Quoting Information Week
VMware and Microsoft both said they're working behind the scenes to make it easier for virtualization users to migrate across their differing virtualization environments and run each other's virtualized files.
But so far, it's only virtual kumbaya. Neither one is saying how they're going to do it.
XenSource, the company sponsoring the open-source Xen hypervisor, is a Microsoft partner and said it, too, is a party to the out-of-the-limelight talks and will heed any agreed-upon standards or translation methods. No single, specific standard, such as a shared virtual file format, is under discussion, however.
"Initiatives are underway. They're just not ready for disclosure," said Patrick Lin, VMware's senior director of product management, at the end of a panel sponsored by chipmaker AMD at the Westin San Francisco.
The panel followed daylong briefings by analysts at IDC's Virtualization 2.0 Forum at the Miyako Hotel a mile away. AMD took advantage of the event to put the different vendors in front of microphones to elicit a pledge of cooperation and videotape the results.
Microsoft's Bob Tenczar, director of product management in the Windows Server division, said Microsoft had formed interoperability agreements with Xen and Novell to ensure that Linux runs in virtualized environments under Windows. The upcoming Veridian hypervisor in Windows Longhorn Server will be able to host both types of virtual machines.
John Bara, VP of marketing at XenSource, said, "We're all working together for virtual machine interoperability. The more virtualization expands, the more we will all benefit."
VMware, the most successful virtualization vendor by market share, uses the VMDK format for its virtualized files. An operating system and application configured to work together can be combined into one virtualized file and run in a virtual machine. But VMware's VMDK files don't run in Microsoft Virtual Server, and Microsoft VHD files don't run in VMware Server or VMware's ESX Server.
Lin acknowledged that "a competitive format war doesn't benefit anybody." But VMware's VMDK happens to be the most popular format for producing virtual appliances, where software companies combine a version of an operating system configured to run their software into a single virtual file. The file can then be downloaded and is ready to run in a VMware virtual machine, regardless of the host operating system on x86 hardware.
VMware might like to keep that advantage a while longer, rather than walk away from a successful de facto standard. As an indicator of the tensions still simmering below the surface, Lin said, "It's important for Microsoft to be somewhat more open about what it's doing."
VMware in the past has criticized Microsoft for refusing to support Windows running in competitors' virtual environments unless the customer has purchased Premier level support. Microsoft has made an Open Specification pledge that its VHD format is freely available and can be used to package Windows with applications. VMware in a white paper said "some" VHD files end up being formatted to deactivate themselves if they detect they're running in a virtual machine other than Microsoft's Virtual PC or Virtual Server.
Bara said so far interoperability between the virtualization vendors consists of a one-way willingness to run virtualized files of a competitor in their virtual machines, but keeping it difficult for their competitors to run their virtualized files. "Right now, the interoperability tends to be one-way," he said. "It's like a vacuum to suck in the other guy's files [and convert them to your own format], but not help your own virtual files run in the competitor's environment."
Joost Pronk van Hoogeveen, Sun Microsystems' marketing manager for virtualization, said Sun, with its Solaris Containers approach to virtualization, can't necessarily help the x86 vendors resolve their differences. But he added, "I do believe everybody understands that interoperability is the customer's need." Citing the case of early video-cassette formats being at war with each other, he said, "We don't want that pain."
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