Citrix Adds More Beef to Its Virtualization Menu

Citrix Adds More Beef to its Virtualization Menu Citrix Delivers Essentials for Your Hyper-V Datacenter Just for the Record XenServer 5.5: Enterprise Ready Hypervisors: Not Just for Servers Anymore Everyday Virtualization Pure Performance: XenServer Roars Off the Line Something for Nothing: Citrix Gives Away XenServer

SPONSORED BY Project6 7/14/09 1:10 PM Page 1 LUNCH BREAK SERIES Lunch Break By Danielle Ruest and Nelson Ruest SERIES

Citrix Delivers Essentials for Your Hyper-V Datacenter Although expensive, this package greatly enhances the functionality and usability of an enterprise Hyper-V environment.

lready competitive, the work with any given feature. Turn- Turning Essentials server virtualization mar- ing to documentation for help can be ket has become even more a problem if you don’t have a PDF into a virtual A so since XenServer vendor reader. You’ll have to install one first, appliance would Citrix joined forces with software since Citrix only provides the docu- heavyweight Microsoft to deliver mentation in PDF format—not a best help streamline advanced virtualization management practice by any means. installation. for enterprise datacenters. Even more surprising, Citrix hasn’t The result is Citrix Essentials, an made Essentials available as a virtual CEHV provides three core func- add-on management tool available hard disk (VHD) or a VM in Open tions for Hyper-V resource pool man- in two versions: Citrix Essentials for Virtualization Format (OVF). This is agement that aren’t available through XenServer (CEXS) and Citrix Es- striking since Citrix created Project any other tool in Microsoft virtualiza- sentials for Hyper-V (CEHV). For an Kensho for OVF Files. Kensho is a tion infrastructure deployments. at-a-glance look at the features avail- free tool for converting OVF VMs n Advanced StorageLink able in each of two CEXS and CEHV to Hyper-V and XenServer formats. Technology enables rapid provision- editions, see Table 1. For this review, Turning Essentials into a virtual appli- ing of VMs using high-speed copying we evaluated the CEHV versions. ance would help streamline instal- capabilities native to your storage area The CEHV editions require lation. Microsoft and several other network (SAN). StorageLink connects Microsoft’s System Center Virtual organizations offer VHDs for some to your storage arrays, leveraging the Machine Manager 2008 (SCVMM). of their more complex products, and SAN’s snapshot and cloning capabili- SCVMM provides support for the Citrix should have followed suit here. ties to generate VMs from existing Windows PowerShell scripts used to provision commands you generate Table 1 Citrix Essentials Features by Version and Edition through Essentials components. Note Product Feature Essentials for XenServer Essentials for Hyper-V

that the XenServer editions offer more Enterprise Platinum Enterprise Platinum functionality, including the ability to Edition Edition Edition Edition provision host servers as well as virtual StorageLink Management n n n n

machines (VM), than their Hyper-V Workflow Studio Orchestration n n n n counterparts. This explains some of Multi-Hypervisor Interoperability n n n n the pricing differential between the two versions. Microsoft Management Support n n Installation, via Windows Installer Automated Lab Management n n files, isn’t difficult—once you figure out High Availability Support n n where to start. Citrix doesn’t specify which product to install first or say Price per Physical Server $2,500 $5,000 $1,500 $3,000 which components are required to

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templates stored on a logical unit The ability to decrease VM disk footprints number (LUN). Note that SCVMM includes the ability to do this, too, while providing fully functional environ- but StorageLink enhances this feature ments to massive numbers of users by creating direct connections and makes this tool worth its weight in gold. leveraging the SAN’s thin provisioning capabilities. n Dynamic Provisioning This can be a major problem since when running server and desktop Services (DPS) use provisioning developers often take shortcuts. For virtualization. DPS’ ability to decrease server farms to pre-populate VMs example, they might use an Adminis- VM disk footprints while providing based on a single-source VHD file trator account to perform every task, fully-functional environments to mas- and differentials. Using differentials, even end user testing. This could result sive numbers of users makes this tool DPS can generate hundreds, even in deployed software not working as worth its weight in gold. thousands, of VMs, with these tak- expected when users access it with And gold is what you’ll need to ing up only a fraction of the space limited rights. But with LabManager, obtain and run CEHV. At a base price of normal VMs. VMs are stored in a organizations can generate custom of $1,500 per server for the Enterprise vDisk (in VHD format) on a central environments based on corporate Edition and $3,000 per server for storage container. The contents of the standards. Users then can use these the Platinum Edition, it is an expen- vDisk are streamed for processing on templates to request and generate sive product to introduce into your the endpoints. Because the contents their own complete testing environ- datacenter—and this doesn’t include originate from a central vDisk, end- ments. Those requests move through the expense of SCVMM, needed for points need only RAM, as opposed a workflow that requires proper CEHV. However, we cannot imagine to a local disk drive, to run the image. authorizations before the users can organizations running Hyper-V with- Moreover, DPS can stream desktop proceed. This tool is a must for any out this fundamental tool. and server VMs. Both CHEV editions organization that performs a lot of require the use of a central SQL Server internal development and wants to use Danielle Ruest and Nelson Ruest are IT database to store end user and provi- Hyper-V as its virtualization platform; professionals focused on technology futures. sioning data. only VMware’s vCenter Lab Manager Both are passionate about virtualization n Automated Lab Management provides comparable functionality. It and continuous service availability. They relies on Citrix LabManager to pro- is also useful for new technology tests have authored multiple books, including vide end user self-service for labora- and infrastructure component staging. Virtualization, A Beginner’s Guide and tory provisioning. This improves upon Overall, these three key CEHV Windows Server 2008: The Com- the functionality available through components add a lot of value to plete Reference, both for McGraw-Hill SCVMM’s self-service portal, which datacenters relying on Hyper-V. Lab- Osborne, and the MCITP Self-Paced allows a user to create and manage Manager is much like its competitor Training Kit (Exam 70-238): Deploy- only one machine at a time. This from VMware, but it offers the added ing Messaging Solutions with Micro- means that when users need a complex advantage of supporting Hyper-V. soft® Exchange Server 2007 and Exam environment, such as one featuring Ac- StorageLink is a powerful tool that 70-652: Configuring Windows Server tive Directory domain controllers as leverages SAN features in support of Virtualization with Hyper-V for MS well as SQL, Exchange and SharePoint machine virtualization. But the best Press. Feel free to contact them at infos@ servers, you must either pre-build it or part of CEHV is DPS. Administra- reso-net.com with any comments let them build it themselves. tors are sure to find this tool a boon or suggestions.

