Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 support booting from a VHD directly.  No host OS involved.  Very nice!  It kind of blows my mind a bit to think of the possibilities. 

How Does It Work?

It works like a dual boot machine, where you pick your OS option at startup.  Instead of having physical disk partitions, you can multi-boot onto a VHD instead of a disk partition.  You can boot directly to a VHD running SharePoint 2010 beta for example.   You can have as many of these as you need (and have disk space for).

For people limited to 4GB or RAM on a laptop, this can help SharePoint 2010 run much smoother because it has all the physical memory, no memory sharing with the host.  Your physical disk is available from the booted OS (VHD becomes C:, and physical disks looks like a D:, E:, etc.).  All physical hardware is available, just as if you installed the OS directly to a disk partition.

You can even get it to work with Vista as your main OS on your machine if you’re not ready to rebuild your machine with Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2.  

What’s the Catch?

There are a few catches that I’m aware of: 

• It only works if the VHD is stored on an internal disk 
• The OS on the VHD must be Windows 7 or 2008 Server R2
• Hibernation and bit-locker don’t work when booted from VHD’s.  Suspend does work on my Dell D830 after I installed the NVIDEA drivers for my video card. 
• It works best with a fixed-size VHD, dynamic VHD disks will run slower
• There is a slight performance hit, around 3%, when compared to a boot from a physical disk.  It’s negligilbe, I haven’t noticed a difference at all.
• The vhd is not portable to other boxes due to hardware differences between machines.  You can sysprep and image and move it that way.

Great! Now How Do I Set It Up?

I won’t recreate a detailed walkthrough here, but the basic gist of it is this:

1. Insert Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2 media
2. Boot from the CD like you’re installing the OS normally
3. At the first screen, hit Shift-F10 to open a command window
4. Use the DiskPart utility to create and mount the vhd.  Type DiskPart at the command prompt cnd enter the following commands:
   1. create vdisk file=C:\VHD-Windows7.vhd maximum=40960
   2. select vdisk file=C:\VHD-Windows7.vhd
   3. attach vdisk
   4. exit
5. Close the command prompt and continue setup
6. Select the Custom (Advanced) Install option
7. Select the VHD disk you created for the install
8. That’s it!  The Windows installer takes care of the rest.
9. If you want more control, you can use BCDEdit or EasyBCD to edit the boot menu

References

If you need a more detailed walkthrough, the best one I’ve seen is here:

• Windows 7 Formus:   Virtual Hard Drive VHD File – Create and Start with at Boot

If you’re interested in booting a Windows 7 VHD from a system running Vista (I’m not!), you might find these helpful:

• 4SysOps:  How to add a Windows 7 VHD to Vista’s boot manager menu
• Intellects: Boot From VHD – Replacing Vista or Windows 2008 Bootloader with Windows 7 Bootloader

Enjoy!

Silicon.com’s Andrew Donaghue does a great job of talking up virtualisation in the face of a Gartner report claiming that adoption rates have yet to match the hype in this article. Real life case studies are the best way to answer such claims and we are working on a few of our own too, so watch this space.

One theme apparently slowing adoption down, according to Andrew’s interviews, is the increasing complexity surrounding virtualisation technology. Sure, VMWare can make virtualisation seem complicated since no single software solution can do the job.

For users choosing the hardware route, life is far simpler though. One Ultra High Availability Server does all … without losing transactions.

Why would one want to move Linux to the mainframe (such as IBM’s z10)? There are many reasons – and many reasons not to. Computerworld Australia had a good article describing (in part) some of the reasons the insurance company Allianz did just that. IBM has been pushing Linux on the z series for some time, and Red Hat and SUSE offer Linux variants for that purpose.

One common reason to move to a mainframe is that Linux servers have proliferated in the data center, taking up valuable space and becoming quite numerous. When all you need for a server is the hardware and a low-cost or no-cost Linux, then servers start popping up all over the place.

A single mainframe such as the z10 can handle thousands of servers (a test done in 2000 put 41,400 Linux servers on one IBM mainframe). The replaced servers can then be eliminated from the data center, freeing up valuable space and reducing the workload of current system administrators.

A common instance is where the company already has a mainframe in-house, running COBOL applications. Thus, the purchase cost of a mainframe (in the millions of dollars) has already been absorbed. Such a scenario also makes the case for a new mainframe much more appealing, as it puts the enhanced power to work immediately.

Replacing thousands of Intel-based Linux servers with a single mainframe will reduce cooling costs, power costs, physical space requirements, and hardware costs.

So why would anyone not want to use a mainframe?

If there is not already a mainframe in the data center, purchasing a mainframe just for the purpose of consolidation can be too much – mainframes typically cost in the millions of dollars, and require specially trained staff to maintain. Adding a mainframe to the data center would also require training current staff or adding new staff. A new mainframe also requires a new support contract. All of this adds up to not just millions of dollars of additional cost up front, but additional costs every year.

Another consideration is the number of Linux servers in the data center that would be moved. If there are dozens – or a hundred or two – it may not be entirely cost-effective to focus a lot of energy on moving these servers to the mainframe.

A supercomputer such as HP’s Superdome (with its attendant iCap and Integrity Virtual Machine capabilities) would probably be a better choice to consolidate dozens of Linux servers. The costs are lower, and the power requirements are lower – and you can purchase as much or as little as you need and grow with iCap. Most companies also already have UNIX staff on hand, and adapting to HP-UX is not generally a problem if needed.

