- Klocwork advances source code analysis
- Skyway Software joins Eclipse
- Test Center Tracker: Virtualization rules
- Test Center Tracker: Turning Green into Gold
- Review: Brocade DCX Backbone Part 2
- Linux kernel update offered
- Test Center Tracker: Visual Studio 2008 a bright IDE
- Black Duck offers Code Center for open source
- Adobe ships Flash Media Server 3 products
- Visual environment eyed for Ruby on Rails
January 30, 2008 | Comments: (0)
Klocwork advances source code analysis
Klocwork this week announced shipments of Klocwork Insight, bringing system-wide source code analysis to the developer desktop, the company said.
The company has filed multiple patents on what it calls ground-breaking advancements in the product.
With Insight, users get the productivity benefits of local desktop code analysis with the accuracy of system-wide analysis, thus making source code analysis a developer support tool. Organizations can find complex cross-system bugs within a developer's local build and ensure that vulnerabilities are not propagated into the code stream, according to Klocwork.
Developers can use a collaborative peer-to-peer environment that provides a view of an entire system from an individual workspace. Also, developers get greater connectivity to static analysis to enable them to contain defects at the point of creation rather than having to check in buggy code in order to find out what is broken.
The product, Klocwork said, gives development organizations the ability to track bug fix rates at the desktop. A reporting interface aggregates information on what is found by Klocwork and fixed on the desktop before code is checked into the integration build.
Also featured is a declarative language that can extend Klocwork products to customize analysis of C, C++ and Java for any code base, Klocwork said. Developers can extend the Klocwork built-in library by adding their own checkers for organizational, regulatory or code base requirements.
Posted by Paul Krill on January 30, 2008 04:48 PM
January 30, 2008 | Comments: (0)
Skyway Software, which offers model-based collaborative tools for software deloivery, has joined the Eclipse Foundation as an add-in provider member, the company said.
“Today’s announcement marks another milestone in Skyway Software’s ongoing effort to simplify the software delivery process for our customers using open standards," said Jared Rodriguez, CTO and co-founder of Skyway Software, in a statement released by the company. “The Eclipse and Skyway Software partnership is a great match since our Skyway Visual Workspace plug-in will rely extensively on the Eclipse Modeling Framework, the Eclipse Modeling Project and the Data Tools Platform."
Skyway produces its Skyway Visual Workspace product, featuring its Builder tool to prototype and build solutions, and Director, for deployment. The company also offers its Skyway Collaborative Software Delivery methodology for collaborative development. The company plans to demonstrate its Eclipse plug-in capabilities at the upcoming EclipseCon 2008 conference in Santa Clara, Calif. in March.
Skyway also leverages the Spring Framework for Java to help blend hand-coding and modeling for Java EE systems.
Posted by Paul Krill on January 30, 2008 03:26 PM
January 30, 2008 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Virtualization rules
Today's Test Center Tracker is all about virtualization and includes news about an upcoming event, new emerging products and an intriguing perspective on what the future of this technology could be.
The "V" forum is coming to town If you are involved in deploying virtualization technologies in your company, the upcoming InfoWorld Virtualization Executive Forum is a precious source of information and offers an opportunity to compare your own experience with other point of views. If you are not deploying virtualization, attending the forum will probably make you feel a little guilty. Please find more info on this event here
That's Parallels for you The name Parallels probably won't ring a bell but that's the new name adopted by the company that makes Virtuozzo, David Marshall explains. In addition to a new name, the vendor is also announcing a new version of Virtuozzo Containers, an interesting release that you shouldn't miss. Please read David's report to find out why.
No more IT babysitting? Don't let outsiders read this, but in private we can probably agree that most of the IT job is like running a sophisticated kindergarten, requiring attentive supervision of both users and business applications. There is probably not much we can do about users, but Tom Yager believes that combining virtualization and smarter software building tools could bring a certain degree of maturity and self-reliance to applications. It's all in today's Ahead of the Curve.
Posted by Mario Apicella on January 30, 2008 09:48 AM
January 29, 2008 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Turning Green into Gold
Spinning right action into good financial results, looking closely at Microsoft's Unified Messaging Server, and partaking of the Spirit of the Marathon -- Winter storms aren't slowing things down here at InfoWorld.
Green Pays: It's nice to do things for the environment, but for many organizations a greener future just isn't enough justification for action -- they have to make owners, shareholders, and other stake-holders happy. Over in Sustainable IT, Ted Samson is talking about a report showing that the federal government could save $275 million a year through sustainable purchases. While that represents about one good congressional earmark, it's good to see any indication that our government might just be able to do something a little more efficient with our money. Later on, Ted reports that Intel is turning up the volume on green power, becoming one of the most aggressive purchasers of Green-tag electricity. When an acknowledged industry leader moves forward on a sustainable front, it's a very good thing.
One Inbox to Rule Them All: In Enterprise Windows, Peter Bruzzese is looking at a couple of issues; Bill Gates' altruism and Unified Communications Server's needs. The most important point I see about the second is that Unified Communication Server doesn't stand alone -- you'll need to have other components installed to make use of its features. It's obvious that unified communication is going to be a huge issue as we move forward in business networking, and it's important to understand just what's involved before you jump in.
