Inside IT

Icahn, Yahoo, Cuban and Microsoft

2008-05-15T19:45:00Z

When things like this start, where do they stop?

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Duration: 02:27

Scripting external elements with Site Recovery Manager

2008-05-14T18:17:00Z

VMware's SRM (Site Recovery Manager), which was announced this week, can accommodate a number of critical elements that are external to VMware system stuff that should be part of a system recovery at a remote site. This is another video made at our BOF last September at VMworld in San Francisco.

This one features Kiran Ranabhor, Technical Product Manager for DR, VMware.

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Duration: 02:14

The Road Goes on Forever and the Reboot Never Ends....

2008-05-14T15:20:00Z

We've seen reports by Lee at Technibble here and at Hexus.net here about "endless reboots" on systems with Windows XP SP3 and AMD processors. I've seen some coverage out there that says "OEMs are at fault." Wait just a minute. Let's not be so hasty with such a broad brush of blame.

This is not an AMD or Microsoft issue. It's an issue of matching the correct software image with the correct hardware. I talked to our software engineers and it seems the real culprit is a driver called intelppm.sys. By the name, you can probably tell that this is an Intel driver...and it causes issues with AMD-based systems.

From my discussions with the engineers, I also wanted to set the record straight that Dell systems shipped out of the factory are NOT affected. Quite frankly, this is not a new issue and we've disabled this driver for AMD systems to prevent it.

If OEMs are shipping this Intel driver enabled on AMD machines - anyone else picking up this story, please leave Dell off the list.

If you do experience this issue, Microsoft has a support page that will walk you through a resolution.

Using Green IT To Get Into the Black - A How To Guide

2008-05-14T14:05:00Z

"Nowhere are the potential benefits of a green strategy more compelling than in the data center." That's according to our power & cooling guru, Dr. Albert Esser in his new article "Using Green IT To Get Out Of The Red And Into The Black" that was just published in The Environmental Leader.

Also important in driving down costs is how an organization approaches power management across its PCs. A 2007 Gartner study estimates that 40 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions are due to PCs and monitors, while 23 percent are due to servers and associated cooling technology in data centers.

Statistics like this are among the reasons why we continue to take aggressive steps in providing with the most energy efficient products in the industry. Today, we just announced a 25% energy efficiency improvement commitment for our laptops and desktops. Read more here.

Paula and Paul and Peter honored as entrepreneurs

2008-05-13T20:34:00Z

A few days ago I wrote (belatedly) about EqualLogic and Don Bulens being awarded as the top privately held company and CEO by Massnetcomms. Today I get to give props to Paula Long, Paul Koning and Peter Hayden, who were just announced as the Entrepreneurs of 2008 by the New Hampshire High Technology Council.

And for Paula, they should have also added a special commendation for "total ass kicker" too.

Its the cash, not the cloud with HP/EDS deal

2008-05-13T18:28:00Z

There's a lot of buzz today surrounding HP's acquisition of EDS. Some people are hung up on cloud things, but this deal doesn't have much, if anything, to do with cloud computing. You buy mature companies for cash flow, not to grab share in high growth markets.

BTW, $5 dollars for the first person that correctly identifies the car wash.

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Duration: 01:50

Fashionable Benchmarks

2008-05-13T17:10:00Z

IBM blogger Elizabeth took the time to write about our stylish pink notebooks and went on to make the point that for servers, what really matters, is on the inside. Especially benchmarks and she cites VMmark specifically.

We couldn't agree more.

VMmark is a valuable tool to determine the performance of different hardware and virtualization platforms. Congrats, at the time she posted the IBM System x3850 was the #1 in this benchmark.

As fashion is wont to do - now there is a new #1. Can you guess the new "it" model for this issue???

Check out the Stats: TOP 4-SOCKET PERFORMANCE RESULTS FOR VMMARK AS OF MAY 7, 2008

Vendor	SystemVMware version	VMmark (v 1.0)Score	Processors	PublishDate	ConfigurationPrice
Dell	PowerEdge R900VMware ESX v3.5	14.23 @ 10 tiles	Intel Xeon X7350	May 2008	$28,802
Dell	PowerEdge R905VMware ESX v3.5	14.17 @ 10 tiles	AMD Opteron8360 SE	May 2008	$23,135
IBM	IBM System x3850 M2VMware ESX v3.5	13.16 @ 9 tiles	Intel Xeon X7350	Mar 2008	$30,729
Sun	Sun Fire X4450VMware ESX v3.5	12.23 @ 8 tiles	Intel Xeon X7350	Apr 2008	$36,176
HP	HP ProLiant DL580 G5VMware ESX v3.0.2	11.54 @ 8 tiles	Intel Xeon X7350	Aug 2007	$27,330

- Both results for the PowerEdge R900 and R905 beat the previous #1, the IBM x3850 M2, by more than a full point (8%) in the overall score (which represents how well the VMs are performing).

- Dell's results show that we're more than just "pretty in pink". The PowerEdge R905, in addition to beating the IBM result by 8%, costs 25% less (and 36% less than Sun).

- The same day this benchmark posted we had a major virtualization announcement - some external perspectives are here, here and here.

The fashion world just keeps spinning ‘round....

TechCenter Chat on Tuesday: Managing the switch to OpenManage

2008-05-13T01:02:00Z

Our lovely and talented TechCenter Supergeeks will be around for an online discussion tomorrow (Tuesday) to help customers migrating from other server management tools to OpenManage.

In a few weeks we are going to have a chat on iSCSI networking. Stay tuned.

-marc

Eric Schott on VMware access mode support in SRM

2008-05-12T19:07:00Z

This is a video shot last September at VMworld in San Francisco. We had a birds of feather session with Eric Schott (Director of Product Management, EqualLogic) and Kiran Ranabhor (Technical Product Manager for DR, VMware) and the question was asked what kinds of storage provisioning (or access modes) would be supported with SRM.

The answer is that in the initial release of SRM, the access method supported is VMFS. Raw device maps and running iSCSI software initiators in the virtual system would not be supported initially for SRM. I suppose that's possible it could have changed since September, but I doubt it.

FWIW, here's a link to a bonus video of Dell EqualLogic's Will Urban at VMworld Europe talking about SRM too.

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Duration: 02:36

What Chuck Hollis said, but shorter

2008-05-12T18:25:00Z

I appreciate the effort that Chuck Hollis puts into his writing. But if you are like me and have either a short attention span, or way too much to do today, I thought I'd give you the Farley-Digest of his SRM announcement blog today.

I like everything about VMware and SRM is exciting.
Remote replication lets you run your stuff somewhere else, if that ever becomes necessary. It used to cost a lot, but its been getting cheaper and SRM makes it even cheaper still. You might want to try it.
Remote recovery traditionally has a lot of capital and operating costs. SRM can really reduce the capital costs because you don't need identical sets of equipment at the remote site.
The operating costs of data transfers are thorny and there's a lot of ways to skin a cat. VMware didn't re-invent any wheels here, but works with a lot of the stuff that already exists.
Unlike Oracle.
Remote recovery has always been a big pain in the rear and people rarely give it the attention they deserve because it disrupts their operations. SRM should make it all a lot less disruptive, including less disruptive to ongoing operations - and that's eagle claws.
Repeat of the pain in the rear statement above regarding DR testing. Its far simpler now.
EMC thinks SRM is a big deal and has been integrating it with some of their products, such as DMX, Celerra, CLARiiON, RecoverPoint.
Not all vendors have done this sort of work.
EMC has done testing work and developed professional services for SRM.
EMC has been "solutioneering" to figure out SRM with important applications.
Start lining up to spend money on SRM.