Sun xVM
Encyclopedia
Sun xVM is a product group from Sun Microsystems
that addresses virtualization technology on x86 platforms.
based on the work that was being done in the OpenSolaris
Xen
community. It was integrated into the OpenSolaris source base, and was available in OpenSolaris OS distributions. It provided the standard features of a Xen-based hypervisor on x86-based systems.
, Linux
, and Solaris as guest operating system
s.
Various features from Sun's OpenSolaris
OS underlie the guest OS as part of the hypervisor environment, including Predictive Self Healing, ZFS
, DTrace
, advanced network bandwidth management (from the OpenSolaris Crossbow
project) as well as security enhancements.
Instead of having its own disk image format, Sun xVM Server will import/export VMDK
and VHD
images to facilitate interoperation with VMware ESX Server
and Microsoft's Hyper-V
.
In early May 2009, the Xen community at OpenSolaris.org announced that separate xVM Server development would be discontinued as such, with the Xen/OpenSolaris project filling its role and the team that previously worked on xVM Server refocusing on Ops Center as the principal means of managing multiple hypervisors on multiple physical machines from a single point of control.
Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems, Inc. was a company that sold :computers, computer components, :computer software, and :information technology services. Sun was founded on February 24, 1982...
that addresses virtualization technology on x86 platforms.
History
Sun originally announced the xVM product family in October 2007 as a broader product line. The brand at one time encompassed Sun xVM Server, Sun xVM Ops Center, and Sun xVM VirtualBox, but the latter two products no longer use "xVM" branding.Sun xVM hypervisor
The Sun xVM hypervisor is a component of the Solaris Operating SystemSolaris Operating System
Solaris is a Unix operating system originally developed by Sun Microsystems. It superseded their earlier SunOS in 1993. Oracle Solaris, as it is now known, has been owned by Oracle Corporation since Oracle's acquisition of Sun in January 2010....
based on the work that was being done in the OpenSolaris
OpenSolaris
OpenSolaris was an open source computer operating system based on Solaris created by Sun Microsystems. It was also the name of the project initiated by Sun to build a developer and user community around the software...
Xen
Xen
Xen is a virtual-machine monitor providing services that allow multiple computer operating systems to execute on the same computer hardware concurrently....
community. It was integrated into the OpenSolaris source base, and was available in OpenSolaris OS distributions. It provided the standard features of a Xen-based hypervisor on x86-based systems.
Sun xVM Server
Sun xVM Server is based on the xVM hypervisor project. Sun plans to support Microsoft WindowsMicrosoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
, Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
, and Solaris as guest operating system
Operating system
An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...
s.
Various features from Sun's OpenSolaris
OpenSolaris
OpenSolaris was an open source computer operating system based on Solaris created by Sun Microsystems. It was also the name of the project initiated by Sun to build a developer and user community around the software...
OS underlie the guest OS as part of the hypervisor environment, including Predictive Self Healing, ZFS
ZFS
In computing, ZFS is a combined file system and logical volume manager designed by Sun Microsystems. The features of ZFS include data integrity verification against data corruption modes , support for high storage capacities, integration of the concepts of filesystem and volume management,...
, DTrace
DTrace
DTrace is a comprehensive dynamic tracing framework created by Sun Microsystems for troubleshooting kernel and application problems on production systems in real time...
, advanced network bandwidth management (from the OpenSolaris Crossbow
OpenSolaris Network Virtualization and Resource Control
OpenSolaris network virtualization and resource control is a set of OpenSolaris features, currently under development by Sun Microsystems as an open source project...
project) as well as security enhancements.
Instead of having its own disk image format, Sun xVM Server will import/export VMDK
VMDK
The VMDK file format is a type of virtual appliance developed for VMware products. The format is open/documented.-Products that use the format:* VMware Workstation* VMware Player* VMware Server* VMware Fusion...
and VHD
VHD (file format)
A Virtual Hard Disk is a virtual hard disk file format, meaning it can contain what is found on a physical hard disk drive, such as disk partitions and a file system, which in turn can contain files and folders. It is typically used as the hard disk of a virtual machine...
images to facilitate interoperation with VMware ESX Server
VMware ESX Server
VMware ESX is an enterprise-level computer virtualization product offered by VMware, Inc. ESX is a component of VMware's larger offering, VMware Infrastructure, and adds management and reliability services to the core server product...
and Microsoft's Hyper-V
Hyper-V
Microsoft Hyper-V, codenamed Viridian and formerly known as Windows Server Virtualization, is a hypervisor-based virtualization system for x86-64 systems. A beta version of Hyper-V was shipped with certain x86-64 editions of Windows Server 2008, and the finalized version was released on June 26,...
.
In early May 2009, the Xen community at OpenSolaris.org announced that separate xVM Server development would be discontinued as such, with the Xen/OpenSolaris project filling its role and the team that previously worked on xVM Server refocusing on Ops Center as the principal means of managing multiple hypervisors on multiple physical machines from a single point of control.