The cost of Microsoft virtualization licensing

Source

A significant cost of any computing environment is licensing. Gone are the days when you could install Windows NT Server and enter all 1's Product ID key and make it work. Today it can be quite complex, with each vendor having its own way of licensing and enforcement for each of its products.

Microsoft virtualization licensing has ratcheted that confusion up a couple of notches. For instance, if you have one physical server with a Windows Server license on it, and then you run some virtualization product and install four virtual machines -- how do you license them?

You could do it by the physical server for one license. Or you could license the four virtual machines plus the host for a total of five licenses. And what about virtual desktops where a server in the data center runs 30 instances of XP and 15 of Vista but has only 20 people connect at any one time?

Does it make a difference if you license VMware Inc.'s VDI virtual desktop product versus Microsoft's SoftGrid in terms of licensing the OS for the virtual desktops? What about managing 12 virtual servers on a single box? Do you have to license something like System Center Operations Manager for each VM?

There are more questions, as you can imagine, but let's look at some answers too.

First, consider the licensing for virtual machines running the Windows Server OS. This is a key concept to understand because calculating the price point can get tricky. In addition to any licenses you have for your virtualization product, you still need to license the OS and applications. Here is the current Microsoft virtualization licensing strategy for servers:

• Windows Server 2003 requires a license per machine -- physical or virtual.
• Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise Edition provides up to four licenses for virtual machines per physical server.
• Windows Server 2003 Datacenter has unlimited licensing of virtual servers per physical host, with a couple of gotchas.
• It requires one license per physical processor – a four-processor server requires four licenses for unlimited virtual machines.
• It does not license cores – so a single quad-core processor requires one license. This could work to your advantage in planning new hardware purchases.

A major change was made recently in Microsoft's virtualization licensing scheme for servers. Now licenses are consumed per running instance rather than per total virtual machines. Thus, if you have a Windows 2003 Enterprise Edition R2 server with its four free licenses, you could build, say, 16 virtual machines for a library for fast rebuilds and just leave them turned off. The four licenses will be consumed only by active instances.

Another licensing wrinkle is the technology that allows virtual servers to move from one physical server to another. VMware calls this "VMotion." Microsoft refers to it as "migration." Although it is amazing technology that permits virtual servers to continue running even when their physical host dies, it messes up the licensing aspect.

Suppose you have three Windows 2003 Enterprise Edition R2 servers running, and you have four virtual machines loaded on each one. Three total licenses are required. But you have implemented the "migration" technology and one of the servers has a hardware problem, so you migrate the VMs to another physical server. You have just broken the licensing agreement because Microsoft licenses by the "high watermark" in this case.

It means that if you assume that any given server could have a maximum of eight virtual machines -- four from another server -- then you will need an additional four licenses for each of the three servers, for a total of 12 licenses. Of course, this assumes you have the resources to handle that many VMs.

An alternative to this would be to purchase Datacenter, which gives you unlimited virtual licenses and requires only a single license for each physical processor. Datacenter is considerably more expensive than an Enterprise server OS, so you will have to sharpen your pencil and see if this is advantageous or not to your overall cost management plan.

In licensing management software, Microsoft will sell you one license per physical server to run four of its System Center products. This is definitely a plus. It could be beneficial to get a bigger host to store more VMs and use Datacenter. The license includes these products:

• Data Protection Manager
• System Center Configuration Manager
• System Center Operations Manager
• System Center Virtual Machine Manager

Desktop virtualization is a whole 'nother ballgame. It allows the user's machine and OS to run in an instance on a server, as is the case with thin clients. Although Citrix Systems Inc., Microsoft, Quest Software Inc. and VMware all have their own "virtual desktop infrastructure" – or VDI – product, the licensing for XP or Vista is tricky.

Because a server license doesn't allow licensing of XP or Vista, we need a way to do this. Microsoft has a licensing program -- not a product -- called the Vista Enterprise Centralized Desktop (VECD), which allows licensing for centrally managed desktops. You actually buy an upgrade to the OEM license for the OS. The thing to remember is that while servers are licensed on a per-instance of the virtual machines, the client OS is licensed by the total number of people connecting to XP or Vista instances. So if you have 30 virtual XP desktops for 30 users, but only 20 people connect at a time, you still need 30 licenses.

The only way you can accomplish the licensing is by attaching the VECD to a Desktop SA agreement. If you have thin clients, you can buy a standalone subscription per device, which then allows the user to connect to up to four instances per subscription. You have to buy these licenses via subscription. You can't get them a la carte. You must license the client OS no matter whose virtual desktop product you are using.

Need a hand to help you figure out Microsoft virtualization licensing costs? Microsoft has a nice tool called the Microsoft License Advisor that tells you step by step how to determine your potential costs. Microsoft's licensing Web page and its virtualization Web page are two more great resources.

