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New version allows admins to easily move VMs between computers

Virtual machines (VMs) are widely used in enterprise and development environments and by individual users. VMs are often used to easily allow multiple operating systems to be run on a single computer.

Sun Microsystems has announced that it has upgraded its VirtualBox virtualization software. The main new feature of VirtualBox 3.1 is that users can move VMs between host machines with no interruption.

The new version not only allows the user to move a VM between machines, but the VM can also be moved between different host operating systems, computer classes, and to and from machines running different CPUs. That means an administrator could move a VM running on an Intel machine with the Windows OS to a machine using AMD processors running Linux without any break in services or downtime.

Sun's Jim McHugh said, "As a cross-platform hypervisor, VirtualBox allows customers to easily evaluate and deploy virtualized systems, using their existing x86 hardware, operating systems and skill sets."

Flexibility and ease of moving VMs from one machine to another isn’t all the new version adds. Sun claims that the new version has a 30% performance boost compared to the previous version of the software. The new version also allows an administrator to move the VM back and forth to any arbitrary snapshot date.

Sun reports that the VirtualBox software has been downloaded over 20 million times since the free software product debuted in 2007. The app is only free for individuals and has licensing fee for enterprise users that includes tech support starting at $30 per user.

The company behind VirtualBox -- Sun -- cut 3,000 jobs in October to reduce costs amid the poor global economy.


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Great, but...
By mofo3k on 12/1/2009 11:36:14 AM , Rating: 2
I like that new feature but the real question is, can it run OSX yet?

Not that I would do it of course, that would go against Apple's EULA or something.




RE: Great, but...
By amanojaku on 12/1/2009 11:46:03 AM , Rating: 2
No, because Apple would freak out. Virtualization makes it easy to take an OS off of its hardware, which means a potential loss of Mac sales.

http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Guest_OSes


RE: Great, but...
By mofo3k on 12/1/2009 11:55:06 AM , Rating: 2
I understand that, but it is currently possible to run it in VMWare. I'd prefer to use Virtualbox instead though(not that I would of course).


RE: Great, but...
By amanojaku on 12/1/2009 11:58:49 AM , Rating: 4
That is not true. I am a VMware employee, and the first complaint is that OS X does not run on anything other than Fusion, which is a Mac only product. OS X does not work under VMware ESX, ESXi, Server, or Workstation.

VirtualBox runs on many platforms, so the Mac version would need modification just to support the Mac OS on Mac hardware. Once that's done it would be trivial to copy those modifications from the Mac version and apply them to the remaining products. There is an open source version of VirtualBox.


RE: Great, but...
By Luticus on 12/1/2009 1:29:30 PM , Rating: 1
vmware does in fact run osx 10.5, haven't tried snow yet.

you have to set the virtual pc up as a freebsd environment and do a little work around stuff to the os. best do download a pre-hacked copy for installation on a standard intel pc.

sorry man :) i've done it so i know it can be done!


RE: Great, but...
By CCRATA on 12/1/2009 1:41:27 PM , Rating: 2
...if you have to hack it, then no it doesn't really run OS X.
That's the point he was trying to make.

If you already going to use a hackintosh image, you can probably get it to run under virtualbox with just as much work.


RE: Great, but...
By Luticus on 12/1/2009 1:46:40 PM , Rating: 2
well yea, i suppose that's true. he just made it sound like it was impossible and i wanted to clarify that is is in fact quite possible and not extremely difficult either. all it requires really is an osx copy that can be installed on a pc normally.

though i'll agree that it does take a little work to make it happen.

i actually hope it does work on virtual box as i don't like vmware much because it leaves processes running even when you don't have virtual machines active. it's one of those that try to take over a bit of your system and be sort of "always on" which i can't stand. at least msvpc is only on when i need it and doesn't degrade overall system performance just by being there, as limited as it is.

and for the record the "hackintosh" image doesn't work on msvpc so far as i've seen. boy i wish it did though.


RE: Great, but...
By Taft12 on 12/1/2009 2:09:26 PM , Rating: 3
Technically possible yes, but certainly not in the "officially supported" world of a VMWare empolyee :)


RE: Great, but...
By Luticus on 12/1/2009 2:19:40 PM , Rating: 2
Oh... of course we don't want vmware becoming the next pystar >;-)~


RE: Great, but...
By KeypoX on 12/1/2009 9:37:25 PM , Rating: 2
I have done it with retail disk... wasnt hard but it ran like crap.


update?
By semo on 12/1/2009 1:44:17 PM , Rating: 2
they really need to start fixing bugs as a priority over intorducing new features. basic things like copy and paste in virtualbox (not the VMs) in 7 64 bit crashes VB. Biderectional copy/paste never seemed to work for me.
quote:
The new version also allows an administrator to move the VM back and forth to any arbitrary snapshot date
this would be a nice feature if it works. i hope it is on the free version too... downloading it now




RE: update?
By jonmcc33 on 12/1/2009 4:20:20 PM , Rating: 2
I've been using it since before Sun acquired it. I don't have any issues with copying and pasting between VMs, hosts, etc.


Functional snapshots? Finally!
By SouthCA on 12/1/2009 5:24:36 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
The new version also allows an administrator to move the VM back and forth to any arbitrary snapshot date.


The old VBox snapshot system was my only real complaint. Glad to see it's been addressed. Thanks Sun!




Don't beat around the bush...
By stmok on 12/2/2009 1:13:45 AM , Rating: 2
Get it directly from the website...
=> http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads

If you're interested in the changes...
=> http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Changelog




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