2 2009 Citrix Lunch Break Series LUNCH BREAK SERIES Lunch Break BY ANNE STUART SERIE S

Just for the Record A fast-growing medical practice chooses a virtual desktop infrastructure to support a mandated move into digital record-keeping.

ichael Love can sum up the reasons behind his organization’s move to M a virtual desktop infrastructure in one three-letter acronym: EMR. “Everything was driven by us going to electronic medical records,” says Love, who is assistant director of information technology at the Jack- sonville, Fla.-based Borland-Groover Clinic, which specializes in digestive and liver disorders. The fast-growing medical practice operates in about 15 locations ranging from Jacksonville, located in the state’s northeast corner, to Delray Beach, nearly 300 miles down the East Coast. The medical chain had been running on Citrix Presentation Server 4 for Windows 2000 (later renamed Citrix XenApp) for several years, which, Love says, “was working fine for us.” Then came the industry-wide move toward EMR—that is, patient records maintained digitally rather than on paper, which proponents say can cut burden of EMR—or of some key environment, which was really scary,” costs while improving care (see “EMR software products. For example: “We Love acknowledges (currently, the Primer,” page XX). For the Borland- use QuickBooks,” says Love, referring clinic’s network is about 80 percent Groover clinic, the EMR drumbeat to Intuit Inc.’s business-accounting thin clients). Ultimately, though, the had become too insistent to ignore by software. “The newest version was 9. demands of moving to an EMR envi- mid-2008: “The CFO and our other We were on 6. We couldn’t upgrade ronment prompted them to consider a executives finally said, ‘We have to do because 9 wouldn’t run on Windows virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI). something to get there,’” Love recalls. 2000.” The Borland-Groover IT team The problem: By that time, Micro- The clinic’s IT team considered a quickly narrowed its focus to Citrix soft no longer supported Windows variety of options for its fast-growing, XenDesktop. By this time, the EMR 2000. Adding salt to the wound, that widely scattered employee base. “We drumbeat was so strong that the IT older OS couldn’t handle the extra even looked at going to an all fat-client team began pushing out the solution

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almost overnight, beginning in January “The perception was that VDI was the 2009. “We had a ridiculously short testing period,” Love recalls. “We magic bullet—it was going to fix tested just within the IT group for less everything. Even in IT, that was than a week. Then there were maybe kind of the view.” 12 to 15 users in a pilot group. They —Michael Love, Assistant Director of IT, Borland-Groover Clinic were on it for perhaps a week.” While those initial tests were far shorter than the IT team would have liked, they did uncover one big problem: unrealistic user expectations. “Infrastructure-wise, everything VDI rather than on the application. “The perception was that VDI was worked well. We weren’t really stress- “Or people would be running Firefox the magic bullet—it was going to fix ing the servers at all,” Love says. “Most with 28 or 30 tabs open,” Love sighs. everything,” Love says. “Even in IT, of the issues were with XP,” or with “I don’t care what you’re running—do- that was kind of the view.” other applications. One example: The ing that is going to slow the machine That perception exacerbated a group was running a version of Adobe down.” second issue: complaints about issues that had a buggy auto-update feature; The team also upgraded most that weren’t directly related to VDI. users tended to blame the bugs on the employees from Office 2000 to Office 2007, necessitating a small learning EMR Primer [or: EMR 101] curve for some users. “Sometimes people say ‘VDI stinks’ when what the he term “electronic medical records” refers to patient data that’s really mean is ‘I don’t like something maintained in a digital format rather than on paper. in the new [version of] Office,” Love T It’s not exactly a new idea. Efforts to digitize patient data date says. back to the mid-1960s, and hospitals and medical practices have used Another issue: Initially, the team some computerized records—such as lab and radiology reports--for wasn’t running an anti-virus solution years. But many health-care experts now promote a full transition to on its desktops. “You really need EMR, arguing that all-digital records will greatly improve efficiency while anti-virus [protection] in that environ- cutting costs and reducing the potential for medical mistakes. ment,” Love says. “You could still However, EMR adoption has been slow. According to an April 2009 have a worm infection. It won’t affect report in The New England Journal of Medicine, only 1.5 percent of 3,000 the machine permanently”—but the U.S. hospitals surveyed had comprehensive electronic-records systems malware can remain active until the (meaning EMR is used in all clinical units). An additional 7.6 have a basic user logs off. EMR system (meaning that the technology is used in at least one clini- However, when the team installed cal unit). In July 2008, another NEMJ study reported that, of more than an AV solution for the virtual desk- 2,700 U.S. physicians surveyed, only about 17 percent used EMRs at all, tops, new problems erupted: Full- and only 4 percent had “extensive, fully functional” systems. system scans generated too much Common barriers to EMR adoption include: purchase and maintenance traffic for the provisioning servers to costs, physician resistance, unclear ROI and lack of appropriate IT sup- handle. “Machines were crashing or port. Other concerns involve security, privacy, reliability, regulatory compli- running slowly, or people couldn’t log ance—and what should happen to millions of older paper records. on,” Love says. The team resolved the The issue has gone all the way to the White House: President Obama issues with “some tweaking,” he says, has called for having all medical records computerized by 2014. In addi- but adds that it’s another issue that tion, his administration’s economic-recovery act includes $19 billion to might have been resolved with more promote the use of computerized records--including financial incentives for pre-deployment testing. providers who deploy certifiedE MR systems, beginning in 2011. —A.S. At this writing, about half the company’s 400 or so employees have been

