Category Archives: Virtualization

Introduction to Hyper-V Network Virtualization (HNV)

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Microsoft announced a solution to the limits of VLANs in the cloud using a new feature that was codeveloped for Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V and Windows Azure. This new feature was called Hyper-V Network Virtualization (HNV). This is based on a more general concept called Software Defined Networking (SDN).

via Introduction to Hyper-V Network Virtualization (HNV).

SDN and HNV abstract IP address spaces. This is done using two types of address:

  • Consumer Address (CA): This is the IP address that the tenant uses in their virtual network. This address is set in the guest OS of the virtual machine as normal; it’s the only address that the tenant is normally aware of.

  • Provider Address (PA): This is the address that is assigned to the NIC of the virtual switch network to allow virtual machines to communicate at the physical layer.

As far as I can tell from this article a CA is just a private IP and a PA is simply a MAC address, renamed.  To the cloud user however none of this should matter.  I’m struggling to understand the innovation here.   Some of the networking concepts mentioned later in the article seem to add a lot of complexity to the IP layer.

XenServer 6.2 is now fully open source!

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It’s an exciting day for Citrix, our customers and the open source community as we announce some BIG news for Citrix XenServer. Today we cross another major milestone as XenServer moves to a full open source model beginning with the new XenServer 6.2. Cutting right to the chase, here are the highlights that I’ll go into more detail on:

  • XenServer 6.2 is available as a free open source virtualization platform for all users
  • Citrix is also introducing a new XenServer.org community portal
  • Citrix provides a paid version of XenServer that includes support and maintenance
  • New CPU socket licensing
  • New simplified packaging and pricing

via XenServer 6.2 is now fully open source! | Citrix Blogs.

Open vSwitch

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Open vSwitch is a production quality, multilayer virtual switch licensed under the open source Apache 2.0 license. It is designed to enable massive network automation through programmatic extension, while still supporting standard management interfaces and protocols (e.g. NetFlow, sFlow, SPAN, RSPAN, CLI, LACP, 802.1ag). In addition, it is designed to support distribution across multiple physical servers similar to VMware’s vNetwork distributed vswitch or Cisco’s Nexus 1000V. See the full feature list here

via Open vSwitch.

Xen to Become Linux Foundation Collaborative Project

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The Xen Project is an open source virtualization platform licensed under the GPLv2 with a similar governance structure to the Linux kernel. Designed from the start for cloud computing, the project has more than a decade of development and is being used by more than 10 million users. As the project experiences contributions from an increasingly diverse group of companies, it is looking to The Linux Foundation to be a neutral forum for providing guidance and facilitating a collaborative network.

via Xen to Become Linux Foundation Collaborative Project | The Linux Foundation.

WindowsAndroid goes above and beyond Bluestacks, lets you run Android 4.0 natively on your PC

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To get an early release of WindowsAndroid, you first have to fill out the download form (make sure to provide a valid email address) and grab the hefty 64.8MB installer via the download link you receive in your inbox. WindowsAndroid takes up about 300MB and comes with a cute Android robot icon. Firing it up presents you with a command prompt that loads all the components and then this familiar screen:

via WindowsAndroid goes above and beyond Bluestacks, lets you run Android 4.0 natively on your PC – The Next Web.

APAC’s Telcos Take SDN for a Spin

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NTT Com says its infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) offering, called Enterprise Cloud, launched in June, utilized the OpenFlow SDN protocol that enables remote controllers to modify the behaviour of network devices and was the world’s first to use network virtualization technology.

Developed using OpenFlow-enabled devices from NEC Corp., it enables users to add and control virtual appliances such as firewalls and load balancers to their networks as and when they need them, according to the operator.

via APAC’s Telcos Take SDN for a Spin – 4G/LTE – Telecom News Analysis – Light Reading Service Provider IT.

Building Amazon cloud apps that span the world is now much easier

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Despite being in “the cloud,” Amazon Web Services has always required developers to know what they’re doing. Customers still have to manage a lot of the infrastructure even though they’re not monitoring physical servers and storage. But that doesn’t mean everything has to be a hassle, so Amazon simplifying something as important as disaster recovery is a big step in the right direction.

via Building Amazon cloud apps that span the world is now much easier | Ars Technica.

VMware realizes it doesn’t rule the cloud, boosts support for Amazon

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VMware has long had an aversion to supporting virtualization tools other than its own, even as rivals like Microsoft and Citrix happily built management software that could control the deployment of virtual machines using both their own hypervisors and VMware’s. VMware always had a plausible excuse in that its own vSphere virtualization platform was so widely used that supporting anything else was unnecessary—although Hyper-V’s advances are making that argument less convincing.

via VMware realizes it doesn’t rule the cloud, boosts support for Amazon | Ars Technica.

Sandia builds self-contained, Android-based network to study cyber disruptions and help secure hand-held devices

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Sandia cyber researchers linked together 300,000 virtual hand-held computing devices running the Android operating system so they can study large networks of smartphones and find ways to make them more reliable and secure. Android dominates the smartphone industry and runs on a range of computing gadgets.

via Sandia National Laboratories: News Releases : Sandia builds self-contained, Android-based network to study cyber disruptions and help secure hand-held devices.