Marathon Effort: OK, I've never been a runner -- I was power-lifter instead. I understand the commitment required to train and compete in marathons, though, so I was taken with Zack Urlocker's Open Sources post on "The Spirit of the Marathon". Success in business requires many of the same qualities found it competitive marathon runners, so the post isn't as off-topic as Zack makes it sound -- and a good analogy can be a very powerful thing when it's time to inspire a team. Read the post, see the documentary, and get ready for that long run.
Posted by Curt Franklin on January 29, 2008 01:28 PM
January 29, 2008 | Comments: (0)
Review: Brocade DCX Backbone Part 2
Review: Brocade DCX Backbone Part 2
Welcome to the second part of my first peek at the new DCX Backbone from Brocade. If you haven't already, please have a look at part 1 first.
How physical security is implemented in your data center certainly has its weight but, generally speaking, a larger installation such as what you can get consolidating multiple fabrics with DCX, is more vulnerable than a smaller one to trivial errors and to security breaks.
If you want to keep human errors to a minimum, or are concerned about the possibility of someone spoofing a WWN (world wide name) to connect a rogue device to the network, the DCX OS offers a system of policies that can bring some additional protection.
For example, you can define policies to control the connection of storage targets, switches and hosts, allowing access only when a device, identified by its WWN, is connected to a specific port.
The following screen image shows the commands to define a DCC policy for each of the two devices on ports 133 and 134 and to make those two policies actives.
For a large installation, manually setting a policy for each port could be a long and inefficient process, but for initial deployments a similar command can automatically create a policy from an existing configuration linking each active port to he WWN of its connected device.
However created, when a DCC policy is active, trying to connect a device with a different WWN will trigger an error message and access to the port will be denied.
The DCX security policies are not foolproof. Obviously anyone with access to an admin account with proper credentials can modify them, but the system offers an easy to audit log of possible violations, which can simplify monitoring and enforcement of those policies.
Speaking of security and administrative control, the Virtual Fabric feature of the OS is a perfect complement to device connection policies. Virtual Fabric is not a new nor a mandatory feature but its implementation becomes nearly indispensable in the large, consolidated networks backed by DCX.
In essence, with Virtual Fabric you can divide the physical fabric in isolated administrative domains (the analogy with Cisco’s VSANs is too good to pass on) creating software borders that shelter each domain from its neighbors.
Another nice feature of Virtual Fabric is that the implementation of AD (administrative domains) is granular and non-disruptive. For example, you can migrate all or part of an existing zone to a new AD and also assign a device to multiple ADs.
In the large consolidated environments that the DCX makes possible, the ability to assign separate administrative duty for an AD is also of great significance, because it facilitates independent domain updates and confines the impact of each change to that AD.
To prove that case scenario, I copied the same zone to two AD, and assigned a different admin account to each . To create some traffic, I then started Iometer on one host connected to the first domain. Next, to simulate a conflicting configuration change, I logged in as admin for the second domain and removed that host port from its zone.
After making the changed zone active, I switched back to the host on the first domain: Iometer was still running, unaffected by the change made on the parallel domain.
Sharing devices across separate domains is more likely to happen with storage targets than with host ports. However, what device you overlap across domains is irrelevant because the principle is the same: Changes made on one administrative domain have no impact outside of its borders.
The last action item of my DCX evaluation was not as spectacular as other items in my test plan because it consisted in connecting a switch to the DCX and proving that the devices connected to that switch were readily available and usable in normal zones.
Usually connecting a switch to a fabric would be a rather boring and predictable exercise, but that switch was a McData 6140 working in native mode, which made the test worthwhile.
As McData customers know all too well, switch connectivity in native mode to a Brocade fabric was not available before Brocade’s acquisition of McData . After seeing it work in practice, I am glad to say that connectivity of McData switches in native mode is possible now, at least for the 6140.
For more details on which other legacy devices are supported a good reference is the Brocade connectivity matrix.
Obviously there are some limitations when connecting legacy devices. For example the old interoperability mode is now obsolete and is replaced by two new modes: McData native, such as what I tested, and McData open. Also, according to Brocade those two modes work only when connecting devices running Fabric OS 6 and EOS 9.6.
Even with those limits, customers with McData branded items should be in better shape for connectivity than they were before the acquisition, although features such as Top Talkers that query performance counters embedded in Brocade ASICs, are not available for legacy devices.
Brocade DCX Backbone
Availability: Shipping
Pricing: Not disclosed
Verdict:
The most difficult part of reviewing a complex product such as the DCX Backbone is deciding where to stop. Before and in addition to being a fabric backbone, the DCX is a powerful switch. However, my evaluation had to skip on some of the typical grinding you would challenge a switch with, to focus on what makes more sense to have when you put together a super-fabric around the DCX.
I liked what I saw of the DCX, but I cannot make a judgment on its value because Brocade hasn't divulged pricing info at the moment. I expect its price to be on the high side, if only because even a quarter million dollar (I am picking up this figure out of my hat) could be a reasonable price to pay to consolidate multi-million dollar fabrics.
