VMware
1 2 3 4 Previous Next 52 Replies Last post: Sep 17, 2007 12:54 PM by king@it.ibm.c…  

ESX lite posted: Jun 15, 2007 1:08 PM

Click to view sjuull's profile Novice 11 posts since
Aug 30, 2006
Just ran into this article

http://searchservervirtualization.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid94_gci1260992,00.html

This sounds pretty smart, getting the virtualization layer even thinner and closer to the hardware......
anyone that can confirm this rumor ?

Re: ESX lite

1. Jun 15, 2007 1:53 PM in response to: sjuull
Click to view petedr's profile Master 1,408 posts since
Mar 18, 2006
I have not heard about that rumour but sound interesting,

Re: ESX lite

2. Jun 15, 2007 6:49 PM in response to: sjuull
Click to view FredPeterson's profile Expert 456 posts since
Apr 19, 2006
To me it seems like it would have to be a specialized hardware appliance in order to be truly effective.

Meaning, once it becomes "out dated" it has to be tossed, you wouldn't be able to re-use as a test windows box or linux box or something. While not a bad thing, its life span to justify the upfront cost would have to be pretty good.

Re: ESX lite

3. Jun 15, 2007 7:12 PM in response to: FredPeterson
Click to view sbeaver's profile Guru 7,719 posts since
Nov 1, 2004
I had heard rumors that they were working on this I just never had any idea they were taking it in that direction. Sounds interesting

Re: ESX lite

4. Jun 15, 2007 7:39 PM in response to: FredPeterson
Click to view asatoran's profile Virtuoso 2,924 posts since
Jun 23, 2006
To me it seems like it would have to be a specialized
hardware appliance in order to be truly effective.

Meaning, once it becomes "out dated" it has to be
tossed, you wouldn't be able to re-use as a test
windows box or linux box or something. While not a
bad thing, its life span to justify the upfront cost
would have to be pretty good.


The article says that it's going to be in the firmware of the MB. But I would hope that the firmware can be reflashed in order to upgrade the ESX part.

I see this like Cisco boxes. The firmware can be flashed but once they go EOL, what do you do with them? ;-)

Re: ESX lite

5. Jun 16, 2007 4:42 AM in response to: asatoran
Click to view Ken.Cline's profile Champion 5,146 posts since
Jul 7, 2004
but once they go EOL, what do you do with them? ;-)

eBay!!

Re: ESX lite

6. Jun 16, 2007 5:48 AM in response to: Ken.Cline
Click to view daniel_uk's profile Expert 999 posts since
Oct 24, 2005
Was at a conference with DELL as a sponsor this week.

They are bringing out a conventional unit sized "VM" machine its got an embedded hypervisor (not sure if this is completely true) more than average RAM Slots, and bolsters up on bus speeds and PCI speeds etc.

Re: ESX lite

7. Jun 16, 2007 6:01 AM in response to: daniel_uk
Click to view Fedde's profile Enthusiast 31 posts since
Dec 20, 2006
They are bringing out a conventional unit sized "VM"
machine its got an embedded hypervisor (not sure if
this is completely true) more than average RAM Slots,
and bolsters up on bus speeds and PCI speeds etc.

According to our Dell rep it looks like this:

- 12 slots for RAM
(or was it 16 slots? sorry, don't remember, it was at least 12 slots)
- integrated hypervisor wasn't mentioned at all

When it will be available was a bit uncertain, second half of 2007,
possibly august or september, but more likely october or november.

That's of course availability for us, we're located in Sweden.

Maybe it will be avilable earlier in the US?

/Fedde

Re: ESX lite

8. Jun 16, 2007 7:52 AM in response to: Fedde
Click to view larstr's profile Virtuoso 2,382 posts since
Mar 11, 2004
- 12 slots for RAM
(or was it 16 slots? sorry, don't remember, it was at
least 12 slots)

I think it was 16 or maybe 32, since they support 256GB ram, and processors seem to be quad core AMD with NPT.

