Today AMD and and Linux distributor Red Hat released a video showing the “live migration” of running virtual machines between Intel and AMD servers, using Red Hat hypervisor software.
A feat that was said to be impossible to do between AMD and Intel server platforms.
Live migration moves running virtual machines (VMs) from one physical server to another without any service interruption for the end user. This has important benefits including replacing/upgrading hardware servers, balancing server loads, reducing server downtime, aiding in disaster recovery, etc.
However, if you’re enterprise is using VMware, Citrix/Xen, Parallels or Microsoft’s virtualisation technologies you’ll have to wait until these vendors add the appropriate “hooks” to make that cross-platforms “live migration” possible.
“This is the first time a live migration of virtual machines between AMD and Intel platforms have been demonstrated. But it’s still an early technology preview,” cautious Tim Mueting, AMD’s virtualisation guru.
When cross-platforms live migration becomes widely available, IT administrators will be able to mix and match hardware platforms in their virtualisation server pool regardless if it’s an AMD server or an Intel server.
“It’s just gives enterprises more purchasing decision choice to buy the most performing server platform at that particular moment”, adds Mueting.
Here’s the AMD/Red Hat video of the live migration demo:
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