H9Labs

Hybrid Clouds

Dave.McCrory — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 16:33:13 GMT

What is a Hybrid Cloud?

Clouds are made up of resources (in the form of Servers and/or Services) that are delivered to one or more consumers without the consumer being required to have knowledge of the specific underlying infrastructure. What makes this a Hybrid Cloud? A Hybrid Cloud has the ability to cross one or more boundaries based on either a set of conditions or manual intervention. What might be a condition? Maybe a datacenter has run out of capacity and still needs to meet additional demands on its web servers. In this example, by leveraging a Hybrid Cloud model, the datacenter could automatically have additional webservers brought online by a third party service provider to provide additional capacity. This means that the data center's cloud extended accross its normal boudndaries and leveraged resources from the service provider's cloud. This is a simple scenario, more complex scenarios are certainly possible and are leveraged by some companies already.

What makes this an attractive model for businesses?

Businesses need to be able to meet demands on a real-time basis, yet they don't want to pay for excess compute capacity that will sit idle. This was the inital catalyst for what became the call for server consolidation (this is what led to VMware's explosive growth and the reason it became so popular in data centers). Now that many larger businesses have consolidated, they continue to look at ways of adding more business applications however they don't want to buy resources based on peak usage. Enter the Hybrid Cloud Model, providing the benefits of having critical data locally (meeting laws and regulatory requirements) while having services and dynamic expansion/contraction abilities beyond the capacity of the local/private cloud (or traditional IT Datacenter)

Illustrated In the Series of Images Below is a Typical Use Case for a Hybrid Cloud:

Because Hybrid Clouds can provide a greater depth and flexibility versus simply an internal cloud (or an external cloud for that matter) businesses are beginning to look at what cost savings can be brought on by leveraging this model. Companies like VMware and Microsoft have seen this and have begun to take Amazon's lead in public cloud (external cloud) offerings and attempt to make private and hybrid clouds accessible to medium and large businesses. Hybrid Clouds will become a core tool that businesses leverage over the next 5 to 7 years. The problem will be in the management of these highly abstracted, complex, fast moving environments as complex workloads cross cloud boundaries. Once Hybrid Clouds have built appropriate momentum, they will be the norm for many years to come.

Amazon, Cloud, Cloud Computing, Google, Microsoft, VMware

Is VMware attempting to go head to head with Microsoft in the Cloud?

Dave.McCrory — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 16:35:29 GMT

After VMware announced their acquisition of Zimbra from Yahoo, I began to think about what VMware might actually be doing with their strategy for the Cloud that is perhaps different than what most would expect. VMware is moving from being a Virtualization/Virtualization Management company, to a Cloud company. What do I mean by that? VMware has seen the writing on the wall that in order for them to continue to grow at the pace required by the market, they must diversify further and provide more offerings. Simply put, VMware needs to offer a holistic suite, much like Microsoft does in order to keep shareholders happy. This is where the mirroring of Microsoft and the head to head competition begins.

Microsoft has Exchange, Outlook, OWA (Outlook Web Access), and Sharepoint as a messaging and collaboration platform. VMware now has Zimbra, which provides strikingly similar functionality. VMware has a stake in Terremark a vCloud Hosting Provider and is providing similar VMware centric capabilities to other hosters. Microsoft has Azure (launched yesterday). VMware acquired SpringSource in order to court the Enterprise Java community, how do they plan to do this? Indirectly of course. VMware will continue to allow SpringSource to act as an independent entity, however as Spring evolves and their CloudFoundry technology evolves, it will be focused on a deeper level of integration with VMware's platform. Why is this significant? Because it will mean the Java Developers will be more inclined to want their applications to be hosted on VMware because it will be a trivial integration due to the ease of using Spring (which in most cases will already be leveraged in their Java Application). Microsoft on the other hand, will allow developers using Visual Studio (Look to VS 2010 to offer tighter integration - It is currently in Beta) to leverage and deploy Azure services right from their IDE and won't require code changes to get integration with their cloud. Microsoft has a very large developer base and intends to use that as much as possible.