Another benefit is that a server such as the Superdome offers virtualization of not just Linux systems, but Microsoft Windows and HP-UX as well – and soon, OpenVMS as well.

Using a large Intel-based server can virtualize a large number of servers with software from companies like VMWare and Sun.

These options won’t necessarily allow you to virtualize thousands of servers – but then, do you need to?

While the idea may not be on many IT radar screens yet, a few shops are beginning to implement these tools as a way of keeping their desktops inside the data center where they can be more readily managed, updated, and secured. The idea has some merit, particularly for those of us that began our computing careers in the mainframe era with 3270 terminals. But the road to total desktop virtualization isn’t easy, and can be overwhelming.

You can read my story that was posted this week to CIOupdate.com here.

Welcome to part 1 of my blog series, “Birth of a cloud” (and you thought these came from the cabbage patch!). In these posts, I’ll be taking you from the inception and planning of the data center cloud to an important mature component of the green data center.

For some time now, we’ve operated internal use and customer virtual machines using the excellent Xen hypervisor. As good as the standalone virtualization has been, it’s time to step it up a notch and take advantage of all the capabilities of a cloud, so we’re using the new Xen Cloud Platform as a good foundation.

For this project, we’re using Rackable Systems servers with 2x AMD Opteron 275 dual core CPUs, 8Gb memory, and 2GbE ports. These aren’t state of the art by any means, but they’ve been doing yeoman duty as standalone hosts and they’re rock solid hardware (we only use Linux virtual machines so there’s no need for hardware virtualization support).

We’re starting off with 6 cloud hosts but we’ve laid out the network for the full 16 cloud hosts that the Xen Cloud Platform we’re using is capable of (figuring 6 core Opterons, that’s 96 cores). The network uses a single switch, split in two networks, one for data traffic (all port 1s) and one for storage traffic (all port 2s).

Storage for the cloud is a common NFS server. This allows us to take advantage of XCPs workload balancer and the ability to shift live virtual machines between cloud hosts seamlessly.

The cloud is also integrated into the data center DC power distribution. Cloud hosts are split between separate DC power feeds which, with. the addition of XCPs work load balancer, will insure maximum reliability.

This is a basic overview of the hardware infrastructure to support a virtual machine cloud. In part 2, I’ll talk about establishing the cloud and bringing it up under manual control. In part 3, I’ll talk about using the work load balancer for automatic control of the cloud and finally, in part 4, I’ll talk about advanced projects that provide the ultimate in green results, such as the effort to allow the cloud to power down unneeded machines when demand is low. Stay tuned!

Vern, SwiftWater Telecom

Great news on the virtualization front – VMWare just announced that IBM DB2 is VMWare Ready. IBM DB2 is the first database software to receive the coveted mark that is given only to those that “deliver outstanding performance and reliability when deployed on VMware vSphere (TM).” By virtue of its exclusiveness, the VMWare Ready logo “simplifies the purchase and deployment process for customers and prospects.”

This announcement comes at a time when numerous industry leaders have cited virtualization as an important, if not the most important, IT initiative for 2010. With the stress on both greens (environment + dollars) to continue into next year, it’s important that CIO’s align purchase decisions to those priorities. In the words of Bernie Spang, Director, Information Management Strategy, IBM: “We are living in an age in which businesses must have access to vast quantities of information as a tool for making smarter and faster decisions, at a lower cost. Through the VMware Ready(TM) program and the long-standing collaboration between our two companies, our mutual clients can confidently enjoy the cost and energy savings both IBM DB2 software and VMware virtualization technologies deliver.”

This is a sweet deal for IBM DB2 ISV’s who can take advantage of many FREE offers, by joining the VMware Technology Alliance Partner (TAP) Program – Free Licenses (Enterprise, vCenter, and Workstation for 1 year and Lab Manager for 6 mo.s) and Free Technical Support (technical training and online assistance).

Try VMware with DB2 Today!

Useful Links:

• Case study on how IBM DB2 Development uses VMware
• Redbook on DB2 Virtualization
• IBM DB2 and VMware technical whitepaper
• IBM Virtual Appliance page
• Informix Virtual Appliance in VMware virtual appliance marketplace

All you fans of OSen that Apple doesn’t provide iTunes for — GNU/Linux, *BSD, etc. — may find it annoying that there’s no real way to restore or jailbreak your shiny new iPhone or iPod Touch besides dual-booting or finding a compatible machine, huh?

Firstly, this is kinda what you have to expect after buying an Apple device   If it doesn’t fit into the Apple World™, you’d better believe that a whole host of problems will rise up.  If you’re a nice local IT guy like me though, you may wish to help liberate the souls of hapless iFollowers partially, and assist them in the jailbreaking of their devices.

As it turns out, virtualization software can help.  Alas, VMware Workstation does not work, and I haven’t tried QEMU.  The problem with VMware seems to be that iTunes doesn’t see the iPod at one critical step, and eventually gives up looking, handing you an error (usually 1611).  VirtualBox works great, though it requires a bit of manual work.  You will, sadly, need Sun’s Personal Use and Evalutation License (PUEL) version of VirtualBox, which is not Free Software — the Open Source Edition (OSE) does not support USB last I checked.  To clarify, VirtualBox PUEL is free in price, but not open-source free as in freedom.

