Is Magnum-SC an Explosive for the Server Consolidation Market?

SWsoft Tuesday released a new line of server consolidation appliances based on its Virtuozzo OS-virtualization technology and Intel-based servers from IBM and Dell Computer.

These “Magnum-SC” servers can consolidate the workload of 10 to 200 physical servers onto a single appliance, which SWsoft believes will result in lower TCO due to a 70 percent reduction in overall system administration costs.

SWsoft Tuesday released a new line of server consolidation appliances based on its Virtuozzo OS-virtualization technology and Intel-based servers from IBM and Dell Computer.

Magnum-SC dramatically improves flexibility, according to SWsoft, because of the scalability of Virtuozzo”s dynamic partitioning technology that allows the OS container, or “virtual environment,” in which both an OS and application run, to grow from a fraction of an Intel processor up to 8 processors.

SWsoft believes this makes for an ideal environment for large IBM and Dell servers. The company is convinced enough of this fit that it is including an IBM or Dell server with each of its three Magnum-SC offerings.

Magnum-SC appliances are designed to be deployed by a single administrator in less than half a day. To make this possible, the servers rely on Virtuozzo”s advanced dynamic software partitioning capabilities. Magnum-SC also claims to be the first drop-in server consolidation appliance to require no changes to existing software or IT processes.

Since Virtuozzo is the lead driver in the Magnum-SC caravan, with the launch of the Magnum-SC server line comes the release of Virtuozzo version 2.0.2.

This latest version of Virtuozzo offers two new capabilities: the “vzmc” GUI, which enables administrators to manage hundreds of Linux Virtual Environments (VEs) across multiple servers, and “vzmigrate,” which enables administrators to automatically move an entire operating system container to another server for scheduled hardware maintenance or system upgrades with only a few seconds of planned downtime.

The Virtuozzo 2.0.2-powered Linux-based Magnum-SC server line currently comes in three flavors:

• The M30 Precision is priced at $10,000 and consolidates up to 50 servers (although according to SWsoft it is better-suited for 10) and comes with an IBM xSeries 330 or Dell PowerEdge 1650.
• The M130 Midrange is capable of consolidating up to 200 servers (although 25 is suggested) and sells for $25,000. The M130 comes with a Dell PowerEdge 6650 or IBM xSeries 360.
• The M230 Turbo can consolidate up to 500 servers (though SWsoft recommends limiting it to 50) and includes a Dell PowerEdge 8450 or IBM xSeries 370.

Virtuozzo 2.0.2 is priced starting at $250. Virtuozzo 2.0.2 supports Red Hat 7.2, RedHat 6.2, ASPLinux 7.2.

Magnum-SC represents the first leg in SWsoft”s journey to become the leader in server consolidation solutions.

“Future versions of Virtuozzo and Magnum-SC will feature support for 64 GB of memory, 16 CPUs, and IA64,” said Craig Oda, SWsoft”s VP of business development. “We”ve enhanced our HSPcomplete solution with server consolidation features and will release both the ”SCcomplete” solution later this year and a Windows solution in the second half of 2003.”

Related Stories:
Adding Virtual Servers to Existing Servers with Virtuozzo