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Solaris

Novell Updates PlateSpin Migrate, Releases Version 8.1

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Novell today announced the addition of physical-to-virtual migration support for Sun’s Solaris 10 Operating System in the latest version of PlateSpin Migrate, the leading workload management product that enables data center managers to move workloads anywhere to anywhere: between physical, image, virtual and cloud environments.

PlateSpin Migrate 8.1 is a leading workload migration product offering support for Solaris Containers, giving customers the ability to migrate workloads from physical to virtual environments. The latest version of PlateSpin Migrate significantly expands the already broad list of platforms supported for physical to virtual migration, by adding support for the recently released SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 from Novell to the existing support for prior versions of SUSE Linux Enterprise. PlateSpin Migrate 8.1 also adds support for Windows2008 and Windows Vista. PlateSpin Migrate now offers the industry’s broadest support for operating systems, hypervisors and hardware platforms in the heterogeneous data center.

PlateSpin Migrate offers support for more configuration options for migrating business-critical workloads than any other solution on the market today. As customers increasingly adopt virtualization for production servers, IT managers need a more powerful and reliable migration tool that minimizes server downtime and maximizes the success of key data center initiatives – such as server consolidation and data center relocation.

PlateSpin Migrate 8.1 makes it easy to migrate workloads between physical servers, image archives and virtual hosts. PlateSpin Migrate also offers performance improvements for business-critical workload migrations, making increased use of block-based transfer technology which transfers only the portion of the file that has changed. This innovation limits the amount of downtime during the migration process, and improves migration performance, especially over slower and expensive WAN connections.

PlateSpin Migrate is an integral component of Novell’s PlateSpin Workload Management solutions, which also includes PlateSpin Recon, PlateSpin Orchestrate,PlateSpin Protect and PlateSpin Forge. PlateSpin Workload Management solutions enable customers to profile, migrate, manage and protect server workloads. Only PlateSpin Workload Management supports the Solaris OS, 32-and 64-bit Windows and Linux servers, as well as all leading hypervisors including VMware ESX and ESXi, Microsoft Hyper-V, Citrix XenServer, Virtual Iron, and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server with integrated Xen. With PlateSpin Workload Management solutions, customers can consolidate and migrate servers across multiple data center locations, balance workloads between physical servers and virtual machines, and protect a larger number of servers with faster recovery using virtualization.

PlateSpin Migrate 8.1 is available later this month. The Windows/Linux version is priced at $289 for a workload license. PlateSpin Migrate for UNIX* is priced at $1,495 for a one-time license.

Sun Microsystems Updates Solaris, ZFS

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Sun Microsystems has introduced a new version of its Solaris operating system offering enhancements to virtualization support and the company’s ZFS file system. The open source version of the platform has also been demonstrated on IBM mainframes for the first time.

Available now on Sun systems and as a download, Solaris 10 10/08 includes numerous enhancements over the core Solaris 10 code. These include tighter integration of Sun’s large-scale ZFS file system, enabling systems to boot from the software and operate it as the sole file system. ZFS also now offers increased data integrity and integrated disaster recovery capabilities.

Sun has also worked with Intel to ensure that the new Solaris release is optimised for the latest Xeon processor chips as well as Sun’s own Sparc architecture.

Sun and IBM have also demonstrated OpenSolaris, the open source version of Solaris, running on an IBM System Z mainframe. The move follows a joint announcement in August that IBM was expanding support for Solaris.

Sun and Fujitsu Introduce SPARC Enterprise T5440 Server, Aims to Redefine Midrange Enterprise Computing

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Sun Microsystems and Fujitsu Limited today announced the SPARC Enterprise T5440 server, the first server to deliver the scalability and reliability of traditional midrange systems with the breakthrough performance and radical energy efficiency of the UltraSPARC T2 Plus architecture.

According to the press release, the SPARC Enterprise T5440 server with the Solaris 10 Operating System (OS) delivers world record performance and enables customers to consolidate and virtualize midrange applications, including large scale OLTP databases, CRM and ERP. In a compact 4U package, the SPARC Enterprise T5440 server increases server utilization while reducing energy consumption and lowering operating costs. Additionally, the SPARC Enterprise T5440 server is the first chip multi-threaded (CMT) server to scale up to four processors.