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moved over to VDI, with those who About half the company’s 400 employees work directly with patients—that is, those most likely to use EMRs--being have moved over to the new system, equipped first. “We’re all involved with with those who work directly with patients to some degree, but a person who checks in patients at the front patients—that is, those most likely to desk needs this more than someone use electronic medical records—being in the billing office,” Love says. It’s also running on thin clients in more equipped first. than 100 exam rooms throughout the organization. The EMR implementation itself check their e-mail or browse the Web. [the technology] for at least a month, is moving more slowly, with only a “Now we’re saying, ‘You have to use followed by a pilot of external users, dozen of the practice’s 60 physicians the computer in your daily job, and we could have found a lot of those is- currently using electronic records, you have to use it front of patients’,” sues early on.” Not surprisingly, his top and five more scheduled to join them Love says. “That’s a big transition.” recommendation for others consider- in the coming months. The slug- But, he adds, it’s also an inevitable ing similar deployments involves doing gish migration is due largely to the one: “Eventually, we will all be using as much testing as possible up front. challenges involved in requiring busy electronic medical records.” “There’s more to the technology than physicians to change long-established A typical VDI-supported office visit people realize,” he says. “Get your work practices. Many view computers begins with a nurse taking a patient to complete infrastructure in place first. as machines they use only at home to an exam room that’s equipped with a That alone would have saved us so thin client. “There’s a generic log-in to many headaches.” At a Glance the thin client, and it’s XenDesktop at Ultimately, though, the move has that point,” Love explains. The nurse been a positive one. “Most people—if Borland-Groover Clinic then opens the electronic record and we’ve done a proper job of training Based: Jacksonville, Fla. types in or updates the patient’s in- them—love it,” he says of the new (www.bgclinic.com) formation. When finished, the nurse system. “It’s much quicker. It’s not the Formed: 1995; practice roots does what Love calls “a soft log-out,” same as having a fat client sitting in date to 1940s meaning that the physician—who typi- front of you, but it’s pretty darn close.” Locations: About 15 offices in cally arrives a few minutes later—can Despite the occasional headaches, northern and eastern Florida quickly log right back on with a badge Love himself is among the fans: “Once Specialties: Gastroenterology swipe. “This allows the physician to you get into it, you realize that it’s not (digestive) and hepatology (liver) pick right up where the nurse left off,” quite as cut-and-dried [a transition] as disorders Love says. people sometimes make it out to be,” Physicians: About 60 Overall, the transition has been a he says. “But I still love it. I wouldn’t Total Employees: About 400 mixed bag. “We’ve had some bumps in go back to what we were using before.” Issue: Transition to electronic the road because we implemented too medical records (EMR) fast--but sometimes in IT, you have to Anne Stuart ([email protected]), VDI solution: Citrix XenDesktop do what you have to do,” Love says. a Boston-based freelancer, is a former editor Rollout: January 2009 to present “I’m confident that if we had had a and writer for Inc., CIO and Redmond true discovery period in which IT used Channel Partner magazines.

5 2009 Citrix Lunch Break Series LUNCH BREAK SERIES Lunch Break BY FRED BAYLES SERIE S

XenServer 5.5: Enterprise Ready

cstatic” is a word rarely used Most notable, says Chris Wolf, a to describe business in reces- senior analyst at Burton, is the fact “E sionary times. Yet, that is just the XenServer 5.5 platform upgrades how John Humphreys, Citrix’s senior meet enterprise business requirements director of marketing, describes the related to security, management, avail- company’s mood in the weeks follow- ability, storage, network, computing ing the June release of XenServer 5.5. and scalability. “We think the stars have aligned for “They have added quite a bit to the us in 2009,” says Humphreys, a former 5.5 program,” Wolf says. “A key was industry analyst who joined Citrix ear- reworking the support policy. The lier this year. “The climate that we’re original policy of one year didn’t meet in, and what our competition is doing, the three-year requirement.” lines us up to do well.” Citrix added other important fea- There is little doubt by what Hum- tures to XenServer since introducing phreys means by climate; clients and it last fall and upgrading it in April. potential clients are looking to cut Among them: expenses as much as possible. That’s n Lab Manger. An updated version at odds, Citrix believes, with some first released in April, Lab Manager is Burton Group’s Chris Wolf gives competitors (read: VMware) that are for companies using virtualization as XenServer 5.5 high marks. raising prices on premium products. a test bed as they move development projects to the stage edge. “It allows Free, but not Cheap and get customers to try the product,” them to automate a lot of that,” Hum- To introduce its new product, Citrix Humphreys says. “I’m a believer.” phreys says. “It allows for a tremen- is marching in the opposite direction, dous amount of consolidation.” providing free downloads of XenServer Stamp of Approval n Workload balancing. Xen- 5.5. As of the end of July, according to So is the Burton Group, which has cer- Server now allows load balancing of Humphreys, 140,000 customers have tified Citrix XenServer 5.5 with Citrix up to 32 nodes. “It’s a great way to get done just that, taking XenServer out Essentials 5.5 Platinum Edition as enhanced availability,” Humphreys for a test drive. enterprise-production ready—only the says. “If you’ve got one thing hogging That number that surpasses all second product on which the Midvale, memory on a virtual machine, you can the XenServer systems sold by Citrix Utah, research and advisory group has move to other virtual machine hosts so in 2008 and includes 10 percent of bestowed that designation. The other they are not impacted.” Fortune 500 companies. The hope is was VMware Infrastructure (VI) 3.5. n Storage Link. A feature those test drives will lead to adoption To win Burton certification, a Humphreys calls both “extremely and purchases of XenServer’s bells and hypervisor platform must meet 100 important” and “grossly underplayed”, whistles. percent of the group’s 27 required Storage Link links virtual machines “I think the whole idea of a pre- features, and hit the mark with many (VMS) to arrays and takes advantage mium model has proven for us to be of the 42 preferred and 24 optional of the native storage you get with your a great way for us to grow and seed features. arrays. Humphreys says the feature

