Red Hat Virtualization (RHV)

Red Hat Virtualization (RHEV) is the complete solution for management of virtualization of servers and workstations and also the first virtualization platform of the enterprise level constructed on an open source code. This solution is based on a powerful hypervisor of KVM (kernel-based virtual machine) and opened> to the platform of management of virtual infrastructure of oVirt. Both of these projects were started by Red Hat company and later are submitted to community of developers of open source software. In comparison with other solutions of virtualization RHEV is a real strategic alternative for those organizations to which the smaller total cost of ownership, a fast investment payback, the accelerated achievement of profitability of production and lack of a binding to the supplier is important.

2018

Red Hat Virtualization 4.2

On May 21, 2018 the Red Hat company announced release of Red Hat Virtualization 4.2. According to the statement of the developer, the solution is proposed by a number of serious innovations, starting with processed the user interface and finishing with additional functions for work with virtual networks. It is based on to the operating system Red Hat Enterprise Linux and offers the customer the reliable and provided with support of the corporate level base for implementation of IT-Innovations.

Among additional opportunities of Red Hat Virtualization 4.2 in the company noted:

• The user interface – more clear, convenient and unified with other products Red Hat, including Red Hat CloudForms, due to use of the open PatternFly project. This innovation is designed to help users to switch comfortably between management tools, without retraining basic functions.
• Means of disaster recovery – Red Hat Virtualization 4.2 regularly supports abnormal switching between the websites, allowing to refuse use of special DWH thanks to reliable and permanent replication of data between storages of the main and reserve websites. At the same time, for risk minimization of a human factor processes of switching to the reserve website also back well give in to automation using scenarios and roles of Ansible.
• Software-defined networks of SDN – integration of Open Virtual Network (OVN) into the structure of Red Hat Virtualization 4.2 for implementation of the full program configured network solutions using Open vSwitch. At the same time automatic control of network infrastructure and Neutron-compatible API for external network providers and also the functionality of network self-service for users allowing to unload network administrators are provided.
• Metrics and magazines – completely processed subsystem on the basis of Elasticsearch, Fluentd and Kibana (EFK) for more effective operation of virtual environments.
• High-performance VM – Red Hat Virtualization 4.2 includes the VM highly productive profile which is intended for process optimization of configuring of the high-loaded virtual machine that can be necessary at extremum problems, such as work with Big Data or AI. It allows the virtual machines working for Red Hat Virtualization 4.2 to work almost at the level of "pure iron", offering the additional performance and efficiency for exacting applications.
• GPU virtualization – support of resource-intensive graphic and engineering applications thanks to support of the solutions NVIDIA Virtual GPU in the virtualized infrastructure of the organization on the device convenient to the user and in the convenient location.

Red Hat Virtualization of version 4.2 offers deeper integration with other products Red Hat, including Red Hat Ansible Automation, Red Hat Gluster Storage, Red Hat CloudForms, Red Hat OpenStack Platform and Red Hat Satellite. Together with Red Hat Virtualization 4.2 the company issued the solution Red Hat Virtualization Suite including Red Hat Virtualization and Red Hat CloudForms, and intended for management of the heterogeneous environments integrating in themselves at once several cloud platforms and also hypervisors, containers and traditional IT infrastructures.

Red Hat Virtualization 4.2 expands the ecosystem of reliable partners, giving additional opportunities for clients, including based on NVIDIA and Cisco technologies. Red Hat Virtualization 4.2 offers integration with Cisco ACI that allows to involve advantages of automated management of networks and segmentation and also supports the virtual graphic processors NVIDIA (vGPU) that allows to virtualize heavy applications and to increase efficiency of use of physical components of IT infrastructure, noted in the company.

Red Hat Virtualization 4.2 is available in the form of the independent software product or as a part of Red Hat Enterprise Linux OS and also is a part of the Red Hat Cloud Suite and Red Hat Virtualization Suite software packages. Owners of the corresponding subscriptions of Red Hat can be updated to Red Hat Virtualization 4.2 on the Red Hat Customer Portal portal.

Certification for work with SAP HANA

The Red Hat company, solution provider with the open code, in March, 2018 announced certification of Red Hat Virtualization for work with SAP HANA, the platform of development and deployment of the applications which are executed in memory of DBMS and processing systems of Big Data.

