eWEEK content and product recommendations are editorially independent. We may make money when you click on links to our partners. Learn More.
Connectix Corp., which provides virtualization software for Intel-based computers, on Tuesday will release its Connectix Virtual Server product for partner and customer testing.
This new product is an enterprise-grade virtualization solution for server consolidation. It is a native Windows-based server application that enables users to run a broad range of operating systems, including Windows, .Net, Linux, Unix and OS/2, concurrently and on a single physical server.
David Atlas, vice president of enterprise products at Connectix, told eWEEK on Monday that there were no plans to have the product run on non-Intel enterprise server platforms, as the Intel/Windows space is the “pain point”. This is where 50 percent of all installed servers sit, running some 25 percent utilization with Exchange or file and print or domain or Internet services.
“The bulk of the servers needing consolidation—simpler, more cost-effective management—are indeed Intel servers. But, that said, we very much look forward to an IA-64 market place,” he said.
Virtual Server is an extension of the same code base as the current Connectix Virtual PC product. “Basically we took our code and server-hardened it, added a new virtual networking paradigm and a whole array of server resource allocation switches and then also added in the COM support so that our application is essentially clientless,” Atlas said.
The final product is expected to be available between December 2002 and mid-January 2003, with a list cost of $1,000 per processor. But it will probably be available through the retail channel for about $700 for a one-way server box, he said.
Server management software vendors, including BladeLogic, LeoStream and ProTier would use the Connectix technology to provide next-generation server management applications, and these third-party solutions would be integrated with the core virtualization capabilities of Virtual Server.
Page Two
: Connectix Tool Aids Server Consolidation”>
“Our stand-alone product will allow you to install it on a single physical server box, regardless of the number of processors or footprint, on top of an existing copy of Windows Server, Advanced Server, Windows Datacenter, or their .Net equivalents. Then the system will let you create a number of virtual servers each with its own operating system and and application,” Atlas said.
ProTiers solution took a number of physical servers—each with multiple virtual servers—and let the user in effect build server racks and virtual data centers. BladeLogic did wide-area configuration management—making changes to many different vendors servers at the same time. “So they help us be involved in non-Windows environments, while LeoStream is a controller that helps manage virtualized network paths as well as virtualized servers,” he said.
In another industry move, VMware, Inc., a provider of virtual computing software for Intel-based computers, on Tuesday announced the general availability of VMware Workstation 3.2, the latest release of its desktop software product.
VMware Workstation enables users to run multiple operating environments on a single PC or laptop, allowing users to consolidate and manage their computing environments on fewer computers.
Earlier this year VMware released the latest version of its enterprise server consolidation software, VMware ESX Server 1.5, which is targeted at data centers and includes support for SCSI reservations, which enables the clustering of virtual machines inside the same system for development and test purposes, or between systems for high availability.
SWsoft Inc., of San Francisco, also earlier this year released Virtuozzo 2.0, software that allows hundreds of virtual environments—or instances of the Linux operating system—to run on a single Intel Corp.-based server.
Late last year, Sun Microsystems Inc. said it was developing virtual server solutions designed to help enterprise customers add efficiencies for back-office operations and Web services. The Palo Alto, Calif., company said it planned to add new “service container” technology to the virtualization features of Solaris 9.
When asked what differentiated Connectixs technology from competitors like VMWare and Virtuozzo, Atlas said that VMWares product line was split between group consolidation and enterprise consolidation. “We consider Connectix Virtual Server an enterprise-grade virtualization solution,” he said
Virtuozo was a Linux-only partitioning system that did not have a full IA-32 emulation. It was also not a true virtual machine environment, he said. “It doesnt virutalize the hardware or guest operating system; it is basically an application level solution that mitigates some of the issues of running mulitple services on one host operating system instance. Essentially all applications run on the same copy of the host operating system.
“Our solution, and VMWares, provide a true virtualization solution with multiple guest operating systems running on a host operating system; each guest isolated and partitioned,” Atlas said.