This tutorial should work for all OSen capable of USB 2.0 and USB-enabled VirtualBox, and the jailbreaking section should work for the iPod Touch 1G/2G, and the iPhone 1G/2G/3G/3GS.  I don’t think the restore process will let you downgrade firmware, though, so you should have firmware 3.0.1 or lower.  We will be using redsn0w 0.8  to jailbreak.  This app works better in Windoze anyways; it often fails on GNU/Linux even though that OS is also supported.

BY USING THIS GUIDE YOU AGREE THAT I AM NOT TO BE HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR DAMANGES, LOSS OF FUNCTION, etc. etc etc…..  Basically, don’t be a douche.  I don’t think it’s even possible to screw up your iPod/iPhone with this; Apple actually did a good job at least in ensuring there’s pretty much always a way to restore if things go awry.  Losing your data will definitely happen if you restore, though — that’s part of what the restore does — so back up.  The jailbreaking shouldn’t cost you your data, but being safe can’t hurt.

Now that all that crap is over with, go ahead and grab VirtualBox PUEL, and make your virtual machine.  The OS I used is Windows XP Pro SP3, others may or may not work.  I wouldn’t advise a 64-bit Windows copy (the LibUsb-Win32 drivers are 32-bit, and this complicates matters), and XP is probably overall your best bet.  Make sure to enable USB in the settings, and install the OS.  You may also need to have the guest OS able to get to the Internet.

Once you have the VM up and running (I installed the guest additions, you may not need them), get the LibUsb-Win32 drivers and install them.  I’m not sure why exactly they are necessary, but they seem to in general make this whole process much smoother and more fail-proof.  Here they are, make sure to get the latest .exe file.  Reboot after installation.

Next, you need iTunes.  I’m not sure if later versions don’t work, but I would really recommend version 8.2.0, as I’ve had the most success with it.  You can find a downloadable copy here.

And last, you need the actual firmware you’re going to install.  I won’t link it, as the legality is somewhat questionable (as is everything with Apple), but you should be able to use Google to find a firmware that works with your model iPod/iPhone.  Remember, the .ipsw file you need is different for every model of iPod — one for the 2G iPhone, one for the 2G iPod, one for the 1G iPod, etc. etc.  I recommend firmware 3.0 for iPods, and 3.0.1 for iPhones (fixes an SMS exploit).  3.1 and later have nice features, but protect against the jailbreak hack we will use later.  If you’re too comfortable bending over for Steve Jobs, then you can go right for the latest firmware (3.1.2 at the time of writing)   There ARE exploits for 3.1+, blackra1n seems to be the one everyone goes to, but they have some shortcomings.  Google for more info, I won’t get into it here.  If you do use 3.1+, you may need a later version of iTunes; I’m not sure.

Once all this is acquired, and you’ve rebooted your VM again, don’t let iTunes start.  The first thing to do is open up a command prompt and cd to “C:\Program Files\LibUsb-Win32\bin”, or wherever else you installed that package.  Once there, run “install-filter.exe -i”.  There should be no output from the command.

Next, we get the iPod/iPhone ready.  Plug it in and turn it completely off — it’s okay if iTunes starts up in a fuss once it sees the connection.  We are now going to enter DFU mode, which is an even lower-level version of the Recovery mode, and works better sometimes.  Follow these instructions carefully.  There are lots of differing instructions online, but I find these steps to work the best — if they don’t, Google for DFU mode and try other methods.  If, after many retries, you can’t get in DFU mode, then you can try in Recovery mode, which may work.  I believe you get in Recovery mode by plugging in the device to the PC and holding down the Home button for a while until you see an image depicting a connection to iTunes.  Here are the DFU instructions, though:

0.) Ensure your iPod/iPhone is connected to the computer via your USB cable, and completely powered off.

1.) Press in and hold down the power switch for about three seconds, until a tiny bit after you see the silver Apple logo.  Once you see that, also start holding in the Home button, or whatever that button’s name is on the front of the device.  After a little while, the device should completely power off again.  If you see the image depicting connecting an iPod to iTunes, all is not lost, although this usually works better if you start holding the Home button earlier so that you never see that screen before the device shuts down.

2.) Now that the device is off again, keep holding the power switch and the Home button for about a full second, and then switch to holding just the Home button.  If you see the Apple logo again, you held down the power button too long, and you’ll have to start over.  If the screen stays  completely off, that’s good — keep holding down that Home button for a good 15-20 seconds, and then you can release; you should be in DFU mode.  You can verify this by running the ‘lsusb’ program in your chosen bare-metal OS, or whatever equivalent function it offers to show all USB devices plugged in, or by looking in the Devices -> USB Devices section of VirtualBox’s menu (that does not refresh automatically, you have to keep opening the menu every few seconds to refresh).  Then, you may stop holding down the Home button.

If anything goes wrong during this sequence, start all over.  If you want out of DFU mode, hold down the power and Home buttons for a bit and the device should be off (no real detectable difference), so then you can power it on again — don’t worry, you can’t get stuck in DFU mode!