Offering the operating system (Red Hat Enterprise Linux for SAP HANA) and the hypervisor certified for the SAP HANA environments, Red Hat helps to provide the level of open standardization in the organizations interested in a wide choice of solutions on virtualization, increase in operational efficiency and expense reduction on data processing centers due to use of technologies with the open code.

The flexible and scalable solution of Red Hat Virtualization constructed on the basis of Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) technology offers the simple protected open platform in use. The platform allows to organize operation of various workloads, such as processing and analytics of Big Data, without significant upgrade of IT infrastructure and use of the specialized equipment. Providing support of SAP HANA, Red Hat Virtualization helps to reduce IT costs due to consolidation of the physical equipment without prejudice to functionality of systems. Besides, Red Hat Virtualization creates a backlog for implementation of the innovative technologies, such as Linux containers and cloud computing, and is easily integrated with already available IT systems of the enterprises, emphasized in the company.

In the whole Red Hat Virtualization allows to carry out standardization of the SAP HANA environments on the basis of Red Hat solution portfolio, increasing flexibility of work with Big Data and expanding scaling options at the solution of extreme tasks by the size.

As of March 13, 2018 support of Red Hat Virtualization is already available to workloads of SAP HANA.

2017: Red Hat Virtualization 4.1

On April 20, 2017 the Red Hat company announced release of Red Hat Virtualization 4.1.

Use of Red Hat Virtualization helps to cut down expenses due to consolidation of IT infrastructure, gives ability to integrate the available loadings with technologies of private cloud environments and Linux containers. It allows to optimize corporate IT infrastructure and to prepare it for solving of tasks without additional costs, growth of level of complexity and risk of a binding to proprietary solutions on virtualization.

The key Red Hat Virtualization 4.1 property is deep integration with a product family and the solutions Red Hat for hybrid cloud environments. In particular, expanded support of solutions Red Hat CloudForms and Ansible, providing centralized operation with heterogeneous IT infrastructure data center and automation of problems of operation enters here, following model of role administration. Closer integration with Red Hat OpenStack Platform helps to reduce a gap between traditional and cloud applicaions. Possibilities of the platform Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.3 provide support of workloads Windows and support of "hot" shutdown of processors (reduction of number of the selected vCPU).

As a part of Red Hat Virtualization 4.1 opportunities:

• automation of transactions with Ansible help – optimization of work with the Red Hat Virtualization platform and its integration with IT infrastructure at the expense of the modules Ansible 2.3 for work as with virtual machines, and storage systems, network equipment and other components
• availability to clusters without remote control power supply – restart of virtual machines from the virtualization host which ceased to answer even if on it power-fence the agent is not set or unavailable.
• improvement of scaling and performance of storages – Storage Pool Manager (SPM) supports delegation of transactions with storage to other hosts in data center now, providing parallelization of tasks for increase in capacity of a storage device subsystem.
• Open Virtual Network (OVN) for Open vSwitch is functionality of software-defined networks SDN for optimum control of virtual networks in corporate data center, available in the version of Tech Preview so far. OVN allows to conduct management of network services and subnets in Red Hat Virtualization 4.1, to provide them in the form of OpenStack Neutron-compatible of API interfaces.

Red Hat Virtualization 4.1 is available to loading on the website Red Hat Customer Portal.

2016

Red Hat Virtualization 4.0

On August 25, 2016 the Red Hat company announced release of the version of the Red Hat Virtualization 4.0 virtualization platform. From the name of the platform no comments of the company the word Enterprise is removed.

The list of the main additions in the RHV 4.0 platform on the basis of which creation of virtual infrastructure of the enterprise is possible ^[1]:

• Possibility of use of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 as hostovy and guest OS. The improved support of the hardware from a host and also means of updating of packets and drivers is added that will simplify support of the platform from partners
• Possibility of the Hardware Monitoring Agents installation from third-party equipment manufacturers.
• For Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Red Hat Virtualization Hypervisor (RHV-H) the uniform Anaconda installer is delivered.
• The uniform management tool on the basis of the web console - Cockpit was included in the delivery. It allows to configure a host server, to define access rights to it and to provide problem solving.
• The system panel is upgraded - elements are placed more ergonomically, representation of the CPU resources, memory and storages now more informatively.
• RHEL Atomic Host is supported as guest OS - administrators can obtain the additional information, such as, for example, list of the started containers in virtual machines based on Atomic.
• Support of Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Manager 7.2, including the latest technologies and platforms Red Hat, such, as JBoss EAP 7, Java OpenJDK 8 and Postgresql 9.2.
• Storage Image Uploader helps to load images from local or remote disks on storage domain using the web interface or through API.
• The program interface External Network Partner API allows to add and support third-party network providers and also simplifies management of networks through Red Hat Virtualization Manager.
• Rules of existence of virtual machines on the basis of tags (label-based affinity). For machines with identical tags it is possible to execute necessary transactions.
• Possibilities of more granular control the politician of migration of virtual machines between cluster hosts.
• Completely open API for support of third-party solutions, architecture of Neutron on the Red Hat OpenStack Platform 8 platform.

Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization 4.0 beta

On June 26, 2016 Red Hat announced availability of the beta of the Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization 4.0 virtualization platform^[2]. Created on the basis of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Red Hat Virtualization 4 is designed for easier integration with the existing IT systems and provides the platform for implementation of new technologies, including container and native cloud applicaions.

Among additional opportunities there is Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization 4.0:

• Support of Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Manager 7.2, including the latest technologies and platforms Red Hat, such, as JBoss EAP 7, Java Postgresql OpenJDK 8 and 9.2.
• Possibility of use of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 as hostovy OS. Support of the hardware from a host and also means of updating of packets and drivers is added. Also for Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization hypervisor (RHEV-H) the uniform installer which, as before, is called Anaconda and also a uniform management tool based on the web console - Cockpit is delivered.
• RHEL Atomic Host is supported as guest OS - administrators can obtain the additional information, such as, for example, list of the started containers in virtual machines based on Atomic now.
• The upgraded system panel - elements are placed more ergonomically.
• Possibilities of more granular control the politician of migration of virtual machines between cluster hosts.
• The improved tagging of virtual machines.
• Completely open API for support of third-party solutions and also architecture of Neutron on the Red Hat OpenStack Platform 8 platform.

Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization 3.6

In March, 2016 Red Hat, the solution provider open source, announced release of Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization (RHEV) 3.6 — the public version of the virtualization platform on the basis of a hypervisor of KVM which offers the due performance, scalability and security for resource-intensive to Linux loadings. The updated management tools and the user interface RHEV allow to execute migration of virtual machines of VMware without attraction of paid third-party tools, helping to limit use of the proprietary systems of virtualization at the enterprise and to reduce costs.

The Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization platform is focused as on deployment of big corporate systems, like SAP or Oracle, and on virtualization of "heavy" desktop applications for work with graphics or intensive calculations. The new feature of PCI Device Assignment providing direct access of virtual machines to physical devices so accelerates operation of applications of CAD/CAM and other resource-intensive tasks that in certain cases allows to transfer users from expensive to the workstation on virtual machines almost without loss in productivities of applications, claim in the company.

Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization 3.6 offers the following new features: hot connection of memory — providing additional RAM to the virtual machine on the fly, without suspension of its work; PCI Device Assignment is appointment to the virtual machine of the selected physical device or the adapter with which it will work directly (for the applications which are intensively working with graphics or network, this function provides performance at the level close to the physical machine); Host Update Manager is the tool for deployment of updates and corrections of security in virtual environment using the solution of systems management Red Hat Satellite which every second customer of RHEV has; Object Health Status is the management console of Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization allowing to control visually operability of components of infrastructure of virtualization, namely — storage devices, processors, servers or hard drives (notifying administrators on malfunctions which can lead to failure or decline in production of virtual machines, this function helps to take timely adequate measures for correction of a situation); integration of Virt-v2v with VMware — an opportunity to be connected to vCenter and to selectively transfer Linux workloads to the RHEV platform (provides fast and convenient migration, helping to cut down expenses on virtualization and to increase performance crucial Linux loadings).

As well as the previous versions of this platform, Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization 3.6 are provided by infrastructure level for conversion of workloads to containers or for transfer in "cloud". The new version of RHEV is also integrated with the Red Hat CloudForms platform which is intended for management of the heterogeneous environments constructed using different cloud services, hypervisors, containers and traditional IT infrastructures.

Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization 3.6 is offered in the form of an independent product, complete with the Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system and also as a part of the solution Red Hat Cloud Infrastructure. In the presence of the operating subscription the customer can carry out updating to Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization 3.6 on the Red Hat Customer Portal portal.

2015: Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization 3.5

On February 11, 2015 the Red Hat company announced a release of the new version of the Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization 3.5 platform.

