Tech Talk

We recently made the purchase to upgrade our two blade enclosures to HP’s Flex-10 Ethernet technology and last week, with the help of a partner, we performed the install and upgrade of the Virtual Connect domain.

HP Virtual Connect Flex-10 allows an administrator to take a physical 10G connection and partition it into up to 4 more appropriately sized logical NICs presented to a server blade.  Virtual Connect Flex-10 incorporates all of the benefits of Virtual Connect (previously explained here) while allowing for additional logical NICs.  A Flex-10 Ethernet interconnect module with two onboard Flex-10 NICs on a blade will allow for 8 total NICs – something formerly only available if all 8 interconnect bays and the two mezzanine slots were populated with Ethernet modules.  This greatly reduces the amount of cabling required at the blade enclosure and condenses the amount of connections required.

The Flex-10 interconnect modules include SFP connectors which are capable of copper or fiber connections depending on the GBIC installed.

Upgrade Process
We expected going into the installation that we could need to recreate the Virtual Connect domain (a domain is the configuration, server profiles and settings for a Virtual Connect deployment on a specific enclosure or set of enclosures).  Since we only had 5 server blades installed and operating, we weren’t overly concerned.  Our primary concerns were to ensure that the same Virtual Connect MAC and WWID settings were reinstalled and that our recreated server profiles matched their MAC address and WWID settings from the prior installation.  So, to ensure we had all the information, we made printouts of the server profiles, Ethernet networks and fiber channel configuration and then proceeded to installing the modules.

We shutdown all of the existing blades from service.  We removed the existing VC-Ethernet modules from Bays 1 and 2 and we installed the new VC-Ethernet Flex-10 modules in these bays.  The VC-Eth modules in Bays 1 and 2 contain the domain configuration.  Once removed, the domain had to be completely recreated.  The new modules were at a higher firmware (2.12) versus the original modules (2.01).

What surprised us during installation was that we were able to successfully restore our original Virtual Connect domain configuration onto the Flex-10 modules.  Once restored, we were able to see all configuration and the only thing showing an error were the Ethernet networks and shared uplink sets.  These didn’t have any active ports assigned to the uplinks.  The new VC-Eth Flex 10 modules have a different port numbering to differentiate from the original VC-Eth modules.  After reassigning ports to the uplink sets, all of the Ethernet networks appeared to be back online.  The firmware differences didn’t appear to be a problem after initial restore.

After booting servers onto the enclosure (all are boot-from-SAN and booted fine), we determined that we were having some network connectivity issues.  After troubleshooting, we upgraded VC firmware on the modules.  This proceeded without problems, but upon reboot, the VC-Ethernet Flex-10 modules would not come back online.  After troubleshooting, we installed upgraded firmware on the enclosure.  The newer firmware on all seemed to resolve all issues and the enclosure was back online.  Final time to upgrade was around 5 hours, but much of that was waiting on Virtual Connect modules to reboot and wondering why they wouldn’t come back online.

Our second enclosure was expected to be a simple slam dunk after our largely successful and simple upgrade procedure — especially since we knew about firmware before on this round, but unexpected problems were there.  This enclosure had a mid-plane replacement early in its life and apparently there was confusion with the Virtual Connect domain and the enclosure serial number.  We received errors during restore and even after we forced the restore and upgraded firmware, the Ethernet networks never came back and responded.

This forced us into a recreate scenario.  After recreating this VC domain by hand, everything came online and worked as wanted.  I still believe that this is the cleaner way to handle the upgrade, although the restore worked on the first enclosure and presented very few problems.

Next…  Configuring Flex-10 FlexNICs

A taped, internal meeting with New York Times folks has made its way onto the internet and it has become the latest fodder for rumors of the fabled Apple tablet.  Gizmodo and others have posted the Vimeo video of an “all hands” meeting of New York Times staff which chronicles and outlines objectives to make the journalist field take the leap towards new media, eliminating the divide between the web and real-time journalism and print products.

Bill Keller, Executive Editor for the New York Times, is outlining a series of objectives which includes point 6:

We need to figure out the right journalistic product to deliver to mobile platforms and devices. I’m hoping we can get the newsroom more actively involved in the challenge of delivering our best journalism in the form of Times Reader, iPhone apps, WAP, or the impending Apple slate, or whatever comes after that.

This adds further fuel to rumors that Apple had reached out to publishers about an impending “new product.” If there is one thing Jobs and company understand well, it is that ever tool must have a killer application (not as in software, as in utility).  The New York Times is a pretty credible source who would most likely be high on Apple’s list of initial partners offering content for a device, if that is ultimately the “slate’s” killer application.

