Blog: Pete Loshin

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Open Source and Virtualization, A Perfect Match?

Novell seems to think so. They just announced support for Virtual Iron's virtualization platform (see Novell to Support Virtual Iron Data Center Virtualization and Management Platform).

According to Novell's press release:

Novell and Virtual Iron Software today announced that Novell's SUSE(r) Linux Enterprise Server 9 now supports Virtual Iron's data center virtualization and management platform. Novell is shipping a pre-configured kernel with SUSE Linux Enterprise Server to allow businesses to leverage the Virtual Iron technology for rapid deployment and configuration of enterprise-class computing workloads in the data center.

Virtualization, simply, is multiple instances of virtual machines running under a single OS on a single hardware platform. You only need to buy and maintain a single computer and OS, which you can then use as if you've got a whole bunch of separate computers. Sort of like if you could subdivide a 200 horsepower car that seats five into five separate 40-horsepower vehicles capable of carrying a single passenger each (and if one gets a flat tire, the others still work fine).

But you don't need Novell's higher-end SUSE Enterprise Server to run virtual machines on your PC: just install SUSE Linux 10.0 (the "personal" Linux solution from Novell) and you get Xen virtualization support.

Much of the activity in the open source virtualization world has followed the success of VMware, the long-established leader in virtualization and now an EMC-owned company.

I'll be writing at greater length and detail about virtualization next month on the main website, so stay tuned for more!

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