Sun xVM Portfolio

last updated on 2009-08-31

The Sun xVM portfolio addresses virtualization needs from the desktop to the data center by enabling you to optimize and manage both virtual and physical industry-standard IT environments. The portfolio consists of the following products:

• Sun Ops Center
• Sun xVM VirtualBox
• Sun VDI Software

Here are some resources for the Sun xVM portfolio, followed by resources for the individual products and for Sun xVM hypervisor technology:

• New Main web page for Sun xVM portfolio, which provides links to videos, podcasts, blogs, feature and benefit info, the Open xVM community, and more

• New Sun xVM Virtualization Portfolio: Virtualizing the Dynamic Datacenter (pdf), a white paper that summarizes the benefits and challenges of traditional virtualization strategies, the advantages of Sun's approach, and the core capabilities of the Sun xVM portfolio

• New Sun xVM Information Exchange wiki, which contains links to the official Sun xVM platform product documentation and multimedia overviews for Sun xVM Server and Sun xVM Ops Center

• Videos:

  • New Sun xVM Portfolio, in which Sun VP Steve Wilson discusses how the Sun xVM portfolio is designed to address virtualization and management through open products that operate on Internet scale
  • New Video: Introducing Sun xVM Virtualization Portfolio, in which Sun EVP Rich Green discusses the Sun xVM portfolio with Mike Neil, GM, Virtualization, Microsoft
  • New Why Partner With Sun? a video with Susan Wu that describes how Sun work with partners to address virtualization needs

• New Sun xVM Central, a blog that provides news and insights about Sun's xVM products

• New xVM Roadshow, a half-day seminar where you can learn how to take advantage of the best virtualization and management products available

• New xVM News, a collection of news feeds about xVM, virtualization and systems management

• New Download page for the Sun xVM Guest Additions Early Access 2, which provides access to an early version of the Windows Paravirtualized Drivers for use with Windows 2008, Windows 2003 SP2 and Windows XP guests running on xVM hypervisor or Sun xVM Server Early Access releases

Sun Ops Center

Sun Ops Center is a highly scalable, unified management platform for physical and virtual environments. You can use Sun Ops Center to manage multi-platform x64 and SPARC systems distributed throughout a global data center and integrate with existing toolsets. Sun Ops Center is ready to facilitate many aspects of compliance reporting (ITIL) and data center automation, and it enables management of thousands of systems simultaneously.

Here are some Sun Ops Center resources:

• New Sun Ops Center web page, which provides links to a demo, videos, podcasts, the OpenxVM community site, and more

• New FAQs for Sun Ops Center, which provides answers to general and technical questions

• Wikis:

  • New Sun Ops Center 2.0 wiki, the official source for Sun Ops Center version 2.0 documentation
  • New Sun Ops Center 1.1 wiki, the official source for Sun Ops Center version 1.1 documentation

• New Sun Ops Center webinar schedule, where you can register for a free webinar

• New Sun Ops Center forum, where you can post questions and receive answers

Sun xVM VirtualBox

Sun xVM VirtualBox turns a PC into an easy-to-use virtualization platform. This enterprise-class, open source software runs on all major operating systems and eliminates the need for tradeoffs or multiple hardware systems.

Here are some resources:

• New Sun xVM VirtualBox web page, which provides links to a demo, videos, podcasts, the Sun xVM VirtualBox gallery, and more

• New FAQs for Sun xVM VirtualBox, which answers questions about Sun xVM VirtualBox

• New Sun xVM VirtualBox downloads page, where you can download Sun xVM VirtualBox

• New Optimizing the Desktop Using Sun xVM VirtualBox, a Sun BluePrints document that describes key product features and benefits and explains how the software enables multiple virtual machines (VMs) on a single desktop, which enables users to access applications in OS environments other than the native OS on their laptop or desktop system

• Community resources:

  • New VirtualBox community at virtualbox.org*, the place where the large VirtualBox community hangs out, which includes forums, mailing lists, how-to info, and more
  • New Sun VirtualBox web page with links to other community resources, such as Internet Relay Chat (IRC) and Public BugTracker
  • New VirtualBox on Twitter*, a channel the VirtualBox team uses for announcements