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counters other platforms that forceS “Offering enterprise quality at the XenServer is a good fit.” systems managers to turn off all value- price of “free” got us SMBs that have Wolf anticipates a spirited price added storage applications. the needs of a large company but don’t war between VMware and Citrix, who “It’s not a new technology, it’s just have the budget,” Humphreys explains. is creeping into VMware’s premium using what you have better with a con- Overall, interest remains largely product territory. solidated backup,” Humphreys says. in the North American and Western “VMware is aware of this,” he says. “In the past, people could spend a lot European markets, with a sprinkling “It has released some packages to the of money on backup array that they of some marquee names from China SMB market that are less expensive effectively have to turn off.” and India. [around $3,000] than the upper tiers Other new features include security of XenServer [about $5,000]. I think logging, auditing of administrative ac- The Long Haul you’ll see Citirix respond to where tions and directory service integration. Citrix is realistic that the download VMware is [on] price.” “Everything that they did was very fever will take time to translate into astute,” says Wolf. “They’ve created an profits with customers moving from Everyone Wins environment for compatibility with the free XenServer to add on essential With the prospect of a price war, the Hyper-V and Microsoft and VMware.” products such as workload balancing. Burton Group is advising customers to pilot multiple hypervisors to pressure the vendors on price and test some Citrix has “created an environment for software platforms before making purchasing decisions. compatibility with Hyper-V and Microsoft In fact, the battle for the growing and VMware.” virtualization market, with Microsoft as a new contender in partnership with Citrix, throws open all kinds of pos- Tire-Kicking Still, they hope to see their market sibilities, with loyal Microsoft SMB Humphreys says the demographics share climb to around 15 percent by customers using a mix of Hyper-V and of XenServer 5.5 downloads indicates next year, compared to the lower single Citrix products. interest across the spectrum of busi- digits at the beginning of this year. The clear winner, says Wolf, will be nesses. Citrix customers with other “Our expectation continues to be businesses large and small. Xen products are obviously interested that these things take time,” Hum- “This will push the vendors to in adding on to their investments in phreys says. We think it will be the innovate further and faster,” he says. the platform. The enterprise mar- back half of 2009 when we see utiliza- “That’s good for all except the soft- ket new to Citrix is also interested, tion. It’s still a long ways to go.” ware developers who have to write the especially after the Burton Group’s Wolf is a bit more circumspect code. They might have to work late endorsement. “Large enterprises about the kind of growth Citrix is hours for a time.” looking to have different hypervisors hoping to see. While he says VMware in their systems are kicking the tires,” sales are slowing as Citirix sees gains, Fred Bayles, a Boston-based freelance he says. he doesn’t see any major upheavals in journalist, writes regularly about SMBs, which until recently have the virtualization industry just yet. technology, customer service and other been slower to jump into the virtual- “Feature for feature VMware has business issues. He is a former national ization pool, are also showing up on a huge head start,” he says. “But if reporter for The Associated Press and the download list. you’re a financially cautious company USA Today.

7 2009 Citrix Lunch Break Series LUNCH BREAK SERIES Lunch Break BY KEITH WARD, EDITOR IN CHIEF, VIRTUALIZATION REVIEW MAGAZINE SERIE S

Hypervisors: Not Just for Servers Anymore Traditionally found only in the data center, hypervisors are branching out into new territory: laptops. There, hypervisors’ advantages are coming into sharper focus.

ohn Cook’s workforce is going Management System Client Systems mobile. His users are traveling NxTop Repository Mobile more than ever, forcing Cook OS Images Users to think about how to J Applications manage and provide critical security for a plethora of Windows XP laptops. User Data NxTop Internet NxTop Center Cook is a systems administrator Policies Engines for Partnership for Strong Families, LAN/WAN a non-profit organization providing children’s services in North Florida. The partnership is involved with adop- Web-Based tion, foster care, parenting classes and Management more. Given the sensitive nature of its Console Offices work and its contract with the state, the organization must comply with the Health Insurance Portability and Figure 2. An architectural overview of NxTop, a bare-metal client hypervisor. Accountability Act (HIPAA). The old way of provisioning, main- taining and managing laptops wasn’t ments, deciding on Virtual Computer known advantages out to user devices. working for Cook anymore, forcing didn’t take long. “The implementation And before much longer, bare-metal him to look for new solutions. He of NxTop just seemed to cover a lot client hypervisors will not only run found one in a bare-metal client hy- of the bases for us,” he explains. “We on laptops, but on cell phones and pervisor called NxTop, from start-up can put out a standardized image for smartphones as well. Virtual Computer Inc. [users], replace stuff—if they screw up Until recently, the only type of cli- the image or get a virus or something ent hypervisor available was a Type-2, Shifting Paradigms like that, we can update and reload or hosted, hypervisor. Type-2 hypervi- “We’re looking at changing the para- their machines in pretty short order, sors, like Parallels for Mac, VMware digm on which we work,” says Cook. without having to drive a hundred Fusion and Microsoft Virtual PC, “We’re not going to house people in miles to go fix them.” are dependent on the host operating individual offices anymore; we’re going The explosion of the laptop market system to function; as such, their per- to put them on the road so they can is one of the driving factors behind formance and functionality is limited. better serve the kids and get their jobs bare-metal client hypervisors like No such limitations occur with done.” NxTop, as companies try to find a bare-metal, or Type-1, hypervisors, Cook adds that with those require- way to move the hypervisor’s well- which sit on the hardware—the “bare-