Who will win?

If you just look at the pure track history of both companies, it is still very difficult to place any bets. VMware is new to the Cloud Services space, but is leveraging its Virtualization expertise and has been an execution machine over the past 5 years. Microsoft is the 800 lb. gorilla with a larger development base, however Microsoft hasn't been incredibly successful in previous hosted service offerings (examples such as MSN, passport, and others come to mind). It will be an interesting next few years as the industry evolves from a set of pure platform and infrastructure to a services, cloud, and integration suite focused industry.

Cloud, Cloud Computing, IaaS, Microsoft, PaaS, VMware, XaaS

Cloud Computing Explained - Part 2

Dave.McCrory — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 17:40:18 GMT

An additional aspect of most Cloud Computing discussions that I have had is what the difference and purpose of types of clouds. You may be saying "I thought this was discussed in the previous blog entry Cloud Computing Explained ?" This however, is not the case as we are not referring to types of Cloud Computing, but types of Clouds themselves. This subtle difference in wording changes the topic a great deal. Types of Cloud actually refers to the Cloud Architectures themselves, not the things are being offered by or on the Cloud (Although the offerings are dependent on the Architectures).

To make a bit more sense of this here is a diagram:

This diagram shows different TYPES of Cloud Computing (This is what was discussed in the Cloud Computing Explained post)

Types of Clouds

Below is a diagram showing the Types of Clouds (Notice the difference between Types of Computing vs Types of Clouds):

The three primary Types of Clouds are:

Private - This is a Cloud that is isolated from outside access either logically or physically (logically being through virtualization and VPN) or physically by being located only at a physical datacenter

Public - This is a Shared Cloud that is accessible by anyone, the only separation is via credentials and commonly the underlying infrastructure is shared by many or all users. The separation is usually purely logical.

Hybrid - A Hybrid Cloud is somewhere between that of a Public and Private Cloud. A Hybrid Cloud uses resources the majority of the time in either the Private Cloud (The Most Common Configuration) or the Public Cloud (Less Common), then when specific needs arise, thresholds are met, alarms are triggered, etc. resources are brought online in the other cloud to meet demands. The most common scenario is a bursting even where a company leverages an External Provider (Public Cloud) for utilization when they are temporarily over capacity. An example would be an online retailer that for two months out of the years has an extreme demand placed on its web servers. This demand is outside the normal capabilities of their infrastructure, yet it doesn't make sense to buy additional hardware to service a need that is short and temporary. This is an ideal scenario for Hybrid Cloud usage.

What is interesting about this is that the Cloud Architecture that is used can be different even if the Type of Cloud Computing Service provided is the same.

Above is a diagram of how a small subset of Cloud Computing Types can fall into one or more Types of Clouds.

Integration between Clouds

Below is a diagram showing the most common way of integration between Public and Private Clouds at the Hybrid Junction Point.

The key integration is in the Hybrid Layer where an API and/or VPN is leveraged to coordinate resources between the Internal Cloud/Private Cloud and the Public/(SaaS/PaaS/IaaS). This allows for automation and security when the two types of resources are co-mingled. As the Cloud Computing Trend continues to evolve, there are other possible uses for all three different types of scenarios that become more and more interesting.

Amazon, Cloud, Cloud Computing, Gigaspaces, Google, IaaS, Microsoft, Netsuite, PaaS, Rackspace, Rightscale, SaaS, Salesforce.com, VMware, XaaS

Cloud Computing Explained

Dave.McCrory — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 20:14:00 GMT

Cloud Computing is an often cited and very confusing term in the market today. To try and clear things up a bit, I'm going to try and define and explain Cloud Computing from several angles. To do this, first I will define Cloud Computing. Cloud Computing is defined as the use of compute resources that are dynamically made available based on a request for a service provided by that cloud. This is similar to the definition that wikipedia provides. Breaking this definition down to a few core phrases should make things easier to understand. First, Compute Resources are the elements used to provide the service. Examples of Compute Resources are CPU, Memory, Disk, Network, all of which are often supplied through a virtual machine or some type of abstracted compute fabric (think a custom grid like Google). Next, we define Dynamic, meaning changing. In this case the change is driven by a request for some type of service. This service is provided by the Cloud and comes in several flavors including Infrastructure (IaaS) , Platform (PaaS) , and Software (SaaS). Why the word Cloud? Cloud originated as a way of describing something that was overly complex and should just be looked at as a "black box". The term was frequently used in the Telecom Industry and then was adopted by Networking (Specifically WANs - Wide Area Networks). WANs leverage the Telecom Industry Platforms, so hence the connection.

