The Fat Bloke Sings: Thoughts from a Fat Bloke

There were a few problems in the 2.2[.0] release which we have now rectified in this new maintenance release.

It is available for the usual platforms from the usual places and, BTW, this one works really well with Ubuntu 9.04.

It's out there so what does it contain? In a nutshell:

Share and Publish

• export and import virtual machines using OVF support

Faster and more Powerful

• hypervisor speedups
• guests can have a max of 16Gb RAM (up from 3.5Gb)
• 3D acceleration for OpenSolaris and Linux guests

Easier

• smarter defaults (audio, USB, VT-x)
• Host-only networking for using server guests offline
• removed previous limitations such as not mixing VT-x and non-VTx guests. (64- and 32-bit guests)

You can hear all about these features in the April edition of The VirtualBox Live show and I'll be discussing a few of these features in more detail in the coming weeks.

-FB

Just a quick note to say that there's a maintenance release now available (version 2.1.4) 

- FB 

One of the new features of version 2.0 was the ability to run 64-bit guests. However, this initially required a 64-bit host platform to function. For example, to run Windows Server 2008  as a guest on your Windows or Linux PC, you had to upgrade your host system first. This was clearly a "bad thing".

With version 2.1, the VirtualBox team removed this restriction and you can now run 64-bit guests on your 32-bit host. There are still a couple or pre-requisites...

Pre-requisites

• your CPU needs to be 64-bit capable (e.g. Intel Core 2 Duo, AMD Athlon, etc);
• your CPU needs to be Intel VT-x or AMD-V capable (for AMD systems this may need to be enabled in the BIOS). We call this Hardware Virtualization.
  

Configuration

Here's how it is done:

1. Create a new virtual machine
2. When specifiying the OS type,  select the family and the 64-bit version in the dropdown list box
   

If you do not see the 64-bit options in the drop-down list then VirtualBox thinks that your machine has not met the pre-requisites above.

Choosing the 64-bit version causes VirtualBox to create a vm which uses the VT-x/AMD-V technology of the CPU, and uses IO APIC too.

That is all there is to it. Continue installing your 64-bit OS into this vm as usual.

Limitation

There is one limitation which is a bit of a pain...

You can run multiple guests at the same time (as you have always been able to do) and you can run a mix of 64-bit and 32-bit guests simultaneously too.  But you cannot run 2 vm's, one of which uses VT-x disabled and another, VT-x enabled. Else you will see something like this error message:

To get around this you can either simply save the running guest before resuming the other, or configure all your vm's to use VT-x/AMD-V.

Being able to run 64-bit guests means that you can easily kick the tyres of 64-bit OSes such as Microsoft's Windows Server 2008 R2 Beta 1.

That's what I did in this episode of "The Fat Bloke's Shorts"

- FB

The VirtualBox crew are starting up a regular "live" webinar (which will be recorded) where they'll share the latest developments in the VirtualBox world. Here are the details of the first episode....

Register now for a free webinar discussing what's new in VirtualBox, including a live demo and Q&A.

VirtualBox Live Show Free Webinar discussing what's new in VirtualBox, including a live demo and Q&A. Dear Fat Bloke, The world's most popular open source virtualization software just got better. If you need a fast, easy and flexible enterprise-class virtualization solution, you won't want to miss this Webinar. The February 2009 edition of the VirtualBox Live Show will bring you all the latest news from the world of VirtualBox, including everything new in VirtualBox 2.1(.2), a live demo, and Q&A. WHO: Andy Hall, VirtualBox Product Manager WHAT: VirtualBox Live Show WHEN: February 4, 2009, 8:00 am PST / 11:00 am EST (The presentation will be approximately 45 minutes long followed by Q&A.) WHERE: Simply access the web seminar from the comfort of your own office. WHY: Learn the latest tricks to turn your PC into an easy-to-use virtualization platform with Sun xVM VirtualBox, the enterprise-class open source software that runs on all major operating systems and eliminates the need for tradeoffs or multiple hardware systems. Register here for the free VirtualBox Live Webinar now. If you have any questions or feedback, please send a message to virtualboxinquiries@sun.com. Thank you, Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Sun Microsystems, Inc., 500 Howard St., M/S: USFO07, San Francisco, CA 94105 USA © 2009 Sun Microsystems, Inc. All rights reserved.

Good News! There's a new version of VirtualBox available now.

Version 2.1.2 is a maintenance release fixing issues with 2.1 which was released in December.