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metal”—at a level below the OS. Their Products Ian Pratt at the Citrix Syn- press time, however, NeoSphere had many advantages are why most of the ergy conference in May. not yet been released. major virtualization platform vendors n VMware Inc. Its bare-metal n Red Hat Inc. CTO Brian Ste- are working feverishly to get them out client hypervisor will be available vens says his company is working on a the door. sometime in 2009 as well, confirms bare-metal hypervisor, but few details Raj Mallempati, group product man- have been released at this point. The Players ager for VMware’s Desktop Business Red Hat has announced a desktop The list of companies developing a Unit. However, Mallempati would not virtualization manager, indicating that bare-metal client hypervisor is growing specify a more specific time frame. the client hypervisor may not be far (see “Client Hypervisor Breakdown,” n Neocleus Inc. An Israeli-based behind. below, for more information). It start-up, Neocleus is in the beta-test- In contrast, Microsoft has an- includes: ing phase for its client hypervisor and nounced no plans for a Type-1 client n Citrix Systems Inc. XenCli- management framework, called Neo- hypervisor. ent—formerly code-named “Project Sphere. NeoSphere was demonstrated Interestingly, the first company to Independence”—is expected to be at Citrix Synergy, and the company market with a bare-metal client hy- available by the end of the year, said said in a press release that it would pervisor isn’t known as a virtualization Citrix Vice President of Advanced be available sometime that month. At player. Phoenix Technologies Ltd.,

Client Hypervisor Breakdown Here’s a rundown of bare-metal client hypervisors that are shipping or in development.

Shipping Client Hypervisors Independence,” XenClient likely will be integrated with n HyperSpace, from Phoenix Technologies Ltd. the XenDesktop virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) HyperSpace, positioned as a consumer client hypervi- suite of products. Peter Bloom, director of product sor, began shipping in January. It allows “instant-on” marketing for XenClient, does not give pricing informa- functionality for things like e-mail and Web browsers. tion, but says the company will offer a free version of Phoenix is close to releasing a version 2 update, says XenClient. Dr. Gaurav Banga, the company’s CTO. The update will n vClient, from VMware Inc. Like XenClient, vClient include a “major rewrite of some parts and a huge has an expected availability sometime in 2009. vClient upgrade in functionality—lots of improvements all over is not based on an existing hypervisor architecture, the place,” according to Banga. Improvements include says Raj Mallempati, group product manager for greater ease of installation, support for many more VMware’s Desktop Business Unit. Instead, VMware platforms and an upgraded GUI. is partnering with Intel Corp. to build the hypervisor, n NxTop, from Virtual Computer Inc. NxTop runs which will be incorporated into VMware’s vClient VDI a program called “NxTop Now,” which is a controlled offering. version 1 release, according to spokesperson Kyla n Neocleus, from Neocleus Inc. Tel Aviv, Israel- Kenney. “We’re qualifying end users a little bit more based Neocleus is close to releasing a Type-1 client than in general availability,” she says. That general hypervisor. It’s also building a management framework availability is expected in the fall. NxTop is based on on top of the hypervisor called NeoSphere. The hyper- the Xen open source hypervisor. visor is code-named “Mako.” n Red Hat Inc. Company CTO Brian Stevens tells Client Hypervisors in Development Virtualization Review that the company is developing n XenClient, from Citrix Systems Inc. This is a Xen- a Type-1 client hypervisor, but he does not provide an based client hypervisor that Citrix says will be shipping expected availability date or give any further details. before the end of the year. Formerly known as “Project —K.W.

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which made its bones as a Basic Input/ power management, leading to longer Banga does not give specific Output System (BIOS) developer, battery life. numbers on HyperSpace users, but ac- branched out from that narrow niche knowledges that uptake has been slow. into virtualization when it released iPhone-Like He expects steady growth, however, HyperSpace last January. According to Phoenix CTO Dr. as the general user community starts Phoenix positions HyperSpace as a Gaurav Banga, the company saw the to see the benefits of instant-on and consumer—rather than a business— benefits of client-side virtualization security. technology. The company chiefly sees some time ago. “We started off saying: As a consumer technology, Hyper- HyperSpace as providing an “instant- ‘We need a portion of the computer Space also has to be fast. Banga says it on” environment in which users can, that’s well-behaved and predictable— is. “We worked on minimizing it down for example, navigate a Web browser an iPhone-like experience that doesn’t to a point where it’s hard for users to or check e-mail before Windows cause trouble.’” know they’re using a hypervisor,” he boots. Instead of having to wait Those requirements led Phoenix explains. “It’s pretty much the same minutes for the OS to load, users can to develop an “instant-on, hardened [performance] as a native machine.” be working in seconds. Another major environment,” Banga says. “Virtualiza- Phoenix has taken note of the buzz benefit the company claims is better tion was a natural for that.” growing around business uses for

