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BuildMyVirtual is our latest iPad and web based application for both the SMB and Enterprise space, it’s a very simple concept based on the self service model for requesting and building virtual machines.

The user selects the specification and options from the screen below (End user customizable with your logo / your color schemes etc)

User having selected everything then clicks the send button which submits the build request:

Both the drop down values and the text can be adjusted easily.

Now the shockingly cool bit.  The application in the background generates an XML file containing the values selected so that you can script it into your build mechanism whatever it is, and then emails it either to a shared mailbox like server builds, a user’s email address or even the help-desk for it to be logged and the xml as an added attachment.

A thank you/confirmation page is then displayed:

This page is called ok.html, and is fully configurable so it can do any cool things like generate xml scripts or commands to kick off the build, or simply have your team/company logo with a confirmation message and mail box or link to the server build/process documentation.

So what is the aim of the server:

• Make the virtual server provisioning process look more professional
• Remove our dependency on endless complex spreadsheets
• Move towards a centralized virtual offering – standard configurations which the user selects
• Bridge between next generation fully automated solutions and where you might be today
• Maintain control for IT to validate configurations, so it can be as automated or manual as you like.

What do you get then?

A zip file containing all the bits you need to put on a web server and host for the tool to work

The source files, the code, everything you need to start with as a template to building our your own version of the tool with the branding, the logos and the functionality you choose. You could even build it around LDAP/SSO if you wish, integrate it to your help desk tool so it allocates a call or a build request number – the possibilities are endless.

What don’t you get?

A tool that builds virtual machines – this app aims to give you the framework from which you can automate or manually provision machines with less manual paperwork, but the right level of professionalism and ability to check what the user has requested is deliverable.

When does it go live?

Soon, we’re finishing off the base product so to speak and making a version for the iPad, and then launching it for free as a template or a real tool for all to use. No tricks, unlocked source files, no debate. However if you want it customized and extended to bring new functionality, we can of course provide that.

Our Live Demo version is here for you to play with until the end of time.  At the moment it just sends me an email with what you selected, but once the code is finished we will make it ask what account you want to send it too so you can see it in action.

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I was for the second time meeting with a consultant who works in the Wintel space, I was wanting to speak to him about build technologies, standards and his views on automation best practice, an overview if you will to get other views and see what’s going on.

Anyway, it was all very interesting he was mentioning interesting tools like Opsware, Altiris and BladeLogic, what innovations they had made from operating system load through to deployment into production which sounded stunning and it was at this point that it all went wrong and I will explain after the following quote.

“We can build a server in 17 minutes”

Fantastic I replied. That’s brilliant news and shows you with the right procedures, the right technologies and best practices we can as an internal IT team be as efficient or nearing so as an external vendor. 

What do you mean by build I asked?

Installing the operating system? Why what did you think I meant?

So how long does it take from start to finish? I asked.

There was hesitation, dare I say it a bit of awkward silence as if I’d started speaking to him about the Renault 6.

Well it takes seven weeks.

Sorry, I ask?

Seven weeks, you know by the time we put the specifications together, raise the acceptance, sign off and then raise a purchase order, then a week or so to rack, then build the OS in 17 minutes and then hand over for the application load, then four days for the monitoring, backups and support handover to take place.

So what operating systems can you build in that time? I ask

We can build Windows 2003 and Windows 2008 all versions from our template image.

If I want to rebuild our old Windows 2000 server? I ask, You know if the server goes bang, how long will it take to rebuild.

Oh we would need to burn a CD and then get the drivers and build it manually.

Why? Well that’s out of scope, IT and the build team don’t support Windows 2000, it’s on the risk register and is therefore at risk, if the system failed we would deploy a Windows 2003 server and ask them to try that first whilst we fix their broken one.

It’s at this point, my interest in the conversation started to wonder. Don’t for a moment let me diminish the achievements of the IT teams, any streamlining efforts in the build space made are to be commended, any efforts at illustrating the ability to deliver an agile platform to meet the business need is brilliant news. However, in such scenarios we seem to have ‘danced around the edges’, by this I mean I want a holistic offering, an effort that attacks not only the build part, the actual putting the Windows CD in the drive and pressing go, I want to streamline the architecture, the sign off, provisioning/rack and stack through to application load.

We need to re-engineer the server provisioning process to encompass everything from the purchase of the server through to the racking, the configuration and operating system load as well as the application load and go-live.

We need to remove the complexities, data gathering and teams involved in buying a server, at the same time we need to write in the sand and have the relevant people sign off on what is and what is not supported.

The build platform needs to be able to deploy future operating systems, the Windows 2008 and beyond, as well as the in support but not being deployed Windows 2000 servers that might still be humming along but not harming anyone.

