtual infrastructure, which is much more insightful way to troubleshoot the environment.

With its search engine and automation engine supporting PowerShell, vWire may compete in a short time with a lot of other vendors in different segments, from consolidated players like Vizioncore to young newcomers like Hyper9.

For now Tripwire only supports VMware Infrastructure 3.5, but it’s very likely an extension to Citrix and Microsoft hypervisors as soon as VMware will release its own configuration management solution ConfigControl.

The virtualization.info Virtualization Industry Radar has been updated accordingly.

Labels: Configuration Management, Releases, Tripwire

The security vendor Tripwire continues to shift its focus on virtualization.
So far the company extended its support to virtual infrastructures (only VMware ones at the moment), released a free configuration checker for VMware ESX, and hired the popular expert Stephen Beaver as virtualization evangelist.

Today Tripwire moves another step towards VMware and release a second free tool called OpsCheck.

OpsCheck, which supports ESX 3.0/3.5 (including ESXi version), connects to VMware vCenter through a secure channel and verifies if VMotion is properly configured and operational by checking virtual machines device configurations, data stores, and networks.

The product is available as a Java application running on any Windows Server 2003 box with JRE 1.5 or later.

Labels: Configuration Management, Releases, Tripwire, VMware

Tripwire is an old and well-known security vendor focused on host intrusion detection (specifically file integrity checking).
Over one year ago the company saw an opportunity in virtualization and joined the VMware Technology Alliance Partner Program.
In June 2008 they release a free tool (and a blueprint developed in collaboration with VMware) to verify the ESX configuration.

The product was so successful that Tripwire must be in the process of reconsidering its corporate mission. Today in fact it was announced the recruitment of a well-known virtualization expert: Stephen Beaver, former System Engineer at the Florida Hospital in Orlando.

Beaver will work at Tripwire as Virtualization Evangelist and will write on a new blog that the company will formally launch on Dec. 15.

Labels: Configuration Management, Tripwire

Exactly one year after the last update, Veeam finally revamps Configurator, its product for configuration and change management.

In this new major release the company re-engineered the engine, which now automatically discovers VMware ESX and ESXi configurations, saving them in so called host profile templates. 
The administrator can apply those saved profiles to multiple new VMware hosts at the same time.

Then Configurator 2.0 can scan the hosts on recurring basis and allow the administrator to reapply the correct profile.

As some readers may remember the upcoming VMware Infrastructure 4.0 will introduce a similar feature with a similar name: host profiles.
Veeam doesn’t see this as a problem but instead looks forward to build innovation on top of that capability. Meanwhile VMware administrators can enjoy the feature today with Configuration 2.0.

Download a trial here.

The virtualization.info Virtualization Industry Roadmap has been updated accordingly.

Labels: Configuration Management, Releases, Veeam

Tripwire, the popular security company focused on host intrusion detection (subcategory: file integrity checkers), just released a tool called ConfigCheck.

The application, released free of charge, is for Windows only and remotely connects to ESX hosts, verifying their configuration against a specific security guideline that VMware developed.

Obviously Tripwire also has an enterprise version of this tool which sells through BMC since March.

Additionally, Tripwire offers a document that guides the administrators in correcting the configuration mistakes.

Download ConfigCheck here and the Remediation Guide here.

Labels: Configuration Management

Configuresoft is the last of a long series of vendors which extended the capabilities of its management tools to monitor/manage VMware virtual machines.

Configuresoft offers a product called Enterprise Configuration Manager (ECM) which is able to store and apply configuration settings for IT services on a large scale deployment.

The company just announced an ECM module for VMware environments.

No mention about which VMware product (and which version) is actually supported, the availability timeframe or the price.

Labels: Configuration Management, Configuresoft

Quoting from the BMC official announcement:

BMC Software today extended its leadership in the heated service automation and virtualization management markets, announcing the immediate availability of Tripwire Enterprise for VMWare ESX Server, the industry’s first policy-based solution for ensuring compliance and security in this virtual computing environment.

...

The new agentless product for VMware ESX Server provides continuous compliance to operational, regulatory and security standards. Tripwire Enterprise for VMware ESX Server does so through out-of-the-box and custom configuration assessment policies that allow customers to proactively manage their configurations. Tripwire uniquely combines CIS benchmark-based policies with the ability to detect changes to the infrastructure that are not in compliance with security policies to ensure control of all configuration changes across the hypervisor...

Labels: Configuration Management

After getting a lot of attention at VMworld, the russian startup Veeam is back with an updated version of its Configurator.

This new version includes capability to create user accounts on multiple VMware ESX Server at the same time, and a show a detailed diagnostic report on service console.

Download a trial here.

The virtualization.info Virtualization Industry Roadmap has been updated accordingly.

Labels: Configuration Management, Releases, Veeam

Quoting from the Tripwire official announcement:

Tripwire today announced that the company has joined the VMware Technology Alliance Partner Program to further help IT organizations ensure successful operation of their virtual environments. Tripwire Enterprise 7 assures control of all configuration change across VMware instances in order to provide continuous operational, regulatory and security compliance...

Tripwire is a well-known security firm focused on host intrusion detection. With this announcement the company is simply stating that it supports its product inside virtual machines, but since they entered the VMware TAP program we can expect they will work to move Tripwire Enterprise from guest level to host one.

Tripwire is only the last vendor announcing such effort. Most competitors will do the same now that VMware is opening its infrastructure APIs through the Vsafe program to move security controls at hypervisor level.

Labels: Configuration Management, VMware

Beside launch of its new commercial solution, Veeam Configurator, russian startup Veeam also launches a free tool called EsxDiag.

It's a script able to perform some post-installation checks on any VMware ESX Server host, like verifying network parameters or NTP configuration analysis, and services with failed startup.

Download it here.

Labels: Configuration Management, Releases, Veeam

Russian startup Veeam continues its endless effort in providing utility solutions for VMware customers, launching a new tool: Veeam Configurator 1.0

This new product is a Microsoft Windows GUI able to interact with VMware VirtualCenter and provide access to ESX Server command line tools, without having to handle with their syntax. At the same time Veeam Configurator allows to issue same command line operation on several ESX Servers at the same time.

Last but not least it simplifies execution of most used commands with pre-configured executions.

Veeam Configurator 1.0 is available immediately, with North American pricing starting at $120 USD per CPU.

Download a trial here.

The virtualization.info Virtualization Industry Roadmap has been updated accordingly.

Labels: Configuration Management, Releases, Veeam