January 10, 2008 (Techworld.com) --
SWsoft has announced the release of the beta version of Parallels Server, the company's server virtualization hypervisor.
The company, which recently announced that it will change its moniker to Parallels, said the product will run multiple copies of Mac OS X Server v10.5 Leopard on a single machine, which it claimed is a first.
The system, aimed at small and medium businesses and departments of large enterprises, also runs on any x86-based 32-bit or 64-bit Windows or Linux-based server, according to SWsoft.
The product can be installed in one of two modes. The first uses the Parallels hypervisor, in which virtual machines run in tandem with a primary operating system. The second is bare metal, in which virtual machines do not depend on a host operating system to function properly. Users can choose to load Parallels Server in lightweight hypervisor mode or bare-metal mode at installation.
SWsoft claimed that Parallels Server is the only virtualization product to offer this choice of implementation at install time. It also claims to support any combination of more than 50 different guest operating systems including Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008, Red Hat Linux, SuSE Enterprise Linux and Sun Solaris simultaneously in isolated virtual machines. The system will also run Mac OS X Server in a virtual machine, said the company.
Parallels Server also offers experimental support for Intel's second-generation virtualization technology, Intel Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O (VT-d), which can boost throughput and allows users to allocate hardware resources such as a second graphics or network card directly to a virtual machine.
SWsoft said that its virtualization management tools will shortly be able to manage both Virtuozzo Containers and Parallels virtual machines.
"Hundreds of thousands of customers are using Parallels virtualization software in their businesses and homes to get the most out of their Windows, Mac and Linux desktop computers and applications," said SWsoft CEO Serguei Beloussov. "Launching the Parallels Server beta is a key milestone in delivering on our vision of 'Optimized Computing' for servers and desktops across heterogeneous platforms."
Key features in the Parallels Server beta include:
Supports 50 guest operating systems, and can run virtual machines via a bare-metal hypervisor
Runs multiple copies of Mac OS X Server, Windows Server and Linux on the same Xserve
Users running Parallels Server on Apple hardware also have the industry-first option to run Mac OS X Server in a virtual machine
Allows remote control of the virtual machines via the Parallels Management Console
Supports up to 64Gb of RAM on the host computer
Supports x64-based primary and guest OSes, as well as two-way SMP (symmetric multiprocessing) in virtual machines; the final release version will support up to four-way SMP
Allows multi-user access to the same virtual machine
Supports ACPI in virtual machines
Provides open, scriptable APIs for customized management
Supports Intel VT-x, and provides experimental support for Intel VT-d
The company said it is accepting registrations for new beta testers.
Reprinted with permission from For more enterprise technology news from the U.K., please visit TechWorld.com. Copyright 2006 IDG, all rights reserved.
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