The provisioning model needs to be simplified to:

• Standard offering – the automated delivered in weeks or hours solution based on a range of standard enterprise servers with default configurations which we buy in bulk (alongside expected forecasts)  – with this we deliver in weeks or hours as we have them in stock, we’re repeating known processes and there is no ‘buy-in’ or specific complexities in deployment – it’s a server with or without SAN, with network, with lights out and an OS. The process would be:

• Commit to purchase server.
• Rack server
• Apply fibre/ethernet connections
• Initial hardware configuration
• Network boot and OS load
• Handover to app team
• Application load
• Go-live

• Specific offering – the formalized front door provisioning model where everything is manually request:

• Commit to a server
• Agree specifications and CIO acceptance to deviate from standard offering
• Commit to buying server
• Raise purchase order
• Raise install request
• Rack server
• Apply fibre/ethernet connections
• Initial hardware configuration
• Operating system load
• Handover to application team
• Application load
• Go live

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I was having a conversation with a colleague who’s a server engineer for an Insurance company in London.  I was seeking his views on server naming conventions, believe it or not, it is one of those subjects that can easily become emotive.  What do I mean by naming standards? The process for naming your desktop, laptop or server, why does it matter? Well we need the name to mean something to someone so that we can easily identify systems when logging a call, reporting an issue or identifying systems in scope for a change. These naming standards tend to be mandated by a central team based on a set of standards, for example based on platform, operating system, business line or environment, maybe even a mixture or combination of all four.

What’s the issue?

Everyone tends to have an opinion about it.  Why then does your infrastructure team have a set naming convention? Well it is usually to ensure consistency across environments, for uniformity and to aid in systems management, if they all start with for example geographic code and then a number, it is easier to locate that system and therefore make it that little bit easier to identify and track back who owns that server and what it does.

What do we need to think about?

The name needs to be relatively annonymous – linking a server name to a role can raise issues

The name needs to be easy to say – there’s nothing worse than trying to explain or a say a long server name at three in the morning

The name needs to eliminate confusion – too many similar characters LONSO19000 – is that LONS019000 or is that an O?

The name needs to deliminate platforms ideally – I don’t want to create confusion between app teams and infrastructure teams as to what the OS is.

So why not have the server name contain the role/application?

Let’s go over some issues that I’ve mentioned before.

I build LONSQL1002D, which is a development SQL server, suppose the app team want to make it an IIS server, do I rename it? How will the DBA’s know it’s not SQL at three in the morning?  Suppose the server is moved to production, are we renaming it LONSQL1002p as it’s now prod? But that means reinstalling SQL if we’re going to follow the rules of safety and olden days engineering.

I name the server LONSQL1002D, so it’s my trusted Bladewatch SQL server, I then virtualize it, so do I rename it to LONSQL1002DV? If I move it to our office in Renfrew (Gran’s house), do I rename it RENSQL1002D and if it’s virtualized, then is it RENSQL1002DV, and then for those smart people out there, I could create aliases, but then how to we link it all back in the inventory?

I name a server LONSQLFI1002D, our Fixed Income SQL development server in London, if it’s moved to back office, is it now renamed LONSQLBO1002d? If I remove SQL and make it Apache, is it now LONAPA1000D?

I name a server LONSQLFI1002D our Fixed Income SQL development server in London, I want to rebuild it AIX, is that AIXAPPFI1002D?

Ultimately as a business user, as a customer buying application compute resources or infrastructure as a service it doesn’t matter, to the infrastructure teams, to the people keeping lights on, having a relatively simple and anonymous naming convention reduces operational complexity, can reduce what the name means to the app team, but at the same time leaves name ranges which can be used just as effectively.

John had different thoughts basing his experience and viewpoint on his own internal naming standards, he had views on what the naming convention should be, whether the name should include the environment, the application and the location for example. It’s an issue that is set to continue. An uninteresting discussion one could argument, but remember as we’ve written about before it’s the nuts and bolts that can often be the problem factors in your deployment, in your delivery – sorry we can’t go live with that, your server should be a REDSQL not a LONSQL as we don’t have that network in our London site, so we’ll need to host it in Reading.

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I’ve put together a Whitepapers page to host Whitepapers that might be of interest or relevance, it covers hardware and software, platforms and technology concepts like cloud and virtualization.

This month I have put together a selection from:

Dell – www.dell.com

Emulex – www.emulex.com

HP – www.hp.com

IBM – www.ibm.com

Oracle – www.oracle.com

Qlogic – www.qlogic.com

If you have any suggestions or feedback, do get back to me, over the next day or so, I will discuss which Whitepapers I have selected and why, then link directly to it. In the meantime go to: http://www.bladewatch.com/documents/whitepapers/.