Compute Resources

Above is a Diagram of the core pieces that make up Resources in the Cloud. Note: I did not say Compute Resources, however everything in the stack ultimately relies on Compute Resources.

The use of these Compute Resources is where the magic happens. Different combinations of these resources make up the three types of Cloud offerings available today. They are:

SaaS - Software as a Service
PaaS - Platform as a Service
IaaS - Infrastructure as a Service

Below we will cover a bit of detail on each of these. The architectures are not important right now, simply the concepts should be focused on.

Software as a Service (SaaS)

Software as a Service goes back to 1998/1999 when there were ASPs (no not Active Server Pages or Average Selling Prices) - Application Service Providers. ASPs provided applications to customers by leveraging remote display technologies such as Citrix. This was later superceded by Web based solutions, the most well know and successful being Salesforce.com . SaaS normally offers a multi-tenant based solution where users login and work with the application being provided. SaaS is either free or offered on a subscription basis (Monthly or Yearly are common).

Platform as a Service (PaaS)

Platform as a Service is based on leveraging APIs to write an Application without the need to create or manage the resources beneath it. In some cases SaaS vendors allow developers to create new applications that leverage their underlying platform APIs.

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

Infrastructure as a Service provides the raw compute resources and allows the user (the developer or administrator) to decide what should be layered on top. This originates from the classic hosting world and allows the greatest flexibility, however it is also the most complex to manage from the user of the service (user being the developer or administrator).

A View of the XaaS Stack

It is important to note that this is not a comprehensive list of players in these different layers, this is simply a snapshot of some of the major market players in these areas.

Resource Links:

Amazon

Amazon, Cloud, Cloud Computing, Gigaspaces, Google, IaaS, Microsoft, Netsuite, PaaS, Rackspace, Rightscale, SaaS, Salesforce.com, VMware, XaaS

Mac OS X Snow Leopard : Log Files Required

Dave.McCrory — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 19:27:06 GMT

I was having a whole series of odd behaviors on my Macbook Pro yesterday. These included:

PKG and MPKG files running through installation and then failing at the "Complete/Finish" Screen

Eclipse Ganymede and Galileo both having problems rendering WSDL files under JVM 6 (32 or 64bit) but working fine with JVM 5

Installer intermittently becoming unresponsive before installation launch

This was causing quite a few headaches. At Andrew's suggestion, I ran Disk Utility and checked permissions and the Volume. No real problems of consequence were found in either scan.

Next Andrew suggested that I look at the Logs. First I went into the Console utility, normally this would be populated automatically with a large number of log entries. My Console just continually "searched" the System.log file. After trying to see if there was some other problem I could find without access to the logs, I decided to see if I could fix the log problem, which would then (hopefully) help me identify the problem with the PKG/MPKG files.

After much Googling, I came across a mention of a utility called "newsyslog" . After looking at the man page and experimenting I found that newsyslog has a newsyslog.conf file that associates which log files it should check for and if they exist, it can be configured to automatically roll the log files off (to keep sizes down). What interested me more, was the ability to have newsyslog CREATE log files if it is unable to find them. To gain visibility into what it could and could not find, I simply set it into verbose mode (the -v option) and combined this with the create option (the -CC option). Watching the output, it created a series of logfiles including the System.log file (which was apparently missing).

Once the System.log file was created, I launched the Console utility again and BINGO! Log Messages!

