Desktop Virtualization

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Archives for March 2008

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VMware Server 2.0 beta 2

VMware Server 2.0

Last Friday saw the long-awaited release of VMware Server 2.0 beta 2, Build 84186.

New features in VMware Server 2.0 beta 2

VMware website highlights the following new features of this VMware Server 2.0 release:

  • Updated VMware Infrastructure (VI) Web Access management interface: With the faster performance, improved stability and broader range of configuration options, the VI Web Access management interface provides a simple, flexible, intuitive and productive management experience. In addition, embedded help files are context sensitive based on the task being performed.
  • Independent virtual machine console: With the new VMware Remote Console, you can access your virtual machine consoles independent of the VI Web Access management interface plus resize the virtual machine console windows as needed.
  • Support for USB 2.0 devices: Transfer data at faster data rates from USB 2.0 devices.
  • Multi-tiered permissions: Configure different levels of permissions to access virtual machines in different ways, including browsing, interacting, configuring and administering virtual machines.
  • New hardware editors: Edit and add devices such as USB 2.0 devices and legacy devices such as floppy drives, serial and parallel ports.
  • Automatically start your virtual machines: Select which virtual machines that you want to automatically start when VMware Server starts. In addition, there is also an option to boot the virtual machine directly into the BIOS Setup Screen.
  • Link to Virtual Appliance Marketplace: Access thousands of pre-built, pre-configured, ready-to-run enterprise applications packaged with an operating system inside a virtual machine. This speeds up time to value and simplifies software development, distribution, and management.

[Read more…]

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Failed to allocate page for guest RAM error in Linux VMware Workstation

I've been spending increasingly more time researching topics for Unix Tutorial on one of my desktops. Ubuntu has replaced the Windows Vista I had and so far I quite like the experiment. Out of the box, all of the hardware was properly supported and even the NTFS partitions left from Vista install are easily available.

One of the first things I've decided to install was the trial version of the latest VMware Workstation: 6.0.3 build-80004. And although it installed without a problem, when I tried to run one of the previously created virtual machines, I got the following error:

VMware Workstation unrecoverable error: (vcpu-0)
Failed to allocate page for guest RAM!

As it turned out after a quick investigation, that was a result of running a VM from a NTFS partition, because its default mounting settings don't have the exec option.

Since you shouldn't be running anything critical through an NTFS driver anyway, I simply moved the VM onto one of the ext3 partitions and, sure enough, it fixed the guest RAM allocation error.

Update: if your scenario prevents you from moving a VM to a native partition, use the following option:

mainmem.UseNamedFile = "FALSE"

You should add it to the vmx file of your VM. Thanks for the tip, benito!

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Critical security vulnerabilities fixed in VMware's hosted products

Many of you have probably heard about the recent Core Security findings which resulted in a security advisory CORE-2007-0930, Path Traversal vulnerability in VMware's shared folders implementation:

A vulnerability was found in VMware's shared folders mechanism that grants users of a Guest system read and write access to any portion of the Host's file system including the system folder and other security-sensitive files. Exploitation of these vulnerability allows attackers to break out of an isolated Guest system to compromise the underlying Host system that controls it.

Successful exploitation requires that the Shared Folder's feature to be enabled which is the default on VMware products that have the feature AND at least one folder of the Host system is configured for sharing.

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Microsoft Plans to Acquire Kidaro

Kidaro

Looks like Microsoft is expanding their desktop virtualization campaign with acquisition of Kidaro:

Microsoft Corp. today announced its intended acquisition of Kidaro, a leading provider of desktop virtualization solutions for enterprises. In combining Kidaro’s virtualization technology with its suite of desktop management tools, known as the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack for Software Assurance, Microsoft will enable IT professionals to optimize their desktop infrastructure by providing management capabilities for Virtual PCs, streamlining deployments and easing application compatibility issues.

Windows Virtualization Team blog also confirms:

the three founders of Kidaro will be joining Microsoft and play similar roles here, and that the plan is to keep Kidaro's R&D team in Israel.

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Know Your History: Open Source Virtualization Tour

Kris Buytaert has just posted a great post on Virtualization.com: Looking Back at a Decade of Open Source Virtualization. While it's a lengthy article, it's definitely worth your read if you're curious about the history of virtualization, primarily desktop virtualization.

I come from Unix system administration background, and have been in this industry for just over 10 years – long enough to recognize all the names and technologies in the article and to testify: indeed, there were quite a few ways of running graphical desktop sessions remotely long before 2006 or 2007. Some of them are not as simple to use, but almost no technology stays stale – new approaches are being developed daily, and you couldn't be more spoiled for choice of desktop virtualization than you are today.

Have a look at the Open Source Virtualization reivew, I'm sure you'll like it.

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VMsafe – new virtual security technology from VMware

I'm just back from VMworld Europe 2008, and one of the highlights of this event was the announcement of VMsafe – a new security technology introduced by VMware.

What is VMsafe?

VMsafe is a new security technology. What is means is that software security vendors will partner with VMware to develop custom virtual appliances used for protecting virtual machines on a VMware ESX server.

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