The Great Chip Conundrum

ometimes lost in the excitement around Type-1 If a company wants a virtual desktop infrastructure (bare-metal) client hypervisors is the fact that solution that incorporates bare-metal client hypervi- S they require virtualization-assisted processors, in many cases it will have to upgrade to newer sors to run. This creates a special set of problems, laptops—and those laptops will be more expensive, because Intel Corp. adds its virtualization technology because the virtualization-assisted Intel chips cost (Intel-VT) to its processors in an almost hit-or-miss more. fashion. For example, in a given processor line, some That shouldn’t deter companies from making the lower-level chips can have virtualization assist, and switch, argues Raj Mallempati, group product manager some higher-level chips in the same line can be for VMware Inc.’s Desktop Business Unit. “Even if without it. Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD), on the the cost of some of the laptops might be a bit more other hand, adds virtualization—called AMD-V—to expensive because you have to use [Intel’s] vPro nearly every chip line, making it easier to know what technology, we would still encourage buying them,” AMD computers to buy. he says. (Intel’s VT technology is included in the vPro For Phoenix Technologies Ltd., which is trying to virtualization stack.) push its client hypervisor to the consumer market, the “Sure, you may have to buy laptops with a higher lack of virtualization in many Intel chips causes hard- cost, but that’s just one component of the entire cost,” ships. “One of our biggest challenges is figuring out he continues. “From a CIO’s point of view, if signifi- what to do with non-VT machines,” says Phoenix CTO cantly better security and management of laptops [is Dr. Gaurav Banga. That’s why Phoenix is working on a available], most will be perfectly comfortable paying Type-2, or hosted, hypervisor for customers that want extra for laptops.” the advantages gained by virtualization, but don’t have That remains to be seen, especially in the global machines with virtualization-aware processors. recession that has CIOs fighting for every dollar. If The problem is that hosted-client hypervisors are slow- companies—and vendors—want to see bare-metal cli- er than their bare-metal counterparts. In addition, they ent hypervisors truly become omnipresent, they should lack some of the advantages, like the ability to log into pressure Intel to uniformly add virtualization to its the hypervisor rather than the OS for enhanced security. chips. —K.W.

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bare-metal client hypervisors and sees management framework, NxTop Cen- meets a core HIPAA requirement. “So “enormous” potential down the line, ter (see Figure 2). “With NxTop Cen- if a machine got stolen, none of the Banga says. ter, you can publish images to groups information could be accessed,” Cook The focus will remain on consum- or down to individuals if you want, and explains. “That’s a biggie with us; we ers for now, but Banga says Phoenix is customize and push them out as soon really have to protect the records like conducting research on management as the users connect to the network,” they’re our own.” of client devices, which would place it he says. “[Then you can] make fixes Peter Bloom, director of product squarely in the business space. and run the updates. You can run all marketing for XenClient, says Citrix also places high value on the security aspect. “You can have a much more “You can have a much more locked-down locked-down business environment and [a separate] personal environment business environment and a separate with [a users’] own applications and personal environment.” data. The hypervisor allows us to en- able those two environments,” he says. Disk encryption programs are cur- VDI-Driven your Windows updates on your NxTop rently available from third parties, as For the big players, the management image and then, when they connect, it well as in the Windows Vista Ultimate piece is just as important—or even does all that stuff in the background and Enterprise Editions, but Bloom more so—than the hypervisor itself, for you.” believes XenClient will help speed and figures to be the primary initial Cook, in fact, likes updating the adoption of encryption. “I believe battleground. That’s because at this through NxTop more than using Mi- the majority of systems today aren’t stage, virtual desktop infrastructure crosoft, he says. “We manage updates using encryption. It becomes easy to (VDI) appears to be the main use-case through Windows Update Server, but do it with a bare-metal hypervisor,” he for the bare-metal client. “The client that’s a little hit and miss sometimes,” explains. “And, if you’re not encrypting hypervisor platform is a very critical he adds. things, you’re open to a wide variety of component for the overall desktop attacks.” virtualization solution,” says VMware’s Security-Focused Client hypervisors can solve another Mallempati. The second priority for Virtual insecure aspect of Windows, too: At Virtual Computer, management Computer, and the other emerging the ability to steal passwords. With a is the No. 1 priority, says Doug Lane, focus for Type-1 client hypervisors, is Type-1 hypervisor, users log into the senior director of product manage- security. “As companies become more hypervisor rather than the OS, which ment and marketing. “A large portion and more mobile, it becomes increas- eliminates that attack vector. “From of the customer population has a lot ingly common for sensitive data to go a security standpoint, it’s a big one, of challenges around the manage- walking out the door on somebody’s because any Windows machine can be ment aspect of PCs, both in terms of laptop,” says Virtual Computer’s Lane. compromised by popping a Linux disk keeping them up to date and in synch, “If you have thousands of users, the in there and changing the password or and in making sure that data is backed chances of that data being lost at some bypassing it altogether. This prevents up,” he explains. “So if there’s ever any point are pretty high, and it tends to that from happening,” Cook says. issue with the PC from a functionality be a pretty big deal from a PR and standpoint, they can quickly restore security standpoint.” The Killer App the user—[and] not just to a base copy NxTop and the other bare-metal Beyond security and management, of Windows, but with all the user-spe- client hypervisors offer full disk the ability to run multiple OSes or cific settings and data and so forth.” encryption to deal with that problem. two different versions of the same OS Cook, of Partnership for Strong Data protection is a chief concern of should appeal to businesses. “I think Families, describes how he manages Partnership for Strong Families, and the real killer app for client hypervisors his VDI environment with NxTop’s encrypting all of a disk’s contents is just having multiple environments,

