Topics relating to Virtualization will be listed here. For the moment, some vaguely relevant 'topical items' are below.
- 04.07.2017: Proxmox 5 Released: Whoo Hoo! A new Release for the ProxVE platform. Based on Debian "Stretch" 9 under the hood. For all the details check out, https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Roadmap . Note that cluster support is now simpler than ever out-of-the-box. Live migration / storage migration / the feature set is getting almost silly it is so good. Except that is not silly.
- 05.10.2015: Proxmox 4 Released: Huzzah, a new Release for the ProxVE platform. Based on Debian "Jessie" 8.2 under the hood. For all the details check out, https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Roadmap
- 24.05.2013: Proxmox 3 Released: Woot, New Release for the ProxVE platform. Based on Debian "Wheezy" 7 under the hood. For all the details check out, http://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Proxmox_VE_News
- Oct-2012: Citrix XenServer 6.1 Released: This is an incremental release for free platform users; with a variety of new features for non-free editions. (Live migration on non-shared storage, anyone?). (Cheapest non-free edition is $1000 USD per box). For all the details check out, http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX134582
- April-2012: Proxmox 2.1 Released: This is an incremental (bugfix mainly) release on the new 2.0 series ProxVE platform. For all the details check out, http://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Proxmox_VE_News#Proxmox_VE_2.1_release.21
- March-2012: Proxmox 2.0 Final is Released: The much anticipated (new user interface, major feature enhancements) new version of Proxmox is out the gate. Get yours today! For more details, take a look at: http://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Proxmox_VE_News#Proxmox_VE_2.0_final_release.21
- March-2012: XenServer 6.0 Released: The latest version of Citrix Xenserver. More features; less filling. What more could you ask for? Check out the features and release notes at: http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX130418/#newfeatures
- Aug-2011: VMWare VSphere 5.0 Released: The next step in VMWare's 'embedded hypervisor' core platform. Release notes at: http://www.vmware.com/support/vsphere5/doc/vsphere-esx-vcenter-server-50-release-notes.html
- Jan-2010: ProxVE 1.5 released: The next step for ProxVE: Consolidation of improvements introduced with version 1.4 around the new 'storage model' (including AoE, DRBD, SCST updates); support for 3 different kernel builds depending on your preference-requirements (OpenVZ; KVM; or Both); various and sundry patches, updates to core platform versions (KVM, Kernel, etc). Long and short, if that was (way?!) too technical - this great free virtualization platform keeps getting better with regular incremental releases. What are you waiting for - try it out today! :-) Check this link for details on this release: http://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Roadmap#Proxmox_VE_1.5
- Nov-2009: ProxVE 1.4 non-beta released: Full production capable ProxVE version 1.4 is released, of particular interest due to new storage support for KVM based VMS (DRBD, iSCSI, NFS, etc) as per discussion below.
- Sept-11-2009: ProxmoxVE 1.4Beta released: The latest big development in this 100% free and open source virtualization platform, features a few new prominent additions: (a) support for different backing storage types (iSCSI, NFS, multiple local devices) for virtual hosts, (b) support for DRDB based synchronization of data stores for VMs, (c) support for live migration of VMs which reside on appropriate 'shared or synchronized' storage (NFS, iSCSI or DRDB). In particular, DRDB support means that SAN-like live-migration features are available for 'small' deployment scenarios without the requirement for a shared storage device (Fibre SAN, iSCSI, or NFS). Note this is still in beta, but it represents a major step forward for ProxVE. For more details you can review the announcement here.
- June-16-2009 XenServer 5.5 Released: The latest release of Citrix XenServer is out, and it adds a number of new features which further enhance the value of the product. (Sparse virtual disk image files on all storage types including iSCSI being one feature of significant interest). For more info take a look at the press release, or visit the XenServer homepage.
- June-4-2009 ProxMox VE 1.3 Released: The latest release of this free open source virtualization platform - provides incremental improvements in features; some bug fixes and better support for more hardware (raid controllers, etc); plus an updated version of KVM (release KVM-86). Take a look here for more details.
- May-21-2009: Vsphere 4.0 released by VMware: Much anticipated (?), this is the latest and greatest from VMWare, effectively a revised edition of ESX 3.5 at the core / with various and sundry new features. Based on a 64-bit kernel (Unlike 32-bit ESX 3.5) for better support on larger memory systems. No change to license model...