Now for the fun part, I decided to run the VMware Fusion Installer (a MPKG file). Normally I would get all the way through the serial number entry, after populating and clicking continue it would fail. This time I wanted it to fail, because I could finally capture the failure point in the System.log file. Just like when you take your car to the mechanic and hope that it makes that clunking sound (which it does all the time), it remains running silently. In my case, I ran the installation and it completed! I then checked a few other applications that were failing when they would launch the Installer application (they worked fine too). Finally I later launched Eclipse and lo-and-behold, it was able to render WSDL files regardless of the JVM being used!

In a follow-on post next week, I will post directions on how to make Snow Leopard run both JVM 5 and JVM 6 (default after an upgrade is JVM 6 32/64bit is all that exists)

VIJMark

Schley Andrew Kutz — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 20:21:00 GMT

I benchmarked the performance of three Java toolkits for working with VMware Infrastructure and vSphere: VI (vSphere) Java, the VI SDK for Java, and the vSphere SDK. You can read more at http://vijmark.sourceforge.net/.

(Hint – VI (vSphere) Java wins)

Bug: Hyper9 VMM and the Blackberry Browser

Schley Andrew Kutz — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 14:03:00 GMT

Users who surf the web on their Blackberries with RIM's native browser may experience an error when accessing VMM's lite mode (your own install or the online demo at http://m.vmm.hyper9.com/lite.jsp). We're aware of this bug and are trying to understand the root cause. For now it appears as if there is a problem with RIM's native browser as all other browsers function without error when accessing VMM's lite mode, including the Opera Browser for Blackberry. For now we suggest that you download Opera Mobile for Blackberry (http://www.opera.com/mobile/) and use it to access VMM.

Thanks!

--
-a

VMM 1.0 Released!

Schley Andrew Kutz — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 03:04:00 GMT

I am very pleased to announce the immediate availability of Hyper9 VMM 1.0! Since creating VMM earlier this year, being acquired by Hyper9, and continuing its development, I have always believed that VMM will become the industry standard for heterogeneous, mobile virtualization management. With its first public release, VMM is another step closer to that reality. So what features are new in version one dot zero? Well, let's take a look:

VMM backed down its Java requirements to Java 5. For enterprises who have not yet made the leap to Java 6, VMM will plug right into your existing environments!
A brand new properties file format has been introduced that allows VMM administrators to customize VMM to their heart's content. Customizations include:
- Whether or not to show the host information.
- Whether or not to show the host's CPU statistics.
- Whether or not to show the host's memory statistics.
- Whether or not to show a VM's CPU statistics.
- Whether or not to show a VM's memory statistics.
- Whether or not to show a VM's power operations.
- Whether or not to show a VM's network operations.

Administrators can customize these settings and more based on the name of the server VMM connects to, the user logged into VMM, and even the type of browser the user is connecting from. When we say VMM is mobile, we mean mobile! You simply cannot find this level of flexibility anywhere else.

This flexibility builds on VMM's existing feature set:

Monitor a host's or data center's CPU and memory
Monitor a VM's CPU and memory
Manage a VM's power state
Manage a VM's network state

And we're not talking just VMware ESX. Nope, VMM can do all of the above for VMware Infrastructure 3.5 and above, VMware vCenter 4, VMware Server 2, Microsoft Hyper-V, and Citrix XenServer 5. And with a AJAX-rich full mode for modern smart phones such as Apple's iPhone and Google's Android platform, and a lite mode for other devices, VMM is sure to support your favorite mobile device.

With VMM 1.0 monitoring and managing your favorite hypervisor is as close as the mobile phone in your pocket. Get it today!

VMM and Security

Schley Andrew Kutz — Fri, 22 May 2009 15:29:00 GMT

Summary

I've been listening to your feedback regarding VMM and a lot of it has centered around VMM and how it impacts the security of your existing infrastructure. Well, to sum it up: VMM does not make your environment any more secure, nor does it make it any less. Of course, I won't make you take my word for it (as I am obviously biased about my desire for you to run VMM), so I'll leave brevity at home and take a trip with my good friend, Mr. D. Tail.

