Archive for October, 2006

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned changes in M$ licensing which affects virtualisation:

Here it is:

“Unlimited Virtualization Rights

Windows Server 2003 R2 Datacenter Edition licenses now include unlimited virtualization rights, meaning customers can run an unlimited number of virtualized instances of Windows Server on processors licensed with Windows Server 2003 R2 Datacenter Edition without having to purchase additional licenses. The use rights also allow the choice of running Windows Server 2003 R2 (or previous version) Standard Edition, Enterprise Edition, and Datacenter Edition as the host operating system and in the virtual instances. In addition to Windows Server and Microsoft Virtual Server, the use rights apply to any virtualization technology or host operating system, although they may need to be acquired, licensed and supported separately from third-parties.

The unlimited virtualization rights significantly simplify the licensing of Windows Server for large-scale virtualization, and make it more affordable to consolidate on the Windows Server Platform.”
Link:

Click Here

This week Michael Knight (of M&S and the Forums) brought my attention to this forum thread. Apparently, guest customisation using the 64-bit version of sysprep in 64-bit guest WON’T be support until VirtualCenter 2.1 (yes, not VirtualCenter 2.0.1 but VirtualCenter 2.1)

For now I guess you will be forced to run sysprep inside the VM prior to making into a template – and use sysprep.inf to automate the usual annoyances - I mean questions…

Link:

http://www.vmware.com/community/message.jspa?messageID=498516

Posted by Harry McCracken at pcworld.com

“It’s been said that the average American will see two million TV commercials by the time he or she turns 65. Doing some quick math in my head, I believe that means that I’ve seen…well, a terrifyingly large number of commercials for PCs and related products over the past 26 years or so. You too, maybe.”

Read on…

http://blogs.pcworld.com/techlog/archives/002950.html

From theRegister.com

Hoping to up interest in its virtualization wares, Microsoft today freed up one of its key specifications used to manipulate virtual servers and applications.

Redmond has pushed the Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) Image Format specification under the umbrella of its Open Specification Promise (OSP). That means that Microsoft will license out VHD for free and promises not to sue companies which build their own products around the spec

Link:

http://www.theregister.com/2006/10/17/microsoft_vhd_away/

from Paul Thurrott from windowsitpro.com

Microsoft has also made major changes to the Vista EULA. Microsoft presents these changes as a clarification, but
various online pundits, analysts, and enthusiasts claim the changes will harm individuals and small business users because they further restrict user rights with regards to transferring Windows from one PC to another. In the EULA, Microsoft is also supplying its usage rights for virtual machines (VMs) for the first time.

According to the XP EULA, users who purchase a retail copy of the OS are allowed to “move [XP] to a different Workstation Computer. After the transfer, you must completely remove [XP] from the former Workstation Computer.” People have read this to mean they can do so as frequently as they want, and many enthusiasts, who upgrade major PC
components regularly, have pointed to this part of the EULA to justify using the same copy of XP repeatedly.

Microsoft says that the EULA clause mentioned above applies only to special circumstances, such as a hardware failure. So with Vista, they’ve clarified the EULA to state that a user might “reassign the [Vista] license to another device one time.” This, many believe, is a huge new restriction.

Regarding VMs, Microsoft is addressing the installation of Windows in a VM with the Vista EULA for the first time. According to the EULA, any Vista product edition can act as a host OS for guest VMs. But only the “premium” Vista versions–Home Premium, Enterprise, and Ultimate–can be installed as a guest OS inside a VM. Microsoft says this isn’t a
limitation because the only customers really using VMs are businesses and enthusiasts, and they’ll both be well served by this decision. More important, perhaps, a VM qualifies as a “device,” so if you install Vista to a VM, you’re using up one Vista license. You can’t install any versions of Vista–except for Enterprise–more than once. With Vista Enterprise, you can install up to four VM versions of the OS under the host OS.

Mark Russinovich of sysinternals (recently aquired by Micro$oft) has released a new version of the sdelete tool. The new version of sdelete has a new switch which can be used to zero-out redudent/deleted files from a virtual disk prior to being exported for backup or transfer to another VMware vPlatform

Link:

http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/SDelete.html

Last week I got sent an email from Vlada Baronets who represents a company called Veeam Software. This is what he said:

“I read the article at your page where you were writing about file transfer through WinSCP. I would like to let you know that we have recently released a new tool – Veeam FastSCP for VMware – that will allow you to deliver your ISO files without using WinSCP. Veeam FastSCP ensures security by using a one-time password feature and works more than 6 times faster than SCP. For instance, on my 100MB switch i spent more than 7 minutes delivering a 660-meter ISO file through WinSCP, while with FastSCP it took me only 58 seconds to deliver the same file.

The tool is free, and you can download it here: http://www.veeam.com/veeam_fast_scp.asp

If you have some questions regarding our product, feel free to contact me at any time. It’d also be great to get your feedback on FastSCP”

I’ve not had time to evaluate this software. But the claims are very interesting. I thought I might be of interest to people who read this blog…

A couple of weeks ago a student on one of my courses asked why the maximum single VMFS volumes is limited to 2TB (without using VMware VMFS extents). I decided to ask the forum and Thor Donbaek, of VMware (Denmark) gave this very interesting answer

Link:

http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?threadID=56361

from Alex Barret of SearchServerVirtualization.com  

Virtualization users are cautiously optimistic about Microsoft’s new unlimited virtualization policy for licensees of Windows Server 2003 R2 Datacenter Edition, saying it could save them money and simplify license management

Links:

Long Link Here

from Paul Thurrott of WindowsITpro.com

Earlier this week, Microsoft shipped a beta version of Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 to testers, providing customers with the first version of Virtual PC to natively support Windows Vista. Virtual PC 2007 creates a virtual machine (VM) environment in which a guest OS can run in a window under the physical machine’s host OS.

Virtual PC 2007 is a 32-bit application and supports only 32-bit guest OSs, but it can run under both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows. It supports Intel’s and AMD’s microprocessor hardware virtualization features and provides dramatically better performance than does Virtual PC 2004. I was told that Virtual PC 2007 will support Vista’s Windows Aero UI, but the current beta supports only the Vista Basic UI.

Microsoft customers who want to sign up for the Virtual PC 2007 beta can do so at the Microsoft Connect Web site at  https://connect.microsoft.com/programdetails.aspx?ProgramDetailsID=874&wa=wsignin1.0

Like its predecessor, Virtual PC 2007 will be free when the final version is released early next year.