Using virtualization technology to consolidate servers will reduce costs. However, licensing costs can make or break the return on investment for a virtualization project. Take advantage of Microsoft's server licensing policies, which grant free Windows Server licenses, to maximize the cost benefit. Determine the number and distribution of your virtual servers and then see if it makes sense to use Windows Server 2003 R2 or Datacenter for the virtual machine licensing advantage.

Gary Olsen is a systems software engineer for Hewlett-Packard in Global Solutions Engineering. He wrote Windows 2000: Active Directory Design and Deployment and co-authored Windows Server 2003 on HP ProLiant Servers. Olsen is a Microsoft MVP for Windows Server-File Systems.

Linux Support in Virtual Server 2005 R2

Source 03 April 2006

Co-inciding with the announcment of Virtual Server 2005 R2 Enterprise Edition being free,
it was also announced that Virtual Machine Additions for Linux
additions are available for download along with the list of varients
which will be supported:

-Red Hat Enterprise Linux 2.1 (update 6)
-Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 (update 6)
-Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4
-SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 9
-Red Hat Linux 7.3
-Red Hat Linux 9.0
-SuSE Linux 9.2
-SuSE Linux 9.3
-SuSE Linux 10
 
To sign-up for these additions, visit http://connect.microsoft.com
and logon with a passport account. Click on Available Programs and
apply for "Virtual Machine Additions for Linux". The status will be
marked as Pending for now.  - soon after you will be granted access
rights and have the ability to download them.

There will shortly be a KB article available documenting the list of
Linux OS's available (I'll post the link up as soon as I have it), and
similarly the information will be maintained under http://www.microsoft.com/virtualserver

It's also worth pointing out what capabilities the Virtual Machine Additions for Linux provide:
- Improved Mouse & Video interaction
- Guest Heartbeat detection
- Time Syncronisation
- Host co-ordinated shutdown
- Improved SCSI disk emulation

There will be further releases of the Virtual Machine Additions for
Linux which will co-incide with the release of Virtual Server 2005 R2
SP1 - more details on this to follow shortly.

More details on all of this can be found on the Microsoft Presspass site

Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1

Virtualization with Microsoft May 8th, 2008

Talk
about server virtualization, you go on talking about Virtuozzo, Xen,
VMWare Server etc. This article aims to present another virtualization
application offered by Microsoft - Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1.

A couple of attractive features about
Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 are: it is available free of cost
and also it supports the usage of Microsoft Windows as well as Linux
distributions as guest operating systems.

Where to get it?

Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 is offered
as a free download by Microsoft. It can be freely downloaded by
visiting the following URL:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/virtualserver/software/default.mspx

In this article, we will deal with the 32-bit edition of this application.

System Requirements

The minimum system requirements for the physical computer are given below:

1. An x86-based computer with a 550 megahertz (MHz) or faster (1 GHz
   recommended) processor with L2 cache, such as processors from any of
   the following families:
   
   • Intel-Xeon or Pentium families.
   • AMD-AMD64 or Athlon families.
   
   
2. CD-ROM or DVD drive
3. Super VGA (800 x 600) or higher resolution monitor recommended
4. Host operating system: The 32-bit version of any of the following operating systems:
   
   • Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition.
   • Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition.
   • Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Datacenter Edition.
   • Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2003.
   • Microsoft Windows XP Professional
   
   

By using Microsoft Virtual Server 2005
R2 SP1, it is possible to setup a virtual server, under which one or
more virtual machines can be deployed. Let us first examine the
components of a virtual server, before getting to the installation of
it.

Virtual Server Components

A virtual server is an application that
runs as a system service. Each virtual machine runs as a separate
thread of this application. The host operating system provides two core
functions to the virtual server:

1. The host operating system kernel schedules CPU resources.
2. Its device drivers enable virtual machines to access devices attached to the system

Basically, a virtual server setup using Virtual Server 2005 will have the following components:

1. Virtual Machine Monitor (VMM) - It is a kernel mode driver and acts
   as a firewall between the host operating system and virtual machines.
   It has access to the physical computer processor and manages resources
   between the two environments preventing application on a guest
   operating system from requesting excessive hardware resources from the
   host operating system.
2. Virtual Server Service (Vssrvc.exe) - It creates virtual machines
   and projects the emulated hardware into the virtual environment. This
   service should be running to be able to create and run virtual machines
   using the virtual server.
3. Virtual Machine Helper Service (Vmh.exe)- This allows the running
   of a virtual machine in the context of a specified user account.
   Specifying a user account is optional and if not specified the virtual
   machine runs under the account of the user that started it.
4. Virtual Networks- A virtual network will consist of one or more virtual machines. It can be of two types:
   
   • Virtual network configured to use a network adapter in the physical
     computer- If a virtual network is attached to a physical adapter it can
     access the networks attached to that adapter. This configuration can be
     used to provide access for the virtual machines to external machines
     and networks.
   • Virtual network configured not to use a physical network adapter-
     If no physical network adapter is selected then the virtual machines
     attached to that network can communicate only to other virtual machines
     within that same internal virtual network.
   
