Tuesday, 13 February 2007

Virtual Windows to Run Unmodified on Linux

Novell and Intel have released paravirtualised network and block device drivers that will allow Microsoft Windows Server 2000/2003/XP to run unmodified in Xen virtual environments on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 from Novell, operating on Intel-based server platforms featuring Intel Virtualisation Technology, the companies said in a joint statement. Combined with the ability to host unmodified Linux on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, these new drivers will let customers confidently migrate to newer and fewer energy-efficient servers, consolidating legacy Windows or Linux solutions onto virtual servers, they added.

"With our SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 platform launch in July 2006, Novell became the first major Linux distributor to integrate Xen virtualisation into a Linux distribution," said Jeff Jaffe, Novell executive vice president and chief technology officer.

"Intel has been working with the open source community to enable Linux virtualisation solutions to take advantage of Intel Virtualisation Technology, so that guest OS and applications can run unmodified," said Doug Fisher, Intel vice president of Software and Solutions Group. "In addition, our Quad-Core Intel Xeon Processor-based platform with its performance provides headroom for multiple Virtual Machines running varied data centre workloads. Getting Windows to run with Linux unmodified and vice versa will boost to IT managers in making decisions on corporate platform standardisation and refresh."

Novell is sponsoring a virtualisation pilot program for customers, providing enterprise-level support for running fully virtualised Windows 2000/2003/XP workloads on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. The paravirtualised device drivers are now available to members of the pilot program. General availability is scheduled for later this year, the companies said.