Test104-certification pass

Cisco Announces New Valet, Linksys 802.11n Wireless Routers

2010-05-31T23:49:00.000-07:00

Here’s the resources: http://www.test104.com/en/misc/all.asp

Today, Cisco announced two new 802.11n wireless router lines that aim to make home wireless networking easier and more accessible.

The Valet ($100) is intended for the wireless networking neophyte; instead of configuring a few dozen settings through a complicated Web-based interface, you can use the Cisco Connect software on the included Easy Setup Key USB flash drive to get a secure wireless network with Internet access up within five minutes. Once your network is up, simply plug the Easy Setup Key in each additional PC to configure them to use the Wi-Fi network--no control panels or complicated passwords necessary.

Alternately, the Valet Plus ($150) gets you the same functionality as the Valet, plus 4 Gigabit Ethernet ports (instead of the Valet's 10/100 Ethernet ports) and an extra antenna for better wireless coverage. The Valet product line also includes the Valet Connector ($70), a USB Wi-Fi dongle for older PCs that don't have Wi-Fi networking capability already.

The included Cisco Connect software also provides a few extra features besides basic network setup; you can set time- and content-based access limitations to prevent children and teenagers from accessing mature content, enable extra Safe Browsing security features to warn you about potential malware and viruses, and more.

More advanced users, however, will likely opt for the four new Linksys E-Series routers--all of which include the Cisco Connect software to simplify the setup process, though advanced network features are still accessible via the usual Web-based GUI configurator. The entry-level Linksys E1000 ($80) doesn't have any extras besides four 10/100 Ethernet ports for wired networking, but the E2000 ($120) upgrades those to Gigabit Ethernet and includes dual-band functionality, so you can use the 2.4GHz or 5GHz spectrum depending on which one has less interference in your area.

At the high end is the E3000 ($180), which includes a USB port for sharing external storage over your network and a UPnP media server for streaming media to your Xbox 360, PS3, or other compatible device.

The new Linksys lineup also includes the E2100L ($120), a wireless router that includes the USB port and UPnP features of the E3000 but only has 10/100 Ethernet (meaning slower wired transfers). Unlike the other new Linksys models, the E2100L is advertised as "utilizing the Linux Operating System for flexibility to customize the network".

While it's not yet clear how Linux is implemented in the E2100L, Linksys routers have long been popular with homebrew router firmware developers, so it's likely that the E2100L will cater to a do-it-yourself crowd.

Finally, there's a new Linksys-branded USB adapter for PCs which don't have 802.11n functionality--the Linksys AE1000 High Performance USB Adapter ($70) includes dual-band support as well as a USB extension cable to make it easier to move the antenna to a spot with a strong signal without having to move the whole laptop.

Both the new Valet and Linksys routers are available immediately.

For more news, please access http://www.test104.com/en/tech/

Adobe considers more frequent patch schedule

2010-05-31T23:44:00.000-07:00

Here’s the resources: http://www.test104.com/en/misc/all.asp

Adobe Systems is considering patching its applications more frequently after moving to a quarterly patching schedule for its Acrobat and Reader programs last year.

Brad Arkin, director for product security and privacy, was asked during a Microsoft security event in Redmond, Washington, earlier this week whether Adobe was considering a monthly rather than quarterly patch cycle. Adobe now patches Reader and Acrobat every three months on the same day Microsoft issues its monthly patches, on the second Tuesday of the month. Patches for other Adobe applications are issued on an as-needed basis.

"As for the patch cycle, this is something we are carefully evaluating in trying to provide the best possible solution for our customers," Adobe said in a statement. "We are taking all factors into consideration, including the cost of patch deployment in managed environments."

In June 2009, Adobe announced an aggressive program to beef up the security of its applications after hackers increasingly focused on finding vulnerabilities in its products.

Hackers used vulnerabilities in Acrobat and Reader to craft exploits that would give them remote control over a person's PC if they opened a PDF, which is one of the most widely used document formats. By crafting clever e-mails that appear to come from an acquaintance, hackers sought to trick users with unpatched applications or ones with existing vulnerabilities into opening the rigged files.

Adobe also said last year that it would undertake a comprehensive review of the legacy code in the applications, harden the code in applications, perform human code reviews and use "fuzzers," or tools that try to inject code into an application to see if it accepts data it shouldn't.

For more news, please access http://www.test104.com/en/tech/

VMware vSphere 4 best practices: A review of what's new for storage administrators

2010-05-31T00:45:00.000-07:00

Here’s the resources: http://www.test104.com/en/misc/all.asp

vSphere 4 is VMware's latest bare-metal hypervisor that is the successor to Virtual Infrastructure 3 (VI3) and includes more than 140 new features. vSphere competes with several other hypervisors including Microsoft's Hyper-V, Citrix's XenServer and Oracle's Oracle VM. This review of vSphere looks at some of the features in vSphere that are most important to data storage managers as well as best practices for vSphere.

vSphere 4 and different storage types

Data storage is critical to virtualization, and vSphere supports several different data storage types including local storage using SCSI, SAS or SATA drives; network-based storage using iSCSI or NFS; and more expensive Fibre Channel (FC) data storage. To take advantage of many of vSphere's advanced features like VMotion and high-availability (HA), you should use a shared storage device. Fortunately iSCSI and NFS are both supported and provide affordable solutions that perform well enough as alternatives to Fibre Channel for all but the most intensive disk I/O workloads. vSphere has a software iSCSI initiator and NFS client built right into it so connecting to iSCSI or NFS storage targets is simple to set up. Also, vSphere supports using hardware iSCSI initiators with TCP/IP offload engines to reduce the CPU overhead on the host.

In addition, vSphere uses a special high-performance cluster file system called Virtual Machine File System (VMFS) that allows concurrent access by multiple host servers. VMFS volumes take away the backend storage complexities from the virtual machines (VMs) by presenting a single unified storage volume to them. One of vSphere's best storage features is thin provisioning, which makes more efficient use of disk space by growing a virtual disk and blocks are written to it instead of allocating it all at once when it is created. This allows you to overcommit your storage and take advantage of the often un-used disk space inside a guest VM's operating system. Some additional storage-related features of vSphere include the following:

• Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) support
• Jumbo frame support for iSCSI and NFS
• Ability to hot extend virtual disks
• Ability to grow VMFS volumes
• Storage paravirtualization
• VMDirectPath for VM direct I/O access
• vStorage APIs

vSphere 4 and networking

The vSwitch is the heat of a virtual nework, and vSphere has several options you can use based on your requirements. The simple standard vSwitch is easy to use, and provides fault tolerance and load-balancing across NICs. For larger environments that have many hosts and vSwitches, the vNetwork Distributed Switch lets you create global vSwitches to configure multiple hosts instead of configuring each host sepearately. vSphere can also support third-party vSwitches. Cisco's Nexus 1000v is the first virtual switch with vSphere support. This allows for tighter integration between the physical and virtual networks. All vSwitches in vSphere support advanced features such as VLAN tagging, NIC teaming and layer two security policies. Some additional network-related features of vSphere include:

• Support for IPv6 networks
• Support for private VLANs
• Support for Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP)
• Support for network VMotion

vSphere 4 and high-availability

Virtualization is all about putting all your eggs in one basket, so maintaining high-availability is critical. If a single host fails, then all the VMs running on it will also fail, but vSphere includes features that can minimize or eliminate the amount of time that VMs are down due to a host failure. vSphere's high-availability feature allows VMs on shared storage to quickly be re-started on other hosts in the event that a host fails, minimizing downtime for the VMs. The fault tolerance (FT) feature takes this a step further and offers continuous availability by keeping a secondary VM on another host that is continuously updated in real-time using a Lockstep technique. This completely protects a virtual machine against a host hardware failure and results in zero downtime and data loss for the VM. While these features protect against unschuled hardware failures, there are also features that make planned maintenance easier. VMotion allows a running VM to move from one host to another on the same storage volume and Storage VMotion allows a running VM to move from one storage volume to another on the same host. These features let you perform maintenance on host hardware or storage devices without downtime.

vSphere 4 management

vSphere 4 also has tools for managing the virtual environment. The vSphere Client is a Windows application that serves as the primary management tool for vSphere. There is also a web user interface for managing virtual machines on ESX hosts (not ESXi) and command line management tools such as the vSphere CLI (vCLI) and the VMware Management Assistant (vMA). vCenter Server provides centralized management of hosts using the vSphere Client, and has features such as alarms, performance reporting, automation, and templates. Features such as high-availability, distributed resource scheduler (DRS) and VMotion require a vCenter Server. Multiple vCenter Servers can run in linked mode to provide centralized management of multiple virtual environments.

Ease of use

The vSphere hypervisor comes in two editions, ESX and ESXi. ESX has a larger footprint (1.7 GB) and a more complex Service Console that runs a full Linux OS. ESXi has a simpler management console, and smaller footprint (70 MB). As a result, ESXi can be installed in a few minutes and with almost no interaction. VMware also has a free service called VMware GO that helps users who are new to virtualization get up and running quickly. VMware's free Converter product and vCenter Server's Guide Consolidation feature also simplify virtualization by converting a physical server into virtual machines.

Security

vSphere is a controlled and secure environment, and the hypervisor has never been compromised. vSphere's security is due in part to a set of security APIs called VMsafe that allows third-party applications to have tight integration for providing even better security controls. vSphere also includes a product called vShield Zones that provides a virtual firewall and IDS that can be used to provide better protection for virtual machines.

Data backup and data protection

vSphere has several data backup and recovery features that come with it. For example, virtual machine snapshots can be used to roll back to a previous virtual machine state. This feature is useful when patching guests or installing applications, so you can easily recover from any problems that may result. vSphere also includes a product called VMware Data Recovery (VDR) that can perform backups of virtual machines to any disk storage device using inline deduplication and compression. In addition, the vSphere APIs for data protection allow third-party backup applications to have tight integration for backing up and replicating virtual machines.

Scalability

vSphere hosts and virtual machines scale well enough to allow almost any application or workload to be virtualized. With support for 1 TB of physical memory and 64 logical CPUs, vSphere hosts can support up to 256 running VMs per host. Plus, virtual machines can be assigned up to eight vCPUs and 255 GB of RAM to support even the most demanding applications. Using advanced memory techniques like transparent page sharing (TPS) and memory overcommitment, vSphere can allow more virtual machines to run with less physical resources.

Cost savings

Virtualization can help save money on power and cooling, but vSphere takes it even further with advanced features like Distributed Power Management (DPM) and Dynamic Voltage and Frequency Scaling (DVFS). DPM allows hosts to be automatically powered down and virtual machines migrated to other hosts during periods of low activity. When the resource demands increase, hosts are powered back on and VMs move back onto the hosts. DVFS allows host CPUs to dynamically change power states (p-states) when resource demands are low to reduce a host's energy consumption. CPU frequency and voltages are lowered and raised based on demand from virtual machines. When these two features are combined, it can help save money, especially in environments with regular extended periods of inactivity.

Extensibility

vSphere has many APIs and SDKs that developers can use to write applications for vSphere. There are also scripting languages available such as Javascript, Perl and PowerShell to automate tasks and help manage the virtual environment. This allows for many free tools and scripts to be developed that can be used in place of more expensive add-on software.

For more news, please access http://www.test104.com/en/tech/

SUSE Linux users nervous as Novell explores options

2010-05-31T00:42:00.000-07:00

Here’s the resources: http://www.test104.com/en/misc/all.asp

Novell reportedly put itself on the market last week, leaving SUSE Linux Enterprise users unsure about the fate of that open source operating system and other Novell products.

If the report in The Wall Street Journal is true, the bidding kicks off two months after Waltham, Mass-based Novell's board turned down Elliott Partners $2 billion buyout offer. At that time, Novell said the price was inadequate, and it would explore other options, including stock buy-backs, cash dividends and more alliances.

A Novell spokesman provided no comment.

In the mean time, Novell last week released SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 Service Pack 1.

Still, the questions around the vendor's prospects have SUSE Linux users wondering what will become of the products they built their infrastructure on.

David O'Berry, a consultant and CIO for South Carolina Department of Probation, became a Master Novell Certified Engineer in the 1990s and has watched the company struggle since then.

"Novell is getting very close to irrelevance," O'Berry said. "It's no longer the battleship it once was, and the company seems to be very confused right now. I'm frustrated at their lack of ability to execute on roadmaps and plans for the future."

O'Berry runs about 50 SUSE Linux servers said he was relieved when Novell turned down Elliot's offer, but worries about the integrity of other potential buyers.

"When you have a consortium of private investors or private equity firms looking at a technology company, you know they plan to tear it apart and suck the cash out. They don't care about the technology itself," O'Berry said. "I never thought I'd hear myself say this -- because I don't think the company that provides the needle should also provide the drugs - but someone like Microsoft or IBM needs to step in and take over."

Microsoft would be a logical suitor, he said, because the company already collaborates with Novell and SUSE Linux interoperates with Microsoft management offerings.

But other IT pros have given up on SUSE; O'Berry said he is one of the few he knows still using it in the field.

David Reynolds, IT manager with the Rhode Island Blood Center in Providence, uses Linux but hasn't used SUSE Linux since 2003 and he also worked with Novell's flagship Netware network operating system.

"[SUSE Linux is] a dying OS I'm afraid," Reynolds said. But, as a Linux fan, he wants someone to rescue Novell. "If someone can find value in Palm, there's hope for anyone I guess." (In late April, Hewlett Packard announced plans to buy Palm, the handheld device pioneer, for $1.2 billion.)

But, since Novell's legacy business has fallen on hard times , the SUSE business unit is its focus, so users shouldn't be nervous about losing it, said John Locke, President of the Seattle-based open source IT services firm Freelock Computing.

"While I really don't think SUSE is at risk, the other Linux desktop software projects might be," Locke said.

Novell is the steward of many Linux desktop applications, including Evolution, a Linux equivalent to Outlook; F-Spot, a photo manager; Tomboy, a sticky note application; Banshee, a music player/manager; and Mono, an open source implementation of the .NET platform.

It also offers the collaboration product GroupWise, which competes with Microsoft Exchange.

"Novell has done some tremendously important work in making desktop Linux as good as or better than Windows and Mac, as well as doing a lot to promote interoperability," Locke said. "I would hope whoever purchases Novell sees the importance of continuing to support these projects -- the entire Linux community benefits from this work, and it's largely paid for by the success of SUSE."

For more news, please access http://www.test104.com/en/tech/

The evolution of IT certification: broadened skill sets for converged infrastructures

2010-05-31T00:36:00.000-07:00

Here’s the resources: http://www.test104.com/en/misc/all.asp

The other day I had an opportunity to talk to Brian Beneda, the director of strategy and business development for the HP Certified Professional Program. Beneda shared his insight on the quiet evolution taking place within the HP certification program. Anyone who is responsible for hiring, managing or developing IT professionals should like HP's approach to broadening a person's technical skill set and knowledge.

To understand what HP is doing with its training and certification program, we need a little context about what is happening in general in the IT industry. Whether you call it "convergence," "service-oriented architecture," or simply the "collapsing" of the data center, there's a trend toward companies purchasing a much more integrated core set of servers, storage and networking solutions. This allows companies to move away from spending time and money on integrating separate silos of technologies and toward a flexible IT environment that is more responsive to business needs.

As CIOs contemplate this converged IT platform, they also have to look at the way their departments are organized today. Over the past decade or two, people have been put in silos to support specific technologies. For example, you have the server guys, the storage guys, the networking guys, the systems management guys, and so on. These people tend to have deep technical skills pertaining to their specific technologies, but only surface-level knowledge of the other technologies. CIOs need to rethink the way the organization is structured -- and the people are trained and skilled -- in order to create much more activity across the technology domains.

"As we talk to CIOs and the guys that are operating their data centers, they are very excited about the Converged Infrastructure from HP and what it can do, but they are starting to realize they've got a skills gap," Beneda says. "Typically there are three or four people in a large company that have the skills and knowledge to look across the data center today and are able to architect solutions or think about the evolution of their IT at a company level. They need some kind of training program and certification that is going to help them get deeper around how they can evolve their data center to take advantage of some of these new technologies."

The skills and knowledge that are required to operate in that integrated world are quite different from the typical product- or technology-specific training and certification programs available in the marketplace today, according to Beneda. "If the platform is moving toward merging networking, storage and servers, then the server guy needs to have a way to have some skills in the networking and storage space. These skills need to be much deeper than what they've had in the past because they are going to be integrated into that converged data center environment. The same is true with networking and storage guys. They need to broaden what they know. And from a systems management perspective, a person needs to be able to look at everything through a single pane of glass." In other words, companies need to have people with skills that are much more "integrated" to go along with the integrated technologies.

HP is evolving its training and certifications to enable both of those paths -- for the high-level architect who is looking across the data center, as well as for the individual who is deep in a technology domain (like storage) who needs to broaden his skill set into other technology areas.

HP is in the process of creating a high level certification for this data center/Converged Infrastructure architect. This will be a flagship certification in the IT industry, and the person who attains it will be very valuable to any organization because he will have the proven knowledge and skills to architect an enterprise IT platform that can adapt to rapidly changing business needs.

For the technology specialist, Beneda says that a "well-kept secret" is that HP already has cross-domain content in its training and certifications. "If you get a server certification from HP today, there's already embedded content pertaining to storage, networking and management. Our storage certifications require some server, operating system and networking knowledge to be able to enable storage networking technology. HP has actually done a pretty good job up to this point to make sure people have good solution skills. We have some opportunities to broaden this in the context of where the market is going and to enable the value of the people who hold those skills," Beneda says.

He adds that this isn't an enterprise-only play; many of the same market dynamics exist in the small-midsize business (SMB) space as well. "Think about how a small company gets IT support," Beneda says. "There's typically one guy who is the techie. He sets up the infrastructure and supports the PCs. This is the primary kind of resource that an SMB has. In addition, some functions might be outsourced to a local systems integrator. The individuals who are in-house as well as the people who provide outside service and support need an integrated skill set across the technology domains, and perhaps even more so because they deal with everything from printers to applications to VoIP. You need individuals with much broader skill sets across the entire domain in the SMB space."

Beneda says it is HP's intent to create skill sets, at enterprise and SMB levels, for people who operate consistently in a converged IT environment.