   
5. Administration Website - It is a browser based tool for configuring
   and managing the virtual server and its associated virtual machines and
   virtual networks.
6. Virtual Machine Remote Control Client- It is used for remote
   management of virtual machines. It communicates with the VMRC server
   component of virtual server service using VMRC protocol developed by
   Microsoft for communication between VMRC clients and VMRC server.
7. Virtual Machine Additions- This component adds enhancements to guest operating systems like:
   
   • Improved mouse cursor tracking and control.
   • Greatly improved overall performance.
   • Virtual machine heartbeat generator.
   • Optional time synchronization with the clock of the physical computer.
   
   

   Virtual Machine Additions are included for the following supported operating systems:

   
   
   • Microsoft Windows Server 2003 (all versions)
   • Microsoft Windows 2000 Server
   • Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 with Service Pack 6a (SP6a)
   • Microsoft Windows XP (all versions)
   • Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional
   • Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition
   • Microsoft Windows 98
   • Microsoft Windows 95
   
   
8. Virtual Machines- Within the Virtual Server one or more virtual
   machines running their own operating systems can be created. The
   virtual machine emulates a standard x86-based computer including basic
   hardware except the processor. Using emulated hardware and the
   processor of the physical computer each virtual machine operates
   similar to a physical computer.The Virtual Machine Monitor (VMM)
   manages virtual machines, providing the software infrastructure for
   hardware emulation. Each virtual machine consists of a set of
   virtualized devices. The guest operating system and applications run on
   the virtual machine as if they were running on physical hardware,
   rather than emulated hardware. All software code running within the
   virtual machine runs in a separate VMM context.A virtual server can
   support upto 64 virtual machines. The number of virtual machines that
   can be run simultaneously is limited primarily by, the amount of RAM
   and hard drive space available in the physical computer. A single
   virtual machine can have a maximum RAM size of 3.6 GB. Also even if the
   physical computer has multiple processors installed in it virtual
   machines created will emulate only one processor.
   

   Each virtual machine requires at-least the following files to function properly:

   
   
   • A virtual machine configuration (.vmc) file in XML format that contains the virtual machine configuration information.
   • One or more virtual hard disk (.vhd) files to store the guest operating system, applications and data for the virtual machine.
   
   
9. Virtual Hard Disks- A virtual hard disk provides storage for a
   virtual machine. Within the virtual machine it is visible as a physical
   disk, but actually it is file that resides on a physical disk that only
   the host operating system can access. The virtual machine does not have
   direct access to the physical disk that stores the .vhd file.There are
   four types of virtual hard disks that can be created:
   
   • Fixed-size disk- This is a .vhd file whose size is designated when
     the file is created. For example, if a fixed-size virtual hard disk of
     10 GB size is created the virtual server creates a 10 GB .vhd file. All
     the storage space that is required by the virtual hard disk is reserved
     when it is created. During creation, it utilizes as much contiguous
     space as is available on the physical disk storing it.
   • Dynamically expanding disk- In this type of virtual hard disk the
     size of a .vhd file grows as data is written to the virtual hard disk.
     A maximum size however, has to be specified at the time of its creation
     and the .vhd file cannot expand beyond this size limit set.
   • Linked disk- A linked disk points to an entire physical disk
     attached to the physical computer. It is used for converting a physical
     disk to a virtual disk. These disks cannot be used to start a virtual
     machine.
   • Undo and Differencing disks- These disks store changes made to the
     virtual machine operating system configuration as well as the virtual
     hard disk to a separate file. This can be used to keep the original
     virtual hard disk unchanged when testing configuration changes or
     applications. A single undo disk is configured for all virtual hard
     disks associated with a virtual machine, while differencing disks have
     to be configured for individual virtual hard disks.
   
   

Setting up a Virtual Server

Setting up a virtual server involves the following steps:

1. 
   

   Installation of IIS

   
   

IIS, specifically the World Wide Web Service component of IIS, has
to be installed on the host operating system. It is required by the
administration website used to manage Virtual Server.

2. 
   

   Installation of Virtual Server

   
   
   1. Download the Setup.exe file from the link given in the URL above and start the setup wizard.
   2. Continue the installation till you reach the ‘Setup type’ page.
   3. On this page select the ‘Complete’ installation option and proceed.
   4. On the ‘Configure Components’ page accept the default website port or enter another one and proceed.
   5. Then, either accept the default ‘Configure the Administration
      Website to always run as the authenticated user’, or select ‘Configure
      the Administration Website to always run as the Local System account’
      and proceed.
   6. Finally click ‘Install’ and to begin the installation and then ‘Finish’ when the ‘Setup Complete’ page appears.
   
   
   1. To setup Virtual Server Service:
      
      • Start the setup wizard and continue till you reach the ‘Setup Type’ page
      • On the computer you wish to install the Virtual Server service,
        select the ‘Custom’ installation option in the ‘Setup type’ page.
      • Then in the next page click on ‘Virtual Server Web Application’ and select ‘This feature will not be available’.
      • After that proceed with the installation and complete it as explained above.
      