Now you can give the virtual machine the iPod/iPhone — use Devices -> USB Devices to check your device.  The VM may immediately drop it again, just go back in and check it again.

iTunes will detect the device now.  Remember throughout this guide, usually when iTunes shows a slim progress bar that keeps going through, it’s looking for the device or waiting for it to be unchecked/rechecked in Devices -> USB Devices.  It may do this now, in which case you should check the iPod/iPhone in USB Devices if it isn’t checked, and if it is, uncheck and then recheck.

iTunes should now complain that the device is in recovery mode, and needs to be restored.  That’s what we want.  Hold down the left Shift key and click the Restore button in iTunes.  Now, choose the .ipsw firmware file you downloaded before.  This is why I specified downloading the firmware manually — if you just click the Restore button, iTunes will download and install the very latest firmware, which is likely not what you want if you’re going to jailbreak.  Even if you aren’t, I recommend the manual method.

Go ahead and feed it the .ipsw.  After extracting it, iTunes will do some preparation, and then show another floating progress bar most likely.  Uncheck the iPod in the VM menu, wait a second, and it should reappear in the menu (in Recovery mode this time, not DFU).  Check it again, and iTunes will proceed.  At this point, you should start to get feedback on the iPod/iPhone.

After some more work, iTunes will again stall at “Preparing iPod for restore…”, and the iPod should disconnect from the VM.  Go ahead and reconnect it.  It will be listed as not in Recovery mode anymore.  The floating bar will persist for a while — DON’T disconnect and reconnect the device from the VM, as I suggested before, in this case!  From here on, remember: when the iPod/iPhone has a slowly filling progress bar on its display, don’t tamper with the VM connection.  The progress bar should switch back to a normal bar shortly.

Sit back and relax, there won’t be any need for user interaction for a while.  Sooner or later, iTunes will again show a floating progress bar while it verifies the iPod software.  Still, don’t disconnect — there’s still a progress bar on the device, right?  Right.

If you got an error around the 1600s during this process, you likely failed to reconnect/disconnect/whateverconnect the device when iTunes wanted you to.  Try again.  If you get a low error number like 9 or 2, you likely disconnected or such when iTunes was busy working on the iPhone/iPod — don’t worry, just try again.

The iPod will disconnect for quite a while.  When it becomes ready again, you should have a newly restored iPod/iPhone!  Congratulations   If you want to truly make this device yours, and jailbreak it, keep reading.

Okay, jailbreak time.  Google around for a tool called redsn0w, and download it.  This guide was written for version 0.8 — if later versions come out, they may or may not work.

We need to again enter DFU mode.  This time, it’s mandatory.  Follow the above instructions to get in DFU mode, and connect the device to the virtual machine using its menu.  Close iTunes, and start redsn0w.  Feed it the same .ipsw firmware you have on your iPod/iPhone.  Click next, and it will patch the firmware.  You will be asked what to install for a package manager on the jailbroken device (I recommend Cydia only; Icy is faster and slicker but now unmaintained and is also more bug-prone in my experience).

You will be given instructions now by redsn0w on entering DFU mode.  Since we already did that, just click through them without doing anything to your device, waiting when it forces you to wait.  Make sure your iPod/iPhone is connected to the VM in the VM menu, and is in DFU mode!  Once redsn0w sees your device, it will skip through the rest of the instructions and begin.

Throughout the jailbreak process, redsn0w will every now and again stall on “Waiting for reboot…”.  This is your cue to reconnect the iPod/iPhone in VirtualBox’s menu if it got disconnected, or if it is still connected there, disconnect and reconnect.

Congratulations on your squeaky-clean jailbroken iPhone or iPod   Now go, and use it to show off the power of a world full of enterprising hackers!  The less Winblows is necessary, the better

Feel free to comment with questions, troubles, — or hey, even thank yous if I helped you out; they are much appreciated

OBJECTIVE

Versatile expertise will be achieved by turning lifelong hobbies into a profession. I have achieved deep knowledge on Best Practices, IT Management, Project Management and System Administration tasks as a team leader and part of a team. Having excellent hands on technical skills from wide area of technologies and solutions gives me ability to develop and optimize systems further ahead without overlooking the importance of guidance. I strongly believe customer oriented attitude, sharing vital knowledge, standards and teamwork is the key to success without forgetting creativity and hard work.

I have lived through IT as Cost Center turning towards Service Center; my next step is to turn IT into a Profit Center. My goal is to find a challenging position where I could fully utilize my extensive knowledge, excellent skills, deep passion and unique view of IT systems.

KEY SKILLS

– Analytical thinking
– Development
– IT Infrastructure Management
– Optimization
– People Skills
– Project Management
– Security
– System Administration
– Team Oriented
– Technical hands on skills
– User Support (1st, 2nd and 3rd level)

CONTACT DETAILS

– mobile +41 79 757 95 65
– telephone (home) +41 55 442 01 24
– email samuli.hiltunen@gmail.com
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VirtualBox, Sun Microsystem’s Virtualization platform, is a fairly solid contender as far as Virtualization softwares go.  For those of you who already know about VirtualBox, you are undoubtedly aware that there is a standalone install that has a console with a GUI, allowing you to simply click in a console window and access your virtual machines.  Why would you want to run this without a monitor?  Well, primarily so that you can access the guests via remote desktop.

Assumptions:

1. you have pre-built a server of some kind
2. you installed a linux-based environment on the pre-built server (I chose Debian linux)
3. you want to run several guests on the server and access them via remote desktop

if any of the above assumptions fail to describe the situation perhaps this isn’t quite the solution you’re looking for.  I’ll continue on with my own assumption:  that this is the solution you’re looking for.