One of the first outward signs we'll see from HP will be more interaction with and within the HP Certified Professional community. "We want to be much more collaborative with our community," Beneda says. "Some of the best times that we have are when we get a group of ASEs in our product lab and generate some interaction between our product engineers and the people who are actually out in the field, working with these products every day -- designing solutions, integrating products, supporting them. Our product engineers love to get feedback from the people who are out there doing the job today."

"These forums have been extremely successful for us," Beneda adds. "HP Certified Professionals are able to impact product roadmaps, and there's a lot they can learn from the product engineers. It's a great dialogue. We've done a lot of these sessions in the past; our intention will be to do a lot more, and not only around an event or by bringing people in to our facilities, but also online. We've already started to do some of that and we want to broaden these efforts."

Another key area that HP will be targeting is students, specifically people in college who are pursuing an IT career. According to Beneda, "We're working on some partnerships right now in the academic space which will help students come into the job market with much more applicable skills, given where the industry is going [with convergence]."

Beneda invites everyone with a vested interest in HP certified skills to get involved in the evolution of the HP Certified Professional Program. "When HP creates new certifications, we invite CPs and partners from around the world who perform this job for a living to help us define the skills and knowledge required for certification. It's a great way for technical people to contribute to the direction of the certification program because they actually help us define the content that goes into the training and the tests. If they have an interest in that, they should send an e-mail with a resume and some background information on the kinds of work they do and the kinds of engagements they've had to their regional program office and express an interest in specific certification. Right now we're looking for input on the Converged Infrastructure certifications."

For more news, please access http://www.test104.com/en/tech/

Microsoft warns on Windows 7 upgrade tool

2010-05-28T00:25:00.000-07:00

Here’s the resources: http://www.test104.com/en/misc/all.asp

Parallels, known for using virtualization to solve consumer problems, thought it had a surefire new use for its technology.

Why not use the same approach it used to put Windows on a Mac to help ease the move from XP to Windows 7. The solution was elegant, helping users both make the move and even run older programs that weren't compatible with the new version of Windows. At first, the signs from Microsoft were encouraging; the company even invited Parallells to a Windows 7 momentum event in Paris to publicly talk about the program, Parallels Desktop Upgrade to Windows 7.

There was only one problem: the way the product works runs afoul of Microsoft's license rules, at least for most users. That's because the $50 software puts the user's old Windows XP system into a virtual machine, running alongside Windows 7, a concurrent use not allowed under most Windows licenses.

CNET raised the issue with both Microsoft and Parallels after learning about the product last month. Parallels said it is up to users to make sure they are in compliance with Redmond's terms. Microsoft, meanwhile, said it was talking with Parallels, but declined to publicly call out the company. Until now.

"Microsoft does not endorse moving the user's desktop from a physically loaded OS into a VM as a consumer solution, because the vast majority (more than 90 percent) of consumers do not license Windows under a license that would allow them to transfer Windows into a virtual machine, move Windows to a different machine, or run a secondary virtual machine that is not running XP Mode on the same machine," Microsoft's general manager, Gavriella Schuster, said in a statement to CNET. "Without these license rights, most consumers will not be properly licensing Windows when using the virtualization features of Parallels' product."

Schuster pointed out that enterprise customers with a Software Assurance contract covering Windows could properly use the software. Users who buy a full retail boxed copy of Windows (or possibly of both Windows XP and Windows 7), as opposed to the an upgrade version might also be properly licensed for the Parallels software.

For its part, Parallels continues to say it is up to users to make sure they are properly licensing Windows in conjunction with the upgrade tool.

"We require customers to verify they have the proper license," a Parallels representative said on Tuesday.

Microsoft suggested it is looking for a little more than that.

"Microsoft is working with Parallels to ensure that the Windows licensing requirements are made clear to customers in their product," Schuster said.

Despite the legal issues, Parallels' upgrade tool would appear to address an important need.

Although Windows 7 has proven popular, upgrading can be a hassle, requiring users to back up their data and programs, reinstall software, and then figure out what to do with programs that aren't compatible with the newer Windows.

A Parallels representative said on Tuesday that the product remains available for sale.

"It's out there," the representative said. "We're very excited about the product."

For more news, please access http://www.test104.com/en/tech/

Adobe patches 'critical' holes in Photoshop CS4

2010-05-28T00:22:00.000-07:00

Here’s the resources: http://www.test104.com/en/misc/all.asp

Photoshop users like to expand what the software can do by downloading new brushes, gradients, and color swatches, but the ability to make those additions also turns out to have been a potential avenue for attack.

Adobe Systems on Wednesday released a Photoshop 11.0.2 security update to its earlier CS4 version of Photoshop for both Windows and Mac OS X versions to close off that avenue.

"Critical vulnerabilities have been identified in Photoshop CS4 11.0.1 and earlier for Windows and Macintosh that could allow an attacker who successfully exploits these vulnerabilities to take control of the affected system. A malicious .ASL, .ABR, or .GRD file must be opened in Photoshop CS4 by the user for an attacker to be able to exploit these vulnerabilities," Adobe said in an advisory. ASL, ABR, and GRD files refer to swatches, brushes, and gradients, respectively.

The newly released Photoshop CS5 is not vulnerable, Adobe added.

For more news, please access http://www.test104.com/en/tech/

Google and VMware: Unlikely bedfellows?

2010-05-28T00:10:00.000-07:00

Here’s the resources: http://www.test104.com/en/misc/all.asp

Google and VMware jumped into bed this week, outlining a partnership that will allow Java developers to build applications on Google App Engine.

The news, unveiled during a keynote at Google's I/O conference, piqued the interest of some developers in attendance but many others couldn't wait to leave for the free snacks and soda.

The collaboration will allow Java developers to build and run Spring-based Java applications on Google App Engine. Perhaps it was the choice of demo material -- the two companies built an expense reporting app on stage -- that sent developers out in droves. What a snoozer!

Still, VMware and Google have something important in common. Both face increasing competition from Microsoft and with that in mind, the partnership makes sense.

Developers will be able to write apps using Java development tools VMware obtained through its acquistion of SpringSource (including the SpringSource Tool Suite and Spring Roo) as well as Google's Web Toolkit. These applications can be launched on Google App Engine for Business (a new, souped up version of App Engine with SSL security), or on any VMware vCloud service, or on VMforce, the previously announced Platform as a Service (PaaS) partnership between VMware and Salesforce.com.

"By working with VMware to bring cloud portability to the enterprise, we are making it easy for developers to deploy rich Java applications in the environments of their choice," said Vic Gundotra, Google vice president of developer platforms.

The idea behind application portability across clouds is a good one, especially when competing with the likes of the nascent Microsoft Azure cloud, as it offers developers more choice. However developers were not completely convinced it will work.

"How long will it take to export data from App Engine into VMforce?" said Matthew Heidemann, web developer and consultant for Parity Creative. "Each cloud has unique services, App Engine uses Google Big Table, you can't replicate that in a VMware private cloud; VMforce uses the Chatter APIs from Salesforce, these are not portable," he said.

Google-VMware cloud faces continued skepticism
Moreover, not all developers are convinced that cloud -- any cloud-- is the way to go for their business.

"It's important for us to have our infrastructure inhouse," said Marcel Lanz, senior developer at Auktionshaus-Zofingen, a Swiss online auction site built on Java. "If the internet fails our business goes down." The auction house does, however, use Amazon Cloudfront to distribute its catalogue. "There is less risk to our business if this is not available than the whole service going down," Lanz noted.

It's a classic example of how companies all over the world are figuring out which applications and data are safe to run in the cloud, versus those they will keep inhouse.

Parity Creative's Heidemann said he doesn't think companies are going to put their data in App Engine. "It's not PCI compliant, it's not HIPAA compliant, the security is not there," he said.

Others are more bullish.

The Google-VMware partnership "makes Java much more appealing," said Justin Fields, a Ruby developer at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego. He said he needs to be able to develop quickly and change direction fast and if Spring Java apps on Google App Engine would enable him that flexibility, "I'd be into it," he said.

Java developer Andrew Denyes, tech lead at Rhapsody International Inc. said the partnership definitely makes the Google toolkit more interesting. He also recently signed up with VMforce. "I'm not totally clear what we will do yet though," he said. "We're experimenting."

Analysts say the application development platform wars are reigniting; only now the infrastructure is in the cloud. "You can bet the Microsoft Azure team stood up and took notice today," said Jeffrey Hammond, principal analyst at Forrester Research.

Google/VMware and VMforce: Compare and contrast
Broadly speaking, VMware is trying to do three things with respect to cloud computing, according to VMware CTO Steve Herrod: It wants to help IT build private clouds; to enable "differentiated but compatible public clouds," and to provide management capabilities that bridge between the two.

Herrod said the Google/VMware joint initiative caters to a different set of users than VMforce. "This gets back to the "differentiated but compatible story," he said. Salesforce.com is a strong enterprise company, has a terrific customer database technology, and a huge customer base that wants to extend that database with custom applications.

"Google is a completely different story," Herrod said. "It's an extremely developer-focused cloud, and it integrates well with Google Docs and identities." Thus, VMware Spring applications that run on Google App Engine will likely have less of an enterprise focus than those running on VMforce.com.

But the two partnerships share a common thread. "As a developer I should be able to write my Java code and run it in my data center, or upload it to VMforce or Google App Engine," Herrod said. In the future, developers working in the Eclipse IDE will have the option to publish their Spring applications directly to Google App Engine.

Before VMware and SpringSource came around, both Salesforce.com and Google App Engine required developers to write in their own proprietary languages. "Paul Maritz refers to this as the Hotel California effect -- you can check in but you can never leave," Herrod said.

VMware's CEO, Paul Maritz addressed this directly during his keynote. VMware is creating an "open source layer to cloak the clouds," he said. "The more choice you give developers to deploy their technology, the greater the motivation and the greater the resulting apps."

For more news, please access http://www.test104.com/en/tech/

Newly Updated Resources (Microsoft, VMware, CCNP, CISCO, HP, VCP, Business Objects, BCMSN, BSCI)

2010-05-27T19:37:00.000-07:00

Here 's the resources http://www.test104.com/en/misc/all.asp

News

Members please take old CCNP exams before July. Check CCNP section of Product List for details.
Business Objects RDCR08201 Q&A 231 questions updated.
VMware VCP-410 Q&A 300 questions updated.
CISCO BCMSN 642-812 Q&A 335 questions updated.
HP HP0-066 Q&A 75 questions updated.
HP HP0-P20 Q&A 117 questions updated.
HP HP0-S26 Q&A 60 questions updated.
Microsoft 70-686 Q&A 96 questions updated.
Microsoft 70-685 Q&A 108 questions updated.
HP HP0-S25 Q&A 58 questions updated.
CISCO BSCI 642-901 Q&A 458 questions updated.

Recent Updates:

Business Objects RDCR08201 Q&A 231 questions updated. (2010/5/27)
VMware VCP-410 Q&A 300 questions updated. (2010/5/26)
CISCO BCMSN 642-812 Q&A 335 questions updated.(2010/5/26)
HP HP0-066 Q&A 75 questions updated.(2010/5/25)
HP HP0-P20 Q&A 117 questions updated. (2010/5/25)
HP HP0-S26 Q&A 60 questions updated.(2010/5/25)
Microsoft 70-686 Q&A 96 questions updated.(2010/5/24)
Microsoft 70-685 Q&A 108 questions updated.(2010/5/24)
HP HP0-S25 Q&A 58 questions updated.(2010/5/24)

New Demo

Business Objects RDCR08201
HP HP0-066
HP HP0-P20
HP HP0-S26
HP HP0-S25

For more details, please access http://www.test104.com/en/news/news.asp

What's driving investments in Windows servers?

2010-05-26T22:42:00.000-07:00

Here’s the resources: http://www.test104.com/en/misc/all.asp

Every organization makes periodic investments in new server hardware, and chances are that you have new servers budgeted for sometime this year. Across the industry, there's no question that the demand for Windows servers is the strongest that it's been in years.

For example, IDC reports that part of the uptick is due to stronger sales of x86 server hardware. The quarterly revenue for Q4 2009 hit $5.4 billion for Windows servers, representing over 41% of overall quarterly factory revenue -- that's huge.

But when you look past the sales figures, what factors are really driving the acquisition of new servers – especially platforms running a current operating system like Windows Server 2008 R2? The answer to that question might partly be found in current research such as TechTarget's Data Center Decisions survey for 2010, which gathered input from almost 1,000 IT professionals across a variety of roles, locations and vertical markets.

Infrastructure considerations

Respondents reported that most new server purchases in 2010 are related to data center infrastructure improvements. More than 43% chose new servers to enhance server virtualization capabilities, 26% sought better energy efficiency to manage power costs, and 25% want larger and more powerful servers to achieve better levels of hardware consolidation (reducing floor space demands). This is an important combination of factors that complement each other. For example, virtualization allows consolidation which reduces power and floor space, and in turn allows organizations to purchase fewer advanced servers.

Microsoft's development of Hyper-V (most notably with the release of Windows Server 2008 R2) has likely contributed to the emphasis on server virtualization capabilities. Current versions of Hyper-V make it easier to provision new virtual machines (VMs). It also supports live migration which eases workload balancing and server maintenance. Experts note that Windows Server 2008 R2 provides a licensing structure that readily supports the operating system on a number of virtual machines. In short, Windows Server 2008 editions can lower the cost to create and support VMs, allowing more Windows Server VMs to appear in the enterprise -- driving more data center growth.

"The reduction in technical complexity, the movement of spending from capital expenditures to operating expenditures, and the flexibility of the deployment are all significant," said Dave Sobel, CEO of Evolve Technologies, a solution provider headquartered in Fairfax, VA.

Growth in the data center

But the need for growth is not attributed to virtual machines alone. Data center growth also allows an organization to support more users and workloads more effectively. Over 43% of IT professionals reported server purchases to address normal increases in computing capacity, while 38% had needs geared toward handling new applications. Windows Server 2008 R2 deployments -- especially with Hyper-V -- have proven popular in organizations that are implementing new Microsoft server technologies like Exchange Server 2010, SharePoint 2010, and so on. Only about 10% of respondents bought new servers to build or extend their internal cloud computing efforts.

The intense competition that Microsoft brings to the virtualization market has put enormous pressure on other virtualization vendors. Experts report that even dedicated VMware customers are deploying new servers on Hyper-V because it's proving more cost-effective for them to do so. "Better technical support, better assistance…it just makes no sense for them to spend money (lots of money) for something that Microsoft provides out of the [Windows Server 2008 R2] box," said Rand Morimoto, president of Convergent Computing, a solution provider located in Oakland, CA.

Business needs

There is also an assortment of business-related factors that drive new server purchases. Over 40% of IT professionals acquire new servers to replace existing systems that are reaching end-of-life or coming off lease -- organizations can typically replace this aging hardware with more powerful systems with full warrantees. New servers usually ship with advanced management tools, and almost 14% of respondents note that new servers reduce administrative workload.

In terms of business needs, Windows Server deployments also appear to complement Windows 7 rollouts. Experts report that the move to Windows 7 typically involves the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) 2010, so organizations are deploying that toolkit on Windows 2008 R2 servers and upgrading Active Directory 2003 to Active Directory 2008 R2 to accommodate virtual servers. "Windows 7 rollouts are driving Windows 2008 R2 server and virtual server deployments," Morimoto said.

The tip of the iceberg

With many economic worries ending and support for Windows XP entering the last stages of its lifecycle, organizations are taking a fresh look at their IT roadmaps and justifying new server acquisitions. Windows Server 2008 R2 figures prominently in those plans, largely due to the native availability of Hyper-V and close coupling of Windows Server 2008 R2 to Windows 7. Even organizations that don't currently use virtualization will have the tools in place to deploy that technology in the future.

For more news, please access http://www.test104.com/en/tech/

Pros and cons of the DACPAC with SQL Server 2008 R2

2010-05-26T22:39:00.000-07:00

Here’s the resources: http://www.test104.com/en/misc/all.asp

Microsoft has combined SQL Server 2008 R2 and Visual Studio 2010 to give us a new feature called data-tier applications, or DACs. Deployment of DACs from Visual Studio into SQL Server is done through a data-tier application package, also known as a DACPAC.

The good

DACPACs are great for small shops that are deploying minor application changes to SQL Server. It allows the code to be kept within the existing source control and gives developers an easy way to edit SQL Server objects from within the already familiar Visual Studio environment. This means that developers can work against their development database for all their coding, and then package up all the changes into a single DACPAC for release to production. The DACPAC can also be handed off to a DBA for release into a production or quality assurance (QA) environment.

The DACPAC handles versioning of the database through data-tier editing, providing the developer with an easy way to use the database editing system. The .NET developer has the ability to edit the tables, procedures, views, and functions of the database.

The bad

Data-tier applications have a few issues in this first release. The first problem is that not all features of the SQL Server engine are supported by DACPACs. This includes the SQL Server Service Broker, CLR Objects, and most importantly, SQL Server security.

Now all these features can be supported by using a post-release script. This is not the best solution, however, as developers need to know all the appropriate T-SQL commands in order to create and manage the objects and security.

Currently DACPACs can only be pushed to SQL Server 2008 R2, and they must be developed using Visual Studio 2010.

The ugly

The biggest problem with DACPACs has to do with the way a data-tier application is released to push version changes from the DAC into SQL Server. This is done by creating a new database with a temporary name, generating the new objects in the database, and then moving all the data from the existing database to the new one. After all the data has been transferred and the post-release scripts run, the existing database is dropped and the new database is given the correct name.

This release technique causes the database to require at least twice as much data space as it is in size, as well as enough log space to hold at least the largest object within the transaction log of the destination database. For example, if your database is 5 GB in size with the largest table being 500 MB, you will need room on the disk to hold both 5 GB databases with enough space for the transaction log to hold the entire 500 MB table.

There are a few problems with this technique. First of all, your transaction logs become useless. This is because the database is being renamed and you can’t restore the transaction logs over the course of the database upgrade.

Another problem is created if you are using SQL Server Service Broker within your database, as any messages that were in queue during the upgrade process will be lost. The same goes for any data changes made to tables after the release but before it’s completed; they will be lost as well.