      
   2. On the computer you wish to install the Administration Website:
      
      • Select the ‘Custom’ installation option in the ‘Setup type’ page and in the next page click on ‘Virtual Server Service’.
      • Select ‘This feature will not be available’ and complete the installation.
      
      
   
   
   1. 
      

      Create a new virtual machine:

      
      
      • Open the Administration Website.
      • In the Virtual Machines section of the navigation pane click on Create.
      • Enter the fully qualified path to the location you want to store
        the virtual machine files in the ‘Virtual machine name’ textbox.For
        example, if you want to create the virtual machine named Virt under the
        C:Virt folder enter the following name’ C:VirtVirt. This will create
        the Virt.vmc configuration file under C:Virt.If you enter just a name
        instead of the fully qualified path the virtual machine files will be
        created in the default location, C:Documents and SettingsAll
        UsersShared Documents.
      • In the ‘Virtual machine memory’ text box enter the amount of RAM you want to set aside for the virtual machine.
      • In the ‘Virtual hard disk’ setting you can either select ‘Create a
        new virtual hard disk’ and enter the size of the virtual disk to create
        it or select ‘Use an existing virtual hard disk’ and enter the fully
        qualified path to the virtual hard disk.
      • The virtual network adapter for the virtual machine can be
        configured to be connected to a physical network adapter, if you wish
        so, using the ‘Connected to’ drop down menu.
      • After entering all these options click ‘Create’ to create the new virtual machine.
      
      
   2. 
      

      Add a virtual machine from an existing configuration:

      
      
      • Open the Administration Website.
      • In the Virtual Machines section of the navigation pane click Add.
      • Enter the fully qualified path to the virtual machine configuration file and click Add.
      
      
   
   
   1. In the Administration Website go to the Virtual Disks section in the navigation pane and point to create.
   2. Click on the type of hard disk to be setup from the following options available:
      
      • Dynamically expanding virtual hard disk.
      • Fixed size virtual hard disk.
      • Differencing virtual hard disk.
      • Linked virtual hard disk.
      
      
   3. Enter the fully qualified file name for the virtual disk you wish to create and its size and then click ‘Create’.
   4. The only type of hard disk which requires any additional setting is
      the linked virtual hard disk for which the physical drive to which it
      has to be linked needs to be selected before clicking ‘Create’.
   
   
   1. Open the Administration Website.
   2. Under the ‘Virtual Machines’ section in the navigation’s pane,
      point to configure and then select the appropriate virtual machine.
   3. In the ‘Configuration’ section towards the lower part of the page, click CD/DVD, then either:
      
      • In the CD drive of the physical computer running the Virtual Server
        service, Insert the startup CD for the operating system. Click Physical
        CD/DVD drive. Also select the corresponding CD or DVD drive letter from
        the drop-down menu, if necessary.

      Or

      • Click Known image files. The ISO image (.iso) file containing a
        startup CD image can be selected from the drop-down menu, if the file
        is located in the default folder (Documents and SettingsAll
        UsersDocumentsShared Virtual Machines). Else, type the image file’s
        complete directory path in ‘Fully qualified path to file’
      
      
   4. After that go to status, point to the virtual machine name and click Turn On.
   5. Point to the virtual machine name, once the virtual machine is
      turned on. Then click Remote Control to connect to it and complete the
      operating system installation.
   
   
   • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 2.1 update 6
   • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3.0 update 6
   • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.0
   • SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9.0
   • Red Hat Linux 7.3
   • Red Hat Linux 9.0
   • SUSE Linux 9.2
   • SUSE Linux 9.3
   • SUSE Linux 10.0
   
   

The Virtual Server can be configured to have both the Virtual Server
Service and Administration Website components on the same physical
computer or on separate computers.

To setup both components on the same physical computer:

To setup both components on separate computers:

Now let us examine the methods for adding virtual machines, virtual hard disks to the virtual server.

Adding Virtual Machines

Everything related to the administration of the virtual server and
the virtual machines is done from the Administration website accessed
as shown below,

Start–>All Programs–>Microsoft Virtual Server–>Administration Website.

Adding a virtual machine to the virtual server can be done in two ways:

Setting up virtual hard disks

The most commonly used virtual hard disks are fixed-size virtual
hard disks and dynamically expanding virtual hard disks. All hard disks
are setup using the same procedure as explained below:

While creating a virtual machine, a previously created virtual hard
disk of any of the above mentioned types, except linked virtual hard
disk, can be used.