You need to install VirtualBox as the root user, so execute an “su root” at your earliest convenience.  I also like to discourage interaction as the root user unless absolutely necessary, so lets create a new user called vboxadmin:

groupadd vboxadmin && useradd -d /home/vboxadmin -m -g vboxadmin && passwd vboxadmin

You will be prompted to enter a password for vboxadmin.  Pick a good one, for example:  8iJ23Cf&7de.  You will also need to make sure that the VirtualBox repositories are added to your stock Debian repositories, accomplished like so:

cat “deb http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian lenny non-free” >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/virtualbox.list

If you were to try and update the repos and download VirtualBox you’d get an error telling you to go get the public key from Sun Microsystems, but you can pre-empt this by first snagging this key using the wget command:

wget -q http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian/sun_vbox.asc -O- | apt-key add -

Now you need to update repositories (aptitude update) and update our server (aptitude upgrade) and now we rock and roll with our installation:

aptitude install linux-headers-$(uname -r) build-essential virtualbox-2.*

The above command will install the linux headers required by VirtualBox as well we installing VirtualBox 2-point-something.  The installer will tell you it is creating a new group called vboxusers, when prompted enter “Ok,” and there will no doubt be some manner of kernel error because you’re using a stock Debian linux kernel – don’t worry, though, because you’ll be prompted to compile a customer VirtualBox-friendly kernel and this you should absolutely agree to do.  Afterwards you need to add your vboxadmin to the vboxusers group:

adduser vboxadmin vboxusers

At this point you can download a virtual machine or create a new one from the command line interface.  You can read about my VirtualBox CLI tips over here.  To start a guest in headless mode execute:

VBoxHeadless -startvm “My Awesome Virtual Machine”

Now just connect via RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) or VNC (Virtual Network Connection) and you’re good to go.

Hi all,

this post is around AWS, my server farm.

November 25th will be the first anniversary of using Amazon Web Services. After an year, I can say that I changed my mind, but this is the end of the story, so we back to the start.

I’m a computer programmer, I love all things about that, and what I found really interesting is the low level. For example, my favorite language is C (not ++), I like to assemble pcs, create myself the boards, cables  and whatelse. In few words: hardware is my life.

One year ago, I changed my job and I started to work for Reflab, as sysadmin, and they ask me about AWS. The first reaction was not so very good: virtualization of server, no physical contact with the server,  mmmm, too much… I didn’t like it. With a package full of doubts, I made the registration and I started my first server.

The documentation was not so good in really, but merging different sources it was not so hard. I’d like to say that my first server is running today, but is not the true: I had to shutdown that server cos was a small instance for testing. What I can say is that start a server takes 5 minutes.

Now we have 11 server online who are running happy and healthy. The counter of fault is less than 5 who required to restart the server. I thing it is a good result: more the 60% of server runs 100% of time, and the other 40% runs for 99.99% of time. After that, we do not have any problem about connection or disk fault.

The conclusion: we are very enjoy about this choice.

As I say, i’m the one who likes to see his hardware, but this solution is very great.

So… Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you

Virtualization never stop to impress me. We can almost virtualize anything from application, server, network to storage.

Recently, I found a company that does mobile virtualization. It claims to be the first.

“OK Labs mobile virtualization technology specifically targets mobile requirements and use cases. The OKL4 Microvisor offers developers lightweight virtualization platform with a thin abstraction layer between the OK Labs secure cells (virtual machines – VMs) and underlying hardware.” – http://www.ok-labs.com

Mobile Virtualization

To find out more watch this.

VMware Server può benissimo essere utilizzato come VMware Workstation e per giunta è GRATIS.
Vediamo come installarlo.

Installiamo i seguenti pre-requisiti:
sudo apt-get install build-essential linux-headers-`uname -r`

Scarichiamo in binay previa registrazione al seguente LINK

Procediamo come segue per l’installazione:

tar xvf VMware-server-2.0.1-156745.i386.tar.gz
cd vmware-server-distrib
chmod +x vmware-install.pl
sudo ./vmware-install.pl

Floating around the net today I found a great piece on virtualization that I just had to share.’

I think this guy Brian Madden has his eyes on what is going on with technology. Virtualization has many key components that can work best for those who consider and use it full potential.

Video of the discussion at Forbes

http://video.forbes.com/fvn/virtualization-09/virtualization-revolution?partner=embed

I decided to take a look at Ubuntu.

Download location

I downloaded Ubuntu from http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download
The download is in the form of a .iso (ubuntu-9.10-desktop-i386.iso)

System Requirements

Requires at least 256Mb Ram (the standard installation CD requires 384MB of RAM).
Install requires at least 3 GB of disk space.
(Source: Ubuntu System Requirements)

Version

I used Ubuntu Desktop 9.10 (32 bit)

Creating the VM

I decided to install Ubuntu in Virtual Box.
The install is very straightforward and some handy tips are also available on the Ubuntu site

Enter a Name for the VM
Set the Operating System to “Linux“
Set Version to “Ubuntu“

Installation

Attach the CD to the downloaded .ISO file (ubuntu-9.10-desktop-i386.iso) and Turn on the VM.
Select “Install Ubuntu” (doh !)

Choose the Language

Select TimeZone

Followed by Keyboard Layout

Set partition details (go with the defaults)

Set username (this is also used to form the suggested computername)

Ready to Rock ‘n’ Roll…

It’s happening … my first Ubuntu install is underway!

