VMware, Inc. is the marketshare leader specializing in virtualization software. The company was founded in 1998 and is based in Palo Alto,
CaliforniaCalifornia is the most populous state in the United States, and the third largest by area. California is the second most populous sub-national entity in the Americas, behind only São Paulo, Brazil...
. The Company is majority owned by EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC).
VMware's desktop software runs on
Microsoft WindowsMicrosoft Windows is a series of software operating systems and graphical user interfaces produced by Microsoft. Microsoft first introduced an operating environment named Windows in November 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces...
,
LinuxLinux is a generic term referring to Unix-like computer operating systems based on the Linux kernel. Their development is one of the most prominent examples of free and open source software collaboration; typically all the underlying source code can be used, freely modified, and redistributed,...
, and
Mac OS XMac OS X is a line of computer operating systems developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc., and since 2002 has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...
. VMware's
enterprise softwareEnterprise software, also known as enterprise application software , is software intended to solve an enterprise problem and often written using an Enterprise Software Architecture...
,
VMware ESX ServerVMware ESX is an enterprise-level virtualization product offered by VMware, Inc. ESX is a component of VMware's larger offering, VMware Infrastructure, which adds management and reliability services to the core server product....
, runs directly on
serverA server is an application running on a computer that delivers a service. For example, a web server will deliver web pages when requested by a browser . The way a server and a client dialogs is called a protocol...
hardware without requiring an additional underlying
operating systemAn operating system is an interface between hardware and user which is responsible for the management and coordination of activities and the sharing of the resources of the computer that acts as a host for computing applications run on the machine. As a host, one of the purposes of an operating...
.
History
In 1998, VMware was founded by
Diane GreeneDiane Greene was the founder and CEO of VMware from 1998 to 2008.Diane Greene, Mendel Rosenblum, Scott Devine, Edward Wang and Edouard Bugnion founded VMware in 1998....
,
Mendel RosenblumMendel Rosenblum is an associate professor of Computer science at Stanford University. He is also one of the co-founders of VMware. He is a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery ....
, Scott Devine, Edward Wang, and
Edouard BugnionEdouard Bugnion is one of the original 5 founders of VMware and was the Chief Architect until 2004. He had been a Ph.D. candidate in computer science at Stanford University prior to co-founding VMware. His primary research interests are in operating systems and computer architectures, and he was a...
. Rosenblum and Greene, who are married, first met while at Berkeley. Edouard Bugnion remained the chief architect and CTO of VMware until 2005, and went on to found Nuova Systems (now part of
CiscoCisco Systems, Inc. is a multinational corporation with more than 65,000 employees and annual revenue of US$36.10 billion as of 2009. Headquartered in San Jose, California, it designs and sells networking and communications technology and services....
).
The company has its headquarters in Palo Alto, California, United States, and established an R&D Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, as well as one at the
Time Warner CenterThe Time Warner Center is a mixed-use skyscraper developed by The Related Companies in New York City. Its design, by David Childs of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, consists of two 750 ft towers bridged by a multi-story atrium containing upscale retail shops...
in
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
, in 2005. VMware software runs on Windows and on Linux, and made its debut on Mac OS X in December, 2006. Their customers, including all 100 of the Fortune 100 companies, have realized significant benefits from virtualization, including lower total cost of ownership, higher return on investment and improved service
levels to their customers.
VMware delivered its first product, VMware Workstation, in 1999 and entered the server market in 2001 with VMware GSX Server (hosted) and VMware ESX Server (hostless).
In 2003 VMware launchedVMware Virtual Center, the VMotion and Virtual SMP technology. 64-bit support appeared in 2004. The company was also acquired by EMC Corporation that same year.
In August 2007, EMC Corporation released 10% of the company's shares in VMware in an
initial public offeringAn initial public stock offering referred to simply as an "offering" or "flotation," is when a company issues common stock or shares to the public for the first time...
on the New York Stock Exchange. The stock debuted at 29
USDThe United States dollar is the unit of currency of the United States. The U.S. dollar is normally abbreviated as the dollar sign, $, or as USD or US$ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies and from others that use the $ symbol. It is divided into 100 cents .The U.S...
per share and closed the day at 51 USD.
On July 8, 2008, VMware co-founder, president and CEO Diane Greene was unexpectedly fired by the VMware Board of Directors and replaced by
Paul MaritzPaul Maritz is CEO of VMware Corporation , and a past senior executive at Microsoft.Born and raised in Rhodesia , his family later moved to South Africa where he was schooled at Highbury Preparatory School and Hilton College. He received a B.Sc. in Computer Science from the University of Natal,...