The specs of the DCX are impressive both for performance and capacity, but what I like the most about the solution is the effort to bring more intelligence to the fabric.
QoS and the DCX initial, rudimentary attempt at enforcing security from the fabric are what I find most attractive, but can't help thinking that those features are, must be, only a first step in that direction and that the best of the DCX intelligence is yet to come. Hopefully soon.
Posted by Mario Apicella on January 29, 2008 07:00 AM
January 28, 2008 | Comments: (0)
Linux kernel developers have released an updated kernel featuring capabilities to offload processing and to boost power management.
Released last week, release 2.6.24 of the kernel features a generic interface point for large receive offload support, said Theodore Tso, one of the maintainers of the Linux file system. This is useful for fast 10 GB and higher Ethernet drivers that want to offload some TCP processing to the card, he said.
For embedded development, the kernel features tickless support, in which the CPU is not interrupted regularly on architectures such as Arm and Mips. This improves CPU efficiency and power utilization, which is beneficial to embedded systems developers, Tso said.
The release also features resource management and virtualization improvements, in which groups of processes can be segmented in their own container, making them less likely to affect other processes, Tso said. Also, specific tasks can be assigned limits on CPU consumption.
Also featured are new device drivers and read only bind mounts, which allows a portion of a file system hierarchy to be transplanted and offered elsewhere in a read-only view. This can be useful for virtualization, Tso said.
It will be up to different Linux distributors to decide when to offer the kernel improvements, Tso said. Kernel updates are offered by kernel developers about every two to three months, he said.
Posted by Paul Krill on January 28, 2008 05:14 PM
January 28, 2008 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Visual Studio 2008 a bright IDE
Visual Studio advances with few missteps: InfoWorld Strategic Developer Martin Heller has discovered a wealth of impressive developments in Microsoft's Visual Studio IDE, including expanded support for creating SOA, Web 2.0, Windows Presentation Framework, and Silverlight applications. "With few exceptions, users of every level of Visual Studio will find the 2008 release improved. It's a strong upgrade, and a solid foundation for future development," Heller writes. Read the review in its entirety here.
Waiting for Windows 7: Enterprise Desktop Blogger Randall C. Kennedy has been mulling whether or not we'll see Microsoft crank out Vista's successor earlier than first announced. His prediction? Yep. "It won't take a major engineering effort to turn the ashes of Vista (which, despite its reputation, did incorporate some good ideas) into a solid OS that corporate IT actually wants," he writes. Let him know what you think.
Smaller drives nurture green IT: The Test Center's Storage maven Mario Apicella took at recent peek at storage through a green lens as he reported about Infortrend's new enterprise-class array based on 2.5-inch drives. Turns out that the smaller size translates to significant green benefits over 3.5-inch models: It delivers comparable performance using less energy and less space. " So why aren't more small-drive storage arrays being offered?" asks Apicella. "For the same reason SUVs still mount gas-guzzling engines: Because we didn't ask vendors to do better."
Posted by Ted Samson on January 28, 2008 11:55 AM
January 28, 2008 | Comments: (0)
Black Duck offers Code Center for open source
Black Duck Software is announcing Black Duck Code Center on Monday, providing a software component selection, approval and tracking system designed to enable software development organizations to maximize benefits from reusing open source and other third party software components.
Companies are increasingly mixing internal code with code from others, Black Duck said. Users need to manage code from external sources, the company said.
“In the initial phases of the software industry’s uptake of open source software, we witnessed enthusiasm from software engineers but caution on the part of development managers because of the policy issues and risk associated with this approach,” said Douglas Levin, chief executive of Black Duck, in a statement released by the company. “With the introduction of Black Duck Code Center, companies will be able to manage these issues efficiently and effectively, enabling them to maximize component reuse within their development organizations.”
Code Center can work with component usage policies customers have in place. Communications are standardized between engineers, legal, finance, security and other teams.
Black Duck has shipped the product to several major technology companies and open source software industry leaders and anticipates general availability this quarter.
Posted by Paul Krill on January 28, 2008 06:37 AM
January 25, 2008 | Comments: (0)
Adobe ships Flash Media Server 3 products
Adobe Systems said Friday it is shipping its Adobe Flash Media Server 3 family of products for streaming media and real-time communications.
Featured in the line is the Flash Media Streaming Server 3 software for live and on-demand video streaming and Flash Media Interactive Server 3 for customized video-stream services. Interactive Server 3 also can be used for multi-way social media applications.
Flash Media Interactive Server 3 has an estimated street price of $4,500 while Flash Media Streaming Server 3 costs $995 for single-server deployments.
Adobe had announced the products in December.
Posted by Paul Krill on January 25, 2008 10:23 AM
January 25, 2008 | Comments: (0)
Visual environment eyed for Ruby on Rails
SapphireSteel Software, which has specialized in development tools for Ruby programmers, plans to soon release a visual design environment for Ruby on Rails, to be named The Visual Rails Workbench.