It’s installed!

Booting up and logging on

After detaching the .ISO, it’s time to “give it a go” !

Booting up…

Login prompt

It’s booted – no errors (well no visible errors anyway !)
Job done.

Useful Links

What is Ubuntu
System Requirements
Ubuntu Download
Installing Guest Additions for Ubuntu in VirtualBox

After installing VirtualBox here are some quick screenshots showing what “Settings” are exposed for Virtual Machine properties.
These are all fairly typical, but I’ve posted here as a handy reference. 

General 

System 

    

Hard Disks

CD/DVD-Rom

Floppy

Audio

Network

Serial Ports  

USB

Shared Folders           

There are many methods for migrating a physical server to a Hyper-V virtual server but most of them require a management platform or third party software. For those in the market for a free and easy method to migrate physical server onto a virtual Hyper-V platform, life recently got much easier with the introduction of Disk2vhd. Created by Mark Russinovich and Bryce Cogswell (of Sysinternals), the latest version of this tool makes P2V migrations as easy as can be.

Disk2vhd is free and will run on Windows Server 2003 SP1, Windows XP SP2 or later. The utility supports 32 and 64 bit systems. Running the tool is as simple as selecting the disks to be captured and the target location. For performance reasons it is recommended not to save the vhd image to the disk being captured, but capturing across a fast network works very well.

Disk2vhd is available for download here (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/ee656415.aspx).

One seemingly common problem with the capture process occurs when capturing a boot disk that does not include the required disk controller drivers for the IDE controller used by Hyper-V. This situation can be identified when the captured image boots with a blue screen on Hyper-V showing a 0×0000007B error code. Luckily, a simple modification can be made to the system before the migration process is started to correct this issue. This process involves making sure that 4 IDE driver files are available on the server and registered in the registry. This additional process is typically needed only on Windows Server 2003 servers and the required steps are explained in this KB article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314082. In my experience, on each system only one of the identified files was missing and once it and the associated registry keys were added, the P2V process worked flawlessly.

Now go get rid of those aging physical servers!

I decided to take a look at VirtualBox.
I’ve included screenshots below showing what the installation process looks like.

Download Location

VirtualBox can be downloaded from http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads

I used VirtualBox 3.0.12 for Windows hosts x86/amd64

Installation

Installation is very straightforward and consists of clicking on the downloaded executeable (VirtualBox-3.0.12-54655-Win.exe) and following a small number of prompts as shown:
(I experienced about 5 prompts to confirm installation of unsigned drivers. I’ve only inclued one example of each below to avoid duplication)

Lots of virt developers, including me, were interviewed for the Fedora 12 release by Mel Chua.

Whether you’re at a dead stop (there are very few of you out there) or 15 percent there (like most of you) enterprises appear to be at a virtualization plateau and driving to the next level of relies more on an IT organization’s ability to evolve their people and processes versus deciding on the technology.

Don’t get me wrong, picking the right technology is extremely important–just ask any manufacturer! And much of the technology, like virtualizing desktops,  has matured and CIOs are more confident to deploy.  But not having the skilled people and honed processes are, in my estimation, an order of magnitude more important.

According to HP’s research, the biggest barriers or inhibitors to virtualization are: upfront costs, staff training/experience, gaining approval from corporate management, and infrastructure planning.

At World Wide we recognized the importance of people & processes, so we offer a variety of services including virtualization consulting that assesses an organization’s “operational readiness.” It includes an examination of the “as is”  infrastructure as well as the management tools and processes.   Steve Chambers, a Cisco virtualization evangelist in the U.K,  says that Cisco has put this “readiness assessment” in a framework called VOMA (Virtual Operations Management Assessment).  VOMA is about “institutionalization of technology across six dimensions:”

1. Management Processes
2. Organization
3. Governance
4. Technology
5. People
6. Metrics

via ViewYonder » Poor IT hygiene is a barrier to technology adoption.

The field of players is expanding and CIOs now benefit from more virtualization  infrastructure choices than ever.  Experienced CIOs know, while the technology is important, capitalizing on the benefits of virtualization is more about the people and the process.

I had an earlier post, Stand Up and Get Ready, that was more about manufacturers and resellers being ready for the economy to turn.   I now ask CIOs and IT leaders as a whole….

Are you virtualization ready?  More importantly, are your people and processes ready?

Previously I’ve shown you can use guestfish to unpack a Fedora live CD.

I’m interested in whether we can use the contents of these live CDs to mass-install operating systems using libguestfs.

If you imagine that you go through an “all defaults” install of say Fedora or Ubuntu to a new virtual machine, then when you end up with is an identical disk image containing 1-2 GB of default packages and a lot of empty space. Two people asked to go through the same all-defaults install of the same distro would end up with roughly the same content. The details on the disk would be slightly different because some parts of the disk partitioning and ext3 superblocks change slightly depending on the overall disk size. But really those things can be fixed up afterwards using a little repartitioning, lvresize and resize2fs.

Let’s look inside an Ubuntu live CD:

$ guestfish --ro -a ubuntu-9.10-desktop-amd64.iso

Welcome to guestfish, the libguestfs filesystem interactive shell for
editing virtual machine filesystems.

