Posted on Wed, Jul 27, 2011
iLo stands for integrated lights out; it's an intelligent remote management processor that is integrated into many HP ProLiant servers. It provides a virtual presence and you get complete control of your server remotely. iLO features include simplified setup, group configuration, remote power on/off, Secure Socket Layer (SSL) security, server status alerts emailed to you, virtual indicators, and diagnostics.
First, I would recommend that you look up the right iLo setup for your needs. HP, for instance, sells different versions for different users and system setups. There are basic versions as well as advanced versions. With some Google time, you should be able to find an iLo table from your server brand. For more information, feel free to Contact Us.
Dennis Foote - Systems Engineer
Give Us a Call 617-731-6319 and Ask a Professional IT Support Technician Any Questions You May Have!
Sincerely, Terminal We Serve All of Greater Boston and Cambridge, MA
Posted on Wed, Jun 15, 2011
Converting physical PCs into VM machines is starting to become part of normal life for technicians. There are a couple tools out there that I have come across to help you along if you are a novice user so you too can enjoy the utilization of all your hardware resources.
First is Microsoft’s disk2VHD. This software is very easy to use and creates VHDs that will work with Microsoft’s virtual machines. I have used this to create virtual machines for Microsoft’s Hyper-V and it worked very well.
The next is from VMware which is called VMware Vcenter Converter. This will give you an array of options. Whether you want to create the VM machine across a network or turn a local machine that you are sitting in front of into a virtual machine, this software will do the trick. It’s very user friendly and has plenty of help guides on VMware’s website.
Dennis Foote - Systems Engineer
Give Us a Call 617-731-6319 and Ask a Professional IT Support Technician Any Questions You May Have!
Sincerely, Terminal We Serve All of Greater Boston and Cambridge, MA
Posted on Thu, May 26, 2011
Virtualization is a hot topic these days. While VMWare is considered to be the top software for virtualization, it also comes with a sky high price tag. The other two major vendors in virtualization technology, Citrix and Microsoft, have very competitive offerings, often for a good savings.
In particular, Microsoft has recently begun to release their Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 product for free. This is a major move on the part of Microsoft to try to encourage the industry to try their Hyper-V virtualization technology and compare it to their competition. In our experience here at Terminal, it is definitely worth a try, whether you're currently using competing virtualization products or considering virtualization in your infrastructure. Hyper-V is a very robust and well-performing product. While it may not perform as well as VMWare in the large enterprise environment, it is more than capable of handling anything thrown at it in the small and medium business market. That coupled with being entirely free make Microsoft's Hyper-V an almost unbeatable deal.
The one downside to Microsoft Hyper-V has been the ease of management. Unlike Citrix or VMWare, if you install a Microsoft Hyper-V server, you are not able to actually manage that server from its own keyboard and monitor. Instead, you need a second server or workstation to connect over the network to the Hyper-V server. This is often tedious, impractical, or costly and has been a major reason people have not given Microsoft's Hyper-V much of a chance.
However, new software released by vtTechnology finally helps Hyper-V overcome this limitation. The software, known as vtCommander, installs directly onto the free version of Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 and allows the server to be managed directly from the server console. This eliminates all the headaches and hurdles associated with getting Hyper-V up and running and makes it, in our opinion, by far the best virtualization option for small and medium businesses. The cost of vtCommander? A mere $100. Terminal has been so thrilled by vtTechnology's groundbreaking software, we've partnered with them to help bring their benefits to all our customers.
If you're interested in seeing how virtualization can improve your business agility and cost you virtually nothing, Contact Us today.
Brian St. Marie - Sr. Systems Engineer
Give Us a Call 617-731-6319 and Ask a Professional IT Support Technician Any Questions You May Have!
Sincerely, Terminal We Serve All of Greater Boston and Cambridge, MA
Posted on Mon, Mar 14, 2011
Like many people, you've probably seen products and services talking about "the Cloud" for a year or more. But what is the Cloud? Most people understand that when they buy a product or service in the Cloud, that means its somewhere "out there" on the internet; somewhere they don't have to worry about it disappearing or going down. But what makes something a Cloud service? Does this mean all companies will someday have all their services hosted out on the internet somewhere? What about companies concerned about security or centralized management? Is the Cloud not right for them?
