OREANDA-NEWS. September 13, 2012. Hitachi, Ltd. (TSE: 6501, “Hitachi”) and Red Hat K.K. (“Red Hat”), a wholly owned subsidiary of Red Hat, Inc. today announced that Hitachi has developed a technology that allows running multiple instances of server virtualization software on a PC server for the first time in the world and it started providing highly reliable and efficient virtualization solutions collaborating with Red Hat's technology for virtualization and cloud computing.

 Specifically, Hitachi has added new functions to its logical partitioning (“LPAR”*2) feature Virtage*3, which is available on Hitachi's BladeSymphony*4 server line, and confirmed that the new Virtage is able to stably run multiple instances of server virtualization software on top of LPARs. This is feasible for multi-tenant*5 style cloud computing environments because it can isolate the effects of load level fluctuation and faults between tenants by assigning an isolated LPAR for each tenant and running server virtualization software (hypervisor*6) on each LPAR, and it allows integrating multi-tenant systems into a server efficiently.

 Hitachi and Red Hat have finished formal verification of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, including its integrated Kernel-based Virtual Machine (“KVM”) virtualization technology*7, running on top of Hitachi's Virtage*3, running on the BladeSymphony server line. As a result, Red Hat has designated Hitachi's BladeSympohony server line as an officially certified Red Hat Enterprise Linux environment, including its KVM hypervisor.

 Hitachi will start selling server blades with Red Hat Enterprise Linux with KVM Virtage installed from September 14 for Japanese market. Furthermore, Hitachi establishes a “Red Hat Enterprise Linux with KVM on LPAR Solution Center,” which will offer evaluation environment and pre-sales consultation. Hitachi plans to develop new virtualization solutions using the products and services through this center's activity.
*1As of September 13, 2012, as server logical partitioning feature with production level supports, based on Hitachi's investigation.
*2LPAR (Logical PARtitioning): logically created server resources comprising logical processors, memory and IO devices.
*3Virtage is registered trademark in Japan.
*4BladeSymphony is registered trademark in Japan. BladeSymphony uses Intel® Xeon® processors.
*5Multi-tenant: Style of systems where single system is shared by multiple customers or group of users.
*6Hypervisor: A core piece of virtualization software that controls and monitors virtual machines.
*7Red Hat Enterprise Linux's KVM hypervisor is same technology as used in Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization.


In order to meet the strong interest in today's companies to reduce total cost of ownership, many IT users are turning to server virtualization to consolidate their systems. This trend is especially strong in evolving cloud computing environments, where server virtualization is regarded as indispensable. In private cloud systems, where virtual machines (“VMs”) belonging to multiple divisions or departments are often mixed on a single server, it is essential to maintain VM performance regardless of variation in load, and to have a high level of security between VMs to isolate them from potential failures in other VMs. For this reason, system administrators often choose to deploy a new physical server for different group of users, even when the server still has capacity for additional VMs.

Hitachi first introduced the logical partitioning feature, Virtage, for its BladeSymphony server line in 2006, leveraging Hitachi's experience in mainframe virtualization combining with hardware based virtualization assistance feature Intel® Virtualization Technology. Virtage is widely used in enterprise systems for its near hardware level stability.

Red Hat has been leading virtualization technology with its KVM development and providing high-quality commercial support for KVM via Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization. While taking full advantage of being contained in the Linux kernel*8 code base, KVM keeps evolving by utilizing the latest Linux technology, such as adapting to new hardware and memory management. KVM in conjunction with the Red Hat Enterprise Linux or Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization platforms is also useful to attain affordable and reliable virtualization environments.
*8
A core piece of software inside operating system.


Today's announcement allows Virtage users to utilize both Hitachi LPAR's near hardware level stability and isolation, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux with KVM's high performance, industry-leading virtualization features and high-level Linux compatibility. Red Hat Enterprise Linux with KVM on LPAR addresses the problem of security and isolation in multi-tenant VM services environments, reducing the need for additional server platforms and lowering power consumption.

In addition, because the size of the LPAR resource can be varied on demand within the server hardware, the possibility is opened for a totally new style of cloud service based on hosting Red Hat Enterprise Linux with KVM environment within virtualized hardware of optimized size.

Today, Hitachi established the “Red Hat Enterprise Linux with KVM on LPAR Solution Center,” located inside the Hitachi Harmonious Competence Center in Tokyo, to promote the new system configurations and to encourage potential users. This center will work primarily with cloud service providers to create high-density and highly energy efficient cloud platforms by providing Red Hat Enterprise Linux with KVM on LPAR environments for evaluation, demonstrating the advantage and offering technical consultation. Evaluation opportunities are also open to software vendors who are interested in the solutions.

Hitachi and Red Hat plan to continue working together and aim to offer more sophisticated solutions and services by combining both companies' advantages. Furthermore, Hitachi and Hitachi Data Systems Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi, plan to jointly develop solutions that will utilize Red Hat Enterprise Linux with KVM on LPAR technology to meet customer requirements in the global marketplace.