Screenshot of the Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization 3.5, 2015 interface

The list of the complemented opportunities of Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization 3.5

• Support up to 4 TB memories a host server, up to 4 TB memories of the virtual machine (vRAM) and up to 160 vCPU on the virtual machine.
• Management of lifecycle a host servers and their deployment by means of integration with Red Hat Satellite.
• Optimization of computing powers at the expense of loading analytics in real time and integration with oVirt Optimizer. It allows to balance load of infrastructure when commissioning new virtual machines.
• Expanded support of the non-uniform memory access mechanism (NUMA) - such features as Host NUMA, Guest Pinning and Virtual NUMA appeared now. All this increases performance due to more quick access to the necessary areas of memory.
• The improved Disaster Recovery mechanism at the expense of optimization and support of migration of storages between storages (Storage Domains) that will allow partners of Red Hat to make software for recovery after failures at the level of the platform based on technologies and the Red Hat interfaces.
• The license Red Hat Enterprise Linux with Smart Virtualization which allows to unroll an unlimited number of the Red Hat Linux systems.
• The subscription of Red Hat Cloud Infrastructure including components:
  • Red Hat CloudForms,
  • Red Hat Satellite,
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform
  • Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization.

In RHEV 3.5 additional functions for integration with Openstack infrastructure appeared:

• Integration with the OpenStack Image Service components (Glance) and OpenStack Networking (Neutron), available as the technology preview that allows administrators to manage resources of storage and network of one point for all infrastructure.
• The types of copies of an object intended for deployment of virtual machines in infrastructure of the enterprise or in a cloud.

2014

Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization 3.3

On January 22, 2014 the Red Hat company announced a release of the new version of Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization (RHEV) 3.3.

The new version uses KVM as a hypervisor and RHEL or specially prepared version of RHEL prepared for use only as a hypervisor — RHEV-H.

One of features of RHEV - integration into the cloud Openstack system (within Technology Preview - it allows use of components as Nova (the controller of computing resources) and Cinder (cloud block storages), it makes available transfer of virtual machines to a cloud environment or use of already set RHEV for transition to "cloud".

RHEV is connected to ^[3] and ^[4], using them as alternative methods of management of a repository of images and network.

In the new version self-hosted engine is supported, allowing a managing note (engine) to work in the virtual machine at the managed host, reducing requirements to the equipment (any more separate host or a cluster from hosts for engine is not necessary).

API for integration into the Back-up/restore systems, in addition to traditional methods of backup is added.

Support of API for integration is expanded:

• HP: HP Insight Control Plug-in allows to control and automate reactions to events in the environment of RHEV unrolled on the equipment of HP.
• NetApp: NetApp Virtual Storage Console provides fast cloning of virtual machines on DWH from NetApp, helps to detect, configure, change an array available on NFS from the RHEV interface.
• Symantec: Symantec Veritas Cluster Server helps to configure the built-in functionality of DR for support of appliques. VCS allows to configure failover for specific appliques, thus getting rid of need of reset of VM or services for recovery of functionality.

Functions of the portal of administration:

• Bonds (tim) ^[5] can be created by drag and drop of the interface in the bond and vice versa.
• The button of creation of the snapshot (Create Snapshot) is added
• Plug-in of Red Hat Support plug-in for creation of the technical message in technical support

Infrastructure opportunities:

• Technical preview of support of management tools of OpenStack Foreman
• Integration with Cloud-init
• The role of Storage Pool Manager can be manually appointed and reassigned to hosts
• The support of Trusted Compute Pools based on the OpenAttestation project
• Optimization of Memory balloon technology and error messages
• Virtual device watchdog
• Priorities for CPU sharing

Functions for developers

• API for backup and recovery of VM
• API for the scheduler of virtual machines

Network functions

• Network management setup process improvement
• Role of migration of network
• The configured properties of vNIC adapters
• QoS for profiles of vNIC devices
• Several network gateways per host
• New packet of python-inotify
• Possibility of "review" of a configuration of network for a host
• The improved support of a bonding of adapters
• Support of OpenStack Neutron provider

Quotas

• Ability to manage quotas

Possibilities of storages

• Virtio-SCSI support
• GlusterFS support

Portal of the user

• Support of several monitors on one QXL device

Functions of the SPICE protocol

• Support of SPICE-HTML5 technology

Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization 3.4 beta

On March 27, 2014 Red Hat released the beta 3.4 where developers made considerable number of additions and corrections.

