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.

VMware published a whitepaper on their website with a look at some VMware Infrastructure Architectural Advantages. Yes, it is a coloured paper, but with this you can make the right choice between VMware ESX, ESXi, Microsoft Hyper-V of Xen.

What they have left out is what server to choose to run it on. We prefer a 4-socket or 8-socket server because of memory population and headroom. More on headroom in the Sizing Guide which can be found in the download section.

Source: BLOGS VMware

With IBM BladeCenter and POWER6 processor-based blades, customers can realize innovation with proven 6th generation POWER™ technology for enhanced performance, For i customers, IBM offers the i Edition Express for BladeCenter S which is an extremely attractive offering that combines a BladeCenter Chassis, a POWER blade, and IBM i at a price that is similar to an entry Power 520 server with i.

We found out in our lab that before you can ready start using this environment you HAVE-TO read the readme first. If you do not, you will spend a lot more time setting this up yourself. We have warned you !!

Source: IBM Power Systems Hardware and README First

IBM has released Virtualization Manager version 1.2.2. This latest version of VM, which is supported on IBM Director 5.20.2, Service Update 1, and Service Update 2, provides support for VMware ESX Server V3.5, and VMware VirtualCenter V2.5, as well as several important bug fixes.

Many of us have been anxiously anticipating VM support of VMware ESX Server V3.5 in order to leverage comprehensive virtualization management within their datacenter environment and compliment their overall management solution set within their IT shop.

Source: Virtualization Manager, Information Center

Nortel has announced an 1/10GB ethernet switch with 6x external 1G external uplinks AND 3x 10G ports in the standard bladecenter form factor so it fits in all BladeCenter chassis. This switch is also supported in MSIM.

Source:  Blade Network Technologies, IBM Product Brief

The current FlexCache license, flex_cache, has been replaced by a new license, flexcache_nfs. The old license is supported for the Data ONTAP 7.2 release family, but is no longer supported for Data ONTAP 7.3 and later. See your sales representative Contact your IBM N series support representative to obtain and install the new flexcache_nfs license if it is not already present on your system.

Attention: If you upgrade to Data ONTAP 7.3 or later and the new license is not installed, you will not be able to access data in FlexCache volumes after the upgrade. As soon as you install the new license, the FlexCache data will become accessible.

Copaco N.V. of Eindhoven has reached an agreement regarding the takeover of the activities of McDOS International, the Nijmegen based distributor of ICT products with a strong position in the retail and MKB market. The deal is subject to approval by the Netherlands Competition Authority.

The IBM Advanced Technical Support Team has published a document that illustrates the implementation details of the IBM BladeCenter Open Fabric Manager (BOFM).

BOFM is designed to help you manage growth and complexity by making it easy to manage I/O and network interconnects for up to 100 BladeCenter chassis - up to 1400 blade servers.

Source: IBM TechDocs

Normally Microsoft licensing can cause some headaches to get it right, but how is Microsoft licensing defined in a virtual environment. A new area where desktops can run. A number of sources are available on the web. And Microsoft has published a Licensing Guide on their website. Better known as VECD Licensing or Windows Vista Enterprise Centralized Desktop Licensing for Virtual Desktop Infrastructure.

Source: Blog of Quest’s Provision Networks Division, Microsoft VECD Licensing Guide

Received email from our VMware contact in the Netherlands that VMware has collaborated with Cisco to produce a guide for deploying VMware Infrastucture 3 with Cisco switches. This guide covers the physical and virtual data network and storage network deployment considerations for ESX Server with suggested topologies and designs.

Source:  VMware Best Practrices & Resources, Deployment GUIDE PDF

IBM announced on june 10th the SAS Connectivity Card (CFFv) 43W3974 which at the date of announce is compatible with the HS21 XM and HS12. It is a low-cost alternative to the SAS Expansion Card (CFFv) 39Y9190.

But, what is the difference ?

IBM Top Gun training is designed to increase sales, solutions, competitive and technical skills for I/T Industry professionals. The program uses a popular "Top Gun" format involving unique class themes, stimulating lectures, stand-up exercises, hands-on labs, quizzes, and product demonstrations.

Top Gun training is for sales and solution specialists, IBM Business Partners, eSM's, client reps, telemarketing personnel or anyone who spends a significant amount of their time selling, marketing, and supporting IBM eServer, TotalStorage and Software products and solutions.

Look at the Top Gun schedules and sign up !!

Source:  IBM Field Education - Top Gun

IBM Systems Director Virtual Availability Manager^TM V1.1, an extension of IBM Director, provides a simplified availability solution for customers using Xen-based virtualization. Virtual Availability Manager can be used to help manage and respond to planned and unplanned system outages, leveraging virtual server checkpoint/restart and mobility to avoid or recover from virtual server and host system failures.

It predicts and reacts to server hardware failures before they occur and reacts to unplanned host system and virtual server failures. Virtual Availability Manager then takes actions as defined within simplified high availability policies. The Management server runs on AIX®, Windows on x86 platforms, Linux® on x86 and Power^TM Systems, managing the availability of Xen virtualized host systems.

Now you can try this software 90 at no charge

We normally connect our servers running VMware to Storage by Fibre Channel because we think it has the best performance and uptime characteristics. For some time now the N Series has a better way to connect your VMware environment.....that is through NFS.

Save money but not using Fibre Channel at all on your N Series. The Fibre Channel protocol is emulated on the N Series and therefore you'll understand that FC can be slower than NFS.   But a more pleasent reason for using NFS is to save 50 + % diskspace compared to FC when cloning.

Ask your local N Series representative for the "VMware on NFS" information and beat the competition by far (in price and performance).

Source:  Virtual Optics BLOG, N Series and VMware 3, NetApp Blog, InformationWeek

A new copper pass thru module for BladeCenter has announced shortly. Information on that module can be found on the ServerPROVEN compatibility pages HERE and HERE.

It has NO external break-out cables as there are 14 external ports in the module itself, support for SOL (when in bay 1) and cKVM (when in bay 1).  Similar function suite as existing IBM SCM.  Setup/statistics works through the Advanced Management Module GUI or CLI.

Source: SSCT, ServerPROVEN, BladeCenter Product Page & IBM PLET