An Analogy

Application security over any type of network can be a tricky subject to understand, so, if you will, allow me to paint you a seemingly unrelated picture about two people in two rooms. Imagine for a moment that there are two people, we'll call them Lucy and CJ, in adjoining rooms. Lucy and CJ cannot see or hear each other -- in fact the only way they can communicate is via a small opening in the shared wall through which they can pass little slips of paper with messages written on them. Another way to put it is two people chatting with each other computers connected directly to one another.

Existing Relationships

One might think because they are in adjoining rooms (or on two computers directly connected), Lucy and CJ should know with absolute certainty the authenticity of a message they receive from one another. However, what if someone crept into the room, replaced CJ (sat down at CJ's computer while he was at lunch), and was sending messages in his place? How would Lucy know the messages she was receiving from CJ were not not authentic? Well, supposing Lucy and CJ already had a pre-existing relationship they could have set up some type of secret key which they used to encrypt all of their communication.

However, what if Lucy had never met CJ before? She would still need to be able to verify that messages from CJ were actually from CJ, and that no one had supplanted his identity and was sending communiques in his stead.

Server Authentication

Enter Mr. Ver E. Sign. Although Lucy and CJ have never met, they both have a mutual friend, Mr. Sign. So the very first time Lucy and CJ exchange a message, CJ gives Lucy a copy of one of his business cards with Mr. Sign's stamp of approval on it (which Mr. Sign only gives out to the most trusted individuals). Having proven that he is a friend of Mr. Sign, Lucy feels confident that the person sending messages as CJ is CJ. Lucy and CJ then establish an encryption key that they will use to secure all of the messages they send to each other. We'll call this process server authentication (because CJ is serving Lucy with responses to her messages).

If this sounds a little familiar it is because you go through this process every time you log in to your bank's website using SSL. When you go to https://mybank.com/ the bank's website sends you a copy of its business card with a mutual friend's stamp of approval (the bank's server certificate which has been signed by a Verisign certificate authority).

Mutual Authentication

You may have noticed that while Lucy is reasonably sure she knows CJ is who he says he is, CJ never requested proof of Lucy's identity. So what if someone was sending messages to CJ on Lucy's behalf. Or to put it another way, what if someone knew your online banking password and was having a little bit of fun with your account? Not a good thing. Luckily there is a safeguard for this known as mutual authentication. Suppose CJ is a very busy person (alone in his room) and cannot be bothered to reply to messages through his little hole-in-the-wall unless he is reasonably sure they messages are from someone who is also a friend of Mr. Ver E. Sign. Well, just as Lucy can examine the stamp of approval on CJ's business card, CJ can do the same to Lucy's. CJ in fact will not even respond to Lucy with his business card unless Lucy's business card indicates that she is a friend of Mr. Sign as well. This process is known as mutual authentication. Some websites use this method to prevent unknown individuals from even reaching the front gates to attempt an unauthorized entry.

Man In The Middle

So it would seem that Lucy and CJ can communicate in a fairly secure fashion now, right? Well. Kind of. You see, the problem with all of the security measures that have been discussed thus far is that they are all susceptible to what is affectionately known as a man in the middle attack (MITM) (http://www.rsa.com/rsalabs/node.asp?id=2248). This type of attack was alluded to earlier when I suggested someone could might sneak into CJ's room and replace him and send responses to Lucy's messages while pretending to be CJ. You might ask, doesn't server authentication prevent this type of attack? No, unfortunately it doesn't. It does make it harder, but a person could still knock CJ out and present a business card that looks a lot like CJ's, and is even stamped by Mr. Ver E. Sign. Or perhaps CJ threw out one of his old business cards that he didn't use anymore. The impersonator could have found it, hit CJ with a blunt object, and started responding to Lucy as CJ. CJ's old business card might even have a note on it that it is no longer valid and should be consider void (or expired), but Lucy might not be checking that (although she should).

More Rooms

A MITM attack where both people are in adjoining rooms (on computers that are directly connected) is unlikely since there is a direct line (non-interceptable) of communication between them. In this scenario a MITM attack would require replacing one of the conversation's participants.