The new features and opportunities expected in RHEV 3.4:

• Integration with OpenStack infrastructure is strengthened
  • Improvements of security and scalability for the networks unrolled using Neutron.
  • Support of Open vSwitch technology (expanded virtual switchboard) and opportunities of SDN networks.

• Improvements of enterprise-functions of network interaction
  • the Uniform point of a configuration of network settings of a set of hosts in the specified network.

• Improvements of enterprise-functions of storages
  • the Mixed domains of storages (mixed storage domains) - a possibility of simultaneous use of disk devices from iSCSI, FCP, NFS, Posix and Gluster storages for the organization of storage of virtual machines.
  • the Possibility of the indication of disks which will participate in creation of snapshots and also those which will not be. The mechanism of recovery of VM from the backup copy is improved - now there is an opportunity to specify the snapshot of a status in which it is necessary to make rollback.

• Improvements of management tools at all levels
  • Improvements of the scheduler of virtual machines.
  • the Affinity/Anti-Affinity Groups (rules of existence of virtual machines on hosts - to place machines together or separately).
  • the Possibility of hot adding of the processor in VM (Hot Plug CPU). Here support from OS is necessary.
  • Service of the SNMP setup for support of third-party monitoring systems.
  • Preserving of settings of cloud installation of RHEV for a possibility of its recovery at failure or for the purposes of replication in other clouds.

Loading of Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization 3.4 Beta is available from a developer's site.

Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization 3.4

On June 16, 2014 it became known of a release of the version of RHEV 3.4.

Changes in the working version:

Infrastructure

• Service of the SNMP setup for support of third-party monitoring systems.
• Preserving of settings of cloud installation of RHEV for a possibility of its recovery at failure or for the purposes of replication in other clouds.
• Services of authentication of RHEV are rewritten and improved.
• Possibility of hot adding of the processor in VM (Hot Plug CPU). Here support from OS is necessary.
• Nerutovy users have access to logs now.
• The new installer based on TUI (textual user interface).
• Support of IPv6.
• Possibility of the choice of connection with the VM console in the Native Client or noVNC mode.
• Possibility of change of some settings of the started virtual machine.
• Full support of RHEL 7 as guest OS.
• Possibility of inclusion/shutdown of KSM (Kernel Samepage Merging) at the level of a cluster.
• Possibility of reset of VM from RHEVM or a console command.

Network interaction

• More dense integration with OpenStack infrastructure:
  • Improvements of security and scalability for the networks unrolled using Neutron.
  • Support of Open vSwitch technology (expanded virtual switchboard) and opportunities of SDN networks.

• Network Labels is tags which can be used at the appeal to devices.
• Correct order of numbering of virtual network adapters (vNIC).
• Support of iproute2.
• Uniform point of a configuration of network settings of a set of hosts in the specified network.

Possibilities of storages

• The mixed domains of storages (mixed storage domains) - a possibility of simultaneous use of disk devices from iSCSI, FCP, NFS, Posix and Gluster storages for the organization of storage of virtual machines.
• Multiple Storage Domains - an opportunity to distribute disks of one virtual machine on several storages within data center.
• Possibility of the indication of disks which will participate in creation of snapshots and also those which will not be.
• The mechanism of recovery of VM from the backup copy is improved - now there is an opportunity to specify the snapshot of a status in which rollback is required.
• Asynchronous task management of Gluster-storages.
• Read-Only Disk for Engine - this function gives to a management tool of Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Manager an opportunity to use disks only for reading.
• Access on several ways (multipathing) for iSCSI storages.

Means of virtualization

• Agents of guest OS (ovirt-guest-agent) for OpenSUSE and Ubuntu.
• SPICE Proxy - an opportunity to use proxy servers for access for users to the VM (if they, for example, are outside infrastructure network).
• SSO (Single Sign-On) Method Control - an opportunity to switch between different mechanisms of pass-through authentication. So far there are only two options: guest agent SSO and without SSO.
• Support of several versions of one template of the virtual machine.

Improvements of the scheduler and means of ensuring of the service level

• Improvements of the scheduler of virtual machines.
• The Affinity/Anti-Affinity groups (rules of existence of virtual machines on hosts - to place machines together or separately).
• Power-Off Capacity is the policy of power supply allowing to switch off a host and to prepare its virtual machines for migration to other place.
• Even Virtual Machine Distribution is a possibility of distribution of virtual machines by hosts based on the number of VM.
• High-Availability Virtual Machine Reservation - the mechanism allows to guarantee recovery of virtual machines in case of refusal one or several a host servers. It works based on calculation of available capacity of computing resources of hosts of a cluster.