, a retired 14-year
MicrosoftMicrosoft Corporation is a multinational computer technology corporation that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of software products for computing devices...
veteran who was heading EMC's
cloud computingCloud computing is the provision of dynamically scalable and often virtualised resources as a service over the Internet on a utility basis. Users need not have knowledge of, expertise in, or control over the technology infrastructure in the "cloud" that supports them...
business unit. In the same news release VMware stated that 2008 revenue growth will be "modestly below the previous guidance of 50% growth over 2007." As a result, market price of VMware dropped nearly 25%. Then on September 10, 2008, Rosenblum, the company's chief scientist, resigned from VMware.
On September 16, 2008, VMware announced that they are collaborating with
CiscoCisco may refer to:Companies:*Cisco Systems, a computer networking company* Certis CISCO, corporatised entity of the former Commercial and Industrial Security Corporation in Singapore* Nissin Cisco Co...
to provide joint data center solutions. One of the first results of this is the Cisco Nexus 1000V, a distributed virtual software switch that will be an integrated option in the VMware infrastructure.
VMware acquired Tungsten Graphics, a company with core expertise in 3D graphics driver development on November 26, 2008.
On August 10, 2009, VMware announced the acquisition of
SpringSourceSpringSource was an American company that supported open source application frameworks Spring Framework and Grails which run on the Java Virtual Machine...
, a leader in enterprise and web application development and management.
Core product design
VMware software provides a completely virtualized set of hardware to the guest operating system. VMware software virtualizes the hardware for a video adapter, a network adapter, and hard disk adapters. The host provides pass-through drivers for guest USB, serial, and parallel devices. In this way, VMware virtual machines become highly portable between computers, because every host looks nearly identical to the guest. In practice, a system administrator can pause operations on a virtual machine guest, move or copy that guest to another physical computer, and there resume execution exactly at the point of suspension. Alternately, for enterprise servers, a feature called VMotion allows the migration of operational guest virtual machines between similar but separate hardware hosts sharing the same storage. Each of these transitions are completely transparent to any users on the virtual machine at the time it is being migrated.
VMware Workstation, Server, and ESX take a more optimized path to running target operating systems on the host than
emulatorAn emulator in computer sciences duplicates the functions of one system using a different system, so that the second system behaves like the first system...
s (such as
BochsBochs is a portable x86 and x86-64 IBM PC compatible emulator and debugger mostly written in C++ and distributed as free software under GNU Lesser General Public License...
) which simulate the function of each CPU instruction on the target machine one-by-one, or
dynamic recompilationIn computer science, dynamic recompilation is a feature of some emulators and virtual machines, where the system may recompile some part of a program during execution...
which compiles blocks of machine-instructions the first time they execute, and then uses the translated code directly when the code runs subsequently. (
Microsoft Virtual PCMicrosoft Virtual PC is a virtualization program for Microsoft Windows operating systems, and an emulation program for Mac OS X on PowerPC-based systems. The software was originally developed by Connectix, and was subsequently acquired by Microsoft. In July 2006 Microsoft released the...
for
Mac OS XMac OS X is a line of computer operating systems developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc., and since 2002 has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...
takes this approach.) VMware software does not emulate an
instruction setAn instruction set is a list of all the instructions, and all their variations, that a processor can execute.Instructions include:* Arithmetic such as add and subtract...
for different hardware not physically present. This significantly boosts performance, but can cause problems when moving virtual machine guests between hardware hosts using different instruction-sets (such as found in 64-bit Intel and AMD CPUs), or between hardware hosts with a differing number of CPUs. Stopping the virtual-machine guest before moving it to a different CPU type generally causes no issues.
VMware's products use the CPU to run code directly whenever possible (as, for example, when running
user-modeA conventional operating system usually segregates virtual memory into kernel space and user space. Kernel space is strictly reserved for running the kernel, kernel extensions, and some device drivers. In contrast, user space is the memory area where all user mode applications work and this memory...
and
virtual 8086 modeIn the 80386 microprocessor and later, virtual 8086 mode allows the execution of real mode applications that are incapable of running directly in protected mode....
code on x86). When direct execution cannot operate, such as with kernel-level and
real-modeReal mode, also called real address mode, is an operating mode of 80286 and later x86-compatible CPUs. Real mode is characterized by a 20 bit segmented memory address space and unlimited direct software access to all memory and I/O addresses and peripheral hardware...
code, VMware products re-write the code dynamically, a process VMware calls "binary translation" or BT. The translated code gets stored in spare memory, typically at the end of the
address spaceIn computing, an address space defines a range of discrete addresses, each of which may correspond to a physical or virtual memory register, a network host, peripheral device, disk sector or other logical or physical entity...