Adding an operating system to the virtual hard disk

When the virtual machine is created, a virtual version of the CD/DVD
drive in the physical machine is created in it. This CD/DVD drive can
be configured to either capture a physical disk inserted into the
physical drive or capture an ISO image file available anywhere in the
physical computer. To configure this:

Another and a much more easier way to deploy the guest operating
system would be to copy the .vhd file of another virtual machine having
the same operating system and application settings as the machine you
wish to setup, rename it to match that name of the new machine you are
setting up and then simply specify it as the virtual hard disk for the
virtual machine you create. This method can be used to setup the
virtual machine and deploy the guest operating system quickly and
reduce the time it takes to setup the virtual machine. However, if the
virtual machine whose .vhd file is being copied, as well as the new
machine being deployed, belongs to an active directory domain the
Sysprep utility needs to be run to prepare the operating system for
transfer before copying the virtual hard disk.

Conclusion

Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 definitely offers a cost effective and
robust technology that can be used to deploy virtual servers in a
production environment and presents itself as a viable alternative to
the VMWare Virtual Server applications. The guest operating systems
supported by it, in addition to Microsoft Windows operating systems,
include the following Linux distributions as well:

So it can be used for application development and application
migration across multiple platforms and the consolidation of separate
application servers under a single server bringing down administrative
and operations cost, as well as improve resource utilization. It is
also capable of providing efficient and quick disaster recovery
solutions to enterprise as well as business users.

---

 About the author: Jeffrey
T Jackson is basically
a Windows administration expert with more than 1 year experience in
pure Windows administration. At present, he is trying his hands on
Linux administration too.

Full virtualization using XEN

Source September 24th, 2007

Virtualization is a technique of dividing a single server into several Virtual Servers, according to hardware and/or software, CPU Time/Process scheduling and memory allocation. Users can install and use their own Operating Systems simultaneously on these virtual servers.

Simply put, it is a server that runs different guest Operating Systems like RedHat Linux, FreeBSD, Debian, Microsoft Windows XP…etc atthe same time, controlled by the Host Operating system. Users feel they are using their individual servers with the Operating System they wish to use.

Host OS - The base operating system which controls and co-ordinates the Virtual Servers
Guest OS - The Operating System installed on a Virtual Server

Types of Virtualization

The most commonly using virtualization techniques are;

1. Operating system-level virtualization
This is the simple and most popular virtualization technique. In this method, the virtualization is performed based on a single host operating system. Only the same instance of the host Operating System can be used on the virtual Servers as guest Operating Systems. Examples : OpenVZ, Linux-VServer

2. Paravirtualization
This technique is somewhat similar to OS level Virtualization, except it is possible to use different guest Operating Systems like Microsoft XP, RedHat Linux, SUSE…etc on the virtual servers. This requires customized versions of Operating systems as guest operating systems. i.e, we can’t use the currently available XP, FC6…etc on these virtual servers, but the specially designed versions of these operating systems.

Many OS vendors have started selling their modified versions to perform Paravirtualization. Examples : XEN, UML

hypervisor - The hypervisor is an application (eg. Kernel, Host OS) that runs between the server hardware and the guest operating systems. In the case of XEN, a specially designed Linux kernel is the hypervisor.

3. Full virtualization
This is the ideal virtualization technique in which any Operating system is used as the host OS and guest OSs. i.e, we can use unmodified versions of OSs on the virtual servers.

Examples : XEN, Vmware, z/VM

Full virtualization using XEN
Actually XEN lies between paravirtualization and full virtualization. XEN integrates its hypervisor on a linux kernal, so that we have to compile and run this modified kernel on the server on which we wish to perform the virtualization. XEN also supports virtual servers management though graphical interfaces. Therefore it is better to install a full version of Linux on the server first, then compile xen-linux kernel, reboot the server using the xen-linux kernel to create and manage servers. In this case, we can create and manage virtual servers through console and/or GUI oriented applications.

Implementing Full Virtualization using XEN (Simplified Steps)

• Requirements
• CPU support
• Installing XEN
• Enabling XEN KernelInstalling Windows 2003 on top of a Virtual Machine
• Installing Linux based OSs on top of a Virtual Machine

Requirements
The requirement of a XEN Fully Vitualized server are as follows;

1. A server installed with working Fedora 7 Operating System
2. Application builders like gcc v3.2.x binutils, GNU make
3. 1 GB Memory (Recommending 256 M for each virtual servers) 40 GB HDD
4. A VT enabled Intel system or AMD-V enabled AMD system (For Full Vitualization)
5. CDROMs of Guest Operating Systems (Linux OSs or Windows OSs like 2003/XP/Vista)

CPU Support
Make sure that the CPU supports Full virtualization over XEN.

1. For INTEL Systems, it should have the ‘vmx’ support. To check, use the following command;# grep vmx /proc/cpuinfo
2. For AMD systems, it should have ’svm’ support. To check, use the following command;# grep svm /proc/cpuinfo
   

   If these commands return nothing, then check whether the setting
   related to ‘Virtualization’ has enabled on the BIOS (it is turned OFF
   by default). If the BIOS is not enabled for virtualization, then it may
   be necessary to upgrade the BIOS.
   