Type: 'help' for help with commands
      'quit' to quit the shell

><fs> run
><fs> list-devices
/dev/sda
><fs> file /dev/sda
ISO 9660 CD-ROM filesystem data 'Ubuntu 9.10 amd64
><fs> mkmountpoint /t1
><fs> mount /dev/sda /t1
><fs> ll /t1/casper
total 691049
dr-xr-xr-x  2 root root      2048 Oct 27 14:31 .
dr-xr-xr-x 10 root root      2048 Oct 27 14:31 ..
-r--r--r--  2 root root     37288 Oct 27 14:19 filesystem.manifest
-r--r--r--  2 root root     35354 Oct 27 14:16 filesystem.manifest-desktop
-r--r--r--  2 root root 697778176 Oct 27 14:25 filesystem.squashfs
-r--r--r--  2 root root   5836401 Oct 27 14:20 initrd.lz
-r--r--r--  2 root root   3941696 Oct 16 12:12 vmlinuz
><fs> mkmountpoint /t2
><fs> mount-loop /t1/casper/filesystem.squashfs /t2
><fs> cat /t2/etc/debian_version
squeeze/sid

The file /casper/filesystem.squashfs seems to be a complete Ubuntu installation, and if I’m understanding this correctly the Ubuntu installer will copy this to the newly created filesystem directly. That will be the new Ubuntu installation, plus or minus some config file changes and some extra packages downloaded afterwards from the net.

Here’s the same examination of the Fedora 12 Live CD:

$ guestfish --ro -a Fedora-12-x86_64-Live.iso

Welcome to guestfish, the libguestfs filesystem interactive shell for
editing virtual machine filesystems.

Type: 'help' for help with commands
      'quit' to quit the shell

><fs> run
><fs> list-devices
/dev/sda
><fs> file /dev/sda
ISO 9660 CD-ROM filesystem data 'Fedora-12-x86_64-Live
><fs> mkmountpoint /t1
><fs> mount /dev/sda /t1
><fs> ls /t1
EFI
GPL
LiveOS
isolinux
><fs> ll /t1/LiveOS
total 655291
dr-xr-xr-x 2 root root      2048 Nov  9 14:45 .
dr-xr-xr-x 5 root root      2048 Nov  9 14:44 ..
-r-xr-xr-x 1 root root     23040 Nov  9 14:44 livecd-iso-to-disk
-r-xr-xr-x 1 root root      8192 Nov  9 14:45 osmin.img
-r-xr-xr-x 1 root root 670982144 Nov  9 14:48 squashfs.img
><fs> mkmountpoint /t2
><fs> mount-loop /t1/LiveOS/squashfs.img /t2
><fs> ls /t2
LiveOS
><fs> ls /t2/LiveOS/
ext3fs.img
><fs> mkmountpoint /t3
><fs> mount-loop /t2/LiveOS/ext3fs.img /t3
><fs> cat /t3/etc/redhat-release
Fedora release 12 (Constantine)

Again I hope I assume correctly that the installer copies ext3fs.img to the hard disk when installing Fedora 12.

So my vague plan, assuming anything I’ve written above is correct, is to take these pre-made filesystem images and allow people to quickly install specific operating system images from a simple tool:

$ virt-press Fedora-12 F12

which would stamp out a Fedora 12 VM in a few seconds and register it with libvirt as “F12″.

I’m not sure this is possible yet …

The most recent solutions from Microsoft and VMWare incorporate Cloud principles into their virtualization solutions. This is a predictable move since one of the major features of Cloud solutions is their elasticity which is accomplished heavily through virtualization. Cloud Computing solutions provide sophisticated administration tools, as well as, service level monitoring tools. Consequently,for visionary companies like Microsoft and VMWare ,extending these tools to their virtualization offerings is expectable. Additionally, VMWare extended its product to allow On-Premises installation, allowing customers to mitigate most of their security issues raised by an Off-Premises Cloud solution. Microsoft´s position on this isn´t yet clear.

The following diagram shows the architecture of Microsoft and VMWare solutions:

Microsoft´s solution,  taking the company’s background in consideration, targets the developer community, providing an integrated PaaS solution, including application services, database services, access control services, etc.

VMWare, on the other hand, relies on established partnerships to provide production ready application services through its Virtual Appliance Program.

The following diagram shows the use of VMWare´s solution on a Cloud environment:

The following diagram shows the use of Microsoft´s solution on a Cloud environment. Notice that Microsoft has not yet decided to provide an On-Premises Cloud solution, hence the grey cloud:

VMWare has a credible solution to implement DataCenter setups On-Premises. The downside of VMWare´s solution, is that it only provides an IaaS solution which is expectable from a company that dedicates itself to virtualization solutions. Nevertheless, VMWare has established several partnerships with various application software providers to deliver Virtual Appliances that provide application engines (e.g., WebSphere), database engines (e.g., ORACLE), etc. Microsoft´s Cloud solution is more complete, in the sense that, it provides a fully loaded PaaS solution.

 Since I have dedicated some entries on this blog to Microsoft´s Cloud Solution, I will now concentrate on VMWare´s solution. The evolution of VMWare´s offerings has gone from a pure virtualization solution to a virtual DataCenter solution, with sophisticated administration tools, to a Cloud IaaS oriented operating system.

With its vCloud solution, VMWare delivers a Cloud operating system for Cloud providers. Many of these companies have already implemented VMWare´s vCloud solution, and this is expected to continue. VMWare is also targeting On-Premises installations, and taking advantage of the fact that Microsoft hasn´t taken a stand on this kind of installation.