Lars

Re: ESX lite

9. Jun 17, 2007 2:50 AM in response to: larstr
Click to view daniel_uk's profile Expert 999 posts since
Oct 24, 2005
Well i wonder why they have chosen AMD :)

Re: ESX lite

10. Jun 17, 2007 11:50 AM in response to: daniel_uk
Click to view meistermn's profile Master 1,157 posts since
Dec 7, 2004
Because of the integrated memory controller.
Intel will bring this in Q3/Q4 so they are coping AMD in the architecture.

Message was edited by:
meistermn

Re: ESX lite

11. Jun 18, 2007 4:27 AM in response to: meistermn
Click to view daniel_uk's profile Expert 999 posts since
Oct 24, 2005
I didnt want to state the obvious!

Re: ESX lite

12. Jun 18, 2007 7:33 AM in response to: sjuull
Click to view glynnd1's profile Expert 615 posts since
Dec 3, 2004
It does make for interest thinking, but what has changed to cause this?
A current install of ESX takes about 16GB, going on memory here, sure some of that is swap and drivers, low hanging fruit that can easily be removed.
But what else has been removed? Maybe they are just SAN booting, or PXE booting or is ESX Lite a very different product?

I think the bit of greatest impact is the removal of the hard drive, arguable the source of most failures in a server. It will be interesting to see the server hardware vendor response to this. A server with no spindles, or IDE/SCSI controller boards and therefore more space for memory.

On the Dell server my details date back to February time frame, the RAM spec was 128gb, if this is done with 4GB modules it means 32 memory slots, which is a lot of motherboard real estate. Of course they could go with memory daughter boards or similar, 8gb modules, of course if they have tossed out the hard drives and controllers that they do have all that space :)

Unfortunately VMware play their cards very close to their chest, so I doubt we'll get any official comment from them.

Message was edited by:
glynnd1
corrected link

Re: ESX lite

13. Jun 18, 2007 7:07 AM in response to: glynnd1
Click to view king@it.ibm.com's profile Virtuoso 2,927 posts since
Jan 16, 2004
/* beginning of IBM mode */

http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?messageID=590165

We have been trying to talk about the node state-less concept for "ever" .......... it's good that now all pieces are coming together.....

/* end of IBM mode */

Consider that this post has nothing to do with "ESX lite" (never heard this name and I am not even sure it's going to be it ... ;-) ). But it is more of a common sense where instead of using 2 x standard legacy hard disk drives you would use another (better) I/O technology .....

Whether what you could load on these better devices is or is not a standard ESX instance as we know it today is another matter which I won't discuss ......

Massimo.

Re: ESX lite

14. Jul 4, 2007 4:57 AM in response to: king@it.ibm.c…
Click to view MIAMI_deVICE's profile Novice 21 posts since
Nov 2, 2004
I was on a VMware Symposia yesterday and was able to talk
with some guys from Dell.
They haven't heard the name ESX lite, but when I told them what ESX lite is all about, they said I shurely mean DELL ESX Aplliance.
They didn't know the actual status of the Project but confirmed that it deals with the idea of bringing the VMware Kernel to the BIOS.
They said the Project is scheduled to be lounched in Q12008.

Later in a Podium discussion, the representative of Dell was talking about something like "deploying some pieces of VMware to hardware in order to make it more secure".....

So there are for shure some plans for a "ESX lite"...

Jens

VMware Developer

SDKs, APIs, Videos, Learn and much more in the Developer community.

Learn More

Developer Sample Code

Increase your developer productivity with VMware API sample code.

Learn More

VMworld Sessions & Labs

Online access to the latest VMworld Sessions & Labs and online services.

Learn more

Purchase PSO Credits Online

Purchase credits to redeem training and consulting services online.

Buy Now

Community Hardware Software

View reported configurations or report your own.

Learn More

VMware vSphere

Come witness the next giant leap in virtualization.

Register Today

Communities