Virualization and you...

Everyone has questions about computers no matter if you are the Ubber Techno Geek or the Grandparent that can't find the power button. My goal is to be informative to both and everyone in between. This week I am going to attempt to de-mystify Virtualization.

Virtualization has been around for many years now. Those of us in the tech community have probably played with certain aspects and functions of it quite a bit. Now with the advent of "User Friendly" applications like Windows7 XPMode, the end user is getting a small taste of what we already know... Virtualization is just plain COOL!

My first taste of Virtualization came many years back when I was working as a field network tech for a medium sized ISP. I was handed a laptop when I started and told I was free to load any OS (Operating System) and software that I wanted. This was stunning since until this point I had always been restricted to whatever was standard in the company. I sat down with one of my fellow techs and started discussing the options. He laughed and pulled out his computer which loaded into a beautiful and user friendly flavor of Linux called Ubuntu. From there he opens a program called "VMWare". He showed me that with some tweaking and some moderate use of forums and google searches he was able to run several versions and instances of both Linux and Windows from his one machine. This allowed him access to the power and stability of his Linux Machine while still having the Easy Use Windows without rebooting his computer every time he needed to switch between. How is this possible? Well it comes down to this. No Computer uses 100% of its available resources 100% of the time. Virtualization programs allow you to tap into those unused system resources and create a Virtual Machine.

Flavors of Virtualization:

Now let’s talk about the various flavors of Virtualization systems out there. Like so many other things in the Computer industry there are about as many flavors of Virtualization programs as there are smart guys and gals to make them. Each one operates just a little differently and each one has its pros and cons.

One of the leaders in the Virtualization movement is VMWare. VMWare has come up with everything from ESX and VSphere, which use a bare on metal approach to Virtualization Operating Systems with a Web or Console interface for management and incredibly small footprint on the physical machine, to VMPlayer and VMServer, which run as an application in a Host OS. Both options have their strengths and weakness. The bare on metal approach is ideal for server implementation. In the past, if you needed to deploy a new server you had to requisition the new hardware, wait 6 months or more for the hardware to get to you, configure the operating system, services, applications… etc., then deploy and hope that there are no issues when you bring it online. Now with Virtualization we can bring a new sever up in minutes with the use of premade templates and no new hardware to buy. With options like VMotion we have the ability to quickly shift from our test environment to our production environment. This also allows for clustering and other such high demand, high availability functions. The virtual desktop side of Virtualization opens another door to efficiency and availability of resources. Have you ever upgraded your OS to the latest and greatest thing and found that one program you use constantly is not compatible? Have you found yourself needing a legacy (old) piece of hardware that worked before the upgrade? Have you ever wanted to test a new OS or program before wiping out your old software? In Windows7, Microsoft developed an integration feature with their Virtualization software VirtualPC. This is called XPMode. This allows you to run WindowsXP and other guest OS on your Windows7 Pro, Enterprise or Ultimate computer giving you full access to your old programs, printers, scanners and other items that might not work so well in Win7. For the IT guys out there, have you ever been sitting there on your shiny new Win7 machine and get that call from the one person in your organization that has not been upgraded? Have you sat there and tried to remember exactly what that Windows 2000 control panel looks like? Have you gotten that call from the one person who managed to talk someone into allowing them to have a Mac instead of a PC? Virtualization can be your saving grace. Some techs might just remote in and take over but that is not always an option is it? In some companies, especially Government Organizations, that is not an option due to security and network policy. What do you do? Fumble around until you remember? Why not open a VM of XP or 2000 or Mac OSX? Let’s face it even with a photographic memory, which few of us actually have, pulling that one memory of this icon or this menu from the ethereal reaches of your geek zone can be a real challenge especially if you are looking at something completely different.

So we see that Virtualization has many applications and uses for the Layman as well as the Tech. It can be used for cost saving, time saving, reliability, and convenience. I know this has been a very general explanation of the Virtualization concept, I hope that it has been informative. Go out and play with it and see how you can implement it in your lives and organizations. Stay tuned for more discussion and more topics. Feel free to contact me with questions and or suggestions for topics to cover.

Thank you,

ServerGeeek