The Age of Virtualization-accelerated Mac OS X Development Begins
That didn’t take long…
With the launch of VMware Fusion 2 Beta 2, the age of virtualization-enabled Mac software development has dawned.
Gus Mueller is an independent software developer over at Flying Meat software—developers of Acorn image editor, Voodoo Pad, FlySketch, and a whole passel of other titles.
Well, Gus has a great post up on his blog about how he’s already using VMware Fusion 2 Beta 2 to help him do Mac development better and faster now that he can run Mac OS X Server in a VM.
Virtualization for the Developers and Testers of the World
For those who don’t know, developers and testers like to be able to test their software on brand new, clean machines, to make sure that nothing they have on their machine is masking a problem that might show up on your or my machine.
Back before x86 virtualization, you do this by having a bunch of physical machines. But even then, rolling them back to a clean state can be a pain, even if you script it.
VMware Workstation has been solving this problem for Windows and Linux developers for nearly a decade now—letting developers and testers roll multiple physical machines into a single physical machine hosting virtual machines, and use “snapshots” to quickly roll back any changes to a virtual machine to a pristine base state.
Mac OS X and Virtualization At Last
Now, with VMware Fusion 2’s support of Mac OS X Server as a guest operating system, plus multiple snapshots, Mac OS X developers and testers can create a fresh install of Mac OS X Server, take a snapshot of it, and always have that ready to roll back to when they’re done—no multiple machines. No scripts. Just quick.
There’s already a handy document up on the VMware Fusion forums showing how to install Mac OS X Server virtual machines and tweak for performance optimization.
Some of these features are pointed out in one of the videos we made for the Beta 2 Launch on the “Tech Pro” features that are in VMware Fusion 2 Beta 2:
I was wondering if there are any plans to up the virtual specs on the video driver for OS X Server in the VM? I do customized scripting development for Apple's Final Cut Server (http://www.apple.com/finalcutserver/) for our clients and unfortunately I can't install the server software because it wants a Quartz Extreme compatible graphics card. Is there any chance for this in an upcoming update to the beta?
Posted by: Christopher Collins | August 03, 2008 at 06:05 PM
You talk about virtualisation of OSX Server. What is really needed is virtualisation of the regular OSX client, which is already on the machine and paid for. I know Apple's license doesn't allow this (yet) but are there any technical restrictions on doing it, or are they purely legal?
Posted by: Julian Gall | August 03, 2008 at 10:58 PM
@Christopher:
Nice post, you made my day! QE capability in a Mac OS X Server VM would be nice indeed and I want it as much as the next guy. However, it requires a huge engineering effort:
1) Apple does not publish sample code on how to implement the IOAccelerator class.
2) Even if we had proper documentation, see how long it is taking us just to write 3D accelerated drivers (equivalent in complexity) for Windows guests.
@Julian:
The only thing that prevents Fusion 2.0 beta 2 from running Mac OS X Client in a VM is Apple's EULA. If you want the restriction to be lifted, tell Apple.
Posted by: Regis | August 04, 2008 at 06:44 AM
I, too, would like to run Leopard Client in Fusion. I've seen the "licence doesn't allow it" argument several times, but so far nobody's been able to tell me which clause of the licence forbids it. I've read through mine several times and can't find anything wrong with it. I'm not in the US, so is it possible that the licence is different due to local laws?
In any case, an "end user licence agreement" is between the developer (Apple) and the end user (me). Putting restrictions into Fusion "just in case" the user does something wrong is, in my opinion, setting a bad precedent.
Posted by: Chris Mahoney | August 14, 2008 at 02:06 AM
Will Leopard Server be able to run virtually with versions of VMWare other than those running on Macs? As far as I'm concerned, Mac OS X Server and Client are essentially the same thing, but if one can't deploy either one virtually in labs that have already been set up and paid for, then it will be a while before Apple can count on the same levels of support from engineers as are given to other Intel-based operating systems. Which versions of VMWare will support running Leopard Server virtually? Only Fusion?
Posted by: Bill | November 07, 2008 at 10:11 AM
@Bill,
Apple's EULA constrains virtualized OS X to Leopard Server, and on Apple hardware only. VMware Fusion and other VMware products honor this.
We encourage you to talk to your Apple rep / contacts / blog your thoughts.
Posted by: Pete Kazanjy | November 07, 2008 at 10:14 AM