Installing XEN
First, check for a XEN enabled kernel on the Host OS. Installation of a XEN kernel on Fedora 7 is quite simple using the ‘yum’ command as follows;

# yum install kernel-xen xen virt-manager

This will install,

1. XEN enabled kernel for both Host and Guest OSs
2. All required packages and their dependencies
3. Hypervisor for controlling Guest OSs
4. XEN packages for interacting with the Hypervisor

Enabling XEN Kernel

1. Edit the file ‘/boot/grub/grub.conf’ and set the default kernel to ‘kernel-xen’
2. Restart the server
3. Type the command ‘uname -r’ and make sure that the running kernel is ‘kernel-xen’

Installing Windows 2003 on top of a Virtual Machine

Not so long ago, installing any OS (whether it is Linux or Windows) on top of XEN was quite a nightmare for system administrators. Now Fedora 7 provides a way to install Guest OSs in a few mouse clicks.
Here is how to do it.

1. Log into Fedora 7 (Host OS) in X session
2. Goto Application menu and select ‘Virtual Machine Manager’ from ‘System Tools’
3. This will show the wizard to cerate/manage Virtual Machines
4. Select the ‘New Machine’ option from the ‘File menu’
5. Type a name for the new node, say ‘Windows2003′ (make sure there
   are no spaces on the node name), and click on the ‘Forward button’.
6. On the next window select ‘Full Virtualization’ and click on the ‘Forward button’.
7. Now locate the installation media, you can either use a CD-ROM or use an ISO image
8. Also select the type of Guest OS as ‘Windows 2003′
9. Assign a storage space for the Virtual Machine
10. Now select ‘default virtual network’ and click on the ‘Forward button’.
11. Now allocate memory and CPU for the new Virtual Machine (A minimum of 250 M of RAM and 1 VCPU)
12. Now the installation of Windows 2003 oven XEN will begin
13. Once the installation is completed, we can start using the Windows 2003 installed Virtual Machine.

Installing Linux based OSs on top of a Virtual Machine

Use the same steps described in the previous section, using proper CD-ROM or ISO image.

Comments
If you wish to create Virtual Machines using a bash shell, use the following command.

# /usr/sbin/virt-install

This method will not allow you to directly install the OS from a CD_ROM or from an ISO image, but it can from NFS, FTP, and HTTP locations. A detailed procedure for doing this can be found at xensource.

References

1. http://www.xensource.com
2. http://librenix.com/?page=Xen
3. http://fedoraproject.org
4. http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/research/srg/netos/xen/

---

 About the author:
Sibin C has worked for over a year in Bobcares as a System Administrator. His
interests mainly lie in writing scripts that will ease the work of system administrators, securing and administrating Linux/Windows servers.

KISS

Keep It Simple, Stupid!
KISS principle
Principio KISS

The KISS principle (backronymed to "Keep It Simple, Stupid") states that design simplicity should be a key goal and unnecessary complexity avoided. It serves as a useful principle in a wide array of disciplines, such as software development, animation, journalism, photography, engineering, and strategic planning. Common variants of the acronym include: "Keep It Sweet & Simple", "Keep It Short & Simple", and "Keep It Super-Simple".

El principio KISS es aquel que recomienda el desarrollo empleando partes sencillas, comprensibles y con errores de fácil detección y corrección, rechazando lo enrevesado e innecesario en eldesarrollo de sistemas complejos en ingeniería.

Este término es un acrónimo que corresponde a la frase en inglés «Mantenlo simple, estúpido» (Keep It Simple, Stupid). Para evitar ser tosco, el acrónimo se hace corresponder con otras expresiones tales como «Manténgalo breve y simple» («Keep It Short and Simple») u otras similares, pero que mantienen la misma idea del principio.
El traductor de Costa Rica Orlando García-Valverde ha hecho una traducción al castellano de «KISS» en esta expresión manteniendo la correspondencia entre el acrónimo y el significado de las palabras que lo forman, de manera que tenga un significado para no anglohablantes y de facilitar su recordación permitiendo una asociación lógica de sonidos y conceptos: «principio BESO» por «¡Bobo, En SencillO!»

como exclamación exhortativa o imperativa; en esta traducción que según su criterio es completa y no híbrida, queda eufemizado con «bobo» el término «estúpido» del original, que en la versión original en inglés no es tan fuerte como lo sería en castellano, con lo cual se establece una equivalencia válida; y se transmite también la idea del original, que también es una oración exhortativa; al mismo tiempo pretende corresponder en forma y eufónicamente a características culturales de la expresividad iberoamericana. Este traductor propone que con todas las palabras en castellano no solo pueden recordarse más fácilmente el acrónimo y la frase en un contexto apropiado, sino por si solos de manera aislada.

Este dicho empezó a usarse en los años sesenta en EUA, quizás relacionado con el proyecto Apollo. Posiblemente pasó al español, al ser citado en algunas obras de ingeniería, en especial ingeniería en informática.