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whether it’s a personal environment use multiple OSes or multiple devices HPs, all Lenovos or whatever. If it’ll on an employee-owned PC or even a and get a [similar] experience pretty run the hypervisor, then you can put corporate-owned PC that has its own much using any device at any given your image on it like it was just any one security profile,” Lane says. “[There will point in time,” he adds. of your other machines,” he explains. be an] ability for the end user to per- One thing everyone can agree on form certain functions that are treated is that bare-metal client hypervisors Crunch-Time Economics and secured differently from a separate aren’t going away. “I’m absolutely That means real financial savings—a [business] environment. It may be a dif- convinced within the next four to five concern in any environment, but espe- ferent OS, or the same OS that’s been years, a significant number of laptops cially in today’s economy. “Everybody’s locked down to corporate standards.” that focus on the business side of in the [financial] crunch now,” Cook Citrix’s Bloom agrees. “If your busi- things will come with a hypervisor,” says. “We’re a state contractor, and ness environment is locked down, and predicts Mallempati. “It’s a win for the we’re into the crunch, too. Every- the user’s personal environment gets end customer, it’s a win for the PC/ body’s talking about how to slim down hit with spyware or malware, it won’t OEM vendor and, obviously, [it’s a the operations and cut back on staff.” affect the business environment. You can still get your work done,” he notes. Not everyone believes that running “Everything’s getting more complex. You multiple OSes will be the bare-metal still need the staff. You just have to man- client hypervisor’s big draw. Promi- nent virtualization blogger Brian Mad- age them better.” den writes: “To me, the big advantage of the client hypervisor is that it will win] for the application vendor itself.” Using bare-metal client hypervisors hide the real client hardware from the For Citrix, XenClient is generating may even alleviate that issue, Cook guest OS, thus allowing a single Win- excitement even in pre-shipping mode, asserts. “The truth of the matter is, dows disk image to run on different Bloom says. “Everyone’s eager [to everything’s getting more complex. devices from different manufacturers.” get XenClient]—customers, our field You still need the staff. You just have partners—we’re getting inundated with to manage them better and utilize One User, Many Endpoints requests. We’re blown away by the their time better,” he explains. “[With VMware sees a similar future. “It’s interest in the technology,” he says. client hypervisors] you’re not wasting part of our vClient initiative,” Mal- At Partnership for Strong Families, time re-imaging machines and tweak- lempati says. “The personal desktop using NxTop leads Cook to believe ing machines for different people and experience needs to follow the end that client hypervisors will be ubiqui- such, so you’ve got more time to man- user across different devices and dif- tous within five years. “It makes your age the other stuff that’s important.” ferent networks. We don’t believe that images hardware-agnostic, so it really devices need to be locked down to one doesn’t matter what kind of machines Keith Ward ([email protected]) is single OS. The best world, from an you buy to replace [older hardware]. editor in chief of Virtualization Review end-user point of view, is the ability to You don’t have to keep all Dells, all magazine.

12 2009 Citrix Lunch Break Series LUNCH BREAK SERIES Lunch Break BY RICK VANOVER SERIE S

Everyday Virtualization

Extending XenServer Availability Marathon Technologies has announced two new products for XenServer-based virtualization. First is the everRun 2G availability solution that protects Citrix XenServer hosts. everRun 2G has a unique ap- proach—it applies continuous protection to the XenServer host. Brilliant! Why waste all the effort managing the protection of a bunch of Windows VMs? Protecting the host in this fashion is a first for the virtualization space. EverRun 2G also doesn’t require any configuration on the Windows VMs to be protected, as all protection is done on the XenServer host. EverRun 2G is licensed per protected host, with protection levels starting at $9,000 I like the flexibility here ... for a level per host pair. of protection that isn’t available on What appeals to me as a virtualization admin is that everRun 2G offers competing platforms. a lot of options in a space where customers are frequently locked into an array of requirements. EverRun 2G zero impact during a failure. Collectively, these are big steps for- works with local storage, shared stor- Marathon has also has announced ward for organizations, enabling them age, or different storage systems for the upcoming release of everRun to build on the comparatively robust each host. Optionally, protected hosts VM Lockstep, offering two levels of free offerings by Citrix and add top- can be located in geographically sepa- protection for XenServer VMs. The level protection options to XenServer- rate locations. For remote locations, protection can be an automatic reboot based virtualization. this uses the synchronized option and (typical HA), or full fault tolerance I like the flexibility here, and I’m accounts for the latency associated for the VMs. Full VM fault tolerance going to see about getting my hands with the network separation. Protec- is the lockstep functionality, in which on something like this for a level of tion on local networks works simul- all compute resources are executed in protection that isn’t available on com- taneously on both hosts, resulting in parallel on hosts. peting platforms.

