Us it Manager: virtual machines will comprehensively promote Enterprise Linux applications

Javier Soltero, CEO of Hyperic in San Francisco, said virtual machines are driving factors for Enterprise Linux applications and will be the primary driver, therefore, it is correct to use it as the topic of LinuxWorld Conference & Expo. He also said that server reinforcement and virtual tools will guide users through Linux, which provides a simpler and easier-to-use virtual platform than other operating systems.

Before LinuxWorld 2007, searchjavasiselinux.com interviewed Soltero. In the interview, he talked about the impact of virtual machines on Linux and system management and the management of hybrid operating systems and virtual machines. Hyperic is headquartered in San Francisco. at LinuxWorld this year, they will discuss questions about winning new customers and present their open-source IT management suite called Hyperic HQ. Hyperic has recently integrated their application programming interfaces with open-source software such as JBoss and MySQl.

SearchEnterpriseLinux.com: What are the impacts of virtual machines on Linux applications and what are the impacts?

Javier Soltero: virtual machines are the technology or technology trend most likely to affect Enterprise Linux applications. The application of virtual machines to the data center is only for this year, so this impact is just the beginning. With the passage of time, this effect will certainly become greater and greater.

There are two main reasons for this. One is to reinforce the servers of existing applications so that these applications can run in a more streamlined and virtualized Linux data center. Second, the impact of virtual tools built on Linux, namely virtual tools running on virtualization technology, such as XenSource and VMware.

XenSource-BKJIA pattern that currently dominates the Linux virtualization Field

All virtual tools are built using Linux as the operating system, and Linux is efficient and lightweight enough to allow it to be embedded into multiple virtual machines. Virtual tools are completely new types of software release media. 99% of virtual tools will run on Linux, which is due to cost and authorization for re-release.

SearchEnterpriseLinux.com: what is the impact of virtual machines on System Management?

Javier Soltero: virtual machines cause division of workload, which may lead to uncontrolled expansion in the data center. This is because it is easy to virtualize a bunch of software (we had to put it on a physical machine before), which may inspire us to install more applications and support components in the operating system, all these things need to be managed. In the past, when we were running an application in the data center, it was very likely that we would need to set up one or more physical devices, but now this obstacle was cleared by virtual machines.

This is a challenge for system management because all system management solutions have been used to help users achieve virtualization so far, but they do not deal with the consequences of the virtualization environment.

The ability to place 10 servers on one virtual server is a success in cooling, energy, and ground space, but not necessarily in terms of performance and reliability. If only the system monitor program you selected tells you that 10 VMS run well on your four-way VMware ESX Server, this does not mean that these VMS run well. You need to monitor and manage physical hosts, virtual layers, visitor planes, and their applications. Without such monitoring information and monitoring capabilities, it is difficult for users to evaluate the efficiency of virtual machines.

SearchEnterpriseLinux.com: Have you ever encountered an IT merchant with problem records, archives, and virtual machine tracking?

Javier Soltero: Yes, we have encountered this, including our own data center. VMware Tools use their VirtualCenter to centralize the management of virtual machines and virtual infrastructure, which is of great help to us. But what is lacking is tracking the applications running inside different virtual machines. This leads to the problem I mentioned earlier.

When there are too many incentives for us to blindly Virtualize as many virtual machines as possible, it is very difficult to prevent expansion in a virtualized environment. Whether it is virtual or not, this requires a balance of Service-level business needs to drive applications.

Searchpipeline iselinux.com: Based on your experience, what is the worst problem for IT managers when managing multi-platform environments?

Javier Soltero: The biggest problem is the lack of experts who manage heterogeneous environments. For historical reasons, people are often trained as Unix/Linux administrators or Windows administrators. However, tools used in both environments are very difficult to use. Few developers have overcome the technical and market challenges of developing heterogeneous management tools.

The knowledge of application developers who can run on both platforms is also an important factor. The publishing and maintenance modes of Windows applications (servers or others) are different from those of Unix. Therefore, it is hard to imagine that two different skills can be unified.

Searchpipeline iselinux.com: how do it managers solve these problems?

Javier Soltero: Java is undoubtedly an important bridge across these two kinds of differences, because running Java removes the heavy lifting of tasks that span Unix and Windows environments. Unfortunately, Microsoft has always held a dominant attitude towards software development, leading to a low level of cross-platform and server-side Java application development. Fortunately, this trend has begun to change.

SearchEnterpriseLinux.com: Which Open Source options are available?

Javier Soltero: lack of management options. In history, open-source management technology is often created from an open-source environment and serves an open-source environment. A good monitoring project Nagios cannot run on Windows. Monitoring on Windows requires a lot of work, but this is what Windows users do not want to experience.

　

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