Now you can make a DACPAC out of an existing database so it doesn’t need to be used for only new projects, but not all databases can be successfully turned into DACPACs. As of this writing, if you try to turn the sample database pubs into a DACPAC (a database which has been around since the days of SQL 6.x), you’ll get an error from Visual Studio when it tries to create the DACPAC.

OK, so why use data-tier applications?

After reading all of this, the first question is probably going to be, why use DACPACs? The answer here is simple -- SQL Azure. As you may have noticed, the features that are supported by DACPACs line up with the features that SQL Azure Database supports in its current version. Because of the small amount of data that can be fit into a database through Azure (1 GB or 10 GB as of this writing, depending on the database size you have purchased) this release technique will probably work OK. With SQL Azure, you don’t have to worry about backups since they are handled through the redundancy of the solution.

While data-tier applications were designed for SQL Azure Database, they are perfectly capable of being used against your local in-house databases -- provided you are able to work within the limits of the DACPAC platform.

Because of the release technique used by the DACPAC system, it is recommended that you not use DACPACs for your Tier 1 applications or apps larger than the 10 GB database size supported by SQL Azure. Doing so will require longer downtimes during upgrades as the data is moved between the old and new databases.

Obviously Microsoft hasn’t made any announcements about DACPAC version 2, which will hopefully support the rest of the SQL Server 2008 R2 feature set and allow DACPACs to be released to older versions of Microsoft SQL Server.

For more news, please access http://www.test104.com/en/tech/

What's next for Windows Server and beyond?

2010-05-26T22:32:00.000-07:00

Here’s the resources: http://www.test104.com/en/misc/all.asp

You can tell spring is in the air -- the milder days and nights, the pollen, and a seasonal curiosity about what the future holds.

Well, maybe that last one is just me, but it's no coincidence that the arrival of spring marks, more or less, the midpoint between the launch of Windows Server 2008 R2 and the next big release for Windows Server; at least according to Microsoft's server roadmap, which has been publically announced many times at various conferences.

So this seems like a good time to take a step back and look at what's next for Windows, both on the server and the platform in general.

Windows 8 Server (or Windows Server 2011)

The next major release of Windows Server is expected in the ensuing 18 to 24 months.

We do know a little bit about the company's current plans for this "v.Next" release based on various job postings from the Microsoft career site. Specifically, new features appear to be centered on:

• cluster support
• support for one-way replication
• a reworking of the core engine to "provide dramatic performance improvements"
• file access in branch offices (these features of supposedly "revolutionary")

In this age of big data centers and environmental concerns, it 's safe to bet that Windows Server v.Next will include optimizations to use less power, park more hardware components when not in use (core parking on a processor is already supported in Windows Server 2008 R2), and emphasize a reduction in the "grid load" from clients. How? By moving more intelligent functions to a server. Enhancements to Remote Desktop Services, virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) components, and so on would all speak to that goal.

Separately, we might expect that the void between the home-user networks (served by Windows Home Server) and up to 50-user small business networks (served by Small Business Server) might be filled with a revision of Windows Server 2008 Foundation. Expect this Foundation SKU to include tighter integration with Microsoft's cloud services, such as Live Mesh, the Windows Live Wave, and both Exchange Online and SharePoint Online (the company's hosted options).

The overall platform

There will almost certainly be a Windows 8 Server, no matter what it's eventually called. But beyond that the roadmap is muddier, and Microsoft's vision across the company as a whole may or may not mesh well with its server business, depending on your point of view.

It's clear from Microsoft's latest actions and products that it eyes a move toward increasing the occurrences and workloads of cloud computing in enterprises large and small. You might be familiar with [Microsoft chief software architect] Ray Ozzie's "three screens and a cloud" idea: "So, moving forward, again I believe that the world some number of years from now in terms of how we consume IT is really shifting from a machine-centric viewpoint, to what we refer to as 'three screens and a cloud' -- the phone, the PC and the TV ultimately, and how we deliver value to them [via the cloud]."

Microsoft is also playing with deploying services accessible from anywhere via Windows Azure. It's not difficult to imagine that, in time, most of the local functions a Windows server provides could be hosted within a cloud-like infrastructure -- either a global cloud that's accessible to anyone (which evokes sort of a "DirectAccess version two" mindset) or through a private cloud. Why does a branch office need a server at all if it could eventually go out to an Azure-based private cloud, host within a datacenter local to the office, and still have everything managed centrally policy-wise by an enterprise IT team? With this model, you get the control of owning your own infrastructure without having to deal with the headaches of hardware.

On one hand, even if you're betting a platform on a cloud infrastructure, you still need a solid operating system with appropriate functionality and features to host that cloud. Windows Server can fit that bill -- and in some cases already does. On the other hand, is Microsoft making the server irrelevant to all but the largest enterprises? Does Windows Server as a product name and SKU have a long life ahead of it?

Only time will tell. We'll see where we are next spring.

For more news, please access http://www.test104.com/en/tech/

Businesses lag in moving away from IE6 and its vulnerabilities, study says

2010-05-26T00:24:00.000-07:00

Here’s the resources: http://www.test104.com/en/misc/all.asp

Microsoft's Internet Explorer continues to dominate corporate browser use more so than it does private use, with its nearest rival, Mozilla's Firefox, lagging far behind with one in seven businesses opting for it, according to data collected by Internet-based security service Zscaler.

Businesses are also more careless about upgrading IE than the general public with 27% still using IE6, which has known vulnerabilities, says Zscaler, including the one that led to the notorious Aurora attack against Google and other U.S. corporations in January.

The percentage using IE6 is dropping -- from 33% in January to 27% in March -- and Zscaler strongly recommends upgrading to IE8 for the 74% of companies that use that browser. Firefox lags behind with 10% of businesses using it, and Google Chrome comes in third with just over 2%. IE has worse penetration overall when non-business users are added to the mix, with its share dropping below 60%.

Zscaler's "State of the Web" report for Q1 2010 relies on statistics gathered by the company in providing security services to its customers. So its data depends the particular mix of companies it happens to have as customers and the sites they visit.
Its data found that the United States has the highest number and highest percentage of malicious Web sits visited by its customers during the first three months of this year. The United States hosted 68% of all the malicious Web sites visited, with German second with just under 4%. Of all the U.S. sites visited, 10.2% contained malicious software, the company says, with Honduras coming in second with 7.5%.

As part of its services, Zscaler blocks traffic deemed malicious. The single type of traffic most blocked is for fake antivirus software -- software that rubs out the symptoms of worms that act as if they have found victims' machines infected, then try to sell them the cure. Fake A/V accounted for 13.6% of all the traffic blocked, with Monkif coming in second at 4.4% and Zeus/Zbot coming in third with 2.4%.

Monkif is malware that downloads browser helper objects to compromise a system and display ads or gather browsing data about the machine. Zbot is a network that distribute the Zeus Trojan that steals personal data that enables criminals to steal passwords and compromise victims' accounts.

Zscaler says in its report that the Google's autonomous system -- its block of IP addresses -- is the source of 5% of all the traffic Zscaler blocks for its customers, the highest percentage for any autonomous system. A good number of these come from services supported by Google including Gmail, Google Groups, and Blogger pages.

For more news, please access http://www.test104.com/en/tech/

HP tops IBM in recovering server market, Gartner says

2010-05-26T00:19:00.000-07:00

Here’s the resources: http://www.test104.com/en/misc/all.asp

Hewlett-Packard knocked IBM from the top spot in worldwide server revenue during the first quarter, as the market for x86 systems picked up but sales of Unix and mainframe systems continued to decline, Gartner said on Tuesday.

Worldwide server revenue climbed 6 percent from a year earlier, to US$10.8 billion. Unit shipments climbed 23 percent to 2.1 million, meaning selling prices were generally lower.

The economy is on the mend and organizations are upgrading older servers, said Jeffrey Hewitt, research vice president at Gartner. New Xeon processors from Intel were an added impetus to buy new equipment, he said. But the industry hasn't returned yet to the quarterly highs it posted in 2008.

Revenue from servers based on x86 chips was $7.18 billion, up 32 percent, while unit shipments climbed to 2.06 million. Revenue from high-end RISC and Itanium-based servers declined by 27 percent, and the "other" category -- mostly mainframes -- declined by 15 percent.

The trend favored HP and Dell, who saw the biggest revenue gains during the quarter, and hurt Oracle especially.

HP's server revenue totaled $3.39 billion, up 15.9 percent year over year to give it 31.5 percent of the market. IBM's revenue dropped by 2.1 percent to $3.05 billion, giving it 28.4 percent. In third place was Dell, whose revenue grew by 35.5 percent to $1.67 billion, a 15.6 percent market share.

Oracle saw steep declines despite assuring customers that it will continue to invest in Sun's server business. Shipments dropped 29.5 percent year over year to 42,528 units, while revenue declined 38.7 percent to $598 million. Uncertainty continues to harm the business, but some buyers may also be waiting for new Ultrasparc processors, Hewitt said.

He's not writing off Oracle's hardware business yet, however; he noted that sales cycles on RISC servers are usually longer, and new chips are on the way.

For more news, please access http://www.test104.com/en/tech/

Cisco powers up router, switches for smart grids

2010-05-26T00:10:00.000-07:00

Here’s the resources: http://www.test104.com/en/misc/all.asp

Cisco this week is unveiling a switch and a router designed to help utilities construct IP-based infrastructures for power delivery, monitoring and control.

Cisco has said it expects the market for smart grid communications infrastructure to be $20 billion annually over five years.

The new products are the Connected Grid Router 2010 (CGR 2010) and Connected Grid Switch 2520 (CGR 2520). Both run Cisco's IOS software and are based on existing Cisco products for enterprise networks, but support power utility-specific standards and protocols, such as supervisory control and data acquisition, or SCADA.

The CGR 2010 is based on Cisco's Integrated Services Router, of which 8 million are installed. It features four slots for housing Gigabit Ethernet fiber or copper LAN and WAN interfaces.

The switch, the CGS 2520, comes in two four-slot versions: one sports 24 10/100BASE-TX ports and two Gigabit Ethernet uplinks; and the other features 16 Fast Ethernet SFP ports, eight 10/100BASE-TX and Power over Ethernet ports, and two Gigabit Ethernet uplinks. These switches are based on Cisco's Catalyst 2000 and 3000 series devices.

Two software images are available for the CGS 2520 -- one for Layer 2 services only and the other for Layer 3 IP services.
The products also support cybersecurity features to help utilities comply with North American Electric Reliability Corp. / Critical Infrastructure Protection standards. They include Cisco's Intrusion-Prevention System and Cisco Network Access Control capabilities, MPLS VPNs, firewalls, user/device identity and access control capability.

The products also adhere to IEEE 1613 and IEC61850-3 standards for utility substation environments, including the ability to withstand a broad range of temperatures, as well as extended protection against electrical surges and electromagnetic interference.

For network and power distribution management, both products are designed to capture and analyze information from multiple intelligent electronic devices in the substation. This helps utility operators identify, isolate, diagnose and, in some cases, automatically repair faults.

Citing industry research, Cisco says implementation of smart grid technologies could reduce carbon emissions globally by 12%.

Pricing for both products start at about $6,000. The router will be available in July while the switch will be available in August.

For more news, please access http://www.test104.com/en/tech/

Booting a Xen virtual machine from CD-ROM or DVD

2010-05-24T23:07:00.000-07:00

Here’s the resources: http://www.test104.com/en/misc/all.asp

If something goes wrong with one of your Xen virtual machines, you might want to boot it from the installation disk to run the rescue program. But, booting a Xen virtual machine from an optical disk is not that easy (you can't just connect the disk and expect the machine to boot). In this article you'll learn how to boot a Xen virtual machine from a disk. This tip applies to all Xen solutions that are using Linux as the VM host machine, and is not intended for Citrix XenServer.

In Xen environments, you can install virtual machines as paravirtual machines, or as full virtual machines. To boot a virtual machine from CD-ROM or DVD, it does matter how you installed it. Full virtual machines are a bit easier to boot from CD-ROM or DVD than paravirtual machines. The good news is that you can change the configuration of a paravirtual machine to have it boot from the optical disk anyway.

Paravirtual versus full virtual machines
The starting point to have your VM boot from the optical drive, is the virtual machine startup script. On a SUSE based Xen host, these are the scripts that you find in the /etc/xen/vm directory. In this article, we're talking about the "normal" scripts, not the XML scripts that you also find in this directory. Using these scripts, Xen tries to start a virtual machine. That means that it will initialize the virtual hardware and try to boot the operating system that is installed on the virtual hard disk. This applies to both paravirtual and full virtual machines.

There is a difference though in the way a full virtual machine boots, as compared to the way a paravirtual machine boots. The fact is that full virtual machines are easier to boot from CD-ROM or DVD. But if you just want to boot the virtual machine from an optical disk, it doesn't really matter if you start it as a full virtual machine or a paravirtual machine. The only thing that matters, is that you are able to access the virtual machine disk by booting the machine from the optical drive. To do this, it's enough to create a template virtual machine file and use that for all the virtual machines that you want to boot from the optical disk. The only thing you'll need to do with this template file, is to replace the VM specific items in it. The listing below shows what this template file could look like:

Tempalte VM file to boot virtual machines from optical drive

name="bootfromcd"
memory=1024
maxmem=4048
vcpus=1
on_poweroff="destroy"
on_reboot="restart"
on_crash="destroy"
localtime=1

builder="hvm"
device_model="/usr/lib/xen/bin/qemu-dm"
kernel="/usr/lib/xen/boot/hvmloader"
disk=[ 'REPLACE THIS WITH DISK SPECIFICATION FROM ORIGINAL FILE', ]
vif=[ 'REPLACE THIS WITH NETWORK CARD SPECIFICATION FROM ORIGINAL FILE', ]
boot="d"
stdvga=0
vnc=1
vncunused=1
apic=1
acpi=1
pae=1

serial="pty"

In the example template file there are a few things that you should be aware of. First, there are some generic options that specify how the VM is composed. These are all the lines up to the vmloader line, which specifies the hvm (hardware virtual machine) is used to load this virtual machine.

Following the generic lines, you can find two lines where the disk and network card of the virtual machine are defined. You have to make sure that at least the disk line contains the name of the discs as you are using them in the virtual machine that you are booting. That means, you'll first have the definition of the disk file itself, followed by the specification of the optical drive. The latter could look like phy:/dev/cdrom,xvdb for instance.

The last part in this configuration that you need to consider, is the boot line. Above, it states boot="d". This line is using drive letters as are used in a Windows environment to refer to the device that the VM should be booting from, so this example assumes that there is one virtual hard disk in the virtual machine. Change this according to the number of disks that really are used by your virtual machine.

After creating the template file in this way, you're ready to run the virtual machine and boot it from the optical drive. Before doing that, just make sure that it isn't currently active, as that might lead to conflicts in disk access. Once started from the optical disk, you can run any troubleshooting program you like from it. This should help you fixing whatever is broken in the VM.

For more news, please access http://www.test104.com/en/tech/

Google launches cloud storage; competes with Amazon S3

2010-05-24T23:03:00.000-07:00

Here’s the resources: http://www.test104.com/en/misc/all.asp

Google launches cloud storage, competes with Amazon S3
Google Storage for Developers offers 100 GB of storage space and 300 GB per month in data-transfer bandwidth for free; the offering competes directly with Amazon's cloud storage service Simple Storage Service (or S3).

Other features include the following:

• Secure Sockets Layer support
• Multiple authentication methods
• Access controls for sharing with individuals and groups
• Read-after-write data consistency support
• Web-based interface for storage management

Presently, the service is available only by invitation. In addition to initial fees, Google will reportedly charge through a utility-computing model -- that is, the more you use, the more you pay.

HP LoadRunner brings application performance testing to EC2
Hewlett-Packard Co. has brought performance testing to the cloud with HP LoadRunner in the Cloud, an application performance testing offering available via Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2).

HP LoadRunner in the Cloud enables businesses to do the following:

• protect the integrity of applications and website performance through more ubiquitous testing;
• increase agility for quicker response to unplanned, ad hoc situations with an on-demand, preinstalled performance testing application;
• take advantage of affordable, hourly rates

HP also offers Software as a Service (or SaaS) testing services, including the following:

• HP Elastic Test enables IT organizations to take advantage of cloud elasticity by instantly expanding testing capacity cost-effectively. Specifically designed for spike-load testing, HP Elastic Test provides the ability to scale up to very large loads in a utility-based fashion.
• HP Cloud Assure takes advantage of the speed, flexibility, scalability and cost-effectiveness of cloud services, testing and measuring security, performance, availability and cost control.

For more news, please access http://www.test104.com/en/tech/

Bugs and Fixes: Security Woes for Windows, McAfee, Firefox

2010-05-24T22:55:00.000-07:00

Here’s the resources: http://www.test104.com/en/misc/all.asp

The bugs keep marching in, with Microsoft, McAfee, and Mozilla all having to deal with serious security-related software problems in the past month.

Another Windows Fix

According to Microsoft, "two privately reported vulnerabilities in Windows Authenticode Verification...could allow remote code execution." In other words, an attacker could take control of your PC by exploiting either of those flaws. The intruder could gain administrator rights, with the ability to add, change, or delete practically any file.

Microsoft has issued an update that addresses the vulnerabilities by performing additional verification operations. This update is critical to all supported versions of Windows, including 98, XP, Vista, and 7, as well as Server 2003, 2008, 2008 R2, 2003, 2000, and 2000 Professional.

If you have automatic updates enabled (recommended), you'll get this update and others instantly. If you do not have automatic updating turned on, Microsoft suggests downloading critical updates manually; go to the Control Panel, click the Windows Update icon, and then select Check for Updates.

McAfee Update Makes Windows PCs Crash

McAfee released an update in mid-April that unfortunately caused Windows PCs to fail spectacularly. The update improperly identified a Windows component known as svchost.exe as a virus, which caused McAfee's software to delete it.

The error was so severe that 8000 of the 25,000 computers at the University of Michigan Health System and Medical School crashed, along with thousands of computers around the world.

Put simply, svchost.exe is a process that hosts other services used by various programs on your PC. If you look in Windows Task Manager, you may see quite a few svchost.exe processes running (under "Image Name"), and as you can imagine, attacking all of them could be catastrophic for any system.