Improvements of the interface

• Error corrections of a sporadic user interface not of response to the events which are taking place in infrastructure.
• Support of low resolutions of the screen.

Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization (RHEV) for IBM Power Systems (POWER8)

On December 16, 2014 Red Hat company together with Big Blue announced the platform of server virtualization Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization (RHEV) for the IBM Power Systems servers.

Chart of interaction of interfaces, 2014

As a part of RHEV the hypervisor (KVM) working both acts on x86 to the platform, and on the Power platform, the server of management Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization management server (on the basis of normal x86 server). Manage these infrastructures a camp possible of the single console.

The updated solution Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization for architecture of POWER8 will give opportunities:

• High Availability – at failure of one of hosts its virtual machines will be restarted on other host of a cluster.
• Live Migration and Storage Live Migration – Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization will allow to move virtual machines from one host on another and also between storages without idle time of services.
• Intelligent Load Balancing is balancing of load of hosts and storages due to intellectual transfer of virtual machines in the automatic or manual mode.
• Centralized Template Management – Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization gives an ability to manage templates of virtual machines from which it is possible to deploy the new service by several cliques of a mouse.
• Self-Service Portal for Quick Provisioning – users of a self-service portal independently can turn the new virtual machine on demand, the administrator of the platform - to control lifecycle of these VM.

Earlier, in December, 2014, the Red Hat company announced the beta of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.1 OS which has a version for the POWER processors working in the little endian mode.

2013

Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization 3.1

In January, 2013 the Red Hat company announced release of the new version of the virtualization platform for the Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization 3.1 enterprises which is available to clients around the world now. Version 3.1 became an important step forward. The entered improvements do this virtualization platform of scalabler, a control interface of users and all system – more convenient, expand its opportunities in the field of work with networks, storages and virtual desktops. The new release of corporate environment of virtualization of Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization allows to create even more flexible systems in combination with other products Red Hat, including Red Hat Storage and the Red Hat Enterprise Linux platforms for the enterprises.

The virtualization environment for the Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization enterprises – the only complete infrastructure solution for corporate users, available today in the market of products based on an open source code. The version of Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization 3.0 which appeared in January, 2012 marked an important stage in development of the industry thanks to a unique set of opportunities and advantages to corporate users and also the high performance and scalability. With the advent of version 3.1 of this product the new hypervisor of virtual machines based on a core (Kernel-based Virtual Machine, or KVM) is in the lead on 19 performance measures from number 27 of the published reference indicators of SPECvirt_sc2010 (www.spec.org), having shown, in particular, the best results among the 2-and 4-socket systems and having been the only product with the published indicators of tests on the 8-socket systems. Reduction in cost for 50–70 percent in comparison with alternative solutions also allows the organizations to achieve significant economy of means.

Key new features

In the solution Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization 3.1 several important improvements are implemented. In version 3.1 of this platform the scalability of guest virtual machines (about 160 logical processors and to the 2nd memory terabyte on the machine are supported) is increased, and the KVM hypervisor is capable to work with the newest models of processors of x86. In the solution Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization the same basic technology of a KVM hypervisor, as in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux platform is used and also the ABI compatibility is provided that allows to create even more flexible systems based on two platforms from one producer.

The solution Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization 3.1 also has more user-friendly interface, in it the advanced cross-platform web portal for administration, the improved dashboard with reports, new opportunities for work with networks and more perfect subsystem of disk storage is implemented. The experimental technology of dynamic migration of storages allows to transfer in real time disk files of virtual machines between domains of storage, without switching-off the corresponding virtual machines. Control functions by quotas of resources which allow to conduct independently development and testing are added to the portal for experienced users and more flexibly to use resources of a private cloud. In this release of the platform opportunities for work with VDI infrastructure, including new policy of autostart of virtual desktops, the optimized support of WAN networks and the improved client of a virtual desktop are also expanded.

The release of Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization 3.1 is also localized on additional languages: now language versions are available English, French, Spanish, Chinese (the simplified letter) and Japanese thanks to what users from a bigger number of the countries will be able to work with the platform.

