This is the first in a series of posts outlining the feature, methods and ideas surrounding the tool: Ubuntu-VM-Builder.

Ubuntu-VM-Builder

Caution, security warning:
These are default settings for a new virtual machine, you will want to change them immediately or better idea would be to set them during build, for more information keep reading after the break.
Default fullname: Ubuntu
Default username: ubuntu
Default password: ubuntu

Here is some quick information on what Ubuntu-VM-builder is:

ubuntu-vm-builder provides a method to quickly create a clean testing environment, a way to automate the virtual machine installation process, and for software developers, the ability to integrate the creation of a virtual machine into the build process of an application. If using a local mirror the virtual machine creation process can take less than two minutes from start to finish. (source)

Step 1. To install Ubuntu-VM-Builder on your linux workstation, requires 8.04 or greater

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-vm-builder

ubuntu-vm-builder Depends on:
Depends: debootstrap
Depends: kpartx
Depends: parted
Depends: qemu

These will automatically be installed by apt-get during the installation, no other installation is required.

Step 2. To build a virtual machine, first move into the directory where you will want the vm folder to be created
mkdir ~/virtual-machines
cd ~/virtual-machines

Step 3. Run Ubuntu-vm-builder, with the required flags and options
sudo ubuntu-vm-builder kvm hardy

For more flags, options and some examples keep reading.
Read more »

Open VMware Tools, Installation Instructions Step by Step

What are VMware Tools?

They are a collection of software and drivers which enhance and improve the virtualization experience for the guest operating system. They include shared folders, heartbeat drivers, enhanced network drivers, and mouse and video drivers to allow seemless migration between guest and console operating systems.

Where can I get VMware tools?

Currently there are 2 sources, the first source is with VMware workstation or VMware Server Products (including VMware Server and VMware ESX). If you are running VMware player the expectation is that you are only going to be using prebuilt Virtual Machines which have the tools previously loaded.

What are Open VMware Tools (open-vm-tools)?

The Open Virtual Machine Tools (open-vm-tools) are the open source implementation of VMware Tools. They are a set of guest operating system virtualization components that enhance performance and user experience of virtual machines. As virtualization technology rapidly becomes mainstream, each virtualization solution provider implements their own set of tools and utilities to supplement the guest virtual machine. However, most of the implementations are proprietary and are tied to a specific virtualization platform. (About Open-VM-Tools)

Where can I get Open-VM-Tools?

The open tools are available currently in the source format only currently. For a limited time they where available as part of the Ubuntu repository, but due to their alpha stages they have been removed. More info about the removal can be found here at launchpad bug # 217254 To dowload a copy of the source files or learn more about the project visit the open-vm-tools sourceforge page.

Keep reading to see step by step installation instructions
Read more »

Virtualization is starting to make it into the main stream media, slowly. We are seeing it on gaming systems, in the newspaper and now in comic strips.

All comics have been reduced in size, click on them to see them in their original format

These are a few of the comics including Virtualization I have came across recently.

This comic (above) has been released under:

More comics after the break, including xkcd, comic and Virtualman
Read more »

First, lets start off by breaking this FAQ down into 2 branches, desktop and enterprise. This is because what do you in a Virtual Machine which may run for 20 minutes a week is very different then a 24/7 system.

Software Evaluation / Desktop Virtualization:

Should you run Antivirus software?
Short answer Always. Long answer is this: evaluate the risk, the potential loss, and loss of performance to decide if it is worthwhile. If you are using a virtual machine to test software or websites where the VM is only powered on for a few minutes a day then it is probably ok to avoid the uneeded overhead. If you are running the VM as the development environment, where you are connected to the physical network and visiting websites then you may want to consider running antivirus software.

Which anti virus software should I run?
There are many out there, but any of the big three: mcafee, nortons, avast would be acceptable. For windows XP or Vista systems you can’t go wrong with grisofts free offering.

What if I’m not running Windows, ie running Linux or Solaris?
Ask yourself this, what are you really trying to protect? There are very few viruses out there for linux and solaris at this point. If you have been good about only using highly trusted repositories for your software then you should be safe. Generally it seems safe to say the biggest problem a linux system will encouter is the actual user deleting the wrong file, not a virus.

