Kenneth Hess

More Free Server Tools 6. IP Plan IP Plan is a little-known project that has potential in any size environment. It’s not a DNS service, but it is a web-based, IP tracking application. The reasoning behind a tool like IP Plan is that DNS tracks systems that are in use. But to whom do you […]

It’s not unusual to hear people talk about “religious wars” taking place among operating systems. Nowhere are the opposing factions more sanctimonious than in the Linux and Windows camps. The rivalry began as isolated skirmishes in the mid-1990s and escalated to all-out war when Windows Server 2008 and later Windows 7 were released. If you […]

6. File Transfers Using command-line scripting power (Windows, UNIX and Linux), you can perform automated file transfers between hosts. There’s no need to do them interactively. If you’re clever in your timing, you can set up elaborate automated schemes that not only transfer your files but also unzip, change permissions, move, copy and insert information […]

More on data center management If you’ve spent some time working in a contemporary data center, your mind might occasionally drift to the thought that Darwinism never made the great leap from plants and fish to data center designers. Design is supposed to evolve toward efficiency and order. Instead, it remains firmly cemented in the […]

No, you don’t need more servers in your data center, more racks or more anything. I’m referring to the Buckminster “Bucky” Fuller concept of doing more with less — and, no, you don’t have to construct your data center inside a geodesic dome to reap the benefits of his design genius. A data center is […]

With reduced budgets and fewer staff members to go around, wouldn’t it help if you had some way of leveraging those remaining employees for your entire data center? It’s rare to see a data center that hosts a single operating system within its racks and rarer still to have employees who can effectively manage the […]

More on data center management Data center management is painful enough without the pain of maintaining multiple tools. You have one tool for inventory, one tool for monitoring, one tool for storage and another tool for the network. You also have at least one tool for capacity planning. None of those tools handle virtual systems, […]

6. OpenSolaris OpenSolaris is the x86 version of Sun’s Solaris operating system. The two most exciting aspects of this operating system are that it runs on inexpensive x86 hardware and it contains all of the built-in enterprise components (virtualizationand ZFS) as the standard Solaris offering. OpenSolaris delivers next-generation computing technology, commercial support and a worldwide […]

6. Malware Viruses, trojan horses and spyware account for a large percentage of perceived performance bottlenecks. Users notoriously complain about the network, the application or their computer when nasties raise their ugly heads. Those performance killers can reside on one or more server systems, the user’s workstation, or a combination of the two. Malware infections […]

6. Applications won’t Migrate to Virtual Machines If your applications run today on a physical server, they’ll run on a virtual server. Red Hat is one company that guarantees successful physical to virtual migration for applications. Applications rarely connect directly to hardware resources in such a way that would make them unusable on a virtual […]

More on server virtualization Virtualization has an ever-growing worldwide fan base, but it is not without its detractors. Those who oppose server virtualization are quick to tick off a list “problems” with the technology. These 10 myths perpetuate suspicion and paranoia for those considering a switch to a virtual infrastructure. Some of these myths were […]

More on data center management When you hear the words, “performance bottleneck,” the typical hot spots that come to mind are CPU, Memory, Disk and Network. Those are good places to start looking for bottlenecks but they aren’t the only places performance problems can hide. This list targets six other potential leads for your investigation […]