, which
segmentationIn computing, memory segmentation is one of the most common ways to achieve memory protection; another common one is paging. In a computer system using segmentation, an instruction operand that refers to a memory location includes a value that identifies a segment and an offset within that segment....
mechanisms can protect and make invisible. For these reasons, VMware operates dramatically faster than emulators, running at more than 80% of the speed that the virtual guest operating-system would run directly on the same hardware. VMware claims an overhead as small as 3% to 6% for computationally-intensive applications.
VMware's approach avoids some of the difficulties of virtualization on x86-based platforms. Virtual machines may deal with offending instructions by replacing them, or by simply running kernel-code in user-mode. Replacing instructions runs the risk that the code may fail to find the expected content if it reads itself; one cannot protect code against reading while allowing normal execution, and replacing in-place becomes complicated. Running the code unmodified in user-mode will also fail, as most instructions which just read the machine-state do not cause an exception and will betray the real state of the program, and certain instructions silently change behavior in user-mode. One must always rewrite; performing a simulation of the current
program counterThe program counter, or PC is a processor register that indicates where the computer is in its instruction sequence...
in the original location when necessary and (notably) remapping hardware code
breakpointA breakpoint, in software development, is an intentional stopping or pausing place in a program, put in place for debugging purposes. More generally, a breakpoint is a means of acquiring knowledge about a program during its execution...
s.
Although VMware virtual machines run in user-mode, VMware Workstation itself requires the installation of various
driverIn computing, a device driver or software driver is a computer program allowing higher-level computer programs to interact with a hardware device....
s in the host operating-system, notably to dynamically switch the
GDTThe Global Descriptor Table or GDT is a data structure used by Intel x86-family processors starting with the 80286 in order to define the characteristics of the various memory areas used during program execution, for example the base address, the size and access privileges like executability and...
and the
IDTThe Interrupt Descriptor Table is a data structure used by the x86 architecture to implement an interrupt vector table. The IDT is used by the processor to determine the correct response to interrupts and exceptions....
tables.
The VMware product line can also run different operating systems on a dual-boot system simultaneously by booting one partition natively while using the other as a guest within VMware Workstation.
Desktop software
- VMware Workstation
VMware Workstation is a virtual machine software suite for x86 and x86-64 computers from VMware, a division of EMC Corporation. This software suite allows users to set up multiple x86 and x86-64 virtual computers and to use one or more of these virtual machines simultaneously with the hosting...
(first product launched by VMware in 1999). This software suite allows users to run multiple instances of x86The term x86 refers to a family of instruction set architectures based on the Intel 8086. The term derived from the fact that many early processors backward compatible with the 8086 also had names ending in "86". Many additions and extensions have been added to the x86 instruction set over the...
or x86-64In processor design, x86-64 is an extension of the x86 instruction set. It allows far larger virtual and physical address spaces than x86, doubles the width of the integer registers from 32 to 64 bits, increases the number of integer registers, and provides other enhancements...
-compatible operating systems on a single physical PCA personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end user, with no intervening computer operator...
.
- VMware Fusion
VMware Fusion is a virtual machine software product developed by VMware for Macintosh computers with Intel processors. Fusion allows Intel-based Macs to run x86 and x86-64 "guest" operating systems, such as Microsoft Windows, Linux, NetWare and Solaris as virtual machines simultaneously with Mac OS...
provides similar functionality for users of the MacIntelThe Apple–Intel transition was the process of changing the CPU of Macintosh computers from PowerPC processors to Intel x86 processors. The transition became public knowledge at the 2005 Worldwide Developers Conference , when Apple Inc...
platform, along with full compatibility with virtual machines created by other VMware products.
- VMware Player
VMware Player is a freeware virtualization software product from VMware, Inc. . Player can run guest virtual appliances or other virtual machines produced by other VMware products but cannot itself create new virtual machines...
For users without a license to use VMware Workstation or VMware Fusion, VMware offers this software as freeware product for personal use, which can run (but not create) virtual machines.
