For the past few weeks I've been serving as host to a bevy of servers running under Scalent's Virtual Operating Environment (VOE). The hardware is a mix of HP DL360s, a DL380, a Sun V20, and a Dell PowerEdge 2800 that I threw into the mix. The upshot of all this hardware is that when running under VOE, it doesn't matter which is which, or what's running on it.
Working in the very slick Flash-based GUI, I can create entire application layouts by dragging server persona icons in a Visio-style panel, complete with virtual switches to separate traffic. I can link them together in a logical diagram, then group-select all the personas and watch them boot on either physical servers, or within a VMware host. Of course, these personas are built beforehand, but it's possible to clone them from a base image, then tweak them to spec.
Scalent handles this magic by relying on PXE booting, DHCP, 802.1q trunking at the persona level, and agents installed within each persona. Thus, by trunking all links to the physical switch, it doesn't matter what port a persona is actually talking to; the traffic will be routed correctly. Quite elegant.
There's plenty more to this solution, so look for my full review later this week online, or in the Sept. 25 issue of InfoWorld.
Posted by Paul Venezia on September 18, 2006 12:37 PM