The problematic update mostly affected users running Windows XP Service Pack 3. If it affected you, pick up McAfee's SuperDAT Remediation Tool to restore svchost.exe.

Firefox Flaw Corrected

A hole in the Mozilla Firefox Web browser has blossomed into a major flaw. A week after releasing Firefox 3.6.2, Mozilla released version 3.6.3 to address a critical security issue that could allow remote attackers to run commands of their choice.

To fix the bug, download Firefox 3.6.3, or click Help, Check for Updates, Get the New Version in the Firefox toolbar. Mozilla says the bug does not affect versions 3.5 or earlier.

If you still want to obtain and use add-ons that are not compatible with version 3.6, don't worry: Mozilla says that it will issue a patch for Firefox 3.5 in an upcoming release in case another method of exploiting this security hole exists.

For more news, please access http://www.test104.com/en/tech/

Juniper seeks to out-virtualize Cisco in data centers

2010-05-24T00:08:00.000-07:00

Here’s the resources: http://www.test104.com/en/misc/all.asp

Juniper Networks' announcement this week of switches and routers designed to flatten and simplify legacy networks is the latest sign that this company has no intention of backing off in the face of ever stiffer data center competition from Cisco, HP and others.

Juniper's rollout takes aim at Cisco's Nexus switches and other data center network wares, while setting the stage for Juniper's Project Stratus, a converged data center fabric unveiled in early 2009 but still another eight to 12 months away from delivery.

Juniper is trying to set itself apart by optimizing its product line around increasing use of virtualization technologies within the most compute- and networking-intensive sites.

"Virtualization levels the network playing field," says Yankee Group analyst Zeus Kerravala. "The vendor that solves that problem first has a huge upside."

The challenge for Juniper is that Cisco's been targeting virtualization from the networking side for several years, while server titans such as HP and IBM -- a Juniper partner in Stratus -- have been tackling it from the compute side even longer.Meanwhile, Brocade points out that it has been building data center fabrics with partners for years and that Juniper remains vague about how it will support legacy storage networks.

So Juniper needs to deliver sooner rather than later on the bold pronouncements it made this week, last fall at customer site New York Stock Exchange and over a year ago at the Stratus launch.

Early signs are promising. One example: Juniper beat Cisco in landing the NYSE account, a demanding environment in which latency cannot be tolerated when billions of stock market trades are executed daily.

Juniper, well known as the No. 2 vendor behind Cisco of routers to service providers, has been gaining steam in enterprise routers and switches as well. In enterprise routers, Juniper is No. 2 to Cisco, albeit a distant second, with 5% share of the $790 million worldwide market in the fourth quarter of 2009 compared to Cisco's 83%, according to Dell'Oro Group. HP/3Com was third at 3%.

In Ethernet switches, Juniper has steadily been building market share since entering the business in early 2008. Its share climbed from 0.3% in 2008 to 1.2% in 2009, according to Dell'Oro, allowing Juniper to surpass longtime player Enterasys and Blade Network Technologies, while catching up to Extreme Networks and Huawei. Cisco still has a hold on market leadership though, with about 70% share.

Juniper seeks to make more headway by addressing what it sees as a need for a new network architecture optimized for virtualized data centers -- an architecture that increases performance while reducing costs, and facilitates more server-to-server -- rather than switch-to-switch -- interaction. At the heart of this architecture is a reduction in the layers of networking in the data center, from three layers -- access, aggregation and core -- to two and then eventually to one, and that's exactly where Juniper is headed with its Project Stratus. Juniper says that $1 billion of the $4.8 billion spent on data center switching is for aggregation -- the layer Juniper seeks to extract.

"The legacy approach can no longer scale to support virtualization," Juniper CEO Kevin Johnson said during this week's Webcast announcement. "Fifty percent of the ports are talking to other network ports" vs. enabling server-to-server interaction, he said. "It's slow."

"It's clear to the industry that, because of server virtualization, a new network needs to emerge," says Cindy Borovick, a data center analyst at IDC. "[Juniper's announcement] is a reaffirmation of that, with proof points."

Specifically, Juniper this week announced products that can deliver a two-tier data center architecture this year: a 48-port 10G Ethernet top-of-rack switch, a 40-port 10G Ethernet module for the chassis-based EX 8200 core switch and an Ethernet router for interconnecting data centers with ASICs tuned for high-performance support of virtualization, server/storage/network convergence and lossless Ethernet.

ASICs and Junos software in all of the new products are designed to support FibreChannel-over-Ethernet (CoE) for storage/network convergence. Junos will have FCoE-specific hooks in it in the second half of this year, Juniper says.

Juniper says the top-of-rack EX 4500 has one-fifth of the latency and 22% lower cost than Cisco's Nexus 5000. The EX 4500 is also Converged Enhanced Ethernet (CEE) and Data Center Bridging (DCB) "capable," and 44% more power efficient than Cisco's Nexus 5000, Juniper says.

CEE and DCB are emerging technologies and standards for making Ethernet a lossless fabric for the data center, capable of supporting storage traffic -- such as FibreChannel -- for converged storage and server access.

Juniper also unveiled a 40-port 10G Ethernet line card for its EX 8200 core switch. This will position the 8200 as an end-of-row switch for aggregating multiple 10G links from servers and server switches.

The new router is the MX 80 3D Ethernet edge services router. It incorporates the Trio chipset Juniper unveiled last fall that's designed to dynamically and simultaneously support more subscribers, services and bandwidth.

The MX 3D is designed for virtual machine mobility between data centers interconnected by Ethernet Virtual Private LAN Services (VPLS). VPLS provides a single Layer 2 domain between these data centers, in effect providing the stitching in a cloud infrastructure.

This will compete with Cisco Overlay Transport Virtualization data center interconnect technology. Juniper also says the new MX 80 3D Ethernet router takes up half the power and space of Cisco's ASR 1004, while providing an eightfold improvement in performance.

Cisco declined to comment on the Juniper announcement.

But key to flattening the network architecture is Juniper's Virtual Chassis technology. Currently, Virtual Chassis allows as many as 10 of Juniper's fixed configuration EX switches to be connected into a virtual switch that supports hundreds of Gigabit Ethernet ports.

Ostensibly, this will alleviate the three-tier architecture requirement for an aggregation layer made up of several modular switches collecting links from switches in the server racks so that fatter and fewer pipes can run north and south into and out of the data center core. Virtual Chassis will be added to the EX 8200 line in the first half of 2011. It is also expected to be available on the EX 4500 in early 2011 and on the MX 80 3D in the second half of 2011.

Coincidentally, the first deliverable from Stratus will be in the first half of 2011. As Virtual Chassis spreads out across more of Juniper's product line, expect to see more tangible Stratus products and deliverables emerge. Stratus will essentially be a scaled-out Virtual Chassis architecture capable of supporting thousands of servers and flattening the EX and MX architecture to look like a single Ethernet routing switch.

But analysts expect Cisco to counter.

"Our checks suggest Cisco is working on its own Virtual Chassis technology to address Juniper's marketing edge," states Oppenheimer & Co. analyst Ittai Kidron in a bulletin on Juniper's announcement.

On the software and services side, Juniper unveiled four Junos Space applications. They are Virtual Control, Ethernet Design, Security Design and Services Insight.

Virtual Control includes integration with VMware to manage physical and virtual systems from a common orchestration platform; Ethernet Design and Security Design are intended to enable rapid configuration and deployment of data center networks and security policies; and Service Insight is designed to enable proactive detection, diagnosis and resolution of network issues.

Juniper says the new software and Trio ASICs are also designed to support FCoE, a storage encapsulation technology for converging storage-area network and LAN traffic on a single Ethernet infrastructure. Juniper says it will unveil a version of its Junos operating system software for FCoE in the second half of this year.

Juniper also rolled out software for its SRX Series Services Gateways that gives IT managers application and user visibility into traffic behaviors and changing data flows driven by virtualization, Web 2.0 and cloud services deployment. This new AppTrack software will be available later this quarter.

For more news, please access http://www.test104.com/en/tech/

Microsoft's private cloud release all about composite applications

2010-05-24T00:03:00.000-07:00

Here’s the resources: http://www.test104.com/en/misc/all.asp

Microsoft Thursday detailed two key pieces of its strategy for helping developers build applications for the Web and private cloud networks, with a heavy focus on using existing components to build composite applications and services.

Microsoft unveiled the Windows Server AppFabric release candidate, saying final availability will occur in June, while also announcing the first public beta for BizTalk Server 2010, which will be released to manufacturing in the third quarter of 2010.

Microsoft described its application infrastructure technology during a webcast in which the company stressed the benefits of bringing cloud-like capabilities to existing IT resources behind the firewall. But the approach also seems reminiscent of service-oriented architecture, a buzz-phrase that has fallen out of favor in an IT industry now obsessed with cloud computing.

In addition to building composite applications, one of the major goals of service-oriented architecture, Microsoft said AppFabric and BizTalk Server will allow composite apps to span from the enterprise to public cloud services, such as Windows Azure.

"What the composite application represents is a model where you will be able to take your existing IT assets, whether it's LOB (line of business) systems, or traditional packaged applications, and seamlessly stitch them together into a model that builds a set of distributed applications that seamlessly span your enterprise, as well as connect up to the broader Internet," said Abhay Parasnis, general manager of Microsoft's application server group.

Building composite applications will help ensure portability of applications, so developers won't be forced to rewrite applications to make them work in new cloud networks, he said.

For Web applications, AppFabric will perform caching, allowing high-speed access to and availability of application data, and will help developers build and manage services for composite apps, Microsoft says. AppFabric will be free to customers who have paid for Windows Server 2008 licenses.

BizTalk Server 2010, meanwhile, works with Windows Server AppFabric to enable developers "to more rapidly build composite applications that connect to disparate line-of-business systems through BizTalk Adapters and BizTalk Transformations from within .NET development environments," according to Microsoft. "This release also delivers simplified trading partner management tools, an enhanced BizTalk mapper that simplifies complex transactions, and a unified dashboard for backup and restore functions."

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Citrix stokes battle with VMware for cloud hosting market

2010-05-23T23:50:00.000-07:00

Here’s the resources: http://www.test104.com/en/misc/all.asp

Citrix unveiled new tools this week to help hosting/cloud providers sell practical, business-oriented cloud services such as DR and compliance to IT shops. The move stirs up the battle with VMware and open-source Xen for the cloud hosting market.

Citrix, which lags VMware in enterprise virtualization and Xen in public clouds, made its presence felt loudly this week at the Citrix Synergy bash here.

Jaws dropped during the keynote sessions when Lew Moorman, chief strategy officer and president of cloud services at Rackspace, said his company was moving off Xen and over to XenServer for better support. Rackspace is the second largest cloud provider after Amazon Web Services. AWS still runs on Xen.

Citrix claims 460 companies in its service provider program, while rival VMware touts over a thousand service providers for its vCloud initiative. Hosters at Synergy could care less about the numbers and many are playing in both camps. On the Xen front, Citrix is competing with itself, having bought open-source Xen a few years ago. Now it is trying to move users to XenServer.

"Some people like Ford, some people like Chevy," said Nathan Day, CTO of hosting company SoftLayer. "When companies move from internal to external services they want to stay with a common solution."

For that reason, SoftLayer remains agnostic; offering VMware, Citrix (XenServer) and Microsoft Hyper-V-based virtual servers. Companies new to virtualization and going straight for hosted virtual machines are opting for Citrix as it's "a much better price," Day said.

SoftLayer unveiled a service that uses the Citrix Cloud Solution for On-Demand Demos, allowing ISVs to stand-up fully isolated proof of concept (PoC) environments instantly without having to hassle the sales force, channel or customers with provisioning and configuring the PoC hardware and software. It's also working with Citrix on an onboarding cloud service that helps IT shops migrate existing apps and workloads into the cloud.

Hosting provider Terremark announced a cloud-based compliance service using Citrix technology. "Now we can provide our cloud computing customers even greater levels of compliance at a lower cost," said Marvin Wheeler, chief strategy officer at Terremark, in a statement.

Word at the show was Terremark joined the Citrix service provider camp as it needs a cheaper virtual server offering for customers.

"To be competitive it needs to offer virtual servers at a lower cost than the VMware license allows," said an attendee who preferred not to be named. Until now Terremark was the poster child for VMware vCloud services, and even took $20 million in funding from VMware to help build out its infrastructure. News that it's offering a compliance service based on Citrix must smart if you're one of the investors over at VMware.

"I was shocked to see Terremark in the Citrix camp," said SoftLayer's Day. "We'll see how that plays out." Terremark wasn't available for comment by press time.

Giovanni Escobar, an engineer with the San Francisco Housing Authority, said reliability and scalability are more important than the platform wars that vendors wage. That said, his organization is moving away from VMware and over to XenServer "to save money," he said.

Citrix Cloud Solutions: Xen or XenServer?
The new Citrix Cloud Solutions line includes seven configurations of tools, networking and virtualization technology to deliver a cloud environment for different uses. These include testing and development, virtual desktop provisioning, application service delivery, disaster recovery, compliance, on-demand demos and cloud on-boarding.

"We're reading more about [cloud] than we're actually doing," said Mark Templeton, president and CEO of Citrix, during his keynote presentation. This was because IT shops need more targeted capabilities aligned to specific workloads, such as application lifecycle management, migration and regulatory compliance, before they will jump into cloud services, he said.

Citrix' Cloud Solutions offerings are based on XenServer, rather than Xen, the latter being the traditional hypervisor of choice for service providers. However, the tide seems to be turning against Xen in the service provider community .

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BMC Software will add more SaaS products

2010-05-21T01:50:00.000-07:00

Here’s the resources: http://www.test104.com/en/misc/all.asp

BMC Software is planning to offer more versions of its software in the SaaS (software as a service) model in the next 12 months, as it is seeing growing customer demand for these services, an executive of the company said on Friday.

In January, BMC said that its Remedy IT Service Management (ITSM) Suite would be available to customers in a SaaS form. The company also tied up in November last year with enterprise cloud computing company, Salesforce.com to host and offer BMC Service Desk Express, a service desk application. Salesforce.com is offering the software from its Force.com cloud computing platform.

Some of the new SaaS services will be offered through Salesforce.com, while others will be offered directly by the company, said Paul Avenant , senior vice president of products and strategy for Enterprise Service Management at BMC.

The tie-up with Salesforce.com has given BMC access to a larger number of new customers, Avenant said.

Avenant did not disclose which other products would be offered by the company on a SaaS model.

A sub-set of new customers and its current customer base want to buy their software in a SaaS model, and BMC wants to be ready for this opportunity, he said.

A number of BMC's service-provider partners already deliver SaaS services around its software, Avenant said. While some of them will continue to offer their services, others have decided to resell BMC's own SaaS offerings and wrap other services around these offerings, he added.

BMC also sees a business opportunity from telecommunications service providers who are moving fast to offer SaaS services to increase their revenues. "They are trying to set up a new business to drive new revenue, and they are trying to get there first", Avenant said.

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HP speeds, simplifies cloud deployments

2010-05-21T01:46:00.000-07:00

Here’s the resources: http://www.test104.com/en/misc/all.asp

HP recently unveiled a product set designed to make it faster and simpler for IT managers to provision applications to either private or public cloud environments. HP Cloud Service Automation (CSA) can not only automate the deployment of applications to the cloud, but it can also optimize the applications for peak performance, the company says.

“By adopting strategic initiatives such as cloud, organizations hope to be able to quickly and easily add new functionality as required for greater innovation and competitive advantage,” said Cameron Haight, research vice president at Gartner, in an HP press release. “However, prospective users of cloud-based computing need to manage these resources from a lifecycle perspective to ensure that related costs and resource utilization do not negatively impact the ROI of the decision.”

HP suggests that CSA offers customers a faster time to value by speeding the delivery of business services and enabling the organization to more quickly react to changes in business demands. The solution set, which features software, services and third-party integrations, could also contribute to reduced costs, HP says, by reducing the time and effort associated with deploying and managing cloud resources. And lower risks are listed another benefit of adopting the CSA solution.

“Minimize risks associated with cloud initiatives by utilizing a proven set of best practices and planning services,” an HP press release reads. According to HP, IT managers using an automated approach to provisioning cloud applications and resources will benefit from consistent IT management processes, regardless of the environment.

HP CSA is part of a large portfolio of cloud-focused products from HP and also draws upon the vendor’s IT management software portfolio. According to HP’s strategy, customers should first plan and design their cloud efforts, then move into the ‘automate and manage’ phase of deployment (the stage in which CSA fits) and then assure that the cloud options chosen are appropriate for the business’ needs.

Industry watchers have determined that for cloud deployments to be cost-effective, they must take advantage of automation technologies, therefore freeing up IT operations managers from forever tweaking the resources and applications in the cloud.

“To realize the value of an internal cloud, not only do developers need autonomy, but your system administrators need to be free of extra work, such as determining the best placement of new workloads and optimizing the virtual pool to make room for more applications,” reads a Forrester Research report entitled “Deliver Cloud Benefits Inside Your Walls.” “These tools manage the pool of resources dedicated to the cloud by following high-level policies or guidelines set by IT ops. The less IT ops has to be involved in managing the cloud, the more cost effective it becomes.”

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Microsoft issues advisory for Windows display driver flaw

2010-05-21T01:28:00.000-07:00

Here’s the resources: http://www.test104.com/en/misc/all.asp

Microsoft has issued a security advisory, Tuesday, warning users of a publicly reported vulnerability in the Windows Canonical Display Driver, a Windows component used to handle graphics and DirectX drawing in games and other software programs.

The vulnerability affects Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 systems. So far, the biggest risk posed by the vulnerability is a potential to cause a system to crash and restart, Microsoft said.

"We've deduced so far that reliable exploit code is unlikely," wrote Jerry Bryant group manager of Microsoft response communications in the Microsoft Security Response Center Blog. "We're currently developing a security update for Windows that will address the vulnerability."

Microsoft engineers called successful exploitation of the display driver error tricky and said it cannot be exploited remotely. An attacker would need to write executable content to a specific space in kernel memory. Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR), a security feature enabled by default in Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008 and Windows 7, makes a successful exploitation even more difficult.

The engineers were able to successfully exploit the flaw locally on a Windows 7 64-bit computer with the Aero Glass theme enabled. They warned that there is potential for an attacker to exploit the vulnerability using a malicious image with a third-party image viewer.