Due in late-February, the environment will be an addition to SapphireSteel's Ruby In Steel Developer IDE, which is a Ruby development tool for Visual Studio users. In addition to a design workspace, the workbench will feature tools to navigate through ERb templates and to drag and drop components. ERb is the native Rails view format, SapphireSteel said.
"The main benefit [of the workbench] is that, for the first time Rails developers will be able to design complete Web pages including styles, colors, graphics and forms," said SapphireSteel Director of Technology Huw Collingbourne, in an email.
Developers also will be able to import and export pages to and from external HTML editors. The Visual Rails Workbench will be part of Ruby in Steel 1.2 Developer.
A screen shot of the workbench can be found here.
Posted by Paul Krill on January 25, 2008 08:26 AM
January 23, 2008 | Comments: (0)
VersionOne adds Eclipse to agile development
VersionOne this week announced an upgrde to its V1: Agile product suite for managing agile software development projects, featuring what the company calls a simpler, more intuitive user interface and Eclipse integration.
With Release 8 of V1, Users get "1 click" access to agile process functionality. Through Eclipse integration, developers can work in Eclipse without leaving the Eclipse IDE.
Also featured is a release forecasting tool and open source tool integrations for plug-and-play integration into existing environments. The Intelligent Release Forecaster tool enables teams to do a "what if" analysis of projects. Parameters are input such as velocity to forecast the release delivery date.
Software integrations include data sharing and updates with development tools Jira, Bugzilla and HP Mercury Quicktest Pro. Integrations are provided via open source at the VersionOne community site.
V1 is available in both behind-the-firewall and hosted versions.
The Community Edition of V1 is free while the Enterprise variant costs $30 per user per month. A Team edition, for five users, is priced at around $17 per month per user.
Posted by Paul Krill on January 23, 2008 07:19 AM
January 22, 2008 | Comments: (0)
Review: Brocade DCX Backbone - Part 1
InfoWorld Exclusive
Review: Brocade DCX Backbone
Perhaps it’s because of a recent survey where 59 percent of Brocade customers asked for less difficult management. Or may be it’s because last year’s acquisition of McData (together with several other minor acquisitions) made Brocade portfolio much more complicated.
Whatever the reason, in my recent contacts with Brocade I sensed a renewed interest in delivering improved manageability with its products. Time will tell if this new attitude from Brocade will continue to deliver new features or will be remembered only as a well conceived marketing strategy. Regardless, what I saw during some lab demos earlier this year were real product enhancements.
My visit to Brocade was to see live demonstrations of some of the features of the DCX, the new switching backbone announced on January 22.
The DCX is an interesting solutions because it brings to market the first deliverables of Brocade’s DCF (Data Center Fabric), the newly designed architecture that was announced in October.
I will let Brocade’s literature on DCF paint the detailed picture of this rather ambitious architecture. In just a few words, DCF is a promise to deliver a more flexible, easier to manage, policy driven network, able to embrace multiple connectivity protocols and to better respond to applications’ demands and to new technologies such as server virtualization.
In Brocade’s vision, the DCX is the cornerstone of that architecture, with specs that suggest a level of performance never attained before. In fact, Brocade assures me that the DCX has a no compromise architecture capable of sustaining full transfer rate at 8 Gbps on the 896 FC ports supported in its largest configuration..
In addition to FC the DCX supports just about any other connectivity protocol, including FICON, FCIP (FC over IP) Gigabit Ethernet and iSCSI. That versatility brings to mind the Multi Protocol Router, which was the first product from Brocade aimed at consolidating multiple SANs.
I had plenty of ports to spare, so it was not a relevant issue in my test configuration, but it’s interesting to note that the DCX has dedicated ISL ports that don’t take away from the number of total available ports for say, storage arrays or application servers.
However impressive the specs of the DCX may be, its most innovative features are in its software that enables a variety of features including having better control of bandwidth allocation, restricting access to specific ports according to security policies, and better managing separate fabric sections by creating independent domains.
I started my evaluation with the bandwidth monitoring features. In a traditional fabric each connection acts as a gardening hose, a passive conduit that has no ability to regulate the flow it carries.
With DCX, Brocade offers an Adaptive Networking option that enables limiting the I/O rate on selected ports, a feature that Brocade calls Ingress Rate Limiting.
Here is how it works. In my test configuration Brocade had installed two DCX units, one linked to six HBAs on three hosts, the other linked to a storage array. To better show the traffic management capabilities of the DCX, each host HBA was assigned a dedicated LUN and a dedicated storage port. The two DCX were connected using two 4G ISL (inter-switch links).
With a simple Iometer script was easy to generate significant traffic on each host. To measure how that traffic spread across the fabric I invoked Top Talkers, the performance monitoring tool. A new capability of the Fabric OS 6.0, which was running on both DCX, is to define a Top Talkers profile either for specific ports or for the whole fabric.
As the name suggests, Top Talkers monitors and makes easy to list which source-destination pairs carry most traffic. That’s what the Iometer generated traffic looked like when seen from Top Talkers.
The next step was to limit at the source the traffic flowing from one of those hosts. After moving to the CLI of the hosts-facing DCF I typed:
portcfgqos –setratelimit 3/2 200
This command set a maximum data rate of 200 megabit per second on slot 3 port 2 of the DCX, which is where one of my HBAs was connected.
Moving back to the storage-facing DCX, Top Talkers was showing a much reduced traffic rate on that pair, which made more bandwidth available to the other pairs.
The rate limit can be applied in 200 Mb increments and is an invaluable tool to prevent damaging data transfer bursts. A typical real world use could be to rein in bandwidth intensive applications such as backups. When no longer needed, the rate limit can be easily reset with a similar command, which brings those ports back to the previous, unrestricted footing.
To prepare for the next test I had to reduce the bandwidth between the two DCX to make it easier to exceed its data rate. Therefore, I disabled one of the ISL ports and set the other one to 1 Gb.
Almost immediately EFCM, the Brocade Enterprise Fabric Connectivity Monitor GUI changed the link between the two DCX to a bright red to indicate a traffic congestion.
Running Top Talkers showed a much reduced transfer rate of about 22MBps on each pair. The reason for setting an obvious under-dimensioned ISL between the two machine was to show how the DCX can assign different service levels identified as high medium or low, which reserves respectively 60, 30 or 10 percent of the available bandwidth.
With DCX you can assign a specific QoS service level to each zone in the fabric. Strangely enough Brocade has devised a zone naming convention to assign those QoS levels: A zone named starting with QOSH will be assigned a high service level, while a zone named starting with QOSL will be assigned a low service level. Of course the initials QOSM identify a zone with medium service level, which is also the default for zones not following the name coding.
If you think this is an odd way of assigning a QoS level, you are not alone. I would have preferred setting the QoS as an attribute, which wouldn’t require necessarily to change the zone names.
However, Brocade maintains that the zone name approach will better meet customers' expectations because it’s simple to understand and monitor. In fact, simple it is.
To see the effect of different QoS levels on my bandwidth constrained fabric, I created new zones following the proper name coding and assigned hosts and storage devices to each zone.
Back to the DCX where Top Talkers was already active, I saw the transfer rate of the two pairs with high QoS jump well above the others, while the pair in the medium range settled around 20MBps. The third one, which was in the low QoS Zone fell down to 17MBps.
Whatever you think of the naming convention it follows, Brocade QoS is a very simple and efficient way to set your applications in the proper pecking order and make the best use of the bandwidth available however limited or abundant it may be.
I have some more interesting snippets of my DCX evaluation to present, but this article is getting long already. I'll pause here for the moment, but read on for part 2 and the conclusion of my DCX review.
Posted by Mario Apicella on January 22, 2008 12:54 PM
January 22, 2008 | Comments: (0)
mValent advances configuration management
MValent with its Integrity v5 product for change and configuration management is adding capabilities for provisioning configuration settings to large-scale distributed environments.
Also featured is detection and management of configuration changes and change reporting for IT audit and compliance.
Intended for large enterprises, mValent Integrity v5 offers automated deployment tools that provision configuration settings across multiple hosts and locations, the company said. This alleviates labor-intensive, error-prone manual efforts that can delay rollouts of new applications or upgrades, according to mValent.
Changes can be made to application infrastructure including application servers, Web servers, database servers and OSes. These changes can be sent out to thousands of servers simultaneously, said Jim Hickey, chief marketing officer at mValent.
A Java API featured in v5 enables integration with other tools such as ticketing systems or configuration management databases.
Also featured in Integrity v5 is the addition of analytical capabilities to its "Compare" tool, which pinpoints configuration inconsistencies that can cause downtime. A new automated change dashboard helps IT managers head off change compliance problems.
Available Tuesday, an entry-level configuration costs around $150,000.
Posted by Paul Krill on January 22, 2008 06:32 AM
January 17, 2008 | Comments: (0)
Microsoft contributing spec for disabled access
Microsoft announced plans Thursday to contribute its UI Automation specification royalty-free to the Accessibility Interoperability Alliance (AIA), an engineering working group looking to make it easier for developers to make computer products accessible to people with disabilities.
The specification describes the company's latest accessibility framework technology and will help developers include advanced accessibility into implementations designed to be used with any operating system, Microsoft said. Featured is a programming model for developers to make software compatible with assistive technology products such as screen readers for persons who are blind.
AIA, Microsoft said, was formed by a coalition of information and assistive technology companies intending to collaborate on reducing barriers that people with disabilities can encounter when trying to access information and technologies, including Web sites.
Developers currently must work across multiple platforms, application models and types of hardware to create accessible technology. AIA is addressing interoperability by working to harmonize current technologies so they interoperate more easily and by working to build a unified accessibility model.
UI Automation is available now for Windows platforms. Microsoft has agreed to grant a royalty-free license for Microsoft patents necessary to implement portions of the specification.
Posted by Paul Krill on January 17, 2008 02:43 PM
January 17, 2008 | Comments: (0)
Onaro VM Insight 1.0
While most vendors have concentrated their development efforts on SRM (storage resource management) and SM (storage management) applications, Onaro took a completely different approach.
Since the beginning, Onaro focused the development of the SANscreen suite of applications not on providing new management tools but on automatically discovering and documenting the often complex links between applications and storage components.