The 20 FOSS companies

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3Tera uses Linux and open source to build its Virtual Private Datacenter solution, which can be monitored from a browser anywhere in the world. Resources can be added (and, presumably, removed) from your virtual rack at any time.

Alfresco’s Enterprise Content Management (ECM) is being used by large companies to manage intranets as well as major Web portals. The big win for Alfresco in 2007? A deal with Facebook to manage content on the social networking site.
Despite its ugly patent policies, the company is offering some interesting technologies, like its Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) and Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) that seem likely to catch on in a big way in 2008. We’re also interested in the newly inked deal between Amazon and Red Hat to offer RHEL as part of EC2.
Canonical, the commercial sponsor of Ubuntu, is almost undoubtably going to have a major impact on the open source marketplace in 2008. With its success getting Ubuntu onto consumer laptops and desktops with Dell in 2007.
Centrify just happens to sell a solution along those lines. Centrify DirectControl integrates non-Microsoft systems with Microsoft’s Active Directory. Like it or loathe it, Active Directory isn’t going anywhere. Companies that have spent the money to deploy Active Directory are likely to stick with it, so DirectControl provides the glue between the systems.
That’s the hope of most IT administrators. Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X are inevitable components of most IT environments, and anything that fosters interoperability is going to be a hot technology.

Collaborative Software Initiative launched in early 2007, the brainchild of Stuart Cohen (formerly CEO of the Open Source Development Labs, which merged into the Linux Foundation in 2006). Its business model is to use the open development model to create necessary software for niche markets. For example, CSI’s most recent project is creating software to automate the BITS Shared Assessment Program for companies in the financial services industry.

Digium — the company behind open source telephony engine Asterisk - provides a range of solutions for Voice over IP (VoIP)– from a free edition called Switchvox, to Asterisk based appliances suited for SMBs that want to mix and match VoIP with old-time POTS equipment.EnterpriseDB, which bills itself as” the Oracle-compatible database company.” EnterpriseDB takes PostgreSQL, modifies it a bit with its own secret sauce to make it” Oracle-compatible,” and then undercuts Oracle’s licensing and support prices. The company is also a strong contributor to the PostgreSQL project, which will be important for the company as it continues to depend on PostgreSQL as the basis for its core product.

It’s about time somebody customized the heck out of Linux, put it on a cheap computer, and sold it for a low price. Actually, Everex isn’t the first company to do this, but it seems to be having the most success. The company launched its line of gPC using its Linux-based gOS in the Fall of 2007 through Wal-Mart, of all places. For about $200, anybody can buy an easy-to-use PC that runs Linux (though that’s not really the key selling point) and not break the bank.

As if Google wasn’t a large enough presence in the FOSS world with its ginormous online presence and sponsorship of the Google Summer of Code, the company cemented its place on our Top 20 with the announcement of Android and the Open Handset Alliance (OHA). We’ve long thought that mobile devices are going to play a huge role in the future of personal computing– and that Linux and FOSS would play a huge role in the future of mobile devices. While we’re still disappointed that we didn’t get the gPhone announcement we were hoping for, the OHA could be a major influence in the mobile market.

When we say that companies are worth watching in 2008, we don’t necessarily mean that they’re going to be assisting the open source community. (At least not intentionally.) However, Microsoft’s looming presence in the IT world means that its influence will be felt in the open source community.We’re also watching Microsoft because the company has, finally, taken some tentative steps towards a truce with the open source community. In 2007 Microsoft decided to submit its Microsoft Public License (MsPL) and Microsoft Reciprocal License (MsRL) to the Open Source Initiative (OSI) for approval. If the folks in Redmond wish to remain firmly at odds with the open source community, why approach one of its core institutions for validation?

If you haven’t heard of MontaVista, don’t fret– they’re more often than not behind the scenes. The company specializes in tools and software for telecom and mobile devices, and as such doesn’t necessarily make the same kind of splash as Canonical or Red Hat.  The company announced its fifth-generation operating system for mobile phones, Mobilinux 5.0, in mid-November, with improvements in performance and real-time features. The company claims that it already powers” 90 percent of Linux smartphones,” which is a pretty hefty percentage if not a lot of actual phones at the moment.

Mozilla isn’t quite like any of the other companies on the list– but, technically, the Mozilla Corporation (which owns the non-profit Mozilla Foundation) is a for-profit venture, even if its goal is simply to advance Firefox and other FOSS projects. With Firefox 3.0, we think that the MozCorp folks are important to watch for a couple of reasons. First, because Firefox has been, slowly but surely, increasing its market share over the past few years. Second because Web applications are becoming increasingly important for users and Firefox is at the forefront of enabling more elegant Web applications. Specifically, the work on offline applications that has gone into Firefox 3.0 is likely to be very important to vendors producing Web applications– and important to the users of those apps. The decision in 2007 to form a company behind Thunderbird, dubbed” MailCo” as of this writing, also looms large in our decision to tap MozCorp as a player for 2008. While we like Thunderbird, we think that the mail client was something of a distraction for MozCorp, and Firefox is more than enough to keep an organization busy.