As a workaround, Microsoft recommends temporarily disabling the Aero Glass theme.

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Newly Updated Resources (Microsoft, Win7, LPIC, CCDP, CCDA, CISCO, Oracle, CCNP, BCMSN)

2010-05-21T01:00:00.000-07:00

Here's the resources http://www.test104.com/en/misc/all.asp

News

Members please take CCNP exam before July. Check CCNP section of Product List for detail.
Microsoft 70-293 Q&A 153 questions updated.
CISCO Composite 642-892 Q&A 343 questions updated.
CISCO BCMSN 642-812 Q&A 376 questions updated.
CISCO CCDP 642-873 Q&A 227 questions updated.
CISCO CCDA 640-863 Q&A 133 questions updated.
Microsoft 70-568 Q&A 149 questions updated.
Oracle 1Z0-043 Q&A 217 questions updated.
Microsoft Win7 70-680 Q&A 193 questions updated.
LPIC 117-102 Q&A 126 questions updated.

Recent Updates:

Microsoft 70-293 Q&A 153 questions updated. (2010/5/20)
CISCO Composite 642-892 Q&A 343 questions updated. (2010/5/19)
CISCO BCMSN 642-812 Q&A 376 questions updated.(2010/5/19)
CISCO CCDP 642-873 Q&A 227 questions updated.(2010/5/18)
CISCO CCDA 640-863 Q&A 133 questions updated. (2010/5/18)
Microsoft 70-568 Q&A 149 questions updated.(2010/5/17)
Oracle 1Z0-043 Q&A 217 questions updated.(2010/5/17)
Microsoft Win7 70-680 Q&A 193 questions updated.(2010/5/16)
LPIC 117-102 Q&A 126 questions updated.(2010/5/15)

New Demo

Microsoft 70-293
CISCO 642-812
CISCO 642-873

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5 hot IT certification picks for 2010

2010-05-19T00:21:00.000-07:00

Here’s the resources: http://www.test104.com/en/misc/all.asp

Certifications have always been beneficial to IT job seekers, but lately there's increased emphasis on vendor- and technology-specific training as the economy begins to recover and companies look to plug talent holes in their IT organizations.

"There are great opportunities in technology, but there is increased competition for jobs," says Ray Kelly, CEO of certification provider Certiport. "I have never seen a time like today where there is such a focus on certifications."

Cisco, Microsoft certifications increase high-tech salaries

When the economy tanked, certifications became more important for IT pros who wanted to make themselves more employable.

"For the past couple of years, the economy has been challenging, but from a technical education standpoint it has been a positive market," says Fred Weiller, director of marketing for Learning@Cisco. "In pure volume, the foundation technologies such as routing and switching -- without which no network exists -- represent a huge amount of our certification portfolio."

These days, Cisco Certified Internetwork Experts see virtualization as the top networking investment area (cited by 67% of 970 CCIEs polled by Illuminas on behalf of Cisco). Another 64% say security and risk management will continue to be the networking skills in greatest demand -- an expectation echoed by Weiller.

Already, "professionals with 'cyber' on their resume can command a 20% salary premium as both the public and private sectors are becoming more aggressive in building their security talent pipeline," notes Thomas Silver, senior vice president at Dice. The high-tech job board listed more than 62,000 tech jobs available as of early April, about half of which are contract or part-time positions.

Determining the best IT certification to pursue depends on an individual's existing skill level, career goals and accessibility to training. Here we detail five of the hottest IT certifications for 2010.

1. VMware Certified Professional
The VMware Certified Professional (VCP) program, now available on vSphere 4 (VCP4), seems like a no-brainer. With virtualization technology growing within the majority of organizations, it is critical that the talent pool keep up with the technology. Yet recent research shows that enterprises are worried about a lack of expertise specific to virtualization. New skills need to be acquired for virtual systems, and new management and automation technologies must be introduced into the environment to truly reap the rewards of virtualization. According to Forrester Consulting, which interviewed 257 IT professionals on behalf of CA, "the proper skills for the future are difficult to attain and retain."

2. Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist
Microsoft continues to dominate most desktops in U.S. business. Its Windows operating system boasts more than 91% market share, according to March figures from Net Market Share, and Microsoft has seen accelerated interest in the latest revision, Windows 7.

"Microsoft continues to leave its computing fingerprints on most desktops," says Forrester Research analyst Sheri McLeish.

IT professionals who become a Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS) can prove their abilities around implementing, building, troubleshooting and debugging specific Microsoft technologies, such as a Windows operating system, Microsoft Exchange Server, Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft Visual Studio.

"In terms of training and certification, we have seen the fastest ramp up on Windows 7 than any technology in the past five years," says Chris Pirie, general manager of sales and marketing for Microsoft Learning. "We are anticipating a big wave of desktop refreshes and we will be having a new wave of Office software this summer. Certification is very hot for us right now."

3. Cisco Certified Architect
IT professionals with a few certifications under their belts could consider upgrading to what has been dubbed the Ph.D. in Cisco.

The network giant last year added to its educational roster with a new level of certification, the Cisco Certified Architect (CCAr). While Cisco boasts more than 20,000 CCIEs worldwide, the vendor decided to build another layer of expertise on top of its proven certification program. The CCAr requires applicants to already be certified as Cisco Certified Design Experts (CCDE) and have 10 years of experience. The training for CCAr would equip IT professionals with the C-level know-how and skills to prevent wasteful investments on technology and better align network projects with business goals, according to Cisco.

"One of the key things we are testing or investigating is the ability for a candidate to understand the business side and translate that into technology demands," Cisco's Weiller says. "The CCAr builds upon the CCDE program, which in itself is very much in demand. Networks have become very sophisticated and to be able to design and build a network that can adapt to changing needs and stand the test of time is critically important in making an individual successful in a networking career."

4. CompTIA Strata Green IT
While vendor-specific knowledge and foundational certifications seem a prerequisite for most jobs, IT professionals in 2010 should also consider amping up their vendor-neutral skills around technologies that continue to gain attention from high-tech as well as business leaders.

"From CompTIA's perspective, entry-level certifications such as the A+ and Network+ are going through the roof, and we are seeing double-digit growth in Security+ certifications," says Terry Erdle, senior vice president of skills certification at CompTIA (Computer Technology Industry Association).

Building on the basics, CompTIA just announced a new training track, green IT. CompTIA's Strata Green IT certificate is recommended for IT professionals with 18 months of technical experience and IT credentials such as CompTIA A+ or Server+, and the program is designed to show that a candidate is schooled in power management as well as virtualization techniques. The certification also includes training on developing and calculating ROI for green IT initiatives and knowledge of environmentally sound waste disposal techniques.

"We just launched the Strata Green IT certification to help build the funnel from the lower end to the higher end for people with advanced skills. The best thing we as a nonprofit in the IT industry can do is help fix the unemployment problem in the country, and we do that by adding such advanced skills training to address emerging employment needs," Erdle says.

5. ITIL v3 Foundations
For many, the goal this year is to streamline IT operations, adding automation where possible, while at the same time increasing services to users. The premise of overhauling the way IT works is outlined in the IT Infrastructure Library, or ITIL (Version 3 is currently being adopted).

With four levels of ITIL certification, IT professionals can prove they understand the principals around service life-cycle management and apply them to real-world environments. Companies seeking such expertise would likely desire a candidate who couples ITIL skills with security or other technical expertise. Considered more of a process-oriented area, ITIL can still deliver benefits such as improved availability, faster problem resolution and reduced costs due to streamlined processes.

"Whether you want to call them soft skills or business skills, IT professionals need communications skills, they need to be able to manage a project, and they need ITIL skills to show they understand the service lifecycle," Cisco's Weiller says. "Individuals need all these skills, not just technical skills."

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IBM updates iDataPlex server with GPUs

2010-05-19T00:13:00.000-07:00

Here’s the resources: http://www.test104.com/en/misc/all.asp

IBM on Tuesday updated its System x iDataPlex servers to include graphics processors from Nvidia as it tries bring high-performance capabilities to its scale-out servers.

The new servers are aimed at organizations that want to run scientific and commercial applications on graphics processors, which are faster at executing certain tasks than traditional CPUs, said David Turek, vice president of deep computing at IBM's Systems and Technology Group.

The organizations could include scientific labs run by governments or oil and gas exploration companies, where software is mostly developed internally from scratch, Turek said. By tuning elements of an application for purpose-built processors, it's possible to generate much faster execution speeds than with CPUs.

There is increased interest in hybrid computing systems that use graphics processors along with CPUs, with many companies preparing to deploy such systems, Turek said. Some of IBM's clients have been testing hybrid servers combining CPUs and GPUs over the last two years and are ready to put them into production, he said.

The iDataPlex dx360 M3 two-socket server will use Intel's Xeon processors and include Nvidia's Tesla M2050 GPUs.

The first iDataPlex servers were launched in 2008 and were pitched as an alternative to rack-mount servers for large, scale-out computing environments. IBM at the time said iDataPlex used up to 40 percent less energy while boosting computing power by up five times. Hewlett-Packard and Dell also sell such "hyperscale" computing systems.

iDataPlex was originally pitched as a foundation for cloud computing, said Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT. Adding graphics processors further differentiates iDataPlex, which is already one of the highest-performing blade-style systems out there, he said.

"This is evidence that IBM is seeing that architecture as being more flexible than a foundation for cloud computing," King said.

IBM in 2008 developed a hybrid Roadrunner supercomputer for Los Alamos National Laboratory. The hardware had combined dual-core AMD Opteron CPUs and IBM Cell processors, where algorithms were written in a way to break up computing jobs between the processors. The supercomputer provides more than a petaflop of performance, and was ranked the second fastest supercomputer according to the Top500 server list issued in November 2009 by Top500.org.

"What we're seeing here is a similar sort of division of labor," King said.

IBM did not detail performance improvements. However, Nvidia said that iDataPlex dx360 M3 systems with its GPU improved performance by up to 10 times compared to previous iDataPlex servers.

IBM chose Nvidia's GPUs for its servers because of expanding use of CUDA, a set of programming tools from Nvidia to develop and manage parallel task execution, Turek said. Another factor is the increased adoption of OpenCL as a standard to write applications that can be executed on GPUs. Companies including Intel, Apple, Advanced Micro Devices and Nvidia also back OpenCL.

IBM did not immediately provide information about pricing or availability for the server.

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Microsoft warns of bug in 64-bit Windows 7

2010-05-18T23:52:00.000-07:00

Here’s the resources: http://www.test104.com/en/misc/all.asp

Microsoft today warned users of a vulnerability in the 64-bit versions of Wndows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 that could be used to hijack systems.

The bug is in Windows' Canonical Display Driver, which blends the operating system's primary graphics interface, dubbed Graphics Device Interface (GDI), and DirectX to compose the desktop.

According to Jerry Bryant, a group manager with the Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC), the vulnerability affects any machine with the flashy "Aero" interface, which is the default on all but the least-expensive editions of Windows 7. Aero is an optional install on Windows Server 2008 R2.

"If exploited, it would likely cause the affected system to stop responding and restart," said Bryant in an entry on the MSRC blog . "Code execution, while possible in theory, would be very difficult due to memory randomization both in kernel memory and via Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR)."

However, ASLR, one of the bulwarks of Windows 7's and Vista's security defenses, has been repeatedly bypassed by researchers , including two who won $10,000 cash prizes at the noted Pwn2Own hacking contest in March.

Microsoft gave the bug an exploitability index rating of "3," the lowest of the company's three-step scoring system it uses to predict the likelihood of reliable attack code appearing in the next 30 days. According to that score, Microsoft believes it's unlikely hackers will come up with an exploit in the coming month.

"We're currently developing a security update for Windows that will address the vulnerability," promised Bryant, who did not set a timetable for a patch. In lieu of a fix, users can disable Aero to protect their machines.

Attackers could exploit the vulnerability by tricking users into visiting a malicious site that hosts a rigged image file, Microsoft's advisory warned .

But an attack may require more than that seemingly simple tactic, said Andrew Storms, director of security operations at nCircle Security. "I believe what Microsoft is saying [in the advisory] is that the image viewers from Microsoft won't trigger the vulnerability, but third-party applications may."

To disable Aero, users can click Start, select Control Panel, then click on "Appearance and Personalization," Microsoft said in the advisory. Under "Presentation," users would then click "Change the Theme" and then select one of the "Basic and High Contrast Themes."

Today's advisory is not the only vulnerability not yet patched by Microsoft. A flaw in SharePoint Server 2007 was acknowledged by the company late last month, but remains unfixed.

Microsoft's next security updates are slated for release June 8.

The company won't patch this latest vulnerability that fast, said Storms. "No way," he said via instant message when asked what chance Microsoft has to ready a fix in three weeks. "They are already saying it's difficult to reproduce, [so] it will be a low priority at the moment. But the info is public, so you can bet it's getting eyeballs and things can change rapidly."

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NetApp Hopes to Catch Virtualization, Cloud Computing Wave

2010-05-18T00:36:00.000-07:00

Here’s the resources: http://www.test104.com/en/misc/all.asp

The Pitch Having data in silos makes storage complex, says Manish Goel, NetApp's executive vice president of product operations. Goel says the company's software allows enterprises to manage different types of storage systems, such as network-attached storage (NAS) and fibre channel storage area networks (SANs), as a single infrastructure. NetApp bets that its approach will give it an edge as customers deploy virtual storage or move their data to cloud providers.

To better serve these customers, NetApp last year released Data OnTap 8, an operating system designed to make a company's storage platforms scale more easily to many petabytes while still being managed as a single system. With its planned acquisition of Bycast, NetApp is taking aim now at what it sees as a fast-growing market: multi-petabyte global repositories of unstructured data such as video. Bycast will bring technology that lets companies expand such repositories, as well as software for searching the data, Goel says.

The catch While NetApp has found a ready market in midsize companies, most large enterprises are heavily invested in SANs, which store data in blocks and typically connect to servers via fibre channel networks. NetApp offers fibre channel, but EMC, with roughly four times the revenue, dominates this lucrative market. Meanwhile, EMC has also made inroads into NetApp's own NAS territory. Last year, after NetApp made a deal to buy Data Domain, a maker of backup appliances that support data deduplication, EMC bid up the sale price until NetApp bowed out. Deduplication is popular for eliminating multiple copies of bits in different versions of stored files in order to ease the rapid growth of storage requirements.

NetApp already offers deduplication tools and says that the acquisition was intended to expand into a new market. But some analysts say NetApp's tools need improvement. It's not as effective as products by Data Domain or other vendors, says Taneja Group analyst Arun Taneja. "They need to have something very quickly, because EMC is enjoying a huge time advantage," Taneja says.

The score Other analysts, however, see NetApp leading a trend away from the relatively expensive, specialized SANs and toward iSCSI, a technology that uses IP-based networks to enable enterprises to link every storage device with every server. This approach is better suited to virtualization than SAN is because it allows storage to share the same network as other data center components, and it also uses less-expensive equipment, says Nemertes Research analyst Andreas Antonopoulos. The virtualization trend should play to NetApp's traditional strengths, he adds. "They were always the company of less-expensive, ubiquitous storage."

Goel says NetApp has rejected the approach of large vendors such as Hewlett-Packard and IBM to sell multiple data center components. Instead, NetApp plans to stay focused on storage, a strategy executives believe will help it to innovate. Like EMC, however, NetApp has formed partnerships with big data-center suppliers, including Cisco, VMware and Microsoft, to cement its place in this rapidly converging world.

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Juniper collapses the data center

2010-05-18T00:29:00.000-07:00

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Juniper Networks this week unveiled new switches, routers, software and services designed to help enterprise IT reduce the cost and complexity of data center networking while also improving application and business performance.

The new products and services address automation, virtualization and fabric technologies. Taken together, Juniper claims they can dramatically increase performance, while reducing operational time and cost by eliminating to need to acquire additional products to boost performance, and decreasing the number of switching "tiers" in a network.

10G Ethernet shakes net design to the core

Juniper is proposing a "3-2-1" data center network architecture designed to allow customers to flatten and simplify legacy data center networks. Juniper says its Virtual Chassis fabric technology, in which 10 Juniper fixed-configuration switches can be interconnected into a single "switch" supporting hundreds of Gigabit Ethernet ports, can reduce three layers to two today.

Juniper's Project Stratus can then collapse the infrastructure to one layer in the future.

"It's clear to the industry that, because of server virtualization, a new network needs to emerge," says Cindy Borovick, a data center analyst at IDC. "[Juniper's announcement] is a reaffirmation of that, with proof points."

The first deliverable from Project Stratus, a multiyear effort to develop a flat, converged data center fabric, will be in the first half of 2011, Juniper says. But for now, Juniper rolled out new routers and 10 Gigabit Ethernet switches designed to help flatten the network fabric to improve performance and decrease cost.

The switches include the EX 4500, a 48-port, top-of-rack 10G Ethernet switch that will support Virtual Chassis in a future release. Juniper says the 4500 is Converged Enhanced Ethernet and Data Center Bridging "capable," and 44% more power efficient than Cisco's Nexus 5000.

CEE and DCB are emerging technologies and standards for making Ethernet a lossless fabric for the data center, capable of supporting storage traffic -- such as FibreChannel -- for converged storage and server access.

Juniper also unveiled a 40-port 10G Ethernet line card for its EX 8200 core switch. This will position the 8200 as an end-of-row switch for aggregating multiple 10G links from servers and server switches.

The new router is the MX 80 3D Ethernet edge services router. It incorporates the Trio chipset Juniper unveiled last fall that's designed to dynamically and simultaneously support more subscribers, services and bandwidth.

The MX 3D is designed for virtual machine mobility between data centers interconnected by Ethernet Virtual Private LAN Services (VPLS). VPLS provides a single Layer 2 domain between these data centers, in effect providing the stitching in a cloud infrastructure.

This will compete with Cisco Overlay Transport Virtualization data center interconnect technology.

New software includes four JUNOS Space applications. They are Virtual Control, Ethernet Design, Security Design and Services Insight.

Virtual Control includes integration with VMware to manage physical and virtual systems from a common orchestration platform; Ethernet Design and Security Design are intended to enable rapid configuration and deployment of data center networks and security policies; and Service Insight is designed to enable proactive detection, diagnosis and resolution of network issues.

