Sun XVM and Ops Center
Sun announced new virtualization products last week. It seems to be a version of Xen hypervisor running on solaris . So now, Sun has three Solaris virtualization technologies: XVM, Solaris Containers, and LDOM. So, what it means is that a Sparc Server can be running a solaris container in a solaris XVM in an LDOM. This is 3 layers of virtualizations.
Also, in this announce, Sun presents Ops Center. This is a re-branded N1 System Manager. It seems that the focus will be on the management of the hardware, up to the operating system, combined with Sun Connection.
Mark Hamilton told The Register:
Sun has also announced a new management software package, Ops Center, that will work as a command and control console for physical and virtual gear- that's to say the hypervisor and Solaris Containers. Sun said the software also includes discovery and inventory, application provisioning, software lifecycles automation, hardware and software monitoring and compliance reporting. Sun brazenly says "it does everything except unpack boxes and rack and cable systems."
Ops Center is going to be released in December. It will be interesting to see how this can be leveraged by Configuration Automation tools like what BMC announced recently.
Technorati Tags: datacenter management, system management, virtualization
BMC announce Service Automation
Today, along with the acquisition of Emprisa Networks, and following the acquisition of Realops, BMC announced the Service automation suite of solutions. This includes :
- Discovery and mapping of the complete IT environment, including its relationships to business processes and transactions
- Full-scale Configuration Automation capability across network devices, physical and virtual servers, and client systems
- Change Management to support configuration policy adherence and process automation
- Orchestration and automation of activities supporting IT processes, reducing errors and expenses in task execution across operational processes and toolsets
- Automation of Continuous Compliance, including audit and enforcement of standard configurations across heterogeneous IT environments
I've been working on the second item in the list for the past year, and now that more of this is announced, I'll provide more information about what this does, and how runbook automation, coupled with configuration automation can solve many of the challenges that IT operators face today.
Technorati Tags: Business Service Management, configuration management, datacenter management, system management
BMC acquires Network Configuration Automation company Emprisa Networks
Today, BMC is announcing that it acquires Emprisa Network. It will complement the client and server Configuration Automation products, as well as the recent Realops acquisition to provide the Service Automation set of solutions.
Emprisa Networks, Inc., the leading provider of smart network configuration, compliance and change management solutions, offers solutions for extending IT service management initiatives to the network infrastructure. Emprisa's E-NetAware solution provides immediate return on investment in several key areas - improves service availability with less change errors; automates configuration management for improved operational efficiencies, enhances network security through policy-based configuration management and greatly improves service responsiveness. E-NetAware provides support for routers, switches, firewalls, load balancers, wireless access points and other network devices from over 25 vendors.
I'll provide more details on this technology in a future blog.
Technorati Tags: CMDB, configuration management, datacenter management, network management, configuration automation, service automation