Some issues concerned Windows 7, but now that they are resolved we're happy to announce that VirtualBox supports Windows 7 as a guest AND as a host. An issue with shared folders has been fixed and the more observant may spot that it boots faster too.

And if you run a lot of vm's on your host you may be please to know that we raised the maximum number of concurrent guests from 127 to 1023. You'll need quite a machine to test that though

So if you have had problems with:

• 64-bit guests
• Networking on Windows
• USB on Linux
• Windows 7 Shared Folders
  

.. or any of the other fixes described in the ChangeLog then this release is for you.

-FB

P.S. To prove that Shared Folders is working, see the movie about Host Guest Integration just released:

FatBloke goes all Hollywood with the new FatBloke TV Show

One of the first episodes covers running Windows 7 as a guest and is embedded below.

(BTW you can view the movie full screen to see the intricacies)

Enjoy!

-FB

Like many other companies nowadays, a significant number of Sun employees operate off the corporate LAN or outside the corporate firewall. But occasionally these employees need to get at applications and data inside the firewall or, as we say at Sun, on SWAN (Sun Wide Area Network). One way of doing this is to use a VPN client such as the Cisco VPN Client with strong 2 factor authentication (tokencard).

But what if the Cisco client is not available or doesn't work on your PC. e.g. you may have Vista 64-bit, so what do you do then?

Some smart individuals in Sun do the following:

1. Download  and install VirtualBox.
2. Install a guest which can run the Cisco client, e.g. Windows XP 32-bit.
3. Install the Sun IT provided VPN client for this platform.
4. When you need SWAN access, start or resume the guest and run the VPN client.
   

So in this way you can run an on-SWAN and off-SWAN session at the same time.

In the screenshot below (click on it for bigger version) you can see:

• Windows XP guest that is on SWAN showing an internal web page;
• Mac Host that is not on SWAN showing that it cannot reach that internal page;
• The configuration of the Windows XP guest in VirtualBox.
  

Microsoft made Windows 7 beta available last Friday (Jan 9th, 2009) so decided to quickly take a look using VirtualBox on my Mac. This blog is about how I made it work.

If you know VirtualBox then the only non-standard step concerns the Guest Additions (Step 4 below)

(Editors Note: Since the release of version 2.1.2 Windows 7 works out of the box. )

1. Download the dvd iso from the Microsoft Windows 7 site

N.B. The Microsoft Download Manager uses ActiveX and so only worked in Internet Explorer. So I downloaded it from an XP instance running in VirtualBox to a Shared Folder on my Mac.

2. Create a New Virtual Machine in VirtualBox.

Although Microsoft recommend 1G for RAM, I used 512MB and it works great. Here are the rest of my settings:

3. Install Windows 7

Choose Custom Installation as we're doing a clean install into a virgin vm.

Voila!

4. Install Guest Additions

To install the Guest Additions we need to select "Devices...Install Guest Additions" to mount the additions iso. There is a check in the setup program, for version 2.1.0 and earlier, that prevents installation on Windows 7, so we need to run the installer in Vista compatibility mode. Do this by opening an explorer window showing the guest additions CD...

...and right click the 32 or 64-bit installer and select Properties. Now set the Compatibility Mode to Vista, and run it to install as usual.

5. Reboot

Now finally you need to reboot and you're done.

Windows 7 on your Mac (or Windows/Linux/Solaris PC too), pretty cool huh?

-FB

"Relentless" is how one commentator described it. Relentless development of the VirtualBox technology,  and relentless uptake and adoption by the community.

Today, Sun announced version 2.1 of Sun xVM VirtualBox, the 3rd major release since the acquisition of innotek back in February, 2008. So what's new in this version and gimme some data on this "adoption" stuff?

What's New

As a simple soul, fatbloke has to group features into buckets and he's labelled the buckets: Faster, Easier and Interoperable.

Faster

• Hardware acceleration support on the Mac using VT-x capabilities of the Intel Core 2 chipset

• Hardware acceleration using the latest virtualization support in Intel Nehalem microarchitecture chips such as the Core i7
• OpenGL support for Windows guests for faster graphics intensive apps, e.g. Google Earth.
• New NAT engine improvements for faster networking

Easier

• New and easier configuration of Host Interface networking on Windows and Linux hosts. No more manual bridging on Windows or TUN/TAP gymnastics on Linux.
• New 64-bit guests on 32-bit hosts, for example run Vista 64 on Windows XP 32-bit. (need 64 bit capable hardware though)

Interoperability

• Improved support for vmdk and vhd virtual disk formats, now including snapshots.
• Experimental support for LsiLogic and BusLogic SCSI controllers to aid migration from other platforms.
• and the existing iSCSI support works great to Sun's OpenStorage systems BTW. (i'll cover this in another blog real soon now)

Adoption

According to the Adopto-meter there have been over 8Million downloads of VirtualBox and the rate at the moment is 25,000 per day (which we think puts us in 3rd place behind Java and MySQL).