Juniper says the new software and Trio ASICs are also designed to support FibreChannel-over-Ethernet, a storage encapsulation technology designed to converge storage-area network and LAN traffic on a single Ethernet infrastructure. Juniper says it will unveil a version of its JUNOS operating system software for FCoE in the second half of this year.

Juniper also rolled out new software for its SRX Series Services Gateways that gives IT managers visibility into application and user traffic behaviors and changing data flows driven by virtualization, Web 2.0 and cloud services deployment. This new AppTrack software will be available later this quarter.

Juniper also announced that IBM has started shipping OEM versions of the SRX Series, and that Dell is on target to ship the OEM version of its SRX gateways and EX switches by early July.

Lastly, Juniper announced Juniper Care Plus, a new services portfolio designed to mitigate risk in network investments. Juniper Care Plus provides "high-touch" support, proactive automation tools, and services such as education, network consulting and account management. Juniper Care Plus is available through Juniper and its partners, including IBM.

The EX 4500 will be available later this quarter. The 40-port 10G module for the EX 8200 will allow the switch to support 640 10G ports per chassis. It will be available in the third quarter. Virtual Chassis capabilities for the EX 8200 line will be available in the first half of 2011.

The MX 80 3D is shipping now.

Virtual Control and Service Insight software will be available in the third quarter. Ethernet Design is available now. Security Design will be available later this quarter.

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Interop panel discusses future of data center network architecture

2010-05-18T00:12:00.000-07:00

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A day of reckoning is coming for data center network architecture. When exactly that day will arrive and what the network will look like when it gets here remain unclear. But change is coming.

In an ambitious session at Interop entitled "How the Network Must Fundamentally Change," a broad panel of vendors reached a shaky consensus. Data center network architecture should flatten. The days of the three- and four-tiered data center networks with Layer 2 and Layer 3 are entering their twilight years as enterprises begin to adopt data center network architectures based on Layer 2 with just edge and core switches.

Vendors see a few key drivers of this change. First on the list is virtualization. Enterprises want the ability to migrate virtual machines across networks and across data centers in order to enable dynamic resource allocation and disaster recovery, but leading virtual machine migration technologies like vMotion restrict migration to Layer 2 environments within a common VLAN. With restrictions like those, it is difficult to migrate virtual machines without adding a lot of complexity.

There are plenty of other reasons for flattening the network, according to the vendors on the Interop panel. The explosion of mobility is putting stresses on the scalability of networks. Networks are also extremely complex, which keeps operational costs high.

But mostly, moving packets up from the edge to the aggregation layer to the core and back down again is not the most efficient data center network architecture. Each hop on the network is costly and adds complexity.

"I started my career in ASIC engineering, and the most expensive operation for a chip to perform is to open up a packet and decide what to do with it -- look at the MAC address, the IP addresses, apply security, etc.," said Dhritiman Dasgupta, senior product marketing manager at Juniper Networks. "[In a multi-tiered data center network], you see how many times that operation is done from the access layer up to the core and back down again, repeating the operation every step of the way. Why do that? With all this repeatability and redundancy of operations, I'm not going to get the performance I want unless I can get rid of that."

Data center network architecture must be application aware

With this flattening of the network, networks also need to be more aligned with the applications that run across them, according to Paul Congdon, CTO of HP Networking.

"We spend way too much time in network devices trying to figure out what the application is trying to do," Congdon said. "We have to crack the packet open and figure out, 'Is this voice over IP? What is it?' Then we have to apply security settings, etc. It's incredibly inefficient to reverse engineer the packet like that. We need to get the application on the on-ramp of the network as early as possible and make the network as simple as a freeway system so we're not doing all this work on the fabric of the network."

This might mean, for instance, putting each application on its own virtual network interface card (NIC), Congdon said.

As vendors try to push a flatter data center network architecture, they will also deliver faster networks that are more converged. New standards will roll out in the coming year to deliver on both of these requirements, including 40/100 Gigabit Ethernet and converged enhanced Ethernet and data center bridging.

One set of standards for the new data center network architecture?

One IT pro at the Interop session said he is planning to expand his data center, but he's hesitant about whether he should move forward with flattened data center network architecture. After hearing the competing visions of network vendors, he fears that each of them is going in a different direction. To him, it sounds as if heterogeneous networks with multiple networking vendors won't be feasible in the future.

However, when panel moderator Jim Metzler, of consultancy Ashton, Metzler and Associates, asked the vendors on the panel if this were the case, they nearly all said that, despite their competing visions, they are building upon existing and future standards.

"Sometimes you have to clear the smoke to see what's behind the curtain," HP's Congdon said. "Behind a lot of these vendors' solutions, there are a lot of standards."

In fact, standards are already emerging, according to Thomas Scheibe, director of Cisco Systems' data center switching and services group. "In the long term, I think all the major players will adopt standards. It's a question of who is driving it and where standardization is being done," Scheibe said.

But standards-based technology doesn't always guarantee interoperability. And it certainly doesn't guarantee that an enterprise which wants to mix and match different vendors' products won't get bogged down in complexity.

Enterprises will need to strive for openness from their networking vendors, according to Doug Gourlay, vice president of marketing for Arista Networks.

"What I've seen happen is many incumbent vendors have used core switching and routing technologies as cash cows to fund other technology acquisitions like Flip cameras," Gourlay said. "They're milking these technologies. Some will try to lock you in with proprietary fabric, and some will bring you technologies that will add layers to your network. Keep an open mind. There is no one answer to anything. Any vendor who says this is the only way to do something, they're wrong."

Where's the product and plan for a flat Layer 2 network?

Despite all the talk of a flat data center network architecture, product roadmaps from the leading vendors are in short supply, and even those vendors that have articulated some of their vision on flattened data center networks haven't said much about product specifics or availability.

For instance, in February, Juniper outlined Project Stratus, its vision for a flattened data center network architecture and cloud computing networks. What shape these products will take and when they will arrive on the market remains rather clouded, although during the panel discussion Dasgupta shed a little light on what Stratus will eventually look like.

"The best network is the network that connects ports inside a switch," he said. "It's completely flat. Any port can talk to any other port. The ports share a consistent state. You can add line cards and it just scales seamlessly. If I could extend that to my data center network, that would be the best network to solve the challenges that virtualization brings."

"Project Stratus gives you a network that is built like the inside of a switch. It extends that out to the entire data center network," Dasgupta continued. "You can have hundreds of thousands of ports with tens of thousands of virtual machines at the end of each of these ports, all working together in harmony in one flat Layer 2 network. You process the packet once, and you have all the information you need to take it from point A to point B."

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EMC-Brocade 10 Gigabit Ethernet deal raises questions for Cisco

2010-05-16T23:46:00.000-07:00

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BOSTON -- EMC's approach to high-performance networking for virtualization has raised questions about the company's relationship with long-time partner Cisco Systems. But some observers and IT pros said EMC's decision to offer customers choice in networking gear -- between Cisco and its challenger, Brocade -- makes sense.

Cisco Systems Inc. has been EMC Corp.'s go-to networking vendor, especially for virtualization. But at EMC World 2010, EMC highlighted its partnership with Brocade. Under the EMC-Brocade agreement announced Monday, EMC will resell the 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) switches and related products in Brocade's IP networking line.

An IT manager at a large New York bank said the group that specifies his organization's networking gear often has a brand preference, so the ability to source either Brocade or Cisco switches along with EMC storage could be an attractive option.

"Sometimes you get a price advantage getting networking with storage [together], and sometimes you want one vendor to support both," he said.

Even large companies like to have a couple of strong options -- although not a huge number -- in each technology category to keep suppliers' prices in check.

EMC-Brocade: Filling Cisco's gaps?
Cisco's role as EMC's go-to networking vendor for virtualization isn't necessarily changing. (EMC has also announced plans to resell Cisco 10 Gigabit Ethernet switches, albeit much more quietly.) Still, the Brocade news raised eyebrows among analysts, partners and other EMC World attendees. While observers said it makes sense to offer customer choice, EMC's tight ties with Cisco were suddenly in question.

"It's very advantageous for Brocade to have the EMC sales force selling their IP technology," said Jack Kaiser, vice president of strategic technologies for GreenPages Technology Solutions, a Kittery, Maine-based solution provider. "I really don't see how it will help EMC's sales, though."

Cisco has long been EMC's primary networking partner. Cisco's Unified Computing System (UCS), released last year, combines Cisco's server and networking hardware with EMC storage and VMware virtualization software in one appliance. And in November, the three companies formed the Virtual Computing Environment (VCE) coalition to offer VBlock Infrastructure Packages, preconfigured bundles of servers, networking, storage and virtualization software.

But neither initiative has set the world on fire. For example, Cisco designed UCS for very large businesses and service providers, but the appliance has proven a tough sell in those accounts. (It has seen some success, however, among small and medium-sized businesses.)

With this expanded Brocade partnership, EMC may be trying to reach new customers that it hasn't been able to get to through Cisco, said analyst Edward Haletky, the owner of AstroArch Consulting Inc.

"I understand why [EMC is] doing it," he said. "UCS is a small part of their story. They've got to sell everywhere, and Brocade's going to impact that. VBlock, no matter how you slice it, has a limited audience, and that's going to be a problem."

"It's about choice"
Jim Damoulakis, the chief technology officer of GlassHouse Technologies, said it's smart for EMC to work with multiple partners.

"For the number of areas that EMC is in, there's going to be co-opetition," he said. "Most switch sales are traditionally driven through storage channels, so clearly it's critical for Brocade."

In a post-keynote question-and-answer session Monday, EMC CEO Joe Tucci said his company's reliance on partners is crucial to help customers build private clouds. He also stressed the importance of choice, saying he expects many customers to go with VBlock, but "I don't ever want to force a customer to have to buy that."

In an interview, VCE coalition executives echoed Tucci's comments on customer options. Dennis Hoffman, EMC's senior vice president of the VCE coalition, and Manjula Talreja, Cisco's vice president of the VCE coalition, said the vendors actively pursue opportunities with other partners, as well. Talreja, for example, pointed out the recent multi-tenancy alliance between Cisco, VMware Inc. and NetApp.

"It's about choice, it's about efficiency and it's about agility," Hoffman said.

"We need to find different routes to market, and VCE is one of those routes," Talreja said.

Brocade is pursuing a similar strategy, working closely with IBM and other data center hardware powers.

EMC-Brocade deal details
EMC and Brocade have been partners for 13 years, and EMC currently resells Brocade's Fibre Channel host bus adapters and Fibre Channel over Ethernet converged network adapters.

Under this new agreement, EMC will resell Brocade's TurboIron 24X and FCX Series switches, NetIron MLX Series routers, NetIron CES 2000 Series edge switches and ServerIron ADX Application Delivery Controllers. Brocade will also extend support to customers who buy these products through EMC.

On the Cisco front, EMC said it will offer a bundle comprising EMC storage and Cisco's 10 GbE Nexus switches.

Both the Brocade and Cisco products will be available from EMC in the third quarter, the companies said.

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Microsoft: IE6 is past its expiration date

2010-05-16T23:43:00.000-07:00

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In an Australian marketing campaign, Microsoft is urging those using Internet Explorer 6 to upgrade already.

"You wouldn't drink nine-year-old milk, so why use a nine-year-old browser?" asks the Web site urging IE6 users to upgrade to something closer to the front of the fridge.

The shelf life of software and dairy products is not often considered to be in the same range, but leaving that aside, Microsoft does offer a good reason to upgrade: better security.

"When Internet Explorer 6 was launched in 2001, it offered cutting-edge security--for the time. Since then, the Internet has evolved, and the security features of Internet Explorer 6 have become outdated," the site said, showing scary statistics about online fraud and enumerating various advantages in Microsoft's preferred alternative, IE8.

IE6 is scorned by technophiles not just because of its security vulnerabilities but also for its nonstandard or nonexistent implementation of various Web standards. Web developers have plenty of pains supporting the diversity of browsers on the Internet, but IE6 is a particular problem given its continuing, though dwindling, widespread use.

According to research from Net Applications, IE6 accounts for about 17.6 percent of browser usage worldwide today, with No. 1 IE8 recently picking up steam as people upgrade.

One reason for IE6's continuing use is that it's built into Windows XP, which remains in widespread use. Windows 7--which, unlike in-between Vista, is showing signs of catching on--comes with IE8 built in. Convincing corporations to change operating systems can be harder though, especially those with in-house applications designed to run specifically with IE6.

IE's future is looking brighter. Microsoft has lit a fire under its IE development team to come back with a strong IE9. One big selling point of the new browser, which is available only in a developer preview version for now, is support for Web standards.

IE9 is emerging in the midst of a highly competive browser market, with four primary competitors: Opera, a small, scrappy company with a long history of going up against Microsoft; Google, a relatively new contender but one with serious Web skills and a strong brand; Apple, with a major incentive to improve browsers as a replacement for Adobe Systems' Flash; and Mozilla, whose Firefox browser is in second place after IE.

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Symantec unveils cloud-based enterprise protection

2010-05-16T23:37:00.000-07:00

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Home users need not apply, but businesses looking for the best way to manage their network's security now have a new solution to consider.

Symantec announced Wednesday the launch of its Hosted Endpoint Protection, a cloud-based protection service for small- and medium-size organizations. The company says that this new solution offers comprehensive security for the clients' computer systems without additional hardware or management software.

Customers will be able to protect their Windows-based laptops, desktops, and file servers using a Web-based console. Traditionally, in order to have this level of comprehensive protection, including Symantec's existing Endpoint Protection, a company would need a dedicated piece of hardware or a server in its network to manage it.

According to Symantec, the new Software as a service (SaaS) approach of the new Hosted Endpoint Protection is much easier to deploy and set up, requires minimal maintenance, and is therefore suitable for businesses that have limited resources.

Symantec claims that the Hosted Endpoint Protection leverages its Global Intelligence Network and benefits from the network's rapid threat identification and response. The service offers automatic security updates, so it helps the customers keep their employees' computers protected both at the office and on the go.

Key features and benefits of Symantec's Hosted Endpoint Protection are:

• Comprehensive protection: Advanced technologies for antivirus, antispyware, firewall, and host intrusion prevention.
• Always-on protection for endpoints: Automated updates occur transparently over an Internet connection to keep employee systems current and consistent with client policies when employees are in the office or on the road--even when they're not logged into their corporate VPN.
• Web-based management console: Administrators can access the administration portal over a supported Web-browser without the need for corporate VPN access. Administrators receive real-time alerts via SMS or e-mail and can perform functions such as initiate a LiveUpdate to refresh system protection levels, view history on systems, and change local policy settings.
• Ease of management: Adds and manages new computers without requiring on-site management servers.
• Scalable: Flexibility provided through a hosted model allows the solution to scale to incorporate new endpoints quickly and efficiently without requiring additional hardware or management software.
• Fast to deploy: Can be quickly deployed to users via standard download or e-mail invitation, or can be silently pushed to the customer's network.

The new Symantec Hosted Endpoint Protection is available now with the price varying, depending on the number of users who need protection. The company offers a trial at this Web site, where, unfortunately, you must surrender your information and then wait for Symantec to get back to you.

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Gartner rates the Big Four business intelligence vendors

2010-05-13T22:17:00.000-07:00

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Although they're not pure-play business intelligence vendors, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle Corp. and SAP AG own two-thirds of the $6 billion BI market because they have optimized their BI platforms to work well with their respective enterprise and information management applications, according to Gartner Inc. This integrated approach, as well as the fact that many enterprises already have these vendors' ERP and information management applications in place, is swaying customers to standardize on one of their BI platforms..

These vendors are slow to innovate, however, and they are being challenged in the enterprise by such up-and-comers as Tableau Software Inc. and QlikTech International AB and by pure-play BI vendors like Information Builders Inc. and Microstrategy Inc., Gartner analysts said during the consultancy's recent Business Intelligence Summit in Las Vegas. Pure-play and niche vendors are introducing interfaces that are more appealing to the masses, along with such technology as interactive visualization tools, scenario modeling and data mashups, which could change the way information is gathered and analyzed.

Another factor helping niche and pure-play vendors' push into the enterprise is the propensity of customers to introduce more than one BI platform to meet their varying business needs. As of yet, these trends are not diminishing the Big Four's domination, as is evidenced by the BI strategy plans of many conference attendees.

At a home, auto and life insurance company based in Canada, funding is dropping for BI efforts, forcing the BI team to prove the ROI of its software, said Mark Liu, the company's BI architect. "We've spent tens of millions on BI and need to consolidate down to one system," he said, adding that the choice most likely would come down to one of the major vendors.

BI platform consolidation across the enterprise is no easy task, but Gartner's rating of the Big Four vendors' BI features and strategy gives organizations a few points to ponder. Here's the rundown of how the vendors stack up:

IBM: There is a reason IBM is still called Big Blue. Its revenue in 2009 was $95 billion, and Gartner analyst Neil Chandler believes IBM has no gaps to fill in its BI platform. However, there are a few cracks.

Pros: IBM has plenty of money to invest in acquisitions and in launching new services: One is its Business Analytics and Optimization Services Group, which debuted this year. "[This group] was born with 4,000 consultants, so they are investing significantly in BI and their ability to have traction in the space that reaches into corporate performance management (CPM) too, Chandler said during a vendor comparison session at the summit. In addition, IBM invested in predictive modeling and data mining with its acquisition of SPSS Inc., "upping the ante for their ability to provide more forward-looking BI," he said. IBM is the hands-down leader as far as business process management and data quality and integration, compared to other BI vendors, he added.

Cons: IBM does not make ERP applications, a fact that may put it at a disadvantage in organizations that have other vendors' enterprise applications in place. "That gives us some questions of how IBM is being evaluated in SAP or Oracle shops," Chandler said. "However, IBM is telling us that they are doing well in those environments over the last year, and it is not impacting their BI growth generally."

Oracle: The vendor's Siebel and Hyperion products are integrated strongly, and the platform has been renamed the Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition suite. Integration is also strong between this platform and the vendor's enterprise applications and middleware stack, Gartner analyst Donald Feinberg said. Most of the conference attendees also use Oracle's database management system (DBMS). "Oracle has one of the most complete stacks, I think, that integrates well from applications, now all the way down to the disk drive," he said.