If VirtualBox opens fine, but when you try to start a virtual machine (VM) you get the following error:

Failed to start the virtual machine Windows XP.
VirtualBox can’t operate in VMX root mode. Please disable the KVM kernel extension, recompile your kernel and reboot (VERR_VMX_IN_VMX_ROOT_MODE).

… it means another virtualisation package – kvm – is interfering with VirtualBox. kvm isn’t installed on Ubuntu by default, so you probably installed qemu, the popular open-source emulator.

A quick fix is to stop kvm via the terminal:

sudo /etc/init.d/kvm stop

To stop this happening completely, mark the following packages for complete removal in Synaptic if they’re installed: kvm, qemu, qemu-kvm & qemu-launcher. Or you can do it via the terminal, and ignore errors regarding packages that weren’t installed (so can’t be uninstalled):

sudo apt-get remove kvm qemu qemu-kvm qemu-launcher

You should now be able to start your VM, without having to close and restart VirtualBox.

On 18th Nov, Tuesday night, Google released a long awaited new open source operating sytem, the Google Chromium OS. While it is not yet released with final product, Google engineer Matt Cutts send twitter with source code for download.

You can also get the source code here.

Google Chrome Os is an operating system that is mainly intended for the people who spend most of their time in clouds. Yes, Google Chrome OS uses most of the features of Cloud computing including Software as a Service . Google Chrome OS is built on a Linux kernel. It will utilize an “occasionally connected” model, allowing the OS to run offline at times, and sync back up with the cloud when it is connected. It is the similar functionality in Google Gears in Google Chrome web browser. All the applications will be available on Google Chrome OS which are already available online and web-based. Truly, it is the first operating system designed from the scratch to work in the cloud.

Google Chrome Os is currently available in two formats if you really wants to get dirty with it. Source code is off course first choice for developers. But it is time consuming and can affect your curiosity about this new technology.

So, right now I decided to go first with the second option, virtual machine installation with VMWare. It is very easy task and almost took my 20 minutes to install on my windows 7 Netbook.

I am giving those steps below if you are really interested in at least how Google Chrome OS look a like.

The most importantly you need VMWare Workstation or Server installed on your machine. If not then you can download it from VMWare’s website. Although it is not a free product, you can download an evaluation copy for the use of 30 days.

Through VMWare you will not get amazing performance but it will make you happy by giving you the feel of Chrome OS.

Installation of VMWare can take more than 5 minutes, based on your configuration. Also you need to restart the system after installation.

You can also use VirtualBox released by Sun Microsystems. It is free and open source.

Now you need to download an image of Google Chrome OS. It is available at GDGT website. You need to register and create the username with the website or you can use your Facebook login if you have.  The approximate download size of the zip file is 320 mb. You need to extract the zip file. The uncompressed file size is 740 MB approx.

Now you have all the necessary materials in hand. Let start the installation.

Start VMWare Workstation from Start menu group. You will get the screen like this.

We need to create new virtual machine. Click on New Virtual Machine icon or select File Menu –> New –> Virtual Machine.

Select new virtual machine with custom advance configuration option.

It will prompt you for hardware compatibility. Select 6.5-7.0 option from the drop down menu. You can see the limitations and compatibility at below area. Right now we can ignore them.

In the ‘Guest Operating System Installation’ screen select ‘I will install Operating System later’ option. This option will create blank virtual machine without any data in it.

Now it will ask you to choose which Operating System you are going to install. You can choose any of the system since this is just for naming. Here I will select Linux option with Ubuntu version from the drop down and click next.

In the next screen, you have to name our new operating system and also need to choose the location to keep the image files. I suggest to keep the path same, with name change as ‘ChromeOS’.

In the next screens, Processor Configurations and Memory For The Virtual Machine, do not change the default parameters.

In ‘Network Type’ screen, select User Network Address Translation (NAT).

In ‘I/O Adapter Types’ screen, keep the default settings.

In ‘Select Disk’ screen, instead of creating new disk we will select existing disk option and click next.

Select the Google Chrome OS image from the browse button and select the file we have extracted (chrome-os-0.4.22.8-gdgt.vmdk / 740 MB)  from the GDGT website.

Once you click on next, it will ask you whether you want to convert the existing disk into new format. It is up to you. If you want to use the image in old VMWare versions then keep existing format intact.

Now click ‘Finish’ in the next screen.

You can anytime edit the configuration by choosing ‘Edit virtual machine settings’ on the main page.

Now your Chrome OS virtual machine is ready. Just click on ‘Power on this virtual machine’  from the commands section.

If everything goes fine, you will see the following screen.

Just wait for 10 seconds and you will get the Chrome Login Screen.

Congratulations! You have successfully installed Google Chrome OS on Virtual machine.

Now you can use your Gmail id and password to login to the system. If you have seen the webcast from Google 2 days back while launching event, you might expecting the great things with this installation. But unfortunately you will not be able to see all those things, but definitely you will get the preview of some of those.

Also remember one thing, you will not be able to install the applications. Everything will be available in Google Chrome Browser.

Tomorrow hopefully I try to play with the source code.

I have been getting quite a few queries lately from friends about virtualization. Virtualization means a few different things to a few different people, so I have been looking for a good and informative video that explains it. I think this guy does a pretty good job.