So now do your bit... push the needle up a bit more by downloading and trying 2.1 now.

-FB

Sun xVM VirtualBox on a Mac has been great for running multiple "client" vm's which use NAT networking, but rubbish for running "server" vm's because it wasn't easy to give a vm a real IP address which other machines on the network can connect to.

All this has changed with the introduction of Host Interface Networking for the Mac in VirtualBox 2.0 and this entry attempts to show you how to convert an existing vm configured for NAT networking into a full blown server that I can run Apache on.

 So here's my starting setup on my home network:

• Router connected to set-top box: 10.0.1.1
• Host: Mac OS X 10.5.4: 10.0.1.200
• Guest: OpenSolaris 2008.05 : 10.0.2.15 (VirtualBox NAT engine assigned)

The VirtualBox config looks like this:

And the guest sees the world thus:

What I want to do is configure VirtualBox and OpenSolaris to be a server with IP address 10.0.1.199, say.

Step 1. - Reconfigure VirtualBox

Shutdown your guest if it is running and go to the VirtualBox Console GUI.

Here is the Before config:

 And here is the After Config:

We changed 2 things:

• Attached to: Host Interface
• Host Interfaces: Airport (I don't use wired Ethernet in my house)

N.B. You might also have expected to have to change the NIC to a Server variant such as:

• Adapter Type: Intel PRO/1000 T Server
  

...but I found that OpenSolaris got stuck during the boot sequence when I did this. (OpenSolaris experts out there, please explain. Random number generation?)

Now boot up the vm.

Step 2 - Configure OpenSolaris

Fat Bloke is not an OpenSolaris expert but he blindly followed the instructions in this excellent Observatory blog as follows: 

1 . Set IP address:

pfexec vi /etc/nwam/llp

and change from:

e1000g0 dhcp 

to:

e1000g0 static 10.0.1.199

and restart nwam:

pfexec svcadm restart nwam

2. Get DNS Working:

pfexec vi /etc/resolv.conf

and add the address of the wireless router:

nameserver 10.0.1.1 

Also tell nsswitch.con to use dns to resolve hosts:

pfexec cp /etc/nsswitch.dns /etc/nsswitch.conf 

3. Routing

Configure the default router to be the wireless router:

pfexec vi /etc/defaultrouter

Add the line: 

10.0.1.1

And restart the routing service:

pfexec svcadm restart network/routing-setup

4. Summary

So in summary here is my new OpenSolaris config:

Step 3 - Test it

Test it as a client

Simply firing up Firefox shows that things appear to be working:

And in actual fact Fat Bloke found Host Interface networking to be about xx% faster than NAT networking using exactly the same guest.

Test it as a server

An easy test is simply:

ssh jack@10.0.1.199 

(BTW you can easily add an entry to the Mac /etc/hosts file to give your server a name rather than using the IP address) 

from a Mac Terminal window like this:

or why not install a real server application such as an Apache web server, glassfish or whatever.

Here I've installed Sun Secure Global Desktop Software which provides remote access to a server via a browser based interface. I'm accessing it from my Mac, so I have a client and server all contained on one box.

Conclusion

Sun xVM VirtualBox is now great for running client and server vm's on Mac and Solaris hosts. The configuration interface is very simple and the performance improvement over NAT in Fat Bloke's tests is about 30% quicker.

But don't take my word for it

This is a very straightforward blog of how to install OpenSolaris 2008.05 in a VirtualBox vm.[Read More]

As the old saying goes "Time waits for no man" but if your were running VirtualBox 1.6 with a Solaris guest, time sometimes stood still. This was because of a bug which has been fixed along with a few others in a new bug-fix release of Sun xVM VirtualBox 1.6.2.

If you downloaded VirtualBox 1.6, then you should probably go get this updated release. There are a few rough edges in 1.6 that have now been smoothed. For the full list of bugs fixed check the ChangeLog.

And the manual has been updated too. 