Integration with Red Hat Storage

One of the major improvements in the version of Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization 3.1 is integration into the scalable open software solution Red Hat Storage for the organization of storage thanks to what it is possible to manage effectively as structured, and unstructured data at the level of blocks, files and objects. In October, 2011 the Red Hat company purchased company Gluster, Inc., and together with it and the rights to GlusterFS technology. It was used when developing a server product of Red Hat Storage Server 2.0 which entered the market in June, 2012, and as a result corporate clients received the open centralized scalable program solution storage.

The Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization platform of version 3.0 provided access to virtual images and storage under the iSCSI protocol, fiber optic channel NFS or through local storage device subsystems. The release of Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization 3.1 is more universal and allows to work with the protected general pool on the Red Hat Storage platform. In addition to an opportunity to create basic components of open hybrid cloud environments, such integration helps the enterprises to cut down operating expenses, to achieve bigger portability, to create suitable infrastructure, provides flexibility, scalability, availability and innovation thanks to support of community which also covers the oVirt and Gluster projects based on an open source code. The combination of these platforms is the first step on the way to implementation of vision of Red Hat assuming integration and solution sharing of Red Hat Storage and a node of virtualization Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization for service of both computing resources, and a subsystem of storage.

2011: Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization 3.0

The beta of a packet Red Hat of Enterprise Virtualization 3.0 which appeared on August 16, 2011 for the first time for all its history is deprived of dependence from Windows Server and Windows SQL Server — she does not demand availability of the operating system Microsoft for execution of the management console. Because of this binding of Red Hat, the software developer with the open code, was reproached with inconsistency.

RHEV which appeared in 2009 has unique feature — a system allows to manage from the single console both virtual servers, and virtual desktops. In the new Microsoft-dependent version the console is replaced with another, written on Java and available via the browser. Instead of SQL Server PostgreSQL is from now on applied. API using which tools of third-party development can manage the RHEV functions is provided. For authentication it is still possible to use Microsoft Active Directory.

The scalability of RHEV is considerably improved. Now software of virtualization supports up to 64 virtual processors and up to 2 Tbyte of memory for a host systems. For comparison, the VMware vSphere tools which left in July support twice less processors and memories.

In the new beta of RHEV 3.0 developers from Red Hat company upgraded the managing RHEV Manager console – now this standard Java application working under complete management of the JBoss application server. Also the RHEV 3.0 platform received the so-called "portal for privileged users" (Power User Portal) where it is possible to create virtual machines, to select with it all necessary resources and to set templates for new virtual machines.

One more important change in RHEV 3.0 is an emergence of the program interface RESTful API which can be used for control and configuring literally of any parameter of the RHEV 3.0 system. Also in RHEV 3.0 the new reports generation engine for the analysis of trends in operational loading and also for an output of reports on loading of resources is implemented. For the companies using the RHEV virtualization platform within the VDI infrastructure of virtual desktops (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure), the Red Hat company added a number of special improvements in a part of access through global networks, including the improved compression and automatic correction of depth of color and visual effects for each separate virtual desktop.

Still for access to betas of RHEV 3.0 the operating subscription to RHEV series products was necessary. Now the fact-finding version is available in the presence of a normal account on the website Red Hat Network.

Installation and start of RHEV 3.0 as it was worth expecting, require a few great efforts, than just to install the RHEL distribution kit on the serial server. To start the current beta with the recommended fact-finding configuration, you need the managing RHEV server, two or more servers hypervisors and also the general data warehouse for all these systems. Nevertheless, all of you will be able equally to start a trial configuration, having only one server of management and one server hypervisor with local storage. The structure of the RHEV 3.0 Beta distribution kit offered to loading contains an ISO images of the RHEL 6 operating system and a hypervisor of RHEV Hypervisor.