Imagine however that Lucy and CJ are not in adjoining rooms, but are in rooms separated by a great number of other rooms and their messages are couriered between each other. Given that someone else is ferrying the message, and that courier must travel a great distance until they reach the intended target with the message, how many opportunities does someone have to intercept the message and perform a MITM? The answer -- a lot.

Congratulations, you've just envisioned the Internet and the problem of ensuring secure communication over a large network.

The Internet

When Lucy (you) try to communicate securely with CJ (any other computer on the end-point), your message travels through countless rooms (computers/routers/switches/hubs,etc.) until it gets to its destined recipient. At any point someone could initiate a MITM attack and spoof either side of the communication. We've discussed measures that can be put into place to heighten security:

Server Authentication
Mutual Authentication

And it is getting easier and easier to intercept communiques. On wired networks you had to physically attach to a network segment that the message would travel across. With WiFi and cellular networks broadcasting your messages over the air, anyone with a radio can sift through the noise to find your message.

Second-Factor Authentication

However, there is no protection against a MITM attack without some form of second factor authentication. Imagine that Lucy and CJ were not strangers before they entered their rooms. In fact, Lucy and CJ agreed upon a secret phrase that they would use to encrypt all of their transmissions. Now they can communicate securely without worry. This is why some companies issue little FOBs or smart cards. These devices are second factor authentication implementations which are used to protect against MITM attacks. CJ will never respond to Lucy unless her messages are encrypted with a pre-arranged piece of information.

So why don't all web applications implement second factor authentication? Including VMM? Because it is costly to do so and sometimes isn't even possible depending on the client device being used to communicate with the server.

The very basis of true second factor authentication requires both parties to exchange a piece of information over a channel that is absolutely, 100%, trusted to be secure. Otherwise this super-secret second factor authentication key could also be considered subject to a MITM attack. In the real world this means that a user must receive a smart card via a secure postal service or some type of PIN number via an encrypted telephone transmission. Generally speaking, the only fool-proof method of obtaining a piece second-factor authentication information is to do so physically and in person. And if you are truly paranoid even this may not be good enough as the person you are receiving the information from could be a master of disguise impersonating the person you think you are talking to (I'm not kidding -- experts in the security field really do worry about stuff like this).

But let's suppose that the level of threat isn't that high and you can accept the risk of obtaining a PIN number over the phone, or better yet, imagine you've deployed VMM in your environment and you give a user their PIN number to use as their piece of second factor authentication. That user brings up VMM on their iPhone and it asks for their user name, password, and PIN number. The PIN number is used to encrypt the password which can only be decrypted by the server on the other end because that server already knows the PIN number associated with the given user name.

Oops. We missed a step.

Because VMM is a web application all of its code that it is executing was retrieved from ... a server! That's right, including the encryption libraries that would be used to encrypt the user's password with the given PIN number. The very code that would make use of the second factor authentication is itself subject to a MITM attack before it is ever delivered to your mobile device's web browser!

This is why VMM does not implement second factor authentication. Mobile devices generally do not have the capacity to accept a smart card or FOB that could contain the second factor authentication and the necessary encryption routines, nor do mobile browsers implement JavaScript in such a way that such information could be accessed.

My proposed solution is for all browser manufacturers to implement standard security routines that can be used to encrypt data on the client before it is ever sent to the server using a pre-arranged PIN number of even certificate of some sort.

VMM Isn't Secure?

You may take from this that VMM isn't secure. However, I want you to pay close attention to the first sentence of the last paragraph, specifically where I say "...all browser manufacturers...". I did not say mobile, because the fact of the matter that all internet browsers, even the one you are reading this blog post on are susceptible to the scenarios I have mentioned. In fact, unless you have a smart card from your bank or some special type of banking software on your computer that you received from your bank, when you check your account balance online, using SSL, you are subjecting yourself to a possible MITM attack, even with all of the bank's supposed online security.

VMM Is As Secure As Your Bank

That's right, using VMM is as secure as when you log onto your bank's website. The problem -- if you are really, really security conscious, it may not be secure enough. However, unless you are one of the people in the world that believe anything less than 100% foolproof security, VMM is secure enough. In fact, VMM is as secure as your bank.

