Virtual Iron: Difference between revisions
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'''Virtual Iron Software''', located in [[Lowell, Massachusetts]], provides proprietary software for [[virtualization]] and management of a virtual infrastructure. Virtual Iron is one of the first companies to offer virtualization software to fully support [[Intel VT]] and [[AMD-V]] [[hardware-assisted virtualization]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1932575,00.asp|title=Virtual Iron to Support Intel Virtualization Tech|first=Jeffrey|last=Burt|date=[[March 1]], [[2006]]|publisher=eweek.com|accessdate=2007-01-16}}</ref> |
'''Virtual Iron Software''', located in [[Lowell, Massachusetts]], provides proprietary software for [[virtualization]] and management of a virtual infrastructure. Virtual Iron is one of the first companies to offer virtualization software to fully support [[Intel VT]] and [[AMD-V]] [[hardware-assisted virtualization]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1932575,00.asp|title=Virtual Iron to Support Intel Virtualization Tech|first=Jeffrey|last=Burt|date=[[March 1]], [[2006]]|publisher=eweek.com|accessdate=2007-01-16}}</ref> |
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''Oracle has agreed to acquire Virtual Iron Software, Inc.'' subject to customary closing conditions.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.oracle.com/us/corporate/press/018535|title=Oracle Buys Virtual Iron|date=[[May 13]], [[2009]]|publisher=oracle.com|accessdate=2009-05-13}}</ref> |
''Oracle has agreed to acquire Virtual Iron Software, Inc.'' subject to customary closing conditions.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.oracle.com/us/corporate/press/018535|title=Oracle Buys Virtual Iron|date=[[May 13]], [[2009]]|publisher=oracle.com|accessdate=2009-05-13}}</ref> Oracle has killed the product. |
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== The Virtual Iron platform == |
== The Virtual Iron platform == |
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Revision as of 00:22, 21 June 2009
Virtual Iron Software, located in Lowell, Massachusetts, provides proprietary software for virtualization and management of a virtual infrastructure. Virtual Iron is one of the first companies to offer virtualization software to fully support Intel VT and AMD-V hardware-assisted virtualization.[1]
Oracle has agreed to acquire Virtual Iron Software, Inc. subject to customary closing conditions.[2] Oracle has killed the product.
The Virtual Iron platform
Virtual Iron runs unmodified 32-bit and 64-bit guest operating systems with near-native performance. A Virtualization Manager offers access to control, automate, modify and monitor virtual resources. Virtualization services are automatically deployed on supported hardware without additional software. The platform is based on the open source Xen hypervisor.[3] Virtual Iron, like other virtualization software, is commonly used for server consolidation, business continuity and capacity management. Virtualization is also frequently deployed in software development and test labs.[4]
The Virtual Iron platform consists of a virtualization manager, virtualization servers and a hypervisor. The virtualization manager (VI-Center), a Java-based application, allows for central management of the virtualized servers. A physical server can have many virtualized servers, which are run as unmodified guest operating systems.
Virtual Iron can use both a physical storage or virtual storage access model. However, the use of a virtual storage access model leverages SAN storage to create a fault tolerant iSCSI or Fiber Channel based cluster of virtual nodes. The VI Center installs on both Windows and Linux. Once installed the administrator must configure a "management network" for the purpose of communicating with nodes in the cluster. The VI Center uses the management network to PXE boot any server that is connected and correctly configured (for PXE boot).
For an iSCSI implementation, each node in the cluster must therefore have three Network Interface Cards(NIC). One NIC is assigned to the management network, one to the iSCSI network and one to the public LAN (otherwise your servers will only be accessible from the VI Center).
High availability is configurable using the included LiveRecovery tool. Additionally, CPU or power consumption load balancing is configurable using the LiveCapicity or LivePower tools respectively. Additional features include disk and virtual machine cloning (snapshots), IPMI/ILO support, etc.
Native virtualization
Virtual Iron has implemented full virtualization (requiring hardware-assisted virtualization which it calls native virtualization) over paravirtualization. Native virtualization allows for unmodified OSs and takes advantage of hardware advances for better performance. According to Virtual Iron, they are the first to implement native virtualization.[5] Virtual Iron discusses paravirtualization and native virtualization in their blog:
Virtual Iron has decided against paravirtualization in favor of "native virtualization." With hardware advances coming out of Intel and AMD, we see native virtualization capable of matching physical hardware performance without any of the complexity and engineering efforts involved in paravirtualizing an OS. From our discussions with a broad range of users, they simply do not want to roll out modified OSs unless the trade-off is heavily in their favor. This Faustian trade-off is no longer necessary.[6]
See also
- Comparison of platform virtual machines for a list of related virtualization software products
- Virtual machine
- Virtualization
- x86 virtualization
References
- ^ Burt, Jeffrey (March 1, 2006). "Virtual Iron to Support Intel Virtualization Tech". eweek.com. Retrieved 2007-01-16.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ "Oracle Buys Virtual Iron". oracle.com. May 13, 2009. Retrieved 2009-05-13.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ "Xen startup Virtual Iron breaks ranks on paravirtualization". Search Server Virtualization. September 21, 2006. Retrieved 2007-04-03.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ Hernandez, Pedro (December 11, 2006). "Luring Virtual Workloads to Virtual Iron". enterpriseitplanet.com. Retrieved 2007-01-16.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ MacKinnon, Chris A. (June 9, 2006). "The Virtually Run Data Center: Run Any Application Anywhere, Anytime". Processor. 28 (23): 31. Retrieved 2007-01-16.
{{cite journal}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ "Paravirtualization is a Dead-End Approach". virtualiron.com. July 7, 2006. Retrieved 2007-01-16.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help)