The SPARC Enterprise T5440 server, with up to 32 cores (256 threads) and 512 GB of memory, is one of the first systems to incorporate unique power management features including the ability to park idle threads. The server also features Intelligent Fan Control (IFC) which adjusts rotational fan speed according to changes in temperature thereby reducing power consumption. Running fans at lower speeds saves significant amounts of energy, and also reduces noise and vibration which helps extend component life. An additional design element that maximizes power savings is dividing the chassis and fans into cooling zones which allow a response only from those fans needed to compensate for changes in temperature. The SPARC Enterprise T5440 server also features a redesigned power distribution subsystem with highly efficient digital regulators which reduce wasted energy over previous analog designs.

With built-in, open source, no-cost virtualization via Solaris Containers and Logical Domains (LDoms), the SPARC Enterprise T5440 server is an ideal platform for consolidating hundreds of existing enterprise class workloads onto a single system. Additionally, for existing Solaris customers, the Solaris 8 and 9 Containers capability enables customers to run multiple Solaris 8 or 9 environments on a single SPARC-based system. As a result, customers can quickly and easily move existing physical environments to virtual containers on Solaris 10 and take advantage of the performance, scale and cost savings of new SPARC Enterprise CMT-based servers today. Solaris 10 10/08, to be released later in October, also enables improved virtualization performance and includes an enhanced Solaris ZFS file system which offers increased data integrity and a fully integrated disaster recovery capability to help ensure business continuity.

The SPARC Enterprise T5440 proves its mettle with world record performance on seven benchmarks including the best four processor result on two-tier SAP Sales and Distribution (SD) Standard Application Benchmark, Oracle’s Siebel CRM Release 8.0 Platform Sizing and Performance Program (PSPP), and single node SPECjAppServer2004.

The SPARC Enterprise T5440 server is available today directly from Sun and Fujitsu and their authorized resellers starting at $44,995 (U.S. List). Sun and Fujitsu are also offering a number of promotions on the new SPARC Enterprise T5440 server.

Sun and Fujitsu also provide a full suite of services to help customers maximize their infrastructure investments. Services from both companies include consolidation, virtualization, maximizing data center efficiency and migration to Solaris 10.

Sun Microsystems

eG Innovations Adds XenServer and Sun LDoms Support to Its VM Monitor

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eG Innovations today announced that its eG VM Monitor now supports Citrix XenServer and Sun Microsystems’ Solaris Logical Domains (LDoms).

The enhancements are part of v4.2 of the company’s eG Enterprise Suite, which already supports VMware ESX and ESX 3i servers as well as Solaris Containers. The new software release also strengthens management of VMware environments. eG Enterprise agents can now be integrated directly within VMware’s Virtual Center. This greatly simplifies configuration of the monitoring for VMware server farms.

Also, the eG VM Monitor software now monitors the VMware Virtual Desktop Manager to provide an end-to-end view of a Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) deployment. A new VM Search capability makes it easier to track the status and performance of virtual machines (VMs) as they move from one physical server to another.

The eG Enterprise Suite monitors Citrix XenServers and Sun LDoms in much the same way it monitors VMware ESX servers. eG Enterprise v4.2 offers agent-based and agentless monitoring of CitrixXen server v4.0 and 4.1. For agent-based monitoring, an eG agent on the control domain of a XenServer monitors the hypervisor and all its virtual machines (VMs).
Administrators can also choose to monitor their XenServers without agents, with either a Linux or a Windows system being used to host the remote data collector. Citrix XenMotion activity is tracked to determine when, how often, why and where VMs migrate to.

eG Enterprise v4.2 provides many other improvements and new features. These include: tracking and reporting uptime of individual VMs, ability to share customized views and reports among all or specific administrators, allowing administrators to select a console display “skin” (color) of their choice, providing selectable alert modes (e.g., email and SMS) to accommodate preferences of administrators who work in shifts; and custom monitoring of the BlackBerry Enterprise Server.

The eG Enterprise v4.2 will be available at the end of September. Pricing for any virtualization platform supported is per server monitored, regardless of the hardware capabilities (e.g., CPU, memory, socket) of the server, or the number of virtual machines or virtual desktops it supports. Pricing for a 25-node environment starts at $50,000.

