Automate SSH Logins with expect (without keys)
Posted by James B. in Technology on February 8, 2010
You need to automate a task across many machines. You know the user name and password, but for some reason, either by policy or otherwise, you are not allowed to use PKI, or Public Key Infrastructure.
Well, not to give up hope just yet, because there is a nice little tool that is extremely powerful, yet not widely utilized. it’s called ‘expect’.
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VMware Virtual Center and vCenter Redundancy
Posted by James B. in Technology on February 8, 2010
Introduction
VMware Virtual Center (now called vCenter) is a critical piece of VMware’s Virtual Infrastructure Suite. If you use the VMware Virtual Infrastructure Suite, it is likely that you use Virtual Center / vCenter for ANYTHING related to management of your virtual infrastructure. Many of us have Virtual Center, SQL Server, and the VMware License server running all on a single server. We use VC to administer our guest VMs, check performance, configure high availability, load balancing, and so much more. But what if Virtual Center went down? What would happen to your Virtual Infrastructure and the entire critical guest VMs? Let us find out what would happen and then what you can do to keep VC as highly available as possible. Read the rest of this entry »
Google Issues Nexus One Software Update
Posted by James B. in Technology on February 4, 2010
Google announced on Tuesday it has issued an over-the-air free software update for users of its new Nexus One smartphone. The update will come via the telephone network instead of having to plug it into a computer and download the software.
In addition to adding several new features, Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) said it thinks the update released today for the Nexus One will address 3G connectivity issues some users reported last month. “We will provide a general fix to help improve 3G connectivity on some Nexus One phones,” the company said in a blog post.
Three key features of the update include a new version of Google Maps, the addition of the Google Goggles application and pinch-to-zoom functionality, a feature found in the iPhone.
With Google Goggles, users can snap a picture of something and have the device perform a search based on the image, so the user doesn’t have to type anything in. For example, a tourist could take a shot of a well-known landmark and get back relevant Web sites with more information on it.
The latest Google Maps 3.4 synchronizes starred items or favorite places from your phone or computer for easy access. The app now also includes search suggestions from a user’s personal maps history if they’ve already been using Google Maps. Version 3.4 also includes “Night mode” navigation, automatically changing the screen color and brightness for easier viewing when driving at night.
The update is being rolled out now and Nexus One users will receive a message notifying them of its availability. Google said the update is being rolled out gradually to avoid congestion, so some users might not get the notification until the end of this week.
SSDs in Enterprise Applications
Posted by James B. in Technology on February 3, 2010
Flashed-based solid-state drives (SSDs) are becoming a big issue for enterprise storage users; a number of customers I work with are planning for this new “tier 0″ data storage for a number of reasons. It could be as simple as IOPS per watt, IOPS per dollar, or for some applications, bandwidth per GB/sec of storage. Read the rest of this entry »
PC-over-IP Remote Display Technology: The Inner Workings of VMware View 4
Posted by James B. in Technology on February 2, 2010
VMware recently announced that the release of VMware View 4 is slated for later this month which will include a new display protocol called PC-over-IP (PCoIP), which should greatly enhance the user experience.
What is PCoIP?
PCoIP is a relatively new technology developed by a company called Teradici that VMware has chosen to partner with to use this technology in VMware View. Teradici has developed a breakthrough innovation in display compression and propagation over LAN and WAN networks that uses hardware chips on both the host and remote to offload the compression overhead. Read the rest of this entry »