Server software
VMware markets two virtualization products for
serverA server is an application running on a computer that delivers a service. For example, a web server will deliver web pages when requested by a browser . The way a server and a client dialogs is called a protocol...
s:
- VMware ESX
VMware ESX is an enterprise-level virtualization product offered by VMware, Inc. ESX is a component of VMware's larger offering, VMware Infrastructure, which adds management and reliability services to the core server product....
(formerly called "ESX Server"), an enterprise-levelEnterprise software, also known as enterprise application software , is software intended to solve an enterprise problem and often written using an Enterprise Software Architecture...
product, can deliver greater performance than the freewareFreeware is computer software that is available for use at no cost or for an optional fee.The opposite of Freeware is Payware.-History:...
VMware Server, due to lower system overheadIn computer science, overhead is generally considered any combination of excess or indirect computation time, memory, bandwidth, or other resources that are required to attain a particular goal. It is a special case of engineering overhead....
. VMware ESX is a "bare-metal" product, running directly on the server hardware, allowing virtual servers to also use hardware more or less directly. In addition, VMware ESX integrates into VMware vCenter, which offers extra services to enhance the reliability and manageability of a server deployment, such as
- VMotion - the capability to move a running virtual machine from one ESX host to another and faster than some other editions
- Storage VMotion - the capability to move a running virtual machine from one storage device to another
- DRS - Dynamic Resource Scheduler - automatic load balancing of a ESX cluster using VMotion
- HA - High Availability - In case of hardware failure in a cluster, the virtual servers will automatically restart on another host in the cluster
VMware ESX Server is virtual infrastructure software for partitioning, consolidating and managing servers in mission-critical environments. Ideally suited for enterprise data centers, ESX Server minimizes the total cost of ownership of computing infrastructure by increasing resource utilization and its hardware-independent virtual machines encapsulated in easy to-manage files maximize administration flexibility.
- VMware ESXi (formerly called "VMware ESX 3i"), is quite similar to ESX, but differentiates in that the Service Console is removed, and replaced with a minimal BusyBox
BusyBox is a software application released as Free software under the GNU General Public License that provides many standard Unix tools, much like the larger GNU Core Utilities. BusyBox is designed to be a small executable for use with the Linux kernel, which makes it ideal for use with embedded...
installation. Disk space requirements are much lower than for ESX and the memory footprintMemory footprint refers to the amount of main memory that a program uses or references while running.This includes all sorts of active memory regions like code, static data sections , heap, as well as all the stacks, plus memory required to hold any additional data structures, such as symbol...
is reduced. ESXi is intended to be run from flash disks in servers but can be run from normal disks. VMware ESXi hosts can't be managed directly from the console, all management is performed through a VirtualCenter Server. In July 2008, VMware decided to give ESXi away for free.
- VMware Server
VMware Server is an entry-level server virtualization software suite from VMware, Inc., a subsidiary of EMC Corporation. VMware released version 1.0 of Server on July 12, 2006. Server is a continuation of the retired GSX Server product line. VMware Server can create, edit, and play virtual...
(formerly called "GSX Server") is also provided as freeware, like VMware PlayerVMware Player is a freeware virtualization software product from VMware, Inc. . Player can run guest virtual appliances or other virtual machines produced by other VMware products but cannot itself create new virtual machines...
, but it is possible to create virtual machines with it. It is a "hosted" application, which runs within an existing LinuxLinux is a generic term referring to Unix-like computer operating systems based on the Linux kernel. Their development is one of the most prominent examples of free and open source software collaboration; typically all the underlying source code can be used, freely modified, and redistributed,...
or WindowsMicrosoft Windows is a series of software operating systems and graphical user interfaces produced by Microsoft. Microsoft first introduced an operating environment named Windows in November 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces...
operating systemAn operating system is an interface between hardware and user which is responsible for the management and coordination of activities and the sharing of the resources of the computer that acts as a host for computing applications run on the machine. As a host, one of the purposes of an operating...
.
Other products
VMware vCenter Converter (VMware Converter) comes in both Server and Standalone versions and is designed primarily for the following tasks:
- Convert a physical machine into a virtual machine; referred to as Physical-to-Virtual
Physical-to-Virtual describes the process of decoupling and migrating a physical server's OS, applications, and data from a physical server to a virtual machine guest hosted on a virtualized platform.-Manual P2V:...
or P2V.
- Convert a virtual machine of one type into another.
- Run automated configuration tasks on VMware ESX/ESXi servers.