Pros: The vendor clearly has a stronghold on the DBMS market and continues to fill out its data warehouse offerings, the latest of which is Exadata V2. "[Oracle] obviously has a long history with very large data warehouses with pretty solid mixed workloads," Feinberg said. "Exadata has made a huge difference over the last 18 months to put them in a leadership position." Oracle also is addressing the data quality and integration gaps in its BI platform with the acquisition of Silver Creek Systems Inc. in January.

Cons: In addition to being late to the data-quality and data-integration game -- Oracle has made minor data integration tool acquisitions over the years, including Sunopsis SA -- the acquisition of Sun Microsystems remains a huge undertaking. "The big issue for them right now is the integration of Sun into the company and not being sidetracked by that, which is going to be a major effort for Oracle," Feinberg said. "I'm not saying [this is] a positive or negative, it's just a major integration between a hardware company and a software company."

Microsoft: The software vendor is taking a very familiar approach to customer penetration with its BI platform: low-cost bundling. BI capabilities are being built into and across many of its product lines including SQL Server, SharePoint and Office.

Pros: SQL Server is incorporating reporting; extract, transform and load, or ETL; and online analytical-processing data mining. Dashboards, scorecards and social software enterprise-search capabilities are being added to SharePoint 2010. Office Excel now has more advanced ad hoc analysis, along with PowerPivot, which gives users the power to gather data to the desktop from different sources. "[Microsoft's] BI platform is particularly strong for production reporting for organizations with a Microsoft-centric infrastructure," said Gartner analyst Rita Sallam.

Cons: Not necessarily a drawback, but Microsoft is leaving budgeting and planning up to partners since it dropped those capabilities from PerformancePoint Server. As far as the availability of data quality tools, the vendor is "missing in action," Sallam said, despite its acquisition of Zoomix a few years ago. Its low-cost data warehouse offerings have "catapulted" Microsoft into a leadership position, but not at the high end of the market -- above 5 terabytes to 10 terabytes, she said. This summer, Microsoft plans to debut SQL Server 2008 R2 Parallel Data Warehouse with massive parallel processing, as a result of its acquisition of DATAllegro Inc.

SAP: The vendor has an "enviable customer base" running massive workloads on its BI and CPM platforms, said Gartner analyst Bill Hostmann. It is this customer base, however, that is causing some problems for SAP. Many customers buy products from SAP because of the ease of integration across its product lines. This is not the case for existing customers of SAP's BusinessObjects BI platform and its Outlooksoft CPM offering. "BusinessObjects and Outlooksoft customers tend to buy best of breed, not an integrated stack, he explained. This bifurcated sales strategy "is a challenge for them."

Pros: SAP is building a next-generation semantic layer into BusinessObjects, and is exploring in-memory database technology with its NetWeaver Business Warehouse Accelerator, Hostmann said. "[SAP] is really bringing down some of their query performance on the [business warehouse] product to some very impressive levels, but they're going to have to balance these innovations against multiple product segments."

Cons: As a result of SAP having multiple product lines, customer support is still a problem. "They have been at the low end in terms of customer support, but they are putting a lot of focus on their [customer support] program to deal with it and regain customer credibility and confidence in terms of support," Hostmann said. A new leadership team -- CEO Leo Apotheker and BusinessObjects' unit head John Schwarz resigned in February -- is also pushing these changes from the top down, he said.

Given the rise of so many niche and pure-play BI vendors, the Big Four realize they too need to be more cutting-edge. They are making strides in that direction by developing or acquiring technology in such areas as in-memory analytics, integrated search and columnar databases.

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HP boosts midrange ProLiant servers with Westmere

2010-05-13T19:50:00.000-07:00

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Hewlett-Packard Co. will ship updated versions of its bread-and-butter x86 servers: the rackmount ProLiant DL360 G7 and DL380 G7 with support for the Intel Xeon 5600 Series processor, aka "Westmere."

HP claims major performance improvements over previous generations of DL300 series servers. Compared with the G4 generation, HP said that the G7s deliver a 20:1 consolidation ratio in terms of performance per watt, utilization and virtualization.

In terms of management, the servers include HP Insight Control, and for remote management, the latest version of Integrated Lights-Out, iLO 3. Combined with Insight Control, HP Dynamic Power Capping monitor power usage levels protects circuit breakers. HP Thermal Logic and its "Sea of Sensors" control 32 sensors across the system to optimize power consumption.

The DL360 G7 is a dual-processor rackmount server that supports up to 192 GB of RAM in 18 dual-inline memory module (or DIMM) slots, eight internal drive bays, and 2 PCI Express (PCIe) expansion slots. At 1U, the DL360 is designed for space-constrained environments. Pricing for the DL360 starts at $2,279.

The DL380 G7 is a 2U server, which increases the number of PCIe exansion slots to six. List price starts at $2,429.

The first round of G7 ProLiants, announced in March were based on Advanced Micro Devices Inc. 6100 series processors: the DL165 G7, the DL385 G7, and the SL165z.

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Microsoft CIO Tony Scott predicts big changes ahead for CIO role

2010-05-13T19:43:00.000-07:00

Here’s the resources: http://www.test104.com/en/misc/all.asp

To listen to Microsoft CIO Tony Scott, you'd think all hell is about to break loose for CIOs -- and the CIO role. With many companies watching the economic crisis recede in the rearview mirror, the biggest problem facing CIOs in 2010, according to Scott, will be dealing with "unprecedented demand." Like water rising over a dam, the pent-up backlog is threatening to overwhelm CIOs, he said. In fact, for a group of executives who have been under pressure to streamline, cut, boost and automate since Y2K, figuring out how to manage in a big-growth era will tax all their skills as CIOs--and then some.

"How many of us in our organizations remember how to grow? It's been a while. We know how to add capacity, because we've been doing that. But I am talking about big growth. I see it coming right around the corner," Scott said. The growth will challenge every aspect of the CIO job, from finding IT talent to governance, he said.

A keynote speaker at the Mass Technology Leadership Council Growth Summit: A New Paradigm for CIOs, Scott said many of the CIOs he talks to are experiencing the sea change already, citing a statistic from McKinsey & Co. that 46% of CIOs now report that spending is "looking up." The downturn has "flushed out the weak players," he said, adding that the survivors have picked up market share and are looking where to go next and how to grow. In his view, the first place business looks to for help is IT. Cloud computing will be "one answer" for meeting that demand, he added.

Scott said he recently got a one-sentence memo from Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, asking when all of Microsoft's applications would be moved to the cloud. He said his first reaction was to say, "never," or "only after a big increase in budget." But in fact, his team wrote a "thoughtful response," he said. That analysis has become the platform for plotting a cloud strategy for applications. First up are applications for which the demand is highly variable, and large hardware commitments, such as the ordering systems where "absolutely nothing" happens until the mayhem of last-minute ordering, he said. Likewise, he said, demand for HR systems "is zip" until the last two weeks of the year, when employee evaluations are due. Putting these applications into the cloud would allow them to virtually scale through their lifecycles, he added.

The role of the CIO is the business these days

As businesses of all stripes increasingly make products that are IT-enabled, CIOs will spend more time with customers, learning how customers behave and how they use the products, Scott predicted.

As the analog world gives way to digital world, the role of the CIO is the business these days, Scott said. In particular, business operations are becoming highly intertwined with IT and with data; and for some businesses, the CIO will be the CEO, he predicted. He also sees the roles of CIO and chief operating officer (COO) increasingly overlapping.

Microsoft "still has a very large operations business," that worries about packaging goods to sell in stores, Scott said. But that is fast becoming an old model. Products can as easily be downloaded, and with that distribution model come all kinds of complexity, including the thorny accounting issue of revenue recognition in a digital market, he said.

"Understanding all the complexity of this means that the CIO and the person who runs operations have to be like this," Scott said, holding up two intertwined fingers. He went on to say that companies pretty soon will decide they just need one person in the role. That is good news for CIOs who have business skills and acumen, but the paradigm shift may not bode for well for those who don't, he added. And the paradigm shift cuts both ways: The usual characters who once had high visibility in the business for identifying problems or friction, are clueless now as processes become automated. The job of the CIO is to hold a mirror up to the friction in the now-automated processes and challenge the business to do things better, he said.

The point seemed to resonate with Matt Hooper, CIO of IT services provider Inforonics LLC in Littleton, Mass., who is also his company's vice president of marketing services. "If a CIO is not a business architect and they are not focused on services, yes, they will be displaced." he said. He pondered the question of whether the dichotomy between business leader and CIO, or between business operations and delivery of information, will go away as the current generation makes up more of the workforce and rises to management positions.

Inside out to outside in

Scott said he has always spent a sizeable chunk of his time with Microsoft product groups. That makes sense because his IT organization runs its Tier 1 applications using Microsoft beta technology. In addition, however, he has started to sound out Microsoft's external customers, recently spending four hours side by side with a Microsoft customer service representative, he said.

"If you haven't done it, go sit in a call center and listen to customers calling in," Scott said, claiming to have learned more in four hours than he would have in 10 years about certain products. "Customer service people know things about products that product development doesn't know."

During Scott's four-hour stint, for example, a customer called in wanting to know how to install the product keys for several products. The trouble was that one product referred to these keys (which software manufacturers use to ensure their products are purchased legally) as "product keys," another called them "license keys," and yet another didn't appear to have any keys. While Scott searched the Microsoft website to retrieve answers, the call center rep explained the discrepancies, including the fact that the product keys were actually embedded in one of the products the customer had. These are the kinds of interactions that are not easily captured in coded applications, and never make it back to product development, Scott said.

Scott's call center drop-in is not a one-time deal. He plans to keep doing it as a way of dealing with the shift from traditional manufacturing -- where the products are developed inside and marketed out to customers -- to the digital age, where it is "all about out-to-in," he said.

For more news, please access http://www.test104.com/en/tech/

Newly Updated Resources (Microsoft, MCITP, Flash Lab, CISCO, Oracle, CCNA)

2010-05-13T18:44:00.000-07:00

Here's the resources

News

New! MCITP SA Upgrade EA bundle, please check Microsoft Product List for detail.
Microsoft 70-294 Flash Lab 22 questions updated.
Microsoft 70-293 Flash Lab 15 questions updated.
CISCO CCNA 640-802 Q&A 398 questions updated.(V27b)
CISCO 646-363 Q&A 174 questions updated.
Microsoft 70-567 Q&A 110 questions updated.
Oracle 1Z0-050 Q&A 183 questions updated.
Microsoft 70-547 Q&A 160 questions updated.
CISCO 646-204 Q&A 99 questions updated.
Oracle 1Z0-042 Q&A 147 questions updated.

Recent Updates:

CISCO 646-363 Q&A 174 questions updated. (2010/5/13)
Microsoft 70-567 Q&A 110 questions updated. (2010/5/13)
Oracle 1Z0-050 Q&A 183 questions updated.(2010/5/12)
CISCO CCNA 640-802 Q&A 398 questions updated.(V27b) (2010/5/12)
Microsoft 70-547 Q&A 160 questions updated. (2010/5/12)
CISCO 646-204 Q&A 99 questions updated.(2010/5/10)
Oracle 1Z0-042 Q&A 147 questions updated.(2010/5/7)

New Demo

Microsoft 70-293
Microsoft 70-294
Microsoft 70-567
Microsoft 70-516

For more details, please access http://www.test104.com/en/news/news.asp

Oracle support hikes irk Sun shops

2010-05-12T23:52:00.000-07:00

Here’s the resources: http://www.test104.com/en/misc/all.asp

Oracle's new support policy on Sun Microsystems hardware has made itself felt -- painfully -- in customer accounts.

Posted to the company's website in mid-March, Oracle Corp.'s support changes raised hackles at IT shops that were accustomed to Sun's more flexible -- and lower-cost -- hardware support offerings.

One of the biggest changes is Oracle's mandate that support be purchased on each piece of hardware and not be allowed to lapse. Customers whose support lapses must pay a premium -- 150% of their last support bill-- to get in compliance.

In addition, Oracle will start the clock running on each support contract the minute Oracle (or manufacturing partner) ships the gear to a customer. Previously, big customers tended to have umbrella agreements covering lots of hardware, so the support clock would start only as each server or storage unit was deployed. They did not pay for support on warehoused hardware.

Oracle has a history of buying software companies and adjusting license and support pricing--upwards--to match its own model. But Sun is a hardware company and Oracle doesn't seem to realize that hardware is a different animal with a different sales and support model, IT execs said.

Sun shops blast 'inflexibility' of Oracle support
The price hikes are a significant departure from Sun previous practices. "Support is [now] 12% of the server price, and the support period starts the day of purchase," said a longtime East Coast Sun storage and server partner. In the past, "Sun had a different percentage multiplier based on the size of the server or storage. So a very small server might have cost more than 12% to support, but a very large server, would cost considerably less than 12%.[Support] for a $300,000 server would have carried a support premium of 5% to 6% a year ago and will now be twice that."

"Any large organization like Wells Fargo or Bank of America in the past might buy a couple thousand servers, and the traditional approach was to have all-encompassing service contracts with Sun. They would take old servers off and put new ones on and turn on the support," he continued.

Bill Bradford, a senior systems administrator at a large Houston-based energy services firm, has had enough.

"Oracle's across-the-board price increases, sudden changes in support policy structure and availability and lack of responsiveness to the current Sun user base will do nothing but hurt what's left of the company they just bought," he said via email.

"As a company, Oracle needs to get the Sun support offerings organized and the reason for any changes clearly documented and communicated instead of just changing wording on a Web page and then not answering questions about the changes."

The CTO of a large Chicago-based financial services firm said his company moved away from Sun servers some time ago but still runs StorageTek tape libraries and "Sun-badged" Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) storage arrays. "We have already moved the support for those arrays to HDS," he said.

No IT executive in a sizable company would accept the support conditions Oracle has tried to impose, he noted. "We never accept the 'Maintenance starts when we ship' approach. Maintenance starts when we accept the equipment as installed and working to specifications. Vendors who do not accept that don't get our business."

Several Sun partners said that large companies with clout will no doubt drive their own terms with Oracle, but smaller shops will have no choice but to pay up or consider other options, said a Western state Sun integrator.

"Our customers are still in shock. They're in the 'You're kidding me' stage, but they're starting to realize what's going on," he said.

IBM, HP try to reap benefits from Sun angst
The angst among Sun shops may end up as a windfall for IBM and Hewlett-Packard Co., both of which have targeted Sun accounts and the Sun partners serving those accounts.

IBM's P-Series servers have gotten hard looks from Sun shops, several partners said.

Other shops running lower-end Sun gear with Linux are more likely to consider HP servers, he said. "A move to IBM AIX is fairly straightforward for a Sun Sparc Solaris shop, while HP makes more sense for accounts running Linux on Sun hardware."

Oracle would not comment for this story.

For more news, please access http://www.test104.com/en/tech/

The future of Linux in the data center: More than just Red Hat?

2010-05-12T23:45:00.000-07:00

Here’s the resources: http://www.test104.com/en/misc/all.asp

Expert perspective on non-Red Hat Linux distributions
For years, Red Hat has been the leader in the enterprise Linux market. And as of today, it still is -- but the market has changed. Up to about three years ago, Red Hat was the only Linux player on the enterprise market; currently there are at least three other companies you can consider for getting enterprise Linux:

• SUSE Linux Enterprise, currently owned by Novell
• Ubuntu LTS, supported by Canonical
• Oracle Unbreakable Linux, offered by Oracle

The future of Novell SUSE Linux in the data center
When Novell bought SUSE in 2004, SUSE Linux's position in the enterprise market was marginal. Since then, it has grown market share from single digits to 30%, according to some.

Novell has successfully positioned its SUSE Linux Enterprise as a reliable platform for important applications, such as Oracle or SAP. Novell has also acquired some important customers using SUSE, including banks such as ING and HSBC as well as French car manufacturer PSA (Peugeot and Citroen).

In 2007, Novell and Microsoft made an interoperability agreement. SUSE was the first Linux distribution that went to market with Windows, and Microsoft has purchased thousands of SUSE Linux Enterprise vouchers, introducing SUSE Linux to important new customers like Walmart.

Novell SUSE Linux supports 5,000 applications, twice the number of applications supported by Red Hat.

The biggest problem for SUSE Linux is Novell. Apart from SUSE Linux, many of the company's other products are not doing well. In March 2010, the hedge fund Elliot Associates LP made a bid to purchase Novell. Novell refused the offer, not mentioning that the company is not for sale, but stating that the offer is inadequate. That means the future is somewhat unsure for Novell, which doesn't help it to acquire new customers. Nevertheless, SUSE Linux has established itself as a strong player in the enterprise Linux market, and it is unlikely to disappear completely.

Ubuntu Linux in the data center
Ubuntu is a completely different player in the market. It doesn't sell an enterprise Linux product, but it offers support on its open source Linux, available in a very popular desktop version and a server version that isn't as popular yet.

So why are companies using Ubuntu Server? Mainly because of its nature as a pure open source technology. There is no need to pay for Ubuntu Server -- you can just install it, and patches are available as well. Ubuntu Server is more open than the other three Linux distributions covered in this article.

On April 27, Canonical launched Ubuntu 10.04 LTS and introduced some elements that might appeal to data center managers, including Ubuntu's cloud computing play with Eucalyptus software. Ubuntu is the first Linux distribution that has integrated an easy option to create a private cloud. Nevertheless, Ubuntu Server clearly hasn't established itself yet on the enterprise server market.

Oracle Unbreakable Linux
Another player that cannot be ignored is Oracle. In 2007, the company released its Unbreakable Linux, a clone of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. With this Linux version, Oracle has a complete stack in its offering, starting with an operating system and going all the way up to the important Oracle applications. However, Oracle Linux is hardly used outside of traditional Oracle customers, so its position on the market still is marginal.

One reason customers are considering Oracle is because of its integration with other Oracle software. For Oracle application customers, the tighter integration makes Oracle's Linux a good choice.

For sure, Red Hat still has the most important enterprise Linux offering. It is a healthy company that has shown increasing revenue. But the situation has changed for Red Hat. Five years ago, it was almost a monopoly, but Novell SUSE Linux has shown nothing but growth, and there are no signs that this growth is stopping. SUSE users can hope that Novell isn't purchased by another company, as that would make the position of SUSE Linux a lot more difficult.

