Standardized Management: Progress toward Open Virtualization Format to be demonstrated at Catalyst Conference in June 2008
One of the greatest weaknesses facing server virtualization today is the lack of management and monitoring tools that interoperate with multiple vendors. Innovations in server virtualization management could grow at a substantial rate if all server virtualization vendors adopted a Common Information Model-based standard for their metadata.
In September 2007, the Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF®) announced the acceptance of a draft specification for portable virtual machines called the Open Virtualization Format (OVF), which aims to simplify interoperability, security and virtual machine lifecycle management for virtual infrastructures.
OVF uses existing packaging tools to combine one or more virtual machines together with a standards-based XML wrapper, giving the virtualization platform a portable package containing all required installation and configuration parameters for the virtual machines. This allows any virtualization platform that implements the standard to correctly install and run the virtual machines.
In this podcast Drue Reeves, VP and research director with Burton Group, and Winston Bumpus, president of DMTF and director of standards architecture for VMware, discuss the industry’s progress toward acceptance and adoption of this standard.
Additionally, DMTF plans to host a hospitality suite at the Catalyst Conference North America 2008 featuring OVF and other standards-based virtual machine managements from multiple vendors – everything from creating, to distributing, deploying and managing various virtual machines. Be sure to stop by the DMTF hospitality suite in Gregory A/B room on Thursday, June 26, from 6:00 to 9:30 p.m.