Yes, yes, we know– yawn. Why is Red Hat worth mentioning? Because the company still funds a huge amount of innovation in the Linux and FOSS space.No matter how you slice it, Red Hat carries a lot of weight in the FOSS market. The company’s name is nearly synonymous with” Linux,” and it’s the first company that corporations turn to when they want Linux. Any company that Oracle sets its sights on (via the” Unbreakable Linux” Red Hat clone developed by Oracle) is a sure bet as a company to watch.

Why hassle with deploying software on 20 different Linux distros when you can just bundle up the OS and application and run it on top of VMware, Xen, KVM, Virtuozzo, or another virtualization technology? It’s a no-brainer that Linux makes a great foundation for the virtual appliance concept, but trimming down the fat to get just what you need is quite a lot of work. That’s why we’re interested in rPath and its offerings. The folks at rPath have paved the way to easy virtual appliances with their rBuilder technology and rPath Appliance program. You can even take rBuilder for a spin online to create your own virtual appliance foundation.

A few years ago, we might have counted Sun out. However, Sun’s focus on open source and willingness to look to Linux for inspiration (note the hiring of Ian Murdock to help its Solaris efforts) shows that there’s some fight left in Sun after all. In particular, Sun’s commitment to being open with their technologies over the past few years has impressed us that the company “gets it” when it comes to what customers are looking for — open solutions that don’t lock customers in.

Virtualization is here to stay, but VMware isn’t a lock to retain first place in the market. Underdog SWsoft may be coming up from behind, but it’s technology is first-rate. Companies looking to virtualization to consolidate homogenous Linux or Windows environments should be strongly eyeing Virtuozzo. Another reason we consider SWsoft a strong contender? Its open source roots with OpenVZ, and success at getting pieces of its technology into the mainstream Linux kernel. The company also poses a viable threat on the desktop, with Parallels virtualization technology that runs on Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows. While not as well established as VMware, Parallels has a strong following on the Mac, and is slowly gaining traction on Windows and Linux desktops as well.

Vyatta, a company that’s producing a fully open source router, firewall, and VPN solution. The company isn’t quiet about taking on the big C, and why should it be? Open source companies have never been shy about taking their commercial counterparts to task. But that’s not why we like them. We think Vyatta is a company to watch because it has a compelling technology, and because its offerings appeal to companies that don’t have a Cisco-sized budget. (And to companies that do, but would prefer to save the money for other things, like salaries.) We also like Vyatta because it commoditizes network deployment in the same way that Linux commoditized the operating system market.

Last year we tapped Zimbra as one of the Top 20 companies to watch, and that proved to be sage advice — Yahoo! acquired the company midway through 2007 for a staggering $350 million. Pretty nifty for company that made its public debut in October of 2005. We’re not quite sure how Yahoo! will integrate Zimbra’s technology into its portfolio, but we’re pretty sure that the company didn’t spend $350m to let the open source groupware go stale. It’s encouraging that, upon acquisition, Yahoo! didn’t board up the source code and make Zimbra a proprietary product. Yahoo! has also been a supporter of open source projects for some time, and has open sourced a bit of its own tools as well.

Technically, the Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC) isn’t a company, so it doesn’t quite qualify for the list. However, if there’s one entity that’s going to be crucial for open source adoption in 2008, it’s the SFLC. The SFLC, and its Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC), are dedicated to supporting FOSS projects need legal, financial, and administrative assistance– all the stuff that developers aren’t particularly good at. In 2007 the SLFC filed infringement lawsuits on behalf of the BusyBox developers, helped guide the GPLv3 process to completion, and helped review Linux wireless code to clarify a sticky licensing situation. Look for the organization to have even more influence in 2008. The SFC also provides crucial services for projects, including BusyBox, Inkscape, Mercurial, Samba, and Wine. We expect the conservancy to continue to expand and serve even more projects in 2008.

Linux Magazine’s Top 20 Companies

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Who knows what the future will hold? Well, heaven knows we don’t or we’d have already won the lottery a few times and retired to a private island somewhere. However, we can look at the past to make a few reasonable predictions– such as the companies in the free and open source software community that are going to have a major impact on the market in 2008.

Once again we’ve read the tea leaves in preparation for the coming year, to attempt to foresee the companies and technologies that will be preeminent in 2008. The criteria for selection? Obviously, picking the” Top 20″ companies is a fairly subjective exercise, and in the end it was a matter of opinion. However, to make the list, a company had to be involved in the FOSS community (one way or another) and have a major impact on that community.

Just being a consumer of FOSS technologies isn’t enough– a company needs to contribute in some way. And we stuck to commercial entities this year, even though some organizations (like the Free Software Foundation, and Software in the Public Interest) obviously have a major impact as well.

To come up with a list of movers and shakers we conferred with industry experts, conducted a reader poll through October online, and (of course) drew on our own observations of the industry. Having done so, we now humbly present our list to you.

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