What is interesting to note about this video, is that it was information given during what appears to have been a confidential meeting for internal staff.  It doesn’t appear this information was ever intended for its current audience, and that may throw additional validity behind the reports.  I’m sure Keller was not worried about confidentiality and other matters when divulging the information.

Other rumors point that the device is being manufactured by FoxConn (not exactly a stretch – they manufacture a lot of Apple gear – including the iPhone) and that it is destined for a Q1 2010 launch.

My take on the matter is this:  I hope that Apple will target the device with a few unexpected uses.  Everyone expected Apple to make a phone with iPod features.  But what Apple surprised us all with is a fantastic, connected Internet device.  It has since expanded upon that initial success by offering third party applications leveraging its incredible APIs and hardware.    I hope that Apple will surprise with more than just a color screened, multitouch Kindle-killer device for replacing paper.

It has also been reported that Jobs wanted the device to be more than a potty-mate, offering more than just “surfing the Web in the bathroom.”  I can’t see offering newspapers and magazine content achieving that feat, so what could that killer feature really be?

Its been a few weeks and I now have a few friends populated in Google Wave.  When I first received my invite, it was me, myself and I – ok, that’s just one person – on Wave.  I had to turn to the in:public search option to find any waves to try out the service.

My friends and I have created a few waves and now that the novelty has worn off, I’m left with the question of where this fits?  Its not instant messaging, per say, and it is more collaborative, but I’ve found it frustrating (perhaps because of a lack of friends on Wave) to try and carry on a conversation with someone in Wave.

But, I recall being the same way with GMail when I first got access to its beta program.   Early on, I despised the conversation view I now love in GMail and I couldn’t understand why Google would launch a new chat – as if I needed another one.  But those things quickly became assets to the platform that Google was building.

Wave is largely a re-think platform.  It is exciting that it can be extended and built upon to bring new tools to the table.  The playback feature is a good one that allows for all the communication to happen on the server and be stored there.  It is a convergence for email and instant message.

What is great about the hosted message platform is it removes the need for transport – the biggest problem facing email today.  I think that moving forward, a hosted conversation may be a much better way of communicating, but at this point – its only hosted by a single provider.  The beauty of email is that everyone can host their own or outsource their email server.  And if one goes down, the rest of the system survives.  Its architecture is distinctly different than Wave.

But Wave offers the opportunity to define a secure and verified transport between Wave providers.  Google seems to be supporting this to become an open standard for the world to use – not a closed system which Google controls.

And while discussing transport, regulation has become a major issue facing email today.  From HIPPA to SOX, government regulation now dictates how information can be disseminated.  A newly architected platform over secure connections could provide a much needed alternative to the largely insecure email used today.

So there is a lot about the system which offers promise, but it is different animal all together.  I can see how this could converge into Google Docs and offer similar collaboration that word processing, spreadsheet and presentation documents offer in that silo.    I can also see how this could neatly fit as a secure email replacement.  I’m interested to see what other think or envision for Wave.

I’ve had a few posts stewing in the drafts folder here on the blog and I’m going to try and push a few of those out.  I can’t believe its almost been a month since my last post (ok, yes, I realize the Google Wave invite was not really a post).  I’m going to try and fill in a few gaps.

Overnight, I received my Google Wave invite.  So far, no one I know has a Wave account, I’ve sent out a few invites and hopefully later today, I can begin riding the Wave.  More soon…

Friday evening, at approximately 10pm, my iPhone fell and was badly injured. It’s face was cracked and looked terrible. Fortunately, it still responded and I could use it. Saturday, after checking, I was still under a long contract with AT&T, so no cheap replacement option there.

I knew from reading, that Apple was offering screen replacement services in Apple stores across the country, so I called up the closest store in Charleston, SC.  After talking with them there, the Apple worker confirmed and told me that the best way was to make an appointment online before driving the two hours and then I’d have a definite time slot to come in for my repair.

I made my way to the Apple store in Charleston’s website and in about 2 minutes had myself registered for an appointment that evening.  I can’t tell you how incredible it was to book an appointment and know that I could just walk in a few minutes early and someone would be with me quickly.  Its better than a doctor’s office — let alone an ER.   Doctors, dentists, ophthalmologists should really all take note and offer similiar services online – its not hard.

Walking into the store around 6pm that evening, I was told to see a woman in an orange shirt.  She then asked my name and with her iPhone, looked me up and changed the slider to notify the Apple Geniuses that I had arrived for my appointment.  My name was on the board with other customers who had upcoming appointments at the Genius bar.  How ingenious, you can see what order you are in the queue…  Doctors – take note!

Shortly after, I was called up to the bar and the Genius examined my iPhone.  Not only were they knowledgeable and professional, they were also NICE and joked, seeming to have a very good time working in the store.   I know from my few days in retail that if you promote a good attitude, many customers have one back to you – kudos to them.  Also, considering I was a nervous papa whose iPhone was broken, their upbeat attitude definitely inspired hope in me too.