• Videos:

  • New Installing OpenSolaris in VirtualBox, in which Brian Leonard demonstrates where to download OpenSolaris and VirtualBox and then how to install VirtualBox, create an OpenSolaris Virtual Machine, start the OpenSolaris Live CD, install OpenSolaris, and install guest additions
  • New Lab on a Laptop Demo, in which Steve Wilson demonstrates how to create a "lab on a laptop" using Sun xVM VirtualBox
  • New See how it works: VirtualBox

• Blogs:

  • New VirtualBox Buzz, which has links to recently published news and blogs about VirtualBox
  • New VirtualBox and the ZFS Demonstration Tutorial, a blog that explains an easier way to complete the ZFS Demonstration Tutorial by running VirtualBox under OpenSolaris
  • New The Fat Bloke Sings blog, which has useful entries such as:
    • Using VirtualBox for VPN access
    • Windows 7 on VirtualBox
    • Installing OpenSolaris 2008.05 as a guest in VirtualBox, which describes installing OpenSolaris 2008.05 into a VirtualBox VM on a Mac
  • New List of all Sun blogs that mention VirtualBox

Sun VDI Software

Sun Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) Software delivers access to a highly secure, resilient, and available virtual desktop environment on a wide variety of client devices, from traditional PCs to Sun Ray virtual display clients. New in Sun VDI Software 2.0 is the Sun Virtual Desktop Connector, which provides seamless integration with the virtualization layer and makes it easy to control the life cycle of virtual machines and assign users to virtual desktop environments.

Here are additional resources for Sun VDI Software:

• New Sun Virtual Desktop Infrastructure Software web page, which provides links to videos, podcasts, webcasts, and more

• New The Managed Desktop Factory: Sun Virtual Desktop Infrastructure Software as a Service, a Sun BluePrints paper that describes an architecture for delivering applications and full desktop environments to clients using a server-based computing model

• New FAQs for Sun Virtual Desktop Infrastructure Software, which provides answers to general and technical questions

• Videos:

  • New Sun VDI Software Demonstration, a video in which Steve Wilson demonstrates the desktop efficiency that can be gained by using Sun Virtual Desktop Infrastructure Software
  • New VDI Tour video, in which Product Line Manager Chris Kawalek discusses the challenges IT organizations face with desktop deployments and how Sun VDI Software addresses those challenges
  • New Sun Virtual Desktop Solutions Part Three, part three of a four-part video series, which focuses on Sun Virtual Desktop Infrastructure Software

• New Sun VDI wiki, which provides access to the official documentation for Sun Virtual Desktop Infrastructure Software

• New Blog by Paul Walker that provides a link to a demo of how Sun Identity Manager can complement Sun Virtual Desktop Infrastructure

• Building a Virtual Desktop Infrastructure Demo With Sun Virtual Desktop Connector 1.0, a cookbook for creating a demo based on the Sun Virtual Desktop Infrastructure Software using Sun's desktop broker, Sun Virtual Desktop Connector 1.0

Also see the Desktop Virtualization section of this web site.

Sun xVM Hypervisor Technology

Here are some resources to help you understand Sun xVM hypervisor technology:

• Sun xVM Hypervisor Overview on BigAdmin, which describes the Sun xVM hypervisor software on the x86 family of processor architectures and virtual machine instances known as domains

• New Part IV Sun xVM and Introduction to the Sun xVM Hypervisor in the System Administration Guide: Virtualization Using the Solaris Operating System on http://docs.sun.com

• New Install Sun xVM Hypervisor and Use It to Configure Domains (pdf)*

• New Part 1: Configure and Use ZFS-Hosted iSCSI Guest Storage Within the Sun xVM Hypervisor (pdf)*

• New Part 2: Configure and Use ZFS-Hosted iSCSI Guest Storage Within the Sun xVM Hypervisor (pdf)*