Using SANscreen is like navigating your data center with a good GPS system that clearly identifies the paths between application servers and storage.
However, a clear vision of how things are connected in your data center is just one of the benefits of using SANscreen. Over time Onaro has developed a suite of applications that monitor capacity allocation, replicas and provisioning, in essence all services that are storage related.
In fact, using SANscreen you can create proper administrative procedures and make sure that they stay in place. For example, you can create a policy to mandate dual path access between a critical application and its database volume: If that policy is not enforced or is ever violated, the system will immediately raise a flag and automatically send warnings using messaging systems of your choice.
An indication of how successful Onaro has been is the number of customers who bought into that concept: The vendor claims that one out of three Fortune 50 companies has deployed SANscreen.
Another indication of that success is that mainstream vendors have, some of them admittedly, injected in their portfolio some of the functionality of SANscreen.
What's new?
In December, Onaro announced VM Insight 1.0, a new addition to the SANscreen suite that aims to extend its features to VMware ESX servers and to guest virtual machines.
I took my first peek at VM Insight connecting remotely to a system that was already installed on Onaro premises.
The first and perhaps most obvious clue that I was running VM Insight was the ability to point at a VM and seeing the topology map of its s storage, which you could previously do only for physical servers.
Mapping the topology of a VM is cool and perhaps even more useful than it is for a physical server, but VM Insight has another neat feature for customers who deploy clusters of VMs,
You can define a policy dictating that all members of a cluster must have access to the same volumes, which will add another degree of reliability to the VMware environment that would be difficult to attain without VM Insight.
Once that policy is in place, any discrepancy, for example adding a new volume to only one of the members, will automatically create a new entry in the violations log.
If you have multiple VMware ESX servers in your care, deciding where to allocate new VMs is probably a recurring dilemma. Interacting with VMware Virtual Center and collecting performance statistics for each host, VM Insight makes that decision a no brainer.
To find the best candidate for a new VM, you can launch simple queries asking to rank each ESX server according to criteria such as I/O, memory or CPU usage: In response, SANscreen will list the eligible machines ordered according to those criteria.
It's interesting to note that SANscreen collects also performance numbers for each VM and presents those results in tabular format. From those values you can easily create charts, by putting a check mark beside selected criteria. The application will automatically create separate graphs from your selection.
One aspect of charting I didn't like: When selecting similar multiple metrics, such as asking to chart percentage of I/O, CPU and memory utilization, the system will automatically cram all three values on the same chart, which makes them difficult to read.
I hope that in the future users may have more flexibility on what values to chart and how, also because at the moment Onaro doesn't offer a comprehensive set of reports, which could compensate for the confusing charts.
However, I know from having seen a beta version that future releases will have better reporting.
Onaro VM Insight 1.0
Availability: Shipping
Pricing: VM Insight starts at $75,000 for up to 10TB - $250/TB for additional managed capacity
Verdict:
This first version of Onaro VM Insight makes a convincing case of extending the benefits of SANscreen to virtual environments.
Even with the limited reporting capability and the somewhat inflexible charting mentioned before SANscreen with VM Insight 1.0 deserves to be considered by all but the least sophisticated VMware shops.
The suite comes at a price, but is a worthwhile complement for a VMware installation that helps not only to better monitor the use of storage from each VM but also facilitates managing each VMware server with more informed allocation of critical resources such as I/O, CPU and memory.
Posted by Mario Apicella on January 17, 2008 03:01 AM
January 16, 2008 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: SUN mulls the ultimate consolidation
Let's face it, if someone would give us a dime every time we hear, read (or write) the word "virtualization", we would get rich quickly. iPhone is another word that seems to pop-up everywhere. Actually, although much more recent, iPhone is becoming a serious challenger to the popularity of the "V" word, don't you agree?
Read today's TC Tracker and you will add at least two dimes to your hypothetical wealth. As a bonus topic, find out how someone at SUN is dreaming of a future without data centers.
VMware turns to applications The name, Thinstall, is a not exactly a give-away but this tiny company is the first serious step the virtualization giant is taking toward virtualizing applications. Wondering what that is? In a nutshell, think of tools to free applications from their OS shackles, so that they can easily be moved around. Sounds good, but Randall Kennedy has some concerns about this acquisition.
MacWorld anyone? Not to worry if you couldn't make it this time, Tom Yager was there happily reporting about what's new from Apple. And there is plenty. The MacBook is thinner than ever and in great shape to keep running over a long ride. About the iPhone... but wait, read what else is making a splash in Ahead of the Curve
Pushing consolidation a bit too far? What a difference a few years and the wildly growing cost of energy can make. Not long ago having many large and well equipped data centers was cool, almost an indication of how succesful a company was. Today consolidation is in, and large, power-hungry data centers are out. But how far can you push data center consolidation? SUN could get down to zero, yes, no data center at all in less than eight years John West reports
Posted by Mario Apicella on January 16, 2008 09:19 AM
January 15, 2008 | Comments: (0)
OpenSpaces framework gets community site
GigaSpaces Technologies announced Tuesday OpenSpaces.org, a Web site for developers who want to use and contribute to the open source OpenSpaces development framework.
Tools provided on the site offer the ability to upload, review and download code. Bug tracking and forums are offered as well.
Geared to the building of applications for distributed environments such as SOA and cloud computing, OpenSpaces extends the Spring Framework for Java and leverages the GigaSpaces eXtreme Application Platform (XAP) for data caching, messaging and as the container for application business logic, GigaSpaces said.
OpenSpaces has been used in industries such as financial services, telecommunications, e-commerce, Web 2.0 and retail.
OpenSpaces.org features more than two dozen projects submitted by developers. Among these projects is an instant messaging platform and another that integrates with PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor).
GigaSpaces recently announced its OpenSpaces Developer Challenge, a developer competition that will feature prizes for the most innovative applications built using OpenSpaces.
Posted by Paul Krill on January 15, 2008 04:20 PM
January 15, 2008 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Is Vista Not Green?
We're just getting used to the idea of subjecting new products and techniques to green scrutiny, and taking that very close look can produce some very interesting results. In today's Test Center Tracker, we have some very good corporate behavior, a very interesting technology analysis, and the sort of blue sky questioning that can lead to radical changes in the way things are done.
How Green Was My XP: In Sustainable IT, Ted Samson looks at the end of Windows XP, and is troubled by the ramifications of upgrading all those corporate computers to handle Vista's power requirements. It's not that XP was designed to be more ecologically friendly, but when you add up the environmental impact of surplus-machine disposal and the more power-hungry computers that will replace the last-generation XP workstations, you end up with a non-trivial footprint on the landscape.
Sharing the Green: There's also some good news in Sustainable IT, and Ted gives props to IBM, Nokia, and Sony for sharing patents that involve energy savings and sustainable product use. It's good to see companies show that doing the right thing and being profitable aren't mutually exclusive.
A Big "What if?": Almost all of us have wondered, at one time or another, what would happen if the world ran a bit differently than it does in our current reality. Over in Open Sources, Zack Urlocker ponders the results if Detroit ran more like Silicon Valley. When he gives it some thought, he's not at all sure he likes what he imagines -- particularly when he imagines sitting in the results doing 70 MPH on an Interstate highway. With Tesla looking more and more like a cautionary tale, it's just possible that Silicon Valley isn't the best model for every industry.
Posted by Curt Franklin on January 15, 2008 12:17 PM
January 14, 2008 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: BEA WebLogic VE proves half-baked
Bold yet unmanageable: Based on his hands-on testing of WebLogic VE (Virtual Edition), Test Center Contributor Andrew Binstock concludes that it's pretty darn innovative. The appliance leverages server virtualization by delivering an enterprise-ready application server in a preconfigured stack. Less impressive, however, is the system's lack of central management. The system's still in beta, though, so BEA has time to spruce it up.
Sign on to Save Windows XP: InfoWorld has a formally launched a campaign to keep Microsoft from prematurely retiring XP and effectively pushing customers to adopt Vista. The arguments to save XP are numerous (including my own green perspective). Join the cause today!
High hopes for MacWorld: InfoWorld's Chief Technologist and Apple Enthusiast Tom Yager is mighty excited about this year's MacWorld conference in San Francisco. Tom already knows he'll learn more about Mac Pro and Xserve -- but he's quite keen on the possibility of a new iPhone and news about Mac tablets. What juicy fruits will Apple's who bear? Best tune in and see.
Posted by Ted Samson on January 14, 2008 02:33 PM
January 11, 2008 | Comments: (0)
A New Way to Follow the InfoWorld Test Center
The Test Center has a lot of great information (and tons of new reviews, previews, and buyer's guides coming in 2008), but it can be tough to keep up with everything that's coming out. That's why we're going to use Twitter to let folks know what's happening. Head over to our Twitter home page to start following the Test Center. You'll get a "tweet" every times something new is posted here at the Test Center.
Let us know what you think -- and sign up to follow us on Twitter!
Posted by Curt Franklin on January 11, 2008 06:23 PM
January 09, 2008 | Comments: (0)
TC Tracker: An Apple with eight cores
Want an Apple with eight cores? Care to learn about upcoming, fast, air-born data transfers? Would you rather hear the latest buzz on virtualization? It's all here in TC Tracker.
New short, fat pipe from Sony One of my favorites from CES Is Sony's Transfer Jet, a new technology that promises fast wireless data transfers over a short distance. How short? Well, according to our report centimeters, which is less than inches if the metric system is not in your DNA.
Do you understand virtualization? No offense meant, but I had to ask because according to a new study that mantra is misunderstood and underestimated among enterprise users, David Marshall reports.
I have my doubts on that. For example, which technologies is that study referring to? Are all different flavors of virtualization equally misunderstood? With that premise, does the reports see any future for the technology? Read David comments to find out more.
Want an Apple with eight cores? Intel's new 45 nm processors haven't been out for long but Apple has already deployed them in two systems, Tom Yager reports. Apple makes also easy to find out how much energy all that processing power is costing you, Tom explains in this segue.