 -FB 

You have to hand it to the VirtualBox engineers, nothing stops them churning out  top quality code at a rate of knots. You might think that the wind and the rain of an acquisition process would slow things down but it was business as usual. And the culmination of their efforts is Sun xVM VirtualBox 1.6 available right now!

So what's new in this release? In order of coolness and importance to the Fat Bloke here are my lucky 7 features:

1. Mac OS X is out of Beta and works great!

This is great professionally and personally. It means I can use all the platforms I need (Windows Vista and XP, Solaris and OpenSolaris, Ubuntu) at the same time.  I used to use Fusion but not any more. Check out seamless windows (make sure you have enough Video Ram if you have a big screen) and USB device support. Very cool! 

2. OpenSolaris and Solaris 10u5 as hosts.

Using OpenSolaris as a host for multiple Virtual Desktops (XP instances to be specific) is hugely powerful.  (Note that networking is limited to NAT in this release.)

3. Solaris Guest Additions.

Now I can really install and kick the tires of OpenSolaris without scrambling around to find hardware to put it on. New in this release are big things (seamless windows) and little things (mouse integration) which together make installing and using OpenSolaris, in particular, a breeze. 

4. Scalability improvements.

I don't know about you, but previously I couldn't run more than a couple of vm's simultaneously. 1.6 fixes whatever that was so now you can really confuse yourself with more windows of more varieties than you can shake a stick at.  

5. Gigabit ethernet for guests.

Just plain faster. 

6. SATA support for up to 32 disks.

Haven't used all 32 in a single guest yet though. 

7. Web Services APIs

For scripters - If you don't know the command line interface go read about VBoxManage in the User Manual. It is v. powerful. 

For code monkeys - check out the COM/XPCOM interfaces too.

New for code gorillas - Web Services APIs which make it easy to lash up an app which manages, controls or monitors VirtualBox  remotely, something prospective OEM partners will love.

 

The first release after an acquisition is an interesting one to watch for signs of interference and influence.

• Would the mighty Sun Microsystems Inc. slow down the nimble and smart innotek guys?
• Would the suits impose restraints that hadn't existed before?
• Would Sun continue with the full range of platforms or only concentrate on their own?

It could have gone badly wrong. But I'm pleased to observe that for the ex-innotek guys and the VirtualBox community, it seems to be "Business as Usual". 

-FB 

FatBloke has been absent for quite some time....and to what do we owe this absence:

• vacation - FatBlokes are machines! They don't need vacation.
• beer - hmmm, FatBlokes like beer but even so, 2 months absence is a bit rich.
• love - That's it! FatBloke has a new love in his life and her name is VirtualBox

For sometime now, FatBloke has had an opinion on topics around Desktop Virtualization. Most of the time he has solved the need for:

• a more secure desktop
• a more functional desktop
• a more available desktop

 ...by taking a server based computing and SGD approach to life. This approach used servers and wires to deliver a richer, but more secure desktop than could be delivered traditionally.

And while this is a great approach, which delivers on the needs above, VirtualBox is a different client-side based approach which is compact, self contained and very elegant.  Let me explain...

VirtualBox is a Type-2 hypervisor which means it installs like a program on top of your existing system. So you don't need to wipe your existing machine. Once installed, you create Virtual Machines into which you can install your desired OS's. So here's what it looks like on a Mac host running OpenSolaris and Windows XP:

 

 It can install on:

 

• Windows Hosts - Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003, Windows 2008;
• Linux Hosts - Ubuntu, RedHat, SuSE, Debian....
• Solaris Hosts - Solaris 10u5, OpenSolaris (beta at the moment);
• Mac OS X Hosts - 10.4 and 10.5 (Beta)

 

And Guests can be:

• Windows Guests - Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003, Windows 2008, Windows NT, Windows 98, Windows 2000...
• Linux Guests - Ubuntu, RedHat, SuSE, Debian....
• Solaris Guests - Solaris 10u5, OpenSolaris (beta at the moment);
• FreeBSD
• OS/2
• (more)

So on his MacBook Pro the FatBloke has all he needs: Mac, Windows, Solaris, Linux apps all at once.

In the next few posts I'll cover cool features of VirtualBox and explain why this is the coolest piece of technology that Sun has acquired in a long time. 

And the first reason is that VirtualBox is FREE (as in free beer) and Open Source (as in free speech).

So go download this roughly 20Mb gem and join the VirtualBox community.

 

-FB