Configuring VMM Security

Out of the box VMM does not enable SSL or mutual authentication, but these security measures are easily configured. For information on how to configure VMM, SSL, and even mutual (revokable client) authentication please see the Apache documentation at http://tomcat.apache.org/tomcat-6.0-doc/ssl-howto.html. Of course, if you need additional help you can always e-mail me at akutz at hyper9 dot com.

Update - 2009/05/22 - 12:37 PM GMT-6

A respected professional colleague of mine pointed out that VMM is as secure as US banks as many EU banks already require customers to use FOBs or smart cards to access online banking. I will point out that most mobile devices do not support this, so mobile, browser-based banking is still susceptible to MITM attacks

VMM, Tomcat, Apache, IIS, and ASP.NET (Oh My!)

Schley Andrew Kutz — Wed, 20 May 2009 16:58:00 GMT

I recently heard from a user which prompted me to write this blog post. So, thanks Ryan!

Contrary to appearances, VMM is not a traditional collection of HTML files and images that can be created as a new web site on any web server. VMM is a Java web application that requires a Java Servlet Container, in this case Tomcat. I too was confused for a long time about what Tomcat is. I myself work best with analogies. Since many users who download VMM are Windows systems administrators I will compare Tomcat and a web server to ASP.NET and IIS. Although it isn't immediately apparent, ASP.NET is NOT part of IIS. It is an entirely separate process (this changes slightly in IIS 7). A typical request for an ASP.NET web application looks like:

Client -> IIS (ISAPI) -> ASP.NET

Because Microsoft tightly bundles ASP.NET you cannot run it without IIS. However, technically there is no reason you couldn't (and in fact in IIS 7, all web requests go directly to ASP.NET and IIS (ISAPI) is only present for backwards compatibility (sort of). This is very similar to Tomcat, except Tomcat is commonly used without having a web server in front of it:

Client -> Tomcat

However, there is NO reason why you cannot integrate Tomcat behind an existing web server so that it acts like ASP.NET -- just a way to process the Java requests, such that:

Client -> IIS -> Tomcat

Client -> Apache -> Tomcat

Integrating Tomcat and IIS is fairly straight-forward. Apache's Jakarta project hosts a document on how to achieve this supported configuration..

Getting Started with Hyper9 VMM Beta 2.2

Schley Andrew Kutz — Fri, 15 May 2009 13:17:00 GMT

FYI, if you find yourself just getting started with Hyper9 VMM Beta 2.2, be SURE to read the documentation on the Hyper9 VMM WIKI. The first thing I will do when you file a bug report is refer you to the documentation if you have not read it.

Also, for instructions on how to file a bug report please see this forum post.

Thanks!

--
-a

A recorded demo of VMM Beta 2.2

Schley Andrew Kutz — Fri, 15 May 2009 03:53:00 GMT

I recorded a demo of VMM Beta 2.2 on my Mac using the Apple iPhone simulator. In this demo I log into a live VMware VirtualCenter 2.5 server in full mode, then I log into a Microsoft Hyper-V serve in full mode, and while logged into the Hyper-V server I transition into lite mode and then back to full. Please let me know if you have any questions.

(Please visit the site to view this media)

LHC Rap in Da House

Schley Andrew Kutz — Thu, 14 May 2009 22:25:00 GMT

(Please visit the site to view this media)

Watching Hyper9 VMM Beta 2.2 - As Mobile As Your VMs

Schley Andrew Kutz — Thu, 14 May 2009 20:38:00 GMT

I put together a Keynote presentation on what VMM is and how it works. Happy watching!

(Please visit the site to view this media)

Read Hyper9 VMM Beta 2.2 - As Mobile As Your VMs

Schley Andrew Kutz — Thu, 14 May 2009 20:36:00 GMT

Here is a this slick presentation I put together that reviews VMM Beta 2.2. I welcome your feedback and comments. Thanks!

Download "Hyper9 VMM Beta 2.2 - As Mobile As Your VMs"