• Management tool of Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Manager it is constructed based on Java, started on the JBoss platform now (.NET was used earlier, and, respectively, there was a binding to Windows, now it is possible to use Linux for the managing server).
• The self-service portal of users allowing them to unroll independently virtual machines, to create templates and to administer own environments.
• New RESTful API, pozvolyayushchiy to get access to all solution components from third-party applications.
• The expanded mechanism of administration giving an opportunity of the granulated purpose of permissiya, authority delegations based on roles of users and hierarchical management of privileges.
• Support of local disks of servers as storages of virtual machines (but for them Live Migration is not supported).
• The integrated reporting mechanism allowing to analyze historical performance data and to build forecasts for development of virtual infrastructure.
• Optimization of the SPICE protocol for WAN connections, including dynamic compression technologies (compression of the picture) and automatic adjustment of effects of a desktop and depth of chromaticity. Besides, the new version of SPICE has expanded support of desktops with guest OS of Linux.
• The updated hypervisor of KVM on the basis of the last Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.1 which left in May, 2011.
• Support up to 160 logical CPU and 2 TB memories for a host servers, 64 vCPU and 512 GB of memory - for virtual machines.
• New opportunities for administration of big installations of RHEV 3.0.
• Support of big pages of memory (Transparant Huge Pages, 2 MB instead of 4 CBs) in guest OS that increases performance due to the smaller number of readings.
• Optimization of the vhost-net component. Now the network stack of KVM is moved from a user mode to a kernel mode that significantly increases performance and reduces delays in network.
• Use of functions of the sVirt library ensuring safety of a hypervisor.
• There was a paravirtualized x2paic controller which reduces overhead by the maintenance of VM (it is especially effective for intensive loadings).
• Async-IO technology for optimization of input-output and performance improvement.

2010: Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization (RHEV) 2.2

On June 28, 2010 the Red Hat company released the final version of the Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization (RHEV) 2.2 platform. The offered software combines mechanisms of virtualization of corporate servers and workstations within one solution and can be used for deployment of virtual IT infrastructures of the enterprise and management by them.

In Red Hat Enterprise Virtualisation 2.2 a number of the improvements simplifying support of the virtual clients of Windows and Linux unrolled within one infrastructure such as Connection Broker component which is automatically connecting the logging-in user with his virtual machine and the Remote Screen Protocol protocol which provides access to a desktop environment is implemented.

One of important functions of the new version is support of the protocol of remote visualization of virtual environments of SPICE (Simple Protocol for Independent Computing Environments). The SPICE technology assumes processing of contents of the screen and audio streams on client side, thereby providing smooth reproduction on the remote system of video records of high definition, guaranteeing support of systems with several monitors and also high-quality voice and video conference.

Red Hat Enterprise Virtualisation 2.2 supports creation of new virtual clients on the basis of templates and also offers "desktop pooling" technology. At connection of the user to a system the ready virtual workstation taken from the existing pool is offered to it. Such approach excludes need for repeated execution of operations on creation and setup of the new virtual machine.

The product distinguishes scalability and an opportunity to select to the guest virtual machine up to 16 virtual processors and up to 256 gigabytes of memory. The structure of a packet also includes a special tool for converting of the existing virtual machines of VMware or Xen for the purpose of their subsequent start on the new platform.

The Red Hat company offers users technology of virtualization of RHEV (Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization) on the basis of a hypervisor of KVM which allows to consolidate virtual machines on servers of virtualization and to achieve economy on the maintenance of IT infrastructure. Red Hat virtualization products are closest on functionality to the VSphere platform from the market leader of VMware today.

Till the recent moment in virtualization lines from Red Hat there were products Enterprise Virtualization Hypervisor (REVH) (based on RHEL 5.4 OS) and Enterprise Virtualization Manager for Server (REVMS) representing means for server virtualization. Now in Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization 2.2 there was a product Enterprise Virtualization Manager for Desktops (REVMD) which allows to organize infrastructure of virtual PCs of the organization.

The solution VDI of Red Hat will work based on highly productive the SPICE protocol (which became Open Source recently). Opportunities of REVMD will include:

• Self-service portal (deployment of virtual machines by users)
  * Linked image Functions (connected clones)
• Organization of pools of virtual PCs
• The Auto suspend functions (suspension) for desktops
• Support of a 32-bit color mode
• Support of a streaming video (streaming video): users will be able to watch videos on the PCs
• Support of several monitors (to 4) for a session with the virtual PC (Multi-monitor display)
• Support of bidirectional audio and video
• Support of redirection USB (USB of 2.0 redirection)
• Optimization of work of users on WAN
  

From the point of view of the platform, in Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization 2.2 the following functions will appear:

• Support of processors of the Opteron 6000 Intel Xeon 5600 and AMD series
• Support up to 256 GB vRAM on the virtual machine
• Support of the unified format of OVF virtual machines (Open Virtual Machine Format)
• Functions of migration Virtual to Virtual (V2V). Allow to smigrirovat virtual machines from formats of VMware or Xen in the OVF file (however, so far only for Red Hat OS).
• Support of data warehouse analysis that also Inventory of virtual infrastructure allows to collect performance data, to analyze it and to build reports

Notes