Converted VMs are compatible with VMware ESX/ESXi Server, VMware Server and VMware Workstation. A P2V conversion can be done from any physical machine running Microsoft Windows (XP or later) or Linux based (Linux only works on Standalone version). Conversions are managed from a centralized console allowing for multiple conversions at the same time. VMware vCenter Converter the older VMware products "P2V Assistant" and "Importer". P2V Assistant allowed users to convert physical machines into virtual machines; and Importer allowed the import of virtual machines from other products into VMware Workstation.
VMware Capacity Planner, an
information technologyInformation technology , as defined by the Information Technology Association of America , is "the study, design, development, implementation, support or management of computer-based information systems, particularly software applications and computer hardware." IT deals with the use of electronic...
(IT)
capacity planningCapacity planning is the process of determining the production capacity needed by an organization to meet changing demands for its products. In the context of capacity planning, "capacity" is the maximum amount of work that an organization is capable of completing in a given period of time.A...
tool, collects utilization-data in heterogeneous computing environments and compares it to
industry-standardIndustry Standard is a 1982 album by The Dregs. It is their only album featuring vocals and garnered the group their fourth Grammy nomination.-Track listing:All tracks are written by Steve Morse, except where noted.#"Assembly Line" – 4:25...
reference-data to provide analysis and decision-support modeling.
VMware ACE provides a means of distributing secured virtual desktops to networked client PCs.
VMware ThinAppVMware ThinApp is an application virtualization and portable application creator suite by VMware that can package conventional applications so that they become portable applications.- History :...
, formerly Thinstall, is a virtualization suite capable of creating portable software ("portable apps"). This software enables applications to execute without being previously installed.
VMware InfrastructureIn the field of computing, VMware Infrastructure 3 consists of a suite of virtualization products from VMware, Inc....
is a collection of VMware products used to manage a VMware ESX/ESXi server environment.
VMware vSphereVMware vSphere, is VMware's first cloud operating system, able to manage large pools of virtualized computing infrastructure, including software and hardware....
is a "cloud OS". VMware vSphere 4 was originally named VMware Virtual Infrastructure (VI) 4 and is capable of managing large pools of infrastructure, including software and hardware both from internal and external networks.
The
VMware Tools package adds drivers and utilities to improve the graphical performance for different guest operating systems, including mouse tracking. The package also enables some integration between the guest and host systems, including shared
folderFolder, directory, catalog, or drawer, in computing, is a virtual container within a digital file system, in which groups of computer files and other folders can be kept and organized....
s,
plug-and-playIn computing, plug and play is a term used to describe the characteristic of a computer bus, or device specification, which facilitates the discovery of a hardware component in a system, without the need for physical device configuration, or user intervention in resolving resource conflicts.Plug...
devices,
clockA clock is an instrument used to indicate, measure, keep, and co-ordinate time. The word clock is derived ultimately from the Celtic words clagan and clocca meaning "bell"...
synchronisation, and cutting-and-pasting across environments. VMware Inc makes VMware Tools available for
Microsoft WindowsMicrosoft Windows is a series of software operating systems and graphical user interfaces produced by Microsoft. Microsoft first introduced an operating environment named Windows in November 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces...
,
LinuxLinux is a generic term referring to Unix-like computer operating systems based on the Linux kernel. Their development is one of the most prominent examples of free and open source software collaboration; typically all the underlying source code can be used, freely modified, and redistributed,...
, Sun Solaris,
FreeBSDFreeBSD is a free Unix-like operating system descended from AT&T UNIX via the Berkeley Software Distribution . It has been characterized as "the unknown giant among free operating systems". It is not a clone of UNIX, but works like UNIX, with UNIX-compliant internals and system APIs. FreeBSD is...
, and
Novell NetWareNetWare is a network operating system developed by Novell, Inc. It initially used cooperative multitasking to run various services on a personal computer, and the network protocols were based on the archetypal Xerox Network Services stack....
guest systems.
On September 11 at VMworld 2007, VMware announced that large portions of VMware Tools for Linux, Solaris, and FreeBSD guests were released under GPL and GPL-compatible licenses. They also announced the creation of the Open Virtual Machine Tools ("open-vm-tools") project on Sourceforge.net.
See also
- Comparison of platform virtual machines
- List of VMware software
- Virtualization
- VMware VMFS
VMware VMFS is VMware, Inc.'s cluster file system. It is used by VMware ESX Server and the company's flagship server virtualization suite, VMware Infrastructure. It was developed and is used to store virtual machine disk images, including snapshots...
External links