In fact, the concept of the Cloud applies to all types of companies, and many companies are already using Cloud services without even realizing it. If you've followed our blog, you may have seen Dennis' post on Virtualization some time ago. Virtualization is a driving technology behind the Cloud. Virtualization allows software to run without depending on the particulars of hardware; in the industry, we call this "hardware agnostic." For instance, an email server may be set up with all your employee mailboxes and years of email history. What happens if that server crashes? Maybe you can fix it, then restore all your data and rebuild it, but during all that time, your employees will be without their email. With virtualization, the email server runs independently of the server hardware. In fact, the entire operating system, data, and configuration information is basically just a file which can be copied and pasted onto a completely different server, without even interrupting service. What this means is that if server hardware fails, it's literally no more difficult than to copy and paste to get the email server software back up and running on new hardware somewhere else. And this can be automated so that if the server fails, another copy of the email server is up and running in an instant, so the end user never notices a thing.
This ability to move software around freely is what enables the Cloud to be so robust. By making services independent of the hardware on which they run, that software can be moved around without the people using the service ever knowing. This lends itself very well to internet-based services, but cloud computing can also be used internally. By setting up groups of servers known as server farms, a company can create their own cloud for internal servers, ensuring their software stays up and running regardless of what may happen to any individual hardware servers. This allows companies to offer more robust services to their user base, ensuring more productive and happy employees.
In addition, cloud computing means you no longer have to be tied to one software server installation for each hardware server. Virtualization allows more than one software server to run on a single hardware server, sharing the resources between them. This means companies can easily create new software servers and offer new services to their employees without investing in additional expensive server hardware. This also saves on server room space and electricity and has allowed many enterprises to drastically scale down their hardware investment through server consolidation.
This also means small companies can create their own Cloud, even if they have only a single server. By running multiple software servers on a single hardware server, small companies can maximize their return on investment, getting the absolute most out of any server hardware purchase. And with only two hardware servers, a small company can ensure that even if one of those hardware servers fail, all their software servers can be shifted to run on the working hardware server, ensuring their users are never interrupted.
Whether you are an enterprise consolidating your server hardware, or a small company looking to make virtualization or cloud technologies work for you, Contact Us and Terminal will be glad to help.
Brian St. Marie - Sr. Systems Engineer
Give Us a Call 617-731-6319 and Ask a Professional IT Support Technician Any Questions You May Have!
Sincerely, Terminal We Serve All of Greater Boston and Cambridge, MA
Posted on Thu, Dec 23, 2010
Boston IT Services
Boston IT Services Describes What Virtualization Is
I have been using VMware and Hyper-V for some time and there is no better time to blog about it then when a fresh project comes out of the oven.
So, what is virtualization? Virtualization (or a virtual machine) is pretty much software that allows you to put another PC on your current PC. If you have a physical PC and you would like to add a PC to your office or home, you can simply add a virtual PC on your existing PC. This will cut down on cost and extra hardware to trip over.
When does virtualization make sense for you? Say you would like to buy a new PC and you want Windows 7 but you still have some applications that are not compatible with it, or maybe you have two PCs running two different operating systems (perhaps Windows on one and Linux on the other). In this case you can set up a virtual PC on the Windows PC and install any other operating system you may want. This would allow you to switch back and forth as you please without having to boot another PC or own any other hardware.
Over the last two weeks, I have been working with a client that was using a KVM switch to work between two computers. When doing this, the downside is that the client can only utilize some of the power from one PC and some of the power from the other. With the power of virtualization, I was able to take all the information from one PC (including the programs, settings, and all the documents using the virtual PC) and put them on the PC that the client mostly uses throughout the day. The client can then seamlessly open the second PC while having the comfort of being on the mostly used one.
Virtualization is often being used these days for everything from servers to workstations to notebooks. Servers are great to use virtually, because almost 65% of the time you are not utilizing all of the resources of your server and can save when it comes to time, hardware, space, electricity and cooling cost.
There is a few different companies that are leading the race to the virtualization promised land - one being VMware and the other being Microsoft’s Hyper-V. They both have a user-friendly interface along with what seems to be a never-ending goal to keep up with the changing times; your hardware and software environments run smoothly. I recommend that if you have multible PCs and are not sure what would work best, do some research or hire someone like > ME< to see what your options are. You could end up over-paying for something that would pay for itself over time.
Dennis Foote – Systems Engineer - Boston IT Services
Give Us a Call 617-731-6319 and Ask a Professional IT Support Technician Any Questions You May Have!
Sincerely, Terminal We Serve All of Greater Boston and Cambridge, MA