I haven’t got sponsored for these Whitepapers, I haven’t asked the PR companies or the vendors themselves, these are simply a selection that I found on their site and thought were interesting. Please note IBM refer to these as Redbooks, but the concept is the same if a bit more detailed.

If you want your Whitepaper featured, email me: martin237@gmail.com and we’ll discuss how we go about doing this (I like to read them first).

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I got an email from Terry saying he’d had this problem below:

C:\>hponcfg /?

HPONCFG RILOE-II/iLO setup and configuration utility

Version 3.1.0.0 (c) Hewlett-Packard Company, 2010

ERROR: Access denied. Only administrator can access the utility.

I asked him if he was using Windows 2008? He was, so I reminded him that he needs to right click command prompt as administrator and then this will start command prompt as administrator (this happens if UAC is turned on). He did and it worked receiving the following below:

C:\>hponcfg /?

Firmware Revision = 1.92  Device type = iLO  Driver name = CpqCiDrv

HPONCFG RILOE-II/iLO setup and configuration utility

Version 3.1.0.0 (c) Hewlett-Packard Company, 2010

 

hponcfg [  /help  |  /?  |  /m firmwarelevel  | /reset [/m firmwarelevel]

| /f filename [/l filename][/s namevaluepairs]

[/xmlverbose or /v][/m firmwarelevel]

| /i [/l filename][/s namevaluepairs]

[/xmlverbose or /v][/m firmwarelevel]

| [/a] /w filename [/m firmwarelevel]

| /get_hostinfo [/m firmwarelevel]

| /mouse [/dualcursor][/allusers]

| /display [/allusers]

 

/help or /?           – Display this message.

/reset                – Reset the RILOE-II/iLO to factory default

/f filename           – Set/Get RILOE-II/iLO configuration from “filename”

/i                    – Set/Get RILOE II/iLO configuration from the XML input

received through the standard input stream.

/w filename           – Write the RILOE-II/iLO config to “filename”

/a or /all            – Capture the complete configuration of iLO to the file

This should be used along with ‘/w’ option

/l filename           – Log replies to “filename”

/v or /xmlverbose     – Display all the responses from RILOE II/iLO

/s namevaluepairs     – Substitute variables present in input config file

with values specified in “namevaluepairs”

/get_hostinfo         – Get the Host Information.

/m                    – minimum firmware level.

/mouse                – Tune mouse and cursor parameters with speed tuned for

single cursor.

/mouse /dualcursor    – Tune mouse and cursor parameters with speed tuned for

dual cursor.

/mouse /allusers      – Tune mouse and cursor parameters for all accessible

users in the local Registry.

/mouse /dualcursor /allusers   – Tune all parameters with speed tuned for dual

   cursor for all accessible users in the local

   Registry.

/display              – Tune display parameters.

/display /allusers    – Tune display parameters for all accessible users in the

local registry.

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I got asked how you could reset the ILO from the remote desktop:

Hi Martin,

I’m logged into the server using rdp, how can I reset the ILO?”

Regards

Pete

Sometimes in the past sessions do not close down, or there are genuine times when we need to kick a user off the ILO so that we can fix an issue. There are a number of ways to do this off the top of my head:

• Log in remotely to the ILO (either on the server or your desktop) and apply network settings and ‘reboot the ILO’ (on ILO2 there is a reset button in the diagnostic screen)
• Run the HP Integrated Lights out Utility, and re-apply settings
• You could use the HP ILO CLI using telnet or SSH, SSH to ILO and type cd\map1 then reset to reboot the card  – in this instance you would telnet or ssh to the ilo ip address

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I’ve updated and uploaded new firmware spreadsheets listing HP and IBM servers with their current firmware versions with links to their respective web sites for the release notes and downloads.

As ever do check with the vendor first in case any changes have been made, and note that from January IBM is going to require you log in to download their drivers and firmware.

HP

HP firmware spreadsheet is here

IBM

IBM firmware spreadsheet is here

Please note that this work was done independent of the vendors themselves and was carried out by me, so if there are any errors, they’re due to me and I apologize.  The IBM spreadsheet contains some different rack servers, with updates to their blades. The HP one includes the latest updates to their blade and rack servers, though note HP’s Proliant Service Pack which will going forward manage drivers and firmware.

The Dell one is on it’s way and should be completed this weekend.