Vendor perspective: What is the plural of Linux?
The overall Linux ecosystem today is more vibrant than ever before. Commercial vendors like Canonical/Ubuntu, Novell (my employer), Oracle and Red Hat compete to offer a wide range of desktop and server enterprise distributions alongside a wide range of community distributions.

If anything, we're seeing more companies developing solutions with Linux, not fewer. On the server side, Red Hat and Novell are clearly the market leaders, controlling over 90% of paid server shipments. And although Red Hat maintains a market share lead, the gap is narrowing fast: Novell's share of the paid Linux market actually increased by 5%, while Red Hat's share decreased by 5%, according to the most recently published data from IDC.

There is simply no hard evidence to support the view that a single commercial Linux vendor will dominate the data center, with all others "pushed aside." This is good news for customers, for partners building solutions on Linux and for Linux itself. Competition breeds invention, and Linux would be much the poorer if a monopoly emerged.

The single-vendor view isn't supported by the level of industry investment, either. Whether one looks at IBM's driving software appliances and mainframe Linux with Novell, HP's focus on SAP and mission-critical computing on SUSE Linux Enterprise, or SAP's delivery of joint solutions with Novell for large and medium enterprises, it's clear the market has no interest in stifling diversity or innovation.

There's a heated lexical debate about the plural for Linux -- Linuxes? Linuxen? Whatever the answer, it's clear that there's going to be more than one choice of Linux vendor in the data center. Existing data supports this view, and the move to virtualization, appliances and the cloud creates new opportunities. The idea that a single vendor will control the market makes no sense. The diversity of Linux distributions and complementary products will keep driving rich innovation for the benefit of customers and technology providers alike.

For more news, please access http://www.test104.com/en/tech/

Xen vs. KVM: The battle lines are drawn

2010-05-12T23:08:00.000-07:00

Here’s the resources: http://www.test104.com/en/misc/all.asp

The Xen vs. KVM debate is not new, but it has definitely been picking up steam as of late. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 has given Xen the “let’s just be friends” speech and moved in with KVM. Several major hosting providers are switching their platforms from Xen to KVM. And many Linux diehards say Xen is a huge pain to manage.

The battle lines are drawn, and the fate of the open source virtualization market hangs in the balance. (How’s that for overdramatic? I think I’ve been watching too many “Lost” commercials.)

Anyway, the ramifications of this potential shift may also affect the open source OS market. Leading the charge on this side of the battle is Citrix CTO Simon Crosby, the co-founder of XenSource. Red Hat is trying to move customers off Xen, and now he’s trying to move customers off Red Hat.

“If you approach your virtualized world with a Linux/RHEL based mindset, then I recommend you consider switching to Oracle Enterprise Linux,” he blogged last week. “It is a superior, enterprise class version of RHEL. … Alternatively, if you’re wary of giving Larry more control than he already has over your environment, Novell SUSE Linux offers a superb enterprise Linux platform.” (Note that Crosby linked Oracle CEO Larry Ellison’s name to a picture of his massive yacht.)

I’ve previously said that Red Hat has nothing to lose by switching from Xen to KVM. I meant that in terms of Red Hat’s standing in the virtualization market. VMware, Microsoft and Citrix are way ahead of Red Hat there. (And as Crosby blogged, “Having failed to capitalize on Xen, Red Hat needs a ‘differentiated’ story in virtualization in order to regain credibility.)

But Red Hat has a ton to lose in the enterprise Linux server OS market, where it’s the leader. Sure, the Linux community may be in love with KVM, but Red Hat butters its bread thanks to the IT admins and systems engineers who work with RHEL. The company can’t afford to turn off these core customers in its pursuit of the virtualization market.

For more news, please access http://www.test104.com/en/tech/

Microsoft repairs critical Outlook Express, Visual Basic vulnerabilities

2010-05-11T23:07:00.000-07:00

Here’s the resources: http://www.test104.com/en/misc/all.asp

Microsoft issued two critical bulletins Tuesday, correcting two serious vulnerabilities in Outlook Express and Visual Basic that could be exploited remotely to gain accesss to sensitive data.

The software giant issued the patches as part of its regular monthly patch schedule.

MS10-031 repairs a critical vulnerability in Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications (VBA). The tool is used by developers to build third-party tools into processes that run various Microsoft Office applications. The flaw is crticial for VBA SDK 6.0 and third-party applications that use Microsoft VBA.

The memory corruption vulnerability enables an attacker to execute code remotely and could result in taking full control of a victim's machine. An attacker would need to get a user to open a file that forces the application to send malicious code to VBA at runtime. Microsoft gave it an important rating for versions of Office XP, Office 2003 and Office 2007.

Patch management experts agreed that the Visual Basic vulnerability had the biggest impact, affecting all versions of Microsoft Office, although writing exploit code targeting the flaw will be difficult for attackers.

"While the bulletin only carries a severity of "important" [for versions of Office XP, Office 2003 and Office 2007] we consider it to be the more urgent of today's release," said Wofgang Kandek, chief technology officer of vulnerability management vendor Qualys Inc, based in Redwood Shores, Calif.

Microsoft also addressed a critical vulnerability that affects the way the Windows Mail Client authenticates mail responses. MS10-030 addresses a vulnerability in Outlook Express, Windows Mail and Windows Live Mail running on Windows 2000, XP, Vista and Windows Server 2003 and 2008. An attacker would need to trick a user into visiting a malicious email server to pull off the attack. Sending malicious code could force the mail client to not require authentication. If successfully exploited, the vulnerability could enable the attacker to gain the same user rights as the local user.

"To successfully take advantage of this vulnerability, an attacker would either have to host a malicious mail server or compromise a mail server. Or, an attacker could perform a man-in-the-middle attack and attempt to alter responses to the client," Jerry Bryant, group manager of response communications for the Micrososft Security Response Center, wrote in the MSRC blog. "Heap mitigations built into Windows Vista and newer operating systems make exploitation of this vulnerability unlikely."

Microsoft SharePoint remains vulnerable
A cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability affecting SharePoint Server 2007 and SharePoint Services 3.0 remains vulnerable to remote attacks. Proof-of-concept code is publicly available targeting the zero-day vulnerability. Bryant said Microsoft engineers are still developing and thoroughly testing a fix.

The vulnerability can be exploited in a browser-based attack and enable an attacker to execute JavaScript code within the vulnerable application.

For more news, please access http://www.test104.com/en/tech/

Trojan poses as Windows 7 compatibility tool

2010-05-11T23:04:00.000-07:00

Here’s the resources: http://www.test104.com/en/misc/all.asp

Security researchers at BitDefender are warning of a new Trojan that is imitating a Microsoft Windows 7 compatibility tool, but is actually a Trojan dropper, spreading rapidly via an email attachment.

The email campaign includes a message urging the recipient to test their systems using the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor by opening the tool contained in an attached .zip file. Once the victim executes the file, the Trojan downloads and installs a backdoor, which can be used by an attacker to force download other malicious programs.

Catalin Cosoi, the head of BitDefender's Online Threats Lab, said the infection rate for this attack doubled in a period of three hours after it was first discovered. Infections consist of a key logger which will intercept passwords and other credentials and a program that gives the attacker the ability to access and use the machine as a bot, Cosoi said.

"Software for compatibility checking for Windows 7 is quite tempting for users," Cosol said in an interview with SearchSecurity.com. "People are interested in switching to this operating system because it's a more secure product and they want to know if their machine is compatible because Windows 7 requires more resources."

The email campaign is in English. Attacks were first detected in the United States and quickly spread to Germany, Cosol said. Attackers have been using malicious files in email campaigns to install key loggers that can lift bank credentials and other account information. The campaigns have been low in number to evade detection. But in the last several months, attackers seem to be using the campaigns to acquire computers as part of larger botnets, Cosol said.

"They're moving away from stealing bank account information and into bot herding," he said.

A description of the Windows 7 campaign with screen shots is available at BitDefender's, Malware City blog.

Cybercriminals have used Microsoft in previous attack campaigns. In 2008, a fake Microsoft Patch Tuesday email circulated. In that same year, researchers at CA discovered a malicious program posing as a Windows Security Center. Once installed, the program informed users of non-existent infections. The program attempted to spread Windefender 2008, a fake spyware removal tool.

For more news, please access http://www.test104.com/en/tech/

Key considerations for Hyper-V virtual machine deployments

2010-05-11T22:57:00.000-07:00

Here’s the resources: http://www.test104.com/en/misc/all.asp

Microsoft Hyper-V holds the promise of consolidation and better utilization, but how do you know if certain servers belong on a Hyper-V host? In many companies, Hyper-V starts in the lab, so it's hard to get a real-world understanding of how production systems will react when running on a shared host.

There are plenty of opinions out there, largely from database administrators and developers concerned about available resources to their applications. There are also several stories involving substandard performance of virtualized applications, but that is usually because the process wasn't fully assessed.

Previously, we looked at some of the most common mistakes involved with deploying virtual machines, but that mainly covered what you shouldn't do. So what about what you need to do? Here are some of the key considerations to keep in mind regarding Hyper-V virtual machine deployments.

Processor needs

If you are coming from the physical world, the mantra is "more is better." When attempting to share resources across several machines, however, be sure to take a closer look at your needs. Servers that are reported to have intensive CPU requirements should be looked at with scrutiny. While you can expect a 2% to 12% performance sacrifice when migrating to a Hyper-V virtual machine, this is not normally a breaking point for many systems, especially if you are moving to better processors on a virtual host.

The simple fact is that many physical systems are over-engineered. For instance, take the PerfMon readings from the physical server and determine how much utilization the server really sees. You'll have up to four processors to assign to the virtual machine, but you'll need to balance that with the overall utilization on the host.

When judging the performance of the virtual machine, you'll want to use the performance counters to determine how the machine is performing for that application. To determine its impact on the host, load up PerfMon on the host machine and look at the following counters:

Hyper-V Hypervisor Virtual Processor\% Guest Run Time and the Hyper-V Hypervisor Virtual Processor\% Hypervisor Run Time

These counters show how much of the processor the guest is actually using and how much is going toward hypervisor management.

When assigning processors to virtual machines, a 1:1 processor assignment of available physical core to virtual processors will provide the absolute best performance, but will usually leave processors sitting idle. A 2:1 virtual CPU to physical core ratio is more common for better utilization of resources, but can affect performance for those systems that require intensive CPU. If you cannot give a machine the right CPU resources or find them too expensive to dedicate to a single machine, this may be a reason to eliminate that machine from your virtual environment.

Memory requirements

While some might consider virtual memory management both a blessing and a curse, remember that Hyper-V doesn't have the same decision points about memory compared to VMware and its ability to over-commit memory. When looking at it from a performance standpoint, the assigned memory is also the available memory. It is important to allow the host operating system at least 512 MB, but 2 GB is recommended since you need to add 32 MB per virtual machine for the first 1 GB of RAM assigned as overhead, and 8 MB for each additional 1 GB.

The next step is to assign memory as you would a physical machine based on a simple calculation. If the physical server requires 8 GB of RAM, assign 8 GB to the virtual server. The option to assign additional memory will not be available until the release of Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1, which allows more memory management flexibility. For now, the decision to virtualize comes down to available memory in your virtual environment.

Storage I/O considerations

When deploying your Hyper-V virtual machines, storage I/O may cause an objection to the engine because Hyper-V puts its hard drive inside of a file by default. While convenient for management, this can translate to a loss of performance control. Just remember that storage requirements for performance don't change just because you are on a virtual machine. When it comes to high-performance applications such as Online Transaction Processing (OLTP) databases, it is still important to give that machine the I/O bandwidth it deserves.

Implementing the right I/O means presenting the right kind of storage to the application. In the SQL Server example, it is ideal to have a separate RAID1 set for the transaction log files and a separate RAID5 equivalent set for the data files. Using storage that is reserved for the Hyper-V server without considering the ramifications of its configuration is bound to cause problems, so plan storage for each virtual machine just as you would for each physical machine.

For high-performance I/O, use a dedicated volume that holds a single fixed-size virtual hard disk (VHD) file. Otherwise, use a pass-through disk for direct access to the storage system. The performance differences between these two options are minor. By using a pass-through disk you will lose the ability to create snapshots or perform host-based backups, but the upside is that you are accessing existing volumes and using existing logical unit numbers (LUNs).

A larger LUN can be presented to a Hyper-V host by using striped metaLUNs to push the load across multiple RAID groups on the storage area network (SAN). Avoid using dynamically expanding disks when performance is of the utmost concern. With these considerations addressed, there is little standing in the way of virtualizing a server, even when high-performing disk I/O is required.

Other concerns with Hyper-V virtual machine deployments

On some servers, migrating to Hyper-V virtual machines will not be so easy, as specific hardware connections don't play well with Hyper-V. For example, accessing a SCSI interface for a directly connected tape library is generally not supported. Although it can be configured through some trickery with an iSCSI initiator, don't expect support from Microsoft or your backup software support line.

Legacy machines -- those with Windows 2000 or earlier -- may also be cause for concern. If you are employing a legacy operating system during virtual machine deployment, use a legacy network adapter. Note this adapter can be quite expensive to your host depending on the other virtual machines sharing that host. Also consider leaving Integration Services disabled to avoid known stability problems with some Windows updates on older operating systems. If you are managing a larger number of virtual machines, however, this may be more trouble than it's worth. Instead of using Hyper-V to extend the life of legacy software, take the opportunity to move to software that will run on a supported operating system.

This also applies to non-Microsoft operating systems. For instance, be aware of driver issues with video, network and clock sync, as well as other concerns that may arise when running a flavor of Linux that is not on the Microsoft supported list. Managing a basic Linux installation that isn't fully compatible may not be a big deal due to the command-line nature of many installations and the light-weight quality of some Linux software, but test the system thoroughly before committing to hosting a Linux virtual machine that does not support Integration Services.

Some servers don't belong on a Hyper-V machine due to their function. For example, best practices dictate at least one Active Directory domain controller should be a physical server, as the potential for mistakes are all too real when you have the ability to take snapshots and move VHD files. There is also the possibility of hosting all of your DCs on a single host. It's not necessarily the performance that's the problem, but the ability to cause site-wide corruption of the Active Directory database through VHD mistakes or single points of failure.

Also consider security requirements when performing Hyper-V virtual machine deployments. If you have an at-risk server, in the demilitarized zone (DMZ) for example, you'll want to avoid hosting that server on the same host as your database server. If you don't have a host to dedicate to servers that belong to a lower security level, leave them physically dedicated to avoid potential security issues from sharing the same host.

The bottom line

Although many people take a contrarian look at virtualizing their servers because of fear of the unknown, it is important to understand the performance and visibility-based opportunities virtualization provides. By addressing systems uniquely and discussing server concerns with the proper respect and information, you can sell admins on the possibilities that don't exist with the systems they have today.

For more news, please access http://www.test104.com/en/tech/

Microsoft brings PHP integration to SQL Server Reporting Services

2010-05-10T23:54:00.000-07:00

Here’s the resources: http://www.test104.com/en/misc/all.asp

When Microsoft started throwing more of its weight behind open source support on Windows, one of the biggest moves the company made was to bolster development of PHP. Love it or hate it, PHP has become a lingua franca of Web applications; tons of them are written in it, from quick-and-dirty one-page apps to entire websites.

For most sites, PHP is run in conjunction with a database, typically something like MySQL. Microsoft’s most recent set of support tools for PHP, however, are designed to allow tighter integration with SQL Server. In this case, it’s a toolset—written by Microsoft and Persistent Systems -- that lets PHP programmers make use of SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) (SSRS). This comes not long after Microsoft announced the 2.0 revision for its SQL Server Driver for PHP, so PHP with SQL Server is clearly the newest addition in an ongoing series of improvements from Microsoft.

The software development kit (SDK) provides a library that allows PHP programs to make use of SQL Server Reporting Services. It works with many versions of SQL Server, including the free-to-use Express edition with Advanced Services.

You can create SSRS reports via Business Intelligence Development Studio -- which also comes with the aforementioned edition of SQL Server -- and obtain the data from a local or linked server. The latter is useful if you have a full repository of data on another SQL Server instance somewhere in your network, and rather than copying data out piecemeal you’d prefer to talk directly to that server and make use of the data in its original place.

The library also allows PHP programs to access four common functions in Reporting Services:

• querying for a list of available reports
• querying each report’s parameter list and valid values
• obtaining a list of report formats provided by the server
• executing a report (of course!)

Code samples included with the library show you how to make use of the functions. This example shows how the report returned by the library can be easily slipstreamed into an existing webpage.

Apart from the library itself and the examples associated with it, there’s also a module for SugarCRM that allows SSRS reporting to be integrated with SugarCRM Community Edition’s reporting functions. This example module contains details about how to set up SugarCRM to work with SSRS. Note that the database for SugarCRM itself will be MySQL instead of SQL Server. Fortunately, if you don’t have MySQL set up you can add it using Microsoft’s Web Platform Installer app, a virtual appliance like JumpBox, or a standalone edition such as XAMPP.

The SQL Server Reporting Services SDK is licensed under the open source BSD license and comes with source code, so it can be freely reused or re-implemented in many different contexts.

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Running open source Xen in VMware environments

2010-05-10T23:52:00.000-07:00

Here’s the resources: http://www.test104.com/en/misc/all.asp

Even if VMware is your primary virtualization platform, open source Xen can be a fit for your organization.

In this article we explore the benefits of using open source Xen in VMware environments, including its effect on Linux server performance. We also consider key management challenges in running a mixed virtual environment.

Paravirtualization: Open source Xen vs. VMware
Before getting into details, let's try to understand the typical virtual infrastructure. Most medium-sized companies standardize on one server operating system, and if other OSes are in place, they are often marginal. A company may have 20 Windows servers and just one or two Linux servers, for example. VMware can run on and manage these servers well.

But in larger companies, there are often more Linux servers. And although large numbers of Linux servers will do well in a VMware environment, they do better on open source Xen because of paravirtualization.

In paravirtualization, a virtualized OS can communicate with a hypervisor directly. There is no need to emulate instructions from a guest OS on a host OS, so naturally, a platform that uses paravirtualization is faster.

VMware's latest releases offer paravirtualization, but only at the driver level. If that's all you require, there is no need to add open source Xