inVURTED.com » Adam says

Virtualisation; I don’t get it

Adam — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 23:30:05 +0000

It seems that in the local industry (Melbourne, Australia) that businesses just don’t get virtualisation.

At the cessation of another job, I am beginning to wonder if this virtualisation thing will ever catch on. Or maybe I’m too far ahead of the curve and waiting for it to catch up.

Let’s start with the benefits;

no reliance on physical infrastructure
Rapid provisioning of both servers and desktops (VDI)
Fault tolerance and, if I want it, automated load balancing
Cost savings in the datacentre because I’m not taking up as much space with hardware that needs to be maintained and replaced as often

The disadvantages are far outweighed by the benefits. It does cost to put in a virtual infrastructure; primarily the storage. Fibre channel is still “king” in the storage stakes, however, advances in ethernet technologies and a bit of planning in the implementation phase mean that iSCSI is a viable competitor (http://invurted.com/iscsi-vs-fibre-channel-storage-performance/). Of course, there are training considerations. Thankfully, the virtualisation platform is largely “fire and forget” technology. So apart from some familiarity with my chosen platform, there is little reason to touch it post-implementation.

Maybe I’m missing the point somewhere …

Minor Deviations

Adam — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 06:46:06 +0000

Okay, more than once I have deviated madly off topic in this blog, but this one is special, I promise.

Everyone loves Calvin and Hobbes, don’t they? If you’re not familiar with it:

Calvin and Hobbes was a syndicated comic strip written and illustrated by Bill Watterson, following the humorous antics of Calvin, an imaginative six-year old boy, and Hobbes, his energetic and sardonic stuffed tiger. The pair are named after John Calvin, a 16th-century French Reformation theologian, and Thomas Hobbes, a 17th-century English political philosopher. The strip was syndicated daily from November 18, 1985 to December 31, 1995. At its height, Calvin and Hobbes was featured in over 2,400 newspapers worldwide. As of the publication of The Complete Calvin and Hobbes, more than 30 million copies of the 17 Calvin and Hobbes books had been sold.

Set in the contemporary Midwestern United States in an unspecified suburban community, the broad themes of the strip deal with Calvin’s flights of fantasy and his friendship with Hobbes, his misadventures, his unique views on a diverse range of political and cultural issues and his relationships with the people in his life, especially his parents. The dual nature of Hobbes is also a recurring motif: Calvin sees Hobbes as a live anthropomorphic tiger, while other characters see him as a stuffed animal. Though the series does not mention specific political figures or current events, it does mention broad issues like environmentalism, public education, and the flaws of opinion polls.

That’s a LOT of comic books!

I have taken it upon myself to get all Calvin And Hobbes strips without duplicates. After only a few minutes research, here is the list I have discovered:

•The Essential Calvin and Hobbes
•The Authoritative Calvin and Hobbes
•The Indispensable Calvin and Hobbes
•Attack of the Deranged Mutant Killer Monster Snow Goons
•The Days are Just Packed
•Homicidal Psycho Jungle Cat
•There’s Treasure Everywhere
•It’s A Magical World

The other option, of course it to buy the Collected Works!

Kevin Rudd’s $900

Adam — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 11:57:50 +0000

Welcome to Australia where the government, in a effort to forestall a recession, decided to give everyone who paid their taxes last year up to AU$900.

So, let’s all say, “Thanks KRudd!!!” Email me your pictures (krudd@invurted.com) of what you spent your KRudd money on!

Yay, KRudd!!!

Time wasting

Adam — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 12:55:27 +0000

Since being made redundant (am I harping on this too much) I’ve relied on the internet to amuse me.

Hours of entertainment: http://flyingthaddeus.mybrute.com

Another revoltin’ development

Adam — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 13:23:07 +0000

In a turn up of a most unexpeted nature, everyone’s favourite virtual-oso has been struck by the Global Economic Crisis.

On Monday, at 9am I was called into a meeting with four of my peers and summarily dismissed on the spot. Talk about unexpected!

Still, I hold hope for a bright and promising future and would like to recognise the invaluable aid and support of my beautiful partner Rebecca and her wonderful son!

Update (of sorts)

Adam — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 22:33:54 +0000

It’s been a little while since I added anything of value. Regrettably, real life keeps getting in the way. Moving house, buying a new house (if the auction goes well on Saturday). To top it all off, I missed the first round of the AFL! Probably for the best as Collingwood lost at the hands of the evil Adelaide Crows!

Invurted goes mobile!

Adam — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 11:19:17 +0000

Great news! You can now get invurted.com on your mobile phone! All the Vmware tutorials and Cisco practices can be seen on most devices that support mobile internet. iPhones, Springs, my crappy Nokia all available without letting anyone know you read it!

Proudly brought to you by http://invurted.com and http://mobilepress.co.za/ … because we love you.

Merry Xmas

Adam — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 14:00:41 +0000

Well, it’s been a big year. For me personally, it’s seen some pretty serious develpoment in my interest in things virtual; specifically, Vmware.

It’s also seen the departure of some colleagues to greener fields. Many were valued sounding boards for my insane ramblings. Thankfully, there are still a few left who I prize and who’s opinions and inputs are valued still.

There have been some very interesting developments on the personal front and I have learnt a hell of a lot about myself and other people.

Through it all, the backing of my family and my dearest friends has kept me going when I thought I would give up and go become a carpenter.

So here’s to the end of one year and a bright and promising future ahead.

“May you live in interesting times!!”

Save the Internet

Adam — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 22:01:19 +0000

Hi,

Did you know the Government is proposing an internet censorship scheme that goes further than any other democracy in the world?

I’ve just signed a petition to prevent the scheme that will make the internet up to 87% slower, more expensive, accidentally block up to one in 12 legitimate sites, will miss the vast majority of inappropriate content and is very easily sidestepped. The government of the day may add any ‘unwanted’ site to a secret blacklist under the scheme.

Our Government should be doing all in its power to take Australia into the 21st century economy, and to protect our children. This proposed internet censorship does neither. Can you join me and take action on the net today to save the net?

http://www.getup.org.au/campaign/SaveTheNet/442

Thanks!

Vmware running scared!

Adam — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 01:04:06 +0000

With the release of the full version of Microsoft’s “bare metal hypervisor”, Hyper V, the first shots have been fired in what I wll coin “The Virtualisation Wars”.

A long time ago in a server room far, far away …

“Vmware I am your major share holder.”

And so on.

However, it appears that Vmware is already getting nervous about Microsoft. Despite their superior product, they are resorting to petty antics that are reminiscent of the school yard.

“Our initial finding is that Hyper-V Server is not “thin”; Hyper-V Server is still ultimately Windows. Hyper-V Server appears for the most part to be just Windows Server Hyper-V with Server Core where all other Server Core roles (except Hyper-V) have been disabled. Hyper-V Server has practically the same footprint as Windows Server Hyper-V with Server Core and is subject to the same patches, updates, attacks. It also appears to have the same restricting, indirect Windows-based driver model. In fact, it seems that the only advantage of Hyper-V Server is that one doesn’t have to buy a Windows Server license in order to deploy it – that’s it. Hyper-V Server is not “Windows-less”, but just “Windows License-less.”

Hyper-V Server also has some significant limitations that it seems to have inherited from the Standard Edition of Windows Server 2008. It can only support a maximum of 4 sockets per host, 32GB of physical memory per host, 31GB of virtual memory per VM, and requires a rip and replace upgrade to support features like Microsoft Clustering and Quick Migration. So it seems that Hyper-V Server is more of a starter kit, meant only for very basic use cases. In comparison, ESXi is a fully functional, production ready, enterprise offering. Actually, as 1) Both ESXi and Hyper-V Server are free and 2)Only free ESXi can easily be upgraded via license key to a production solution, why would anyone ever use Hyper-V Server? What’s the advantage?”

SOURCE: http://blogs.vmware.com/vmtn/2008/10/four-smart-new.html

Also: http://www.builderau.com.au/news/soa/VMware-Microsoft-has-no-car-/0,339028227,339292628,00.htm?feed=rss

Now, this isn’t a random posting on some wanker’s website (like your’s truly), instead this is on the VMTN blog. It seems to me that Vmware should be embracing this competition to prove the superiority of their products rather than resorting to (the equivalent of) petty name calling.

Hey, Vmware, do you remember Update 2?

“Just set your clocks back to before August 15th.” Great solution, guys …

Just focus on the business at hand and make a more productive use of the competition. Given the recent (dramatic) downturn in Vmware’s stock price (which I am convinced is just a natural adjustment given the emeregence of new competition), maybe they should be taking more of a look at themselves rather than focusing outwards.

Here endeth the sermon.

As an addendum, have a look at Vmware vs. the IDC! http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-10075385-92.html?part=rss&subj=news