The Genius helped me rule out an upgrade and possible resolution after checking my account through AT&T.  We moved on to screen replacement – the price $199 – I was more than willing to pay to get it fixed.  A lot of people say its a big cost to replace the glass, but in all honesty, I’m not sure its that big of a price to pay.   A new, non-contract reduced iPhone would run upwards of $500 or $600 and a cracked screen is out of warranty-type replacement, so $199 to me seemed fair.

The Genius took the phone, disappeared into a service room and re-emerged about 15 minutes later with my working, repaired iPhone.  A nice new protective cover around it and my family and I were ready to walk out of the store.

While all this was going on, my wife and daughter were busy playing Dora in the kids area on the iMacs setup there.  Looks like we’ve found a birthday present for her…  The whole experience took less than 45 minutes, including some additional shopping.  All said, I’m extremely pleased and once again my positive impressions of Apple are completely reinforced.

Well, I have finally gotten all my notes out from VMworld and posted on the site. I followed the conference with a family vacation on the West coast, so my time to get these notes processed and posted was limited. I attended several additional sessions, but these were the best of the sessions I attended and ones where I felt like I got the most information from them. Hope that they may help you too…

Deja vu.  Well, almost.  I sat in on a simliar session last year and I wondered what has now changed with vSphere being available and what new expectations could be had for virtualizing Exchange and I found answers.  First of all, as the speaker put it – VMware has eaten their own dogfood and virtualized Exchange 2007 for their internal consumption.  With approximately 55,000 mailboxes, that is an impressive feat itself.

Beyond internal consumption, all data points to Exchange evolving into a better workload to run within virtualization.  Much of that can probably be attributed to Microsoft’s own virtualization technology, but Exchange on ESX benefits just the same.  Performance gains out of ESX 4 make for a good combination with the improved I/O for Exchange 2007.   Initial data for Exchange 2010 continues the trend of making Exchange a better workload in general and making it more appropriate to virtualize. Read the rest of this entry »

HP’s Virtual Connect technology offerings are all about consolidation of network and fiber channel, much in the same way that blade chassis are to the physical server offerings.  Virtual Connect allows for fewer physical connections to be shared and flexibly assigned to blades within an HP BladeSystem.   I have been using this technology for going on a couple years and I can say,  it works great.  Virtual Connect is also about flexibility and options.  The technology buys the ability to create a profile for a server with virtual MAC and WWID and have those move with the profile from blade server to blade server and have the blade boot on different hardware quickly.  We employ that functionality as a semi-disaster recovery for quick recovery if we lose a blade server due to a hardware problem.

Virtual Connect is about consolidation by reducing the number of physical connections required.  From the fiber channel modules, two 4-port VC-Fiber modules connect an entire chassis to the fabric, and then using NPIV, the fiber channel traffic is sent to individual blade servers within the chassis.  The 16 blade slots all share the 4 ports of each VC module. Read the rest of this entry »

The new Home Sharing feature in iTunes 9 finally bridges the gap for homes, like mine, with multiple instance of iTunes, multiple iPods/iPhones and those of us who like to keep our libraries in sync as we purchase more and more content through iTunes.  So, what is the feature and how does it work?

Home Sharing works very similiar to the sharing features of earlier versions of iTunes, actually showing up in the same area of the iTunes interface.  Home Sharing, however, goes a step further.  By registering your iTunes with a specific iTunes Store account, other computers on your same network with the same account get access to pull music from each other – actually copying and keeping your libraries in sync.

Home Sharing also allows you to quickly and easily see what content in a shared library is missing from your library.  Once the home share is established and the list of content is populated, a drop down menu in the bottom of the app allows you to change the view to see only content missing from your library.  What’s futher, you can actually navigate the home share like your local library and limit the view to just music, movies, TV shows, etc. and then apply the ‘what’s missing’ view.

Taking it a step forward, you are also able to automatically sync music from other home shares to your library.  Some might ask why you’d want to do that…  Take this example.  At home, we have an iMac that serves as our master library.  We try to keep everything we buy there.  The iMac syncs to our Apple TV – so we want all our content there to be able to play it for parties or while we’re around the house.  We’ve enabled the automatic sync for music to pull all content from other home shares into this library.

I have privately hoped that Apple might enable this sort of functionality to turn the Apple TV into a digital hub and add the ability to make it a “master” library for iTunes, so the home sharing technology certainly gives me hope that this may come to pass.  I like the idea of having a smaller, headless device serve as my primary library.  But, until that time, we keep the iMac running 24×7 and so that works too.  Now, what about adding Back to My Mac functionality to iTunes so that we can get our home shares from anywhere on the Internet?  I like where this could go…