Posted by Mario Apicella on January 9, 2008 07:59 AM
January 08, 2008 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Layer One Networking and a New Guide
We keep trying to figure out how do networking without a physical layer, but so far we haven't figured that out, yet. Until then, we'll need to worry about things like cables. Brian Chee has looked at the craft and art of cable lacing, as part of the general focus on cables at InfoWorld. We also introduce a new kind of product article here in the Test Center -- one that should make reviews even more useful to you.
Network Beauty: When you have to network more than two or three systems together, cable management becomes a significant issue. Over in the Geeks in Paradise blog, Brian Chee takes on the nearly-lost art of cable lacing, and discusses why it's so important to current network maintenance and performance. In particular, he asks why more network centers aren't using cable harnesses -- a tool that auto and aircraft manufacturers have used for years -- to maintain order and regularity in their infrastructure. When you pair Brian's post with an object lesson in structured cabling in Off the Record, you have the basis for a serious discussion on just how important good cabling installation and management are to your network's continued performance.
A New Buyer's Guide: One of the constant issues we face here in the Test Center is how to make all our reviews useful to our readers. We've decided that one answer is a new kind of article, the Buyer's Guide. These articles will bring together information on the products, technologies,and companies within a product category, and provide a convenient place for us to link to all the reviews and analysis we've done on the products. Each of these guides will evolve as the market and products evolve, and will be updated to reflect new reviews and analysis. The first buyer's guide, our Buyer's Guide to SIMS, is up now. Take a look, and let us know how we can make it better -- there's much more to come.
Posted by Curt Franklin on January 8, 2008 01:16 PM
January 07, 2008 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Peek at the top tech of 2007 -- and beyond
And the winners are ... With the Writers Guild of America on strike, it's hard to guess what the next Emmy or Oscar Awards will bring. Fortunately, we're not having any strikes here at InfoWorld, and thus we can bring to you the 2008 InfoWorld Technology of the Year Awards. Once again, we've sifted through the piles of product reviews we did in 2007 and shined spotlights on the cream of the crop in various categories, from app dev to storage.
Scenes from CES: From IM to thumb drives, much of today's ripe enterprise technology took root at previous CES events. Thus, InfoWorld is tracking this year's show in Vegas with great scrutiny. Tune in and place your bets on which CES showings will change the tech landscape.
Symantec scores with SIM: If you're a security admin, perhaps one of your new year resolutions was to bolster further bolster your network security. (The little Chihuahua in the guard uniform wasn't cutting it.) Symantec's SIM (security information manager) appliance might be what you seek. InfoWorld Senior Analyst Curtis Franklin gave the box a test spin and has deemed it "a highly capable system that leverages the power of the Global Information Network to bring significant security intelligence to bear on network security events."
Posted by Ted Samson on January 7, 2008 12:30 PM
January 03, 2008 | Comments: (0)
Ruby on Rails gets new default database
A minor, incremental upgrade to the Ruby on Rails Web application framework released on December 17 makes a change in the framework's open source default database.
With the 2.0.2 release of Ruby on Rails, the default database has been switched from MySQL to SQLite3, David Heinemeier Hansson, the founder of Ruby on Rails, said on Thursday.
The default database is just the database that a fresh Rails application is configured to use, Hansson said in an email.
"It's really not that big a deal, it's just what database the default configuration file is designed to work with," he said. Ruby on Rails still supports the same databases as before, said Hansson.
"MySQL is still by far the preferred production database and will continue to be so. SQLite3 is just great for getting started (you don't have to run a separate server) and for small applications," Hansson said. "Rails makes it effortless to switch from SQLite3 to MySQL when you're ready to go into big production."
Ruby on Rails 2.0, a major upgrade to the platform, was released on December 7 and emphasized REST-based (Representational State Transfer) Web services.
Posted by Paul Krill on January 3, 2008 04:46 PM
January 02, 2008 | Comments: (0)
TC Tracker: It's a promising, wonderful new year!
Best wishes for a happy and prosperous 2008!
Want to keep XP? Of the many changes expected for later this year, the end of life of Windows XP is probably a primary concern for many IT departments.
If you're wondering why, welcome from that long trip from Mars: Here on Earth many fear that discontinuing Windows XP will force or at least accelerate a migration to Vista, the new Microsoft OS that like a well groomed but unconvincing politician has failed to win the hearts and minds of the majority.
Are you sharing the same concern? Then, join the Save Windows XP petition and let Microsoft know that you want to keep the OS running for a long (longer?) time.
A Leopard as a server? Speaking of OSes you should not miss the review of the Mac OS X 10.5 Server that the holiday schedule makes easy to overlook.
It's a rose that has its thorns, but Leopard server makes the power of Unix easy to control and deploy, Tom Yager reports.
Scanned on my cell What happens when you put together mobile phones and barcode technology? You could carry a boarding pass on your phone, for starters, and use the built-in camera as a bar code reader. Learn more in this intriguing chapter of Geeks in Paradise where Brian Chee explores the various options brewing around this fascinating topic. And don't forget part two
Posted by Mario Apicella on January 2, 2008 08:23 AM