13 2009 Citrix Lunch Break Series LUNCH BREAK SERIES Lunch Break BY KEITH WARD, EDITOR IN CHIEF, VIRTUALIZATION REVIEW MAGAZINE SERIE S

Pure Performance: XenServer Roars Off the Line

o, which of the hypervisors fine product. decision. Speed is just one aspect; how is fastest, in terms of raw One note about these results: First, important that is will depend on your performance? That’s what as some of you know, VMware is very virtualization goals. S we set out to determine in careful (some might say paranoid) What this does tell you is that the latest issue of the magazine. about allowing benchmarking and from a pure performance standpoint, We could have looked at many performance results to be publicly XenServer gets you there from here different hypervisors, but decided to released. Rick Vanover and I discussed the fastest. limit our testing to three—ESX from our methodology with VMware, and You’ll notice that we also did a VMware, XenServer from Citrix, and the company agreed that our test- separate test with ESX, using memory Microsoft’s Hyper-V. One of the rea- ing was fair. Note that we made no overcommit to determine the effect sons was space—in a print magazine, you simply don’t have the real estate to make a story as long as you want. “From a pure performance standpoint, The other reason was that most XenServer gets you there from here customers trying these things out will most likely be looking at one of these the fastest.” three. ESX is obvious—it’s numero uno when most admins start kicking hypervisor tires. Microsoft has put changes—at all—to our results, or the on performance. This was for infor- a lot of its marketing power behind reporting of those results, due to our mational purposes only. Memory Hyper-V, and it’s quickly gaining a conversation with VMware. It’s an im- overcommit, available only with ESX, lot of recognition in the industry. portant point, so you know that what is quite important in many virtualiza- XenServer, now that it’s being given we’re reporting hasn’t been altered in tion implementations, so we felt it away with a lot of free enterprise-class any way by any vendor. would be valuable to show you the features, is sure to go on most admins’ So, what does this test tell you? One performance hit on your datacenter short list. thing, and one thing only: how these while it’s in use. The results, from writer/online specific hypervisors perform under Keep in mind that Rick, the author, columnist Rick Vanover, were star- these specific test conditions. That’s is a confirmed VMware man, and uses tling, to say the least. The Porsche it. Don’t extrapolate that to mean ESX extensively on his production of hypervisors? XenServer. Raise we’re saying XenServer is the “best” network. That makes it harder for your hand if you saw that coming. It hypervisor, or ESX is the “worst”; that those who want to scream “anti-VM- outperformed Hyper-V and ESX in would be a mistake. As Rick points ware bias!” at us. As always, we call ‘em most categories. The pokiest? ESX. out, we didn’t judge critical factors as we see ‘em here at Virtualization Again, not at all what I expected. like management software, availabil- Review. In fact, even in the few tests ESX ity of third-party applications and so Do these results give you pause? Do came out on top, it barely edged out on. Finding the right hypervisor is a they make you want to try XenServer the competition. Microsoft did well crucial decision for your shop, and or Hyper-V, when you wouldn’t have across the board, and is definitely a a multitude of factors go into that previously?

14 2009 Citrix Lunch Break Series LUNCH BREAK SERIES Lunch Break BY KEITH WARD, EDITOR IN CHIEF, VIRTUALIZATION REVIEW MAGAZINE SERIE S

Something for Nothing: Citrix Gives Away XenServer

ou may have heard that in the world wants you to subscribe. that will occur. Citrix, in what can only be So goes the theory, anyway. Make no If XenServer now does what you described as an exception- mistake: XenServer is a fine hypervi- want, why spend $1,500 per server Y ally bold move—and risky, sor, which will be borne out in our next to upgrade to Essentials? Yeah, you’ll calculated gamble, all at the same time print issue, which should be hitting get StorageLink for better storage —is now giving away a new version your mailboxes any time now, if it hasn’t management, and lab management of its XenServer hypervisor that has already. We prove that unequivocally. It software if you want the Cadillac capabilities way beyond the typical still hasn’t really taken hold in the buy- edition, at double that price. But free hypervisor. ing public’s imagination, however—at XenServer already has storage manage- Among the goodies in this version least not yet. Let’s face it: When folks ment; granted, it’s not anywhere near are its version of live motion, called XenMotion, which also incorporates If you’re an admin with virtualization multi-node resource sharing; management for an unlimited number of serv- responsibilities in this recession, don’t ers and VMs; and integrated storage you owe it to yourself and your company management, among other stuff. Wow; that’s a lot of virtualization power, and to see what XenServer can do? is now free for the taking. It’s hard not to applaud Citrix for think hypervisor, product No. 1 on the as powerful or feature-rich as the Es- making XenServer free. You can’t get radar is VMware’s ESX. Product No. 2 sentials technology promises to be, but that much capability for free with any is Microsoft’s Hyper-V, which is pretty does it pass the “good enough” test? other solution, including VMware. This remarkable considering how new it is. Can you get by for a year or two or is no small thing. I mean, if you’re an XenServer (or Xen in general) is usually more without it? And if you can, why admin with virtualization responsibili- next on the list. Will this souped-up upgrade at all? ties in this recession, don’t you at least version, which may well be enterprise- That’s the scenario all those Citrix now owe it to yourself and your com- worthy right now, change that pecking reps do not want you to envision. pany to see what XenServer can do? order? Citrix sure hopes so. That’s why this is so risky for Citrix, Of course, this is exactly what Citrix The question that must be answered and so fascinating for us virtualization wants you to think. And when you’ve is this: How much free stuff can Citrix watchers. It’s clear that hypervisors got XenServer set up (and if it works give away and continue to be viable? It are commodities; are things like live well), of course you’re going to at least just released an awful lot of intellectual motion, distributed resource schedul- consider Citrix Essentials on top of property, for no discernable return. ing and P2V going to be next? If so, for that, right? And then, since you have Sure, there’s hypothetically something what capabilities, exactly, will a vendor so much Citrix in your datacenter, at the end of all this (an enterprise be able to charge? I don’t know if this why not Citrix XenDesktop, goes the presence and upsell of other products), is a slippery slope or not, but it sure is thinking to which every Citrix sales rep but absolutely no guarantee that any of exciting.

www.citrix.com/XenServer

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