Emulex First HBA Vendor to Support Sun’s Solaris Containers

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Emulex recently announced that its LightPulse Fibre Channel host bus adapters (HBAs) now offer Virtual HBA technology within Solaris 10 Operating System environments. Enhanced capabilities such as virtual port management, available via Emulex’s HBAnyware management suite, are designed to enhance the overall functionality of Solaris Containers.

“Once again, Emulex is demonstrating leadership in the area of virtualization by providing enhanced capabilities for virtualized servers within Solaris environments,” said Scott McIntyre, vice president of customer marketing, Emulex Corp. “Emulex pioneered Virtual HBA technology and is the only HBA vendor to support Sun’s Solaris Containers for virtualized server environments.”

Emulex’s family of 4Gb/s and 8Gb/s HBAs support Virtual HBA technology, which allows users to effectively virtualize the HBA functionality so each virtual machine running on a server can independently access its own protected storage. Coupled with Solaris Containers, Emulex Virtual HBA technology, which leverages the NPIV standard, also allows customers to maintain usage of SAN management tools and best practices, such as fabric zoning and LUN mapping/masking.

“Working with Emulex to support its Virtual HBA technology provides Solaris customers with a robust virtualized server solution that delivers the most enhanced capabilities available today,” said Michael Wojnar, Networking Product Line Marketing Manager, Sun Microsystems.

“This collaboration is critical because of the high correlation between virtualized servers and networked storage, and ensures that our customers deploying Solaris Containers now have a superior solution.”

Server virtualization and blade server deployments continue to be a major driver for increased Fibre Channel SAN adoption. Leveraging Emulex HBAs with its next generation management suite, HBAnyware, provides customers with enhanced virtualization features, such as virtual HBA management across all major operating system platforms including Microsoft, VMware, Linux/Xen and Solaris. Further, customers may now leverage the benefits of NPIV management functionality within a centralized single console. Online boot from SAN and enhanced diagnostics features also enable unmatched scalability and efficient management capabilities.

“We looked at the capability of the Emulex Fibre Channel HBAs and management tools and saw features that were not available from other suppliers,” says Steven Ham, Senior Windows System Administrator at Home Interiors & Gifts, Inc. “With the HBA management tools, we get discovery and dynamic configuration capabilities that would otherwise require additional investment in tools running on other SAN components.”

In an effort to educate customers and channel partners on Emulex’s connectivity solutions and enhanced HBAnyware management suite functionality, Emulex is offering a series of whitepapers and webinars.

For details, visit: http://www.emulex.com/solutions/san/index.jsp.

[Source: VMblog]

eG Innovations Releases eG Enterprise Suite 4.1, Delivers Advanced Monitoring of VMware ESX 3i and Solaris Containers

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eG Innovations announced the immediate availability of version 4.1 of its eG Enterprise Suite with support for monitoring of VMware ESX 3i and Solaris Containers. Later in the year, eG Enterprise plans to include monitoring of servers and desktops running the Citrix XenServer virtualization platform, and is also planning to support virtual environments from Microsoft, IBM, and others.

eG Innovations

eG Innovations first announced its eG Monitor for VMware InfrastructuresT (eG VM MonitorTTM technology, the eG VM Monitor provides a comprehensive view of ) at VMworld 2007 in September 2007. eG VM Monitor is a monitoring solution that provides real-time “inside” and “outside” performance views of a virtual infrastructure.

With version 4.1, eG Enterprise supports both agent-based and agentless monitoring for VMware ESX 3, 3.5 and 3i servers. Complete inside and outside views of the VMs are available with either approach. The guest VMs being monitored can even be in different Microsoft Windows domains, and can be monitored without requiring agents on the guest VMs. Agentless monitoring is performed either from a Windows or a Linux system, and a single system can monitor several ESX servers running versions 3, 3.5, or 3i.

For Sun virtualized environments, an eG agent on a Solaris server can be configured to monitor all the zones on the server. Using the metrics collected, administrators can easily compare resource usage levels across zones on a server.

The eG Enterprise v4.1 is available immediately. Pricing is per ESX server monitored, regardless of the hardware capabilities (CPU, memory) of the ESX server, or the number of virtual machines or the virtual desktops it supports. Pricing for a 25 node VMware-based environment starts at $50,000.