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Virtualization solutionsWhitepaper

Version August 2012

IndexServer and Desktop Virtualization 3

State of the market and technology 5

Virtual Desktop Infrastructure VDI 7

Virtual Server Infrastructure VSI 9

Definitions 14

Conclusions 14

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Index1 Server and Desktop Virtualization..................................................................................3

1.1 Motivation for companies..........................................................................................31.2 Cloud Computing......................................................................................................31.3 Desktop Virtualization...............................................................................................31.4 Server Virtualization..................................................................................................41.5 FOSS-Cloud.............................................................................................................4

2 State of the market and technology...............................................................................52.1 Open Cloud...............................................................................................................52.2 Commercial solutions...............................................................................................62.3 FOSS-Cloud.............................................................................................................6

3 Virtual Desktop Infrastructure VDI.................................................................................73.1 VDI Performance......................................................................................................73.2 Cost...........................................................................................................................73.3 Functionality..............................................................................................................8

4 Virtual Server infrastructure VSI....................................................................................94.1 Functions..................................................................................................................94.2 Cost.........................................................................................................................13

5 Definitions.......................................................................................................................146 Conclusions....................................................................................................................14

© FOSS-Group 2012 2 of 15 Whitepaper

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1 Server and Desktop Virtualization

1.1 Motivation for companiesIntroducing Open Source Solutions is the only way for companies to lower their TCO (Total Costs of Ownership) costs sustainably. With open source products a realistic saving of 10 - 20% percent can be achieved. Therefore server and desktop virtualization solutions (VDI = Virtual Desktop Infrastructure) can make an important contribution. Thanks to lower hardware resource requirements, the extension of the life cycle of desktop hardware and centralised management of virtual machines, etc., another 20 to 30 % of savings can be achieved.

With the FOSS-Cloud, companies can save up to 50 % of their IT costs through automating, standardising and centralising as well as prolonged use of desktop hardware, or by simplified management of virtual servers, while increasing performance.

1.2 Cloud ComputingCloud computing is basically nothing more than old wine in new skins. Where once was spoken of Infrastructure as a Servide (IaaS), Platform as a Service (SaaS) or Software as a Service (SaaS), today we talk of cloud computing. Even a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) is still nothing more than PaaS, a Virtual Server is IaaS or PaaS, depending on whether the operating system and/or the middle-ware is provided as a service. What makes the difference of a cloud, is that the standardisation of services are made available through a centralised administration interface. The "value added services" around the cloud haven’t changed compared to conventional operated IT systems.

1.3 Desktop VirtualizationIn today's dynamic business environment companies need flexible infrastructure to allow people fast and reliable access to applications and information any time, anywhere. What years ago called Terminal Services and server-based computing is now reaching its limits. PC users are accustomed to have their own personal desktop and to customize it. Only through the server virtualization after the turn into the new Millennium the acceptance increased and the development also in the area of desktop virtualization - centralised and yet individual. Increasingly, modern businesses have a high demand for flexible staff combined with the highest standards of safety, reliability and privacy policy. The need for increasingly powerful applications and the use of distributed resources brings IT to its limit. Only trough the use of VDI the extensive requirements of flexible work environments could be met. Centralisation is primarily standardisation and optimisation of costs without any loss of the scalability and impact of the usability. All these advantages help IT companies operate with greater flexibility and security, centralised management while keeping operating costs as low as possible and still satisfying users' needs.

As a result local PC or laptop require low computing power (applications and operating system are running in the data center). For this reason PCs or laptops which would have reached the end of their life cycle in terms of performance remain another two to three years in operation. This results in huge cost savings in terms of new acquisitions. In addition, operating systems and applications can be maintained and supported centrally from the data center. For example, during an update or


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security patch it is not necessary to update each PC or laptop locally, which in turn causes a significant optimisation of resources.

1.4 Server VirtualizationThe flexible infrastructure is also important for server virtualization. Server virtualization can aid the provision of servers, services, or entire business processes within a narrow time frame, so that the company or organisation succeeds with their core business and is able to respond quickly and flexibly to market needs. The better this process is standardised, the better it can run automatically in the FOSS-Cloud.