Here is a list of solaris antivirus options
Here is a list of Linux antivirus software packages
Here is a directions for installing antivirus on ubuntu
Here is an article “Note to new Linux users: No antivirus needed” from linux.com

Enterprise level virus scanning

What anti virus should I run on my corporate server?
There are a few well known quality enterprise grade antivirus options. But they are almost all for windows server in a windows environment. If you are running a linux backend, then what you really need is just enough protect to prevent the spread of viruses onto the windows portion of the network, as it is unlikely that any linux product will be as effective as a secure linux system with a properly configured firewall and security levels.

Check out this breakdown for a good starting direction Antivirus Tools Underperform When Tested in LinuxWorld ‘Fight Club’

Symantec AntiVirus Corporate Edition
They do support linux clients, here is the info from their website:
Linux Client

Symantec AntiVirus supports installation on the following Linux distributions:

* Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3.x, 4.x, 5.x
* SUSE Linux Enterprise (server/desktop) 9.x, 10.x
* Novell Open Enterprise Server
* VMware EX 2.5.x, 3.x

Note: Symantec AntiVirus Linux clients are unmanaged clients. You cannot use the Symantec management components, such as Symantec System Center, to centrally manage Symantec AntiVirus Linux clients.

What premade Virtual Machines are available for Antivirus tasks?
Check out this page from Trend Micro USA - Virtualization. They offer a variety of solutions for the enterprise customer, ranging from spam protection to full virus scanning. Their virtual machines are available for VMware workstation 5.x, 6.x, VMware Server 1.x, VMware ESX 3.x.
Also search the VMware Appliance Marketplace for antivirus, there are a few helpful premade machines there.

A few general articles about Virtual Machine performance related to antivirus:
virtualization.info: How to improve disk I/O performances with VMware Workstation
virtualization.info: Security by virtualization
The Core Dump of Thought: Anti-virus, virtualization and security paradigm
rentzsch.com: Virtualization as an Antivirus
anti-virus rants: what virtualization can and cannot do in an anti-malware context

Have you been following the news surround Ubuntu release of JeOS? Want to try it out, but not sure where to start? Build an Apt-proxy, quick simple and very helpful.

The power behind JeOS, Just Enough Operating System, is that you only get the minimal packages you need to get the job done. Current versions of JeOS, 7.10 and 8.04 are both designed to work on the VMware Server and VMware ESX platform. For help setting up VMware server on Gutsy Gibbon check out this step by step guide, part 1 (Gutsy Server Install) and part 2 (VMware Server Install).

Once you have VMware server setup and running you are ready to build your first virtual machine. There are a ton of great guides out there for all aspects of this process, but since we are working with JeOS, you need to take a few precautions that normally you could skip.

Currently Hardy JeOS doesn’t include (or I couldn’t get it to work) SCSI drivers, so you need to use an IDE drive when you make your virtual machine.

If you need more detailed instructions on how to setup the virtual machine, I’m going to refer you to this article, published by linux-mag.com, Their article “How to Develop Virtual Appliances Using Ubuntu JeOS | Linux Magazine“. Note: this article refers to JeOS 7.10, which is close enough to 8.04 at this level.

Read more »

Ubuntu comes in 3 main sizes, Large, Small, and tiny to meet different needs.

Complete description of each version after the break.
Read more »

Sun Microsystems, NASDAQ: JAVA is on a shopping Spree

Just recently it was announced that Sun would be investing over a Billion dollars in mysql, as reported in x86Virtualization post: “Brighter Days for MySQL, The Sun Rises Over MySQL“, now less a few weeks later Sun has struck again, and is purchasing Innotek the makers of the very popular Virtualization product: “Virtualbox“.

x86Virtualization reported on Virtualbox back on April 20, 2007 with the post “VirtualBox, Everything You Need To Know“, I’m happy to announce, under recent testing the mouse issue has been resolved in Windows 3.11 (yeah not a big deal for most people, but I like 3.11 for testing virtualization products.)

If you are curious about what else Sun has purchased in the past check out their complete (but not up to date) history: Sun Facts - Acquisitions History

Related How To’s:
VirtualBox, Everything You Need To Know
klikit wiki / How to install Windows in VirtualBox

Parallels has agreed in honor of the 1st birthday of x86Virtualization to offer a Free $15.00 iTunes gift card to anyone who purchases Parallels Desktop for the Mac between now and December 27th. If you are looking for Parallels Workstation, they are going to throw in a free copy of Compressor Workstation with every purchase of workstation. Visit Parallels for these Special Exclusive Offers from x86Virtualization.com

This has been a big year, 1 year ago today the domain was registered and a simple blog with big dreams was setup. It like all great things started out slowly, and has gained a considerable momentum ever since. The site has taken off slowly, with some great milestones, including the 200 Feedburner subscribers and 1000 visitors in a single day.