- May-13-2009: Oracle to buy VirtualIron: Well, this is interesting. Now that oracle is well underway in digesting Sun, it has now gone and bought up VirtualIron. Full details / Press Release available here: http://www.oracle.com/us/corporate/press/018535. I would guess the virtualization offering from Oracle will become VI. It will be interesting to see if they change the business model / price structure at all, and if they keep the VirtualIron brand; or just absorb it into "Oracle Virtualization". Quite likely it will become part of a 'total platform offering' for oracle technologies and services. Buy your hardware (Sun X86); Virtualization (VI); Database and App server all from a one-stop-shop. Would you like platinum service bundled with that? :-)
- Mar-2009 - Citrix XenServer 5.0 goes "Free": Unless you have been asleep this past week, you already know this great news. The 'real' impact of this,
- Live Migration and Centralized management features - are now part of the free offering
- This makes a huge change to the price model for this product, making it much more attractive than before...
- Given it is 'functionally identical' to VMWare ESX 3.5 in operation and management, it is a great choice for SMB environments (especially those primarily using windows servers) looking to get into virtualization, without the high entry costs for licensing.
- Clearly, Citrix still wants you to buy a support contract on the product, but this is not required... so it is great news. We'll see how things stand in 6 months.
- For more details and suchlike, maybe you want to take a look at, http://www.citrix.com/English/ps2/products/feature.asp?contentID=1686939
- Nov-2008 - ProxMox VE 1.0 released: This is an amazing open-source virtualization 'appliance' which has been of great interest to me since ... early this year. They now have an offical 1.0 (production ready) release. Particularly interesting features to note include,
- Open Source / Free virtualization platform
- 'dual mode' virtualization platform:
- - OpenVZ for lightweight linux "container style" virtualization
- - KVM (Kernel Virtualization Module) - for full virtualization (ie, windows virtual hosts)
- Web based management interface
- Supports "Cluster" operation and Live Migrations, etc
- Did I mention, it is free ? :-)
- Sept-2008 - Citrix-Xen 5.0 Released: Citrix-XenSource folks have released the new-improved Xen commercial offering, with a slate of new features. I haven't installed it yet to test it out (have the downloads done, will test it soon). It seems the basic model remains more-or-less unchanged, ie,
- be more-or-less like VMware in mode of use, management (light hypervisor on virtualization nodes; user-friendly management tool runs on your windows desktop to manage the virtualization nodes / virtual machines)
- be more aggressive on pricing than VMWare, but not quite as much as Virtual-Iron. Licenses are per-host and not per-socket, but still there is a 'major jump' to go from standard edition (~$800/host) up to enterprise edition ($~$2600/host) - and what you get primarily with this version jump is support for live-migration and iSCSI, I believe.
- The free (XenExpress) offering is now much less of a 'lame duck' than it used to be in version 4.4; presumably this reflects the fairly-recent move by VMWare with ESXi and the goal to have a 'fairly usable loss-leader freebie' to get installed instances out there, with the hope that people will pay for the non-free features once they are hooked / have grown out their infrastructure a bit.
- Aug-2008 Virtual Iron 4.4 Released: The latest update to Virtual Iron was released in early Aug/08, which a number of interesting features being added,
- the biggie (IMHO) is "LivePower" - facilitates 'self management' by a virtualization cluster to power off over-capacity hardware during off-peak periods, by LiveMigrating / Consolidating virtual machines onto fewer nodes, and powering down the extra hardware. Cut your power and cooling - hard to argue with that.
- better support for trunking / failover iSCSI
- some driver updates, tweaks to management user interface
- Aug-12-2008 - Bad day for VMWare: a 'license time-bomb' bug got out in the production release of ESXi3.5 which leads to virtual hosts not powering on after this date / following power-off or vmotion migration. Oops.
- July-2008 - ESXi 3.5 from VMware is free: In what I suspect is a 'loss leader' move to help 'head off at the pass' any exodus to Hyper-V by virtualization-first-timers, VMWare is now giving away this 'entry level virtualization solution', which is effectively their core product with various features disabled (which can of course be enabled if you choose to buy appropriate licenses)