vtAlpha Alpha virtualization runs Bare Metal (directly on top of the host computer) and on a Virtual Machine (VMware, KVM, Xen, Hyper-V) delivering the broadest choice in host environments. We even deliver the vtAlpha product as a VM appliance that you can easily import in your VM so you can start using vtAlpha without going through installation and configuration. Easy does it.
VMware has an interesting feature, called vMotion. It allows to migrate a running Virtual Machine from one host computer to another. This is a feature that we like to support and offer to our (virtual) OpenVMS and Tru64 customers for improved resilience. We were pretty sure we could make vtAlpha survive such a live host transition, but what about OpenVMS and Tru64? These were not designed with such functionality in mind, so how would they survive the time lapse that is involved with such a host transition?
We can report that we managed to mask such an event from these older operating systems so any running vtAlpha can be transitioned from one host to another using this VMware capability. We have posted a short video showing such a transition here: vtAlpha host migration.
This capability enables you to build virtual Alpha installations with a disaster resiliency that can be better than with the original Alpha equipment. OpenVMS and Tru64 enthousiasts thought things couldn’t get better than with these operating systems. Guess what: they just did!
Proof is good, but customer confirmation is better. We have multiple customers using this capability and JCC, USA recently reported their positive experience on Twitter,
Check it out and let us know when you want to hear more about this capability.