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http://newsroom.cisco.com/press-release-content?type=webcontent&articleId=578106

SAN JOSE, Calif., December 6, 2011– Cisco today introduces Cisco CloudVerse®, a framework that combines the foundational elements needed to enable organizations to build, manage and connect public, private and hybrid clouds.  Cisco CloudVerse combines these key cloud elements – Unified Data Center, Cloud Intelligent Network, and Cloud Applications and Services – enabling businesses to realize all of the benefits of clouds: improved agility, better economics, enhanced security and a dynamic, assured experience.

The Cisco Cloud Index, issued last week, forecasts how dramatically clouds are transforming business IT and consumer services.  The study predicts that over 50 percent of computing workloads in data centers will be cloud-based by 2014, and that global cloud traffic will grow over 12 times by 2015, to 1.6 zettabytes per year – the equivalent of over four days of business-class video for every person on earth.  The study suggests that the explosive growth in clouds requires advanced capabilities that allow the data center and network to work together to support end-to-end cloud application delivery.

It’s great to see Cisco expanding their experience and innovation into empowering customers cloud requirements, it will be interesting to see what technologies are underpinning the framework and the solutions and best practices put into place to deliver a framework and portfolio of services. I’m off to read more.

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www.dell.com and www.dell.com/servicedescriptions

• Standardized offering provides customers with a single source for multivendor support and simplified IT management, regardless of vendor as IT providers potentially change strategic roadmaps
• Hardware support from Dell now available for customers using HP, IBM, Lenovo and Acer products
• Helps reduce customer costs by eliminating the burden of managing varied systems, contracts and warranties
• Now available In Europe, in addition to North America, with expansion plans for Asia and Latin America

Dell has extended its award-winning ProSupport service to include non-Dell systems and devices in Europe, freeing customers from the burden of managing multiple vendors, disparate systems and service contracts. With one point of contact and accountability for all support needs, customers can rely on the proven ability of Dell to manage their systems, freeing up valuable IT time and resources.

Dell has been providing Multivendor Hardware Support through custom and managed services offerings for customers in the U.S. and through Dell ProSupport™ that includes hardware break/fix, 24x7x365 phone support, escalation management and collaborative support. According to TBR’s Q1 2011 Customer Satisfaction Study, Dell ranks No. 1 among Support Providers in Overall Support Providers, and has been ranked No. 1 in 33 of the 43 reporting periods.

This is great news, that Dell can offer its customers a holistic IT service offering extends the possibilities for Dell as a business/partnering service provider and reduces the barriers to customers getting their problems managed and resolved under one support contract, bringing further choice to the market both in terms of competition and opportunity in the multivendor support contract space. I praise the concept, I’m off to read up more about the announcement. I wonder if this might also strengthen their portfolio of services and offering?  That if I am deploying VMware on Dell servers, they might not only support my new servers but those systems which I am virtualizing or continuing to run during the transition, very cool.

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http://www.realwire.com/releases/New-Survey-Reveals-Shortcomings-Of-Current-Green-IT-Strategies

Wednesday 7 December, 2011 – Faronics, a global leader in simplifying, securing and managing multi-user computer environments, has today announced the results of a survey to establish what carbon reduction efforts have been put in place by UK organisations, as well as consumer and business attitudes towards green IT and the impact that these may have on productivity. The research, conducted by One Poll[1], revealed that 40 percent of UK organisations do not have any green IT policies in place, with 48 percent blaming this on the time and effort required to develop, implement and enforce the strategies. Only 27 percent of UK organisations consider themselves to be a ‘green’ organisation in terms of IT efficiency.

“While organisations have long been sceptical of the financial and business benefits of sustainability, this perception is finally changing,” said Bimal Parmar, Vice President of Marketing at Faronics. “The aim of this survey was to assess the rate of change, identify how organisations in the UK are prioritising their green initiatives in the face of rising energy costs and gauge how they are reacting to increased consumer awareness of environmental concerns and corporate responsibility – if at all.”

It could be argued that the relatively low rate of execution is largely down to the current focus of green IT policies, with existing strategies usually based on large, centralised initiatives such as data centre and server efficiency.

There has been a lot in the press, in the PR and sales pitch about the Green IT message and it can be a compelling message, at the same time though we need to focus on outcomes as the first step and let customers on board through choice, through best practice and everything else will follow.  A Green IT platform need not require further testing, validation or development, it might simply involve concepts like virtualization of the infrastructure, refreshing legacy kit or investigating best practice activities like powering down the pc, disabling the screensaver or switching off the screen. I would rather see baby steps in best practice and adoption on a global scale, than pockets of major progress, you often find that once customers start understanding and benefiting from ‘Green IT solutions’ that it becomes a self fulfilling practice, by switching off the pc’s at night, not only did we save power, we reduced help desk calls and the support overhead. I’m off to read the study.

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