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UpdateXpress CD v4.07 Update

UpdateXpress can help reduce your cost of computing by providing an effective and simple way to update server firmware and firmware of supported options contained within the server on most of your xSeries, System x and/or BladeCenter products.

Latest version available is 4.07. Change log is listed below.

Source: IBM Support UpdateXpress v4.07,  IBM Publication Catalog

BladeCenter Start Now Advisor

From the beginning of august 2008, IBM is shipping the BladeCenter Start Now Advisor together with the BladeCenter S.

The software (approx. 330MB) can also be downloaded seperately.

Start Now Advisor Features:

VMware ESXi for FREE

VMware has always believed that virtualization needs to be ubiquitous.  We want to accelerate the day that x86 servers, desktops and datacenters are fully virtualized. With the explosive growth of multi-core capacity, improvements in virtualization-aware hardware, and performance improvements in our virtualization software, we believe that no technical hurdles remain for 100% virtualization. Now we are removing any financial hurdles as well. ESXi is mature enough and easy enough to use that it can be the entry point into virtualization for those companies just taking their first steps with the technology.

Source: VMware (http://www.vmware.com/products/esxi/ and http://www.vmware.com/go/getesxi )

Redundant ethernet I/O with BladeCenter S

The BladeCenter S can now be equiped with a second ethernet switch and if you add the 2/4 port Ethernet Expansion Card (CFFh), partnumber 44W4479, you can have up to 6 ethernet ports on each blade installed in the BladeCenter S.  This means that the BladeCenter S can now be used in virtualised environments as well.

This 2/4 port Ethernet Expansion Card has been announced and will be GA at the end of this month (august 2008).  The BladeCenter Interoperability Guide and BladeCenter Products and Technology Guide will be updated shortly. 

Here are some examples on what is now possible:

Storage VMotion and 10Gb Ethernet support for iSCSI SAN's

With VMware Infrastructure 3.5 Storage VMotion was introduced, which does a live migration of virtual machine disk files from one storage location to another without any disruption or downtime to virtual machines and applications. Although Storage VMotion is designed to work with any type of storage, it was initially supported only with Fibre Channel SANs. As of ESX 3.5 Update 1, Storage VMotion is supported with iSCSI SAN’s for moving virtual machine disk files in the following scenarios:

• From iSCSI SANs to other iSCSI SANs
• From iSCSI SANs to FibreChannel SANs
  
• From FibreChannel SANs to iSCSI SANs

Now with 3.5 Update 2, VMware supports the use of 10Gb Ethernet for iSCSI in a VMware Infrastructure environment.

Source: VMware Storage VMotion, Announcement VMware ESX 3.5 Update 2

Dynamic System Analysis - version 2.11

IBM Dynamic System Analysis (DSA) is available as an Installable Edition and a Portable Edition and is a system information collection and analysis tool that is used by IBM xSeries(R) Service and Supportpersonnel to aid in the diagnosis of system problems.

The enhancements of version 2.11 (Build ID: FDPD17A, Revision 17) are:

• New System Support
• Windows Server 2008 32bit and 64bit Support on Machine Type 8853, 1885, 7973, 7975, 7977, 7978, 7979, 4362, 4363, 4347, 8863, 8864, 7141, 7144, 4192, 4367, 4190, 4191, 4194.

DSA collects information about the following aspects of a system:

IBM Releases 8Gb Fibre Channel

Just released for the IBM System x servers, the QLogic 2500 Series host bus adapters (HBAs) are different than other 8Gb HBAs due to their Dynamic Power Management and Cool HBA™ technologies -- two breakthrough innovations developed under the QLogic StarPower™ Green Initiative.

The QLogic 2500 includes the QLE2560 single-port (IBM #42D0501) and QLE2562 dual-port (IBM #42D0510) 8Gb HBA running at 5 GHz over a PCI Express bus. QLogic builds all its products with 4 key goals in mind - Efficiency, High Performance, Superior Scalability and Enhanced Reliability. The 2500 Series achieves these goals with the following:

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IBM Director with IBM DS series

We've got many requests pending on clear instructions for SMI-S provider combined with IBM Director 5.10/5.20.x.
As you expect we've sorted this out and created a procedure for succesfull monitoring of DS4700 DS3400 etc.
All DS series should be able to be monitored withing IBM Director so give it a try and share you experience with us.

Read more to see the instructions. Credits go to LSI for their excellent support.

Application Virtualization Comparison Chart

VMware comes out with their Thinapp,  but besides that an Application Virtualization comparison chart could not be found, so virtualfuture.info decided to make one. This comparison chart is an objective overview of features of the major Application Virtualization solutions. Some of the major advantages are:

• Migrate to new operating systems without upgrading or replacing legacy applications.
• Lock down corporate endpoints by running applications in user mode without locking out users.
• Minimize application conflicts and regression testing.
• Replicate your virtualized applications like any other enterprise data to maintain an instant-on fail-over plan for your applications.

Source:  VirtualFuture.info and Application Virtualization comparison chart

TECHDOC: Implementing XEN on IBM System x and BladeCenter Servers

This paper is for everyone interested in XEN® on IBM® server systems and its main focus lies on the technical details of an implementation. It is assumed that the reader interested in these details is somewhat familiar with Linux.

XEN is an open-source hypervisor available with the Linux® distributions from Red Hat® and Novell®. This document provides an overview of how XEN virtualization can be implemented on IBM System x® and BladeCenter® systems.