Resources can also be used more efficiently with server virtualization. In traditional IT, each server has its own hardware. The processor turns with 5 % load, the memory is used to a capacity of 20% and half of the memory capacity is occupied.

In contrast the FOSS-Cloud: By centralising the resources they can be shared, so that the resources are designed that e.g. 70% of the entire memory and 50% of the computing power is used. With the memory sharing the FOSS-Cloud has an additional advantage compared to other solutions. If for example five Windows 2008 servers are virtualized, the memory in the second virtual machine is occupied only with what is different to the first virtual machine. Therefore the FOSS-Cloud uses the hardware resources in a much more economical way than other solutions, which in turn brings again a cost benefit. This of course applies not only to the server virtualization but also for the entire virtualization.

1.5 FOSS-CloudThe FOSS-Cloud as an open source solution is addressed to a market, that is occupied with solutions such as Citrix or VMware View, which are commercialised, subject to license conditions and therefore very expensive.

Gartner assesses the market for desktop virtualization as "embryonic market", which is still in its initial phase. At the same time Gartner identifies VDI as the "hot topic" of the next few years. In the latest studies by Gartner virtualization topics within cloud computing are discussed and designed as the number 1 priority of the next ICT development.

The FOSS-Group plays with the FOSS-Cloud as Switzerland-German co-production in the first league of the big market players. In addition to the self-marketing the successful win of IBM as implementation and operating partner can be reported as for the German speaking countries. IBM has added the FOSS-Cloud to its product portfolio as a cost-effective alternative to the commercial solutions from Citrix and VMware.


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2 State of the market and technologyMany companies and organisations are aware of the pressures of cost savings and plan to invest in the future virtualization technologies. At the same time the commercial market leaders such as Citrix and VMware dominate the market with high licensing costs.

With the FOSS-Cloud, the FOSS-Group has created an open source virtualization solution, with functionality comparable to commercial options, but with radically lower maintenance costs due to low resource consumption and cost of administration. In addition, the FOSS-Cloud is free of any licence costs.

The relocation of the Windows-Clients into the data centre is one of the major trends in desktop computing. The analysts of Gartner predicted that VDI solutions represent a market of 65 billion dollars by 2013, which represents 40 % of the worldwide professional PC market.

The hype will come with the long anticipated migration to Windows 7 may cause companies to fundamentally rethink their desktop strategies. Rather than simply replace Windows XP with the latest operating system, they could opt for a centralised model. Many companies are already in the planning stages to change to Windows 7, which shall be effected in grand scale by 2012, according to Gartner.

In server environments, virtualization has progressed even further. In this area VMware is widely used, but new license conditions for customer protection further burden IT managers. For this reason, it is worthwhile to consider an open cloud.

2.1 Open CloudThe FOSS-Cloud is an open cloud. It's not about individual functions or features. It is a question of "open standards" or "proprietary software". If a cloud cuts itself off from outside, it reduces its benefit compared to the open cloud.

Added value of an open cloud:

2.1.1 Open Source

Users of a Free Open Source Software (FOSS) have insight into the technology or can appoint a developer they trust to look at software and may also make changes or improvements themselves. In addition, a whole community is behind the technology that they is further developed and can be requested for assistance, disabling the dangerous "Vendor Lock In".

2.1.2 Standards

Open technologies adhere to standards. They integrate where it makes sense also de facto standards that large manufacturers agree among themselves. This interoperability is therefore not under the dictate of the individual providers, which usually focus on one platform. Because of these standards, open technology can be extended, therefore opening up the potential for other communities or businesses to integrate their own or existing solutions into the Open Cloud.

2.1.3 Independence

With open cloud, companies are not dependent on a technology, strategy or license policy of a provider. Instead companies can decide, when and how they want to make their implementation.

2.1.4 Freedom and security

Only the liberation from the burden of the major manufacturers provides real security. Open technologies are free from mandatory licenses and restrictions and the use of intellectual property is free of charge. They follow ‘real’ standards (not just de facto standards), giving companies the freedom and flexibility to use these technologies and the security to legally use this technology for years to come.


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2.2 Commercial solutions2.2.1 CitrixCitrix offers as solution concept the Citrix XenDesktop and XenServer plus cloud infrastructure, which are available in three editions for the user:

• Citrix Platinum Edition: The most powerful edition and includes all features which are offered by Citrix

• Citrix Enterprise Edition: The solution for medium and large environments with limitations in aspects of data security (Single Sign-On Smart Access) and HDX features such as HDX Smart Access and HDX WAN optimisation

• Citrix Edition: Solution for Hosted VM and Blade-based desktops. Ideal for first-time users

As the newest technology, Citrix has bought a company whose product “VDI in a box” it puts on the market. This technology swallows up great deal of resources, and provides very limited scalability.

Citrix is clearly the market leader in desktop virtualization, but has a very small market share in server virtualization. Citrix has a strategic partnership with Microsoft, which manifests itself in its pricing policy. Existing customers of Citrix often complain about the dependence and the associ-ated cost implications for a possible switch of providers. For this reason, many IT-managers today are afraid about a change in strategy.

2.2.2 VMware

VMware has established itself on the market primarily with its products in the server virtualization and offers little in the way of desktop virtualization.

VMware View for remote users is based on the PCoIP protocol, which is used in this way only by VMware. With VMware vSpehre, the only unified management for VMware Desktop optimised virtualization platform, can be accessed on rich media content and monitor configurations.

2.3 FOSS-CloudThe FOSS-Cloud is the most advanced open source cloud on the market, providing both virtual work stations and virtual servers. The following modules are provided:

• Desktop virtualization - FOSS-Cloud VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure)

• Server virtualization - FOSS-Cloud VSI (Virtual Server Infrastructure)

With the FOSS-Cloud, the FOSS-Group has created an open source virtualization solution, with functionality comparable to commercial options, but with radically lower maintenance costs due to low resource consumption and cost of administration. In addition, the FOSS-Cloud is free of any licence costs.

The highlights are:

• Real cost-effective alternative to Citrix and VMware

• Server and client virtualization from a single cloud

• Very low consumption of resources

• Reduces desktop costs up to 50%

• 100% Windows and Linux compatible (unique)

• Multilingual, scalable, modular


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3 Virtual Desktop Infrastructure VDIAfter the strategic and complex decision whether to invest in a cloud or not, there is still a difficult decision for a product.

In order to assist companies in making this decision, as a result the three VDI products, FOSS-Cloud, VMware and Citrix are taken into account, considering multiple relevant criteria.

3.1 VDI PerformanceIn the performance, the required bandwidth is the main criterion. The less bandwidth is used, the faster is the solution and consequently, the product can be used on smaller bandwidths.

Criteria(Numbers in MBpS)

FOSS-CloudVDI

CitrixXenDeskotp5

VMwareView

Average bandwidth usage 1.53 1.57* 2.45*

* Source: Study by Miercom May 2011

3.2 CostThe licensing models do not allow a direct comparison of the solutions. Thus Citrix is the only product where an annual license renewal is required. FOSS-Cloud and VMware however have a subscription, respectively support, which include the latest versions of the solutions and patches and so on. In addition the fee includes a minimum support.

Criteria(Prices in €)

FOSS-CloudVDI

CitrixXenDeskotp5

VMwareView

License cost per user (full version) 0.- 283.50 172.48

Annual licence 130.50

Support for subscription per user per year 39.60 45.00 121.36

Status: May 2012

3.2.1 TCO

Based on above information, no significant TCO calculation is possible. Nevertheless, the statement shows that the FOSS-Cloud is by far the cheapest in regard to licensing and support costs and therefore obviously justifies the desired added value in terms of cost savings in investment and maintenance.


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3.3 FunctionalityThe table below lists the functional possibilities of the various VDI solutions:

1) From the Enterprise Edition


VMware

x x

PXE Boot x x x x x x x x x

Live Backup

Live Migration x x x x

SAS Support x x x x

Criteria FOSS-Cloud Citrix

Full virtualization of Linux & Windows VM'sAccess from Windows, Mac Linux and Handhelds

Connect up to 4 high resolution displays (32 bit)Streaming Video (M-Jpeg)Audio and Video bidirectionalUSB supportPublished ApplicationPersistent SessionsSmart Card authenticationCentral Windows und Linux Printing64 (32)bit Hypervisor

Snapshot Template

1

Multi OS capableCentral Management Console Web-based Console Roll-based securityResource Pool 1

Multi-Server Management (High Availability / Cluster) 1

Distributed DatacenterBranch Office SupportSAN, NAS, iSCSI Support

Open SourceLocal VM 1

Single sign on 1

Graphics supported 1

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4 Virtual Server infrastructure VSIEach of the various virtualization solutions of the different providers have its eligibility and its selective strengths. The differentiation into functional areas compared to the competitors makes each product of the various providers interesting for specific areas. But these are not all the decision factors. A major emphasis should be placed on the ease of use of the product, as well as a decisive criterion of resource consumption. Exactly these points are the successful concept of the FOSS-Cloud.

4.1 FunctionsThe table below lists the functional possibilities of the most important solutions. We have omitted the comparison with the Citrix XenServer, as it only makes sense linked with other Citrix products.

Function FOSS-Cloud VSI VMware*Vsphere 5

Microsoft*Hyper-V 2008 r2

Hypervisor

Bare-Metal-Hypervisor: Can be installed directly on the server hardware and does not require a full operating system

Y Y N (At least 3GB installation)

Economical: < 200MB) Y Y N

Optimized device drivers: guest device drivers are optimized for virtualization, enabling high-performance network and disk operations.

Y Y N

Support of many host-server: Intel- and AMD Chip-sets

Y Y Y

Scaling limitations

Per Cluster

Host/Cluster 200 32 Microsoft Cluster Services with limitation to 16 hosts

Per Host

Max. Logical CPUs per host 16 160 64

Max. RAM per Host 2 TB/Host 2 TB/Host 32GB – Standard- Hyper-V-Server

Max. Virtual CPUs per Host 512 512 512

Per VM

Max. CPUs per VM 64 vCPU/VM 8 vCPU/VM32 vCPU/VMEnterprise Plus

4 vCPUs/VM for Win2008/Win/ and Linux Vms with integration services; 2vCPUs/VM for Win2003

Max. VRAM per VM 512 GB/VM 1 TB/VM 64 GB/VM

Guest operating system support

Guest operating system-support

Windows and Linux

x86 und x64

Windows, Linux and Unix x86 and x64

Windows 2003, 2008(only some particular SPs)

SLES, RHEL 5 +

x86 and x64


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Function FOSS-Cloud VMware*Vsphere 5


Management Features

Reboot the virtual machine in the event of a failure of a node

Y, manually Y Y, requires failover clustering, limited guest OS support

Reboot the virtual machine in case of failure of a guest

Y, manually Y Y

Priority restart of the virtual machine: By prioritizing the restart, the most critical VM's are started first.

N Y N

High availability of management and administrative module

Y Y, requires Microsoft Fail over Clustering

Y, requires Microsoft Fail over Clustering

Application fail over Y Y Y

Maintenance mode: The guest VM's of the hosts that are supported, are migrated automatically to another available host

Y Y N

Migration

Live-Migration of virtual machines (Host to Host)

Y Y Y

Live-Migration of memory N, not required by the architecture

Y, requires Enterprise or Enterprise plus

Quick-Migration(interruption of service)

Workload and Resource Management

System Planer: Cluster policies for the automatic distribution of workloads across cluster host server

Y Y, requires Enterprise or Enterprise plus

N

Enterprise saving function: Collecting VM's on fewer hosts in order to save energy outside of the peak period.

Soon available Y, requires Enterprise or Enterprise plus

Y

Distribution of memory capacity:Automatic distribution of memory I / O and memory capacity

N Y, Enterprise plus N

Sharing of resource pools:CPU, memory, and memory resources are summarized and managed at the cluster level.

N, the intelligent VM management eliminates the need.

Y N

Hot-add virtual RAM drive:More memory and disk space for running VM (The guest operating system and applications must support the feature)


Y

Hot-Add vCPU VM and NICs:More vCPU's and NIC for the running VM. (The guest operating system and applications must support the feature)


N


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Function FOSS-Cloud VSI VMware*Vsphere 5


VM administration

Thin Provisioning:Virtual hard disks do not occupy their maximum storage space when created.

Y Y Y

Templates:Virtual machines can be provided on master installations

Y Y Y

VM-Snapshots:Roll Back from Patches and Upgrades

Soon available Y Y

Life-VM-Snapshots:Snapshot of a running VM

Y Y Limited

Import/Export of VMs in the OVF standard format

Y Y Y

VM conversion

Tools, that allow VMs to be converted from other formats to the native format

Y Y Y

VM Backup:Certified third-party solutions for backing up virtual machines are available (both for data and operating system security).

Y Y Y

System management and control

General view for central control Y Y N, requires several Management Tools

Monitoring and management of host and VMs, both for server and desktop virtualization (VDI)

Y N, requires several Management Tools

N, requires several Management Tools

Self-Service User Portal:Allows users administrative access to create/operate VM's and management environments.

Soon available Requires VMware Lab Manager(out of date), or vCloud Director with Enterprise plus

N

Reseller Modul: Whitelabeling for Service Provider

Soon available N N

Roles and permissions:Granular, heritable, directory-based security roles for all actions and objects

Y Y Requires Authorization Manager

External directory service:Choice for the integration of any LDAP v3 compliant directory service.

Y N N

Identity management:Choice for authentication in a external directory service

Y N N

Remote Console:Allows access to the virtual machines via a graphical interface.

Y Y Y

PXE-Boot-Support: Remote network boot using PXE (Preboot Execution Environment)

Y, virtual PXE Server Y Y


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Function FOSS-Cloud - VSI VMware*Vsphere 5


Reporting and Monitoring

Reporting module:Reports on usage history, trends and service quality

Soon available Requires vCenter CapacityIQ

J

Alerts and Notifications:Errors and warnings are reported to the administrator immediately via e-mail

Y, through the Enterprise Monitoring System.

Y Y

Logging:Supports remote logging and crash analysis

Y Y Y

Guest agent:Allows monitoring of the VM status

Y Y Limited

Integration, automation and customisation

API: Programming interface for all management functions

N Y Y

Scripting and automation of management functions

Y, libvirt Y, Powershell-based CLI Y, Powershell-based CLI

Hooks: Execution of system commands or scripts that modify the VM operation

N Limited N

Security

Kernel LevelHardened Minimal System

Y N, Application Layer Security with Add-Ons to vShield-Produkten

N

Lean HypervisorMinimizing the attack surface

Y Y N, min. 3.4 GB

Firewall per VMHeritable rules defined by the pool down to the individual VM

Y N N

Memory management

Sharing memory pages:Allows VMs physical Memory to share.

Y Y N

Processor hardwareMemory wizard:Speeds up memory sharing between host and VM

Y Y N

Transparent Huge Pages:Large memory pages can be created dynamically for corresponding VMs

Y Y N

Networking

Device support:Standard network hardware

Y Y Y

VLANs:Support for virtual LANs within the virtual infrastructure network hardware

Y Y Requires a host OS and VM OS configuration

Network-Outsourcing:Outsourcing of virtual networking and network IO to compatible NIC hardware

Y Y Y

Jumbo Frames Y Y Y


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Function FOSS-Cloud - VSI VMware*Vsphere 5


Mass storage

Shared memory:Support shared iSCSI, FC, and NFS storage infrastructure

Y Y Y

Storage multipathing:Redundant path to memory for improved performance and fault tolerance

Y Y Y

Support of local drives: Y Y Y

* Source: Red Hat, Enterprise Virtualization Functional Comparison

4.2 CostAlso in the server virtualization the licensing models of the solutions allow no direct comparison. Thus Citrix is the only product where an annual license renewal is required. Microsoft has the Software Assurance and FOSS-Cloud and VMware have a subscription, respectively support, which include the latest versions of the solutions and patches and so on. In addition, a 3rd-level support is included in the price.

Criteria(Prices in €)

FOSS-CloudVSI

VMware MicrosoftHyper-V2008 r2

CitrixXenServer

License cost per Node (VMware 3 VMs, max 2 CPUs per VM) (Citrix 1 Node)

0.- 3806.00 802.00 4'500.00

Annual license (Microsoft Software Assurance per Node)

1'578.00 2'970.00

Subscription for Support per virtual server and year (Citrix per Node)

158.40 172.00 Integrated in Software

Assurance

607.50

Status: May 2012


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5 Definitions

XenDesktop 5 FOSS-Cloud

HDX Media Stream Streaming video

HDX Broadcast Bandwidth optimisation

HDX Plug-n-Play USB redirection / High resolution Display

HDX Smart Access Smartcard authentication

HDX Real Time Bi-directional audio & video

VDI FlexCast Local VM for mobile user

The FOSS-Cloud consists of several basic components, which are brought together by a central web management.

KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine)

The Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) is a Linux kernel virtualization infrastructure and runs on x86 hardware with the hardware virtualization techniques from Intel or AMD, and on the System z-architecture. KVM was published in October 2006 and is available from version 2.6.20 of the Linux kernel.

Spice Client (Simple Protocol for Independent Computing Environments)

The Simple Protocol for Independent Computing Environments (Spice) is a software and a protocol to support access to remote machines. It offers a good multimedia support (streaming media and VoIP). Spice is a multi-layer architecture which includes a server, a client, and a driver. On the server side a PCI device is emulated by a VDI-device in the host system. On the client side it is either a browser or a dedicated client application that is used. Spice is developed by the company Red Hat, Inc. as open source. There is an implementation for QEMU / KVM.

Kernel Same Page Merging short KSM

KSM allows the virtualization to run multiple guest systems while sharing the same memory pages. KSM is written as a kernel daemon that periodically scans the memory for identical memory pages and replaces them by a read-only memory page.

This page will automatically be divided, if an update is made on the memory page. So it is possible with KVM and KSM to run on a host with 48 GB RAM, 50 Windows 7 guest operating systems.

6 ConclusionsIt can be noted that with virtualization it is possible to save high cost in all areas. These arise mainly due to lower hardware and operational costs.

More basic features in the use of open source solutions are on one hand the elimination of high licensing costs and on the other hand the considerable reduction of dependency of commercial software vendors. Moreover, the FOSS-Cloud handling in daily life is much easier than with other solutions, in particular by because both the server and the client virtualization comes from the same cloud.

Cloud computing is a logical way to get IT costs under control and the FOSS-Cloud the most consistent way to reduce IT costs.


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Contact details:

FOSS-Group Management AGArbachstrasse 50CH-6340 Baarwww.FOSS-Group.comTel. +41 41 760 37 00

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Country organisations

FOSS-Group (Schweiz) GmbHRiedstrasse 29CH-2544 BettlachTel. +41 32 530 30 32

FOSS-Group (Europe) GmbHBismarckallee 9D-79098 Freiburg i.Br.www.FOSS-Group.de+49 173 433 00 14

FOSS-Group Goslar GmbHZepelinstrasse 26D-38640 Goslarwww.FOSS-Group.de+49 173 433 00 14

© FOSS-Group All rights reserved

FOSS-Group and FOSS-Cloud are registered trademarks of the European Union and other countries.

Trademarks of other companies / Manufacturers are recognized.

Contract terms and prices can be Requested at the FOSS-Group officesand the FOSS-Group business partners.

The product information reflect the Contemporary state.The subject and scope of services are defined exclusively in the respective agreements.


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