There are a few companies I would like to thank for making this all possible, in no particular order:
Wordpress.org, for building the best opensource blog platform. Site: http://www.wordpress.org/
Godaddy.com, for providing rock solid hosting and support for x86. Site: http://www.GoDaddy.com/

Google.com, for providing a ton of a quality traffic and visitors, Site: http://www.Google.com/

These are few services, which are free or almost free which I have used over the past year:
Stumbleupon, great way to get people to see new posts Site: http://www.StumbleUpon.com/
MyBlogLog, easy way to build up a community around x86, Site: http://www.mybloglog.com/ (Note: Bought by Yahoo)
Feedburner, easiest way of keeping track of feed readers, Site: http://www.feedburner.com/ (Note: Bought by Google)
Google Analytics, quick simple site visitor tracking, Site: http://www.google.com/analytics/

These are a few services which have made this blog monetarily worthwhile:
Google Adsense, Commission Junction, Text Link Ads, Review Me, Linkshare, Regnow.com

Here are a Few figures from the past year:

Akismet has protected your site from 42,349 spam comments.

Good News!!

x86Virtualization is updating our download pages and software pages during the next few weeks. We are looking for suggestions for more packages to add to these pages. If you have come across a product your use on a regular basis, a product your love and can’t live without or even a product your company produces feel free to plug your product in a comment on this post or either of the pages and we will do a full in depth writeup and post about it, to the best of our abilities and hardware limitations.

Information we need is:

Company Name
Company URL
Company Logo URL (with permission to modify to match our listing style)
Product Name
Download URL
Product Description
Pricing (any bonus codes for x86Virtualization Readers would be awesome)

To View the Current Download Pages Click Here
To View the Current Software Pages Click Here

Next Month: We will be reviewing hardware, so if anyone has equipment they would like reviewed please post a comment with a way that someone can get in touch with you regarding the arrangement for shipping the hardware. The comments are private, so nothing will be released to the public for privacy reasons.

Thanks,
x86 Virtualization.com

Microsoft has announced the official name,for the software formerly know as Microsoft Virtualization Server. The new name is… drum roll please:

Hyper-V. This is the official name of the server virtualization technology within Windows Server 2008 that was previously code-named “Viridian.” Microsoft also announced Hyper-V Server, a standalone hypervisor-based server virtualization product that complements the Hyper-V technology in Windows Server 2008 and allows customers to virtualize workloads onto a single physical server.

Microsoft Hyper-V Server

“Microsoft Hyper-V Server, a hypervisor-based server virtualization product, complements the Hyper-V technology within Windows Server 2008, allowing customers to consolidate workloads onto a single physical server. In addition, Microsoft Hyper-V Server will increase original equipment manufacturer (OEM) partners’ ability to offer customers simplified, reliable and cost-effective virtualization solutions that can easily plug in to their existing infrastructure. Partners including Dell Inc., Fujitsu Siemens Computers, Fujitsu Ltd., Hitachi Ltd., HP, IBM Corp., Lenovo, NEC Corp. and Unisys are already committed to working with Microsoft to offer solutions based on Microsoft Hyper-V Server once it is available. The estimated manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP) for Microsoft Hyper-V Server is $28 (U.S.).”

x86Virtualization.com Thoughts: Why $28? just make it FREE Microsoft. Haven’t you noticed the trend in Virtualization, Free and Open Source is taking the lead over pricey closed products. Also what is with the name? Really had to work hard for that one? One of the top result on google for “hyper-v” is a pair of shoes in Japan. These shoes, which retail for $29.50USD are just slightly more expensive then Hyper-V from Microsoft. the original name was pretty long, but why not WVS? Anyway, thanks for finally finalizing the product line up for Windows 2008 Server.

News Source:
Microsoft Outlines Pricing, Packaging and Licensing for Windows Server 2008, Including the New Microsoft Hyper-V Server Product: Microsoft Hyper-V Server gives customers a new server virtualization option that can provide simplified, reliable and cost-effective virtualization solutions which can be easily plugged into existing infrastructure.

Other Sources:
US ISV Developer Evangelism Team : WSV renamed Microsoft Hyper-V Server
Microsoft Details Windows Server 2008

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