Archive for December, 2006

http://news.com.com/VMware+Fusion+beta+for+Macs+goes+public/2100-1016_3-6146140.html.

The Fusion beta has support for Intel’s Virtualization Technology (Apple only uses Intel processors, not those from Advanced Micro Devices), can assign two CPUs to a virtual machine, can access USB 2 devices from within a virtual machine and offers support for isochronous devices like Webcams. A virtual battery feature passes notifications into the Windows virtual machine to indicate battery life even when running Windows in full-screen mode, says Krishnamurti.

So I’m a convert. I admit it, I have a mac.  I’m a windows server guy during the day confessing the vast benefits of a windows infrastructure (actually leaning a bit more to linux these days), but back in 2002 I switched to mac and my home pc life has been easier ever since (except for those people that make me run virtual pc or my thinkpad to read visio/project documents).

That’s why I’m very pleased to see fusion for mac, I’ve got virtual pc at the moment, and it works, but the extra functionality that fushion is set to bring looks like what I’ve been after for a long time.  Maybe my ageing thinkpad can be finally laid to rest..

http://searchservervirtualization.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid94_gci1229910,00.html

Diane Greene: The operating system shouldn’t matter to the customer anymore. What matters to them is the service they’re getting and how stable [the OS] is and how well it runs. Once you put in that virtual infrastructure, the only thing that the operating system is there for is to give the application a sort of platform to run on.

A very interesting article about vmware, definately take a look.  Vmware allows application teams/users to try how their application can work on different operating systems, so Monday it might be windows and then ported to linux by Friday.  The point being where as in the ‘olden days’ you had a unix support team, a wintel team, dictating standards and policies for their operating system support, with vmware the operating system becomes more a commodity, more disposable.

I don’t like the pricing structure, the way windows is working, I can request a virtual machine running linux, test and port my application to linux.

The days when platform choice would involve emotional conversations “we don’t support….” are therefore set to end in the long term…

The p2v process is relatively easy, the principle is basically ‘ghosting the system’ then sending it over the network to a virtual session you’ve created with sufficient space and relevant configuration for the target machine.

We virtualized many machines, particulary the windows nt boxes, with a focus on the legacy proliant 2500/6500/1600s which were ‘easy winners’ as in typically development, typically low specification and when tested worked in vmware (in our configuration) with transparency to the end user.

The process was used as I say to transfer the physical to virtual session, but we also took the opportunity to standardise, to reconfigure those servers that were out of date, always lacked enough space on the c drive/data drive, and ensure that all the relevant core patches (Microsoft security patches) were installed.

We basically did something like the following: clear the temporary files/unnecessary profiles/log files etc, check service packs, internet explorer versions (all 5.5 sp2 on NT4) etc.

The key things to watch out for were the compaq netflex adapters not wanting to work at 100/full, the proliant 5000’s didn’t seem to be that fond of booting from the p2v disk and the usual disk copying type issues, the copy is only as good as the original - we had a few servers with thousands of 1k files which took a long time to copy.

http://www.vmware.com/community/message.jspa?messageID=202944 - discusses the proliant 5000 http://www.vmware.com/community/message.jspa?messageID=268148 - discusses the network card problem

Contact Centers - A Closer Look at VoIP in the Enterprise

The organization will crunch hundreds of PBXs and 30 voice-mail systems into a few blade-server-based Alcatel OmniPCX VoIP systems. In hospital environments, where dial tone failure is not an option, analog and digital handsets will remain, while back-office deployments will have IP sets on desktops. “It will be about a 33% mix across the board.”

Voice over ip has been an increasingly important part of the telecoms market, whether it’s me calling my friend in singapore using skype, or enterprises switching from the old style phone systems to a few blades which power VOIP.

Many of the banks in Canary Wharf and the city when moving into a new building or upgrading their infrastructure have taken the opportunity to switch to voice over ip, it makes good sense and makes day to day support a lot easier, no more re-routing phone lines when I have to move a trader/support team.

Was speaking with a friend the other night, they’re having an internal debate (to IT that is) about what kind of disks to have.  The old school IT view is RAID, replicated storage so if one disk fails, the blade is still in service.  The main views in this respect appeared to be:

* RAID 1 mirrored set (two disks) -  If the disk fails, life continues, obtain the downtime replace the disk and we’re back in service.

* Single IDE/SCSI disk - Keep it simple, one disk, if it fails, replace the disk, rebuilt it, there’s no need for RAID particularly if it’s a calculation engine with no historical data.

* No local disks - san boot it, have everything on emc (or the equivalent) that way you save the power/heat generated by local disks and allow a more fluid type blade infrastructure.

The debate from what I gathered as we discussed over dinner, is set to continue, SAN boot? Can our switch handle it? How do you build on a network attached disk? What about drivers?

Also,the thought that a server platform would be ‘production ready’ with an option to rebuild like a desktop, if a disk fails or software installation gets corrupt is not the typical way of operating in the ‘olden days’ infrastructure world, where disks are plentiful and servers last forever. Bring back my compaq proliant 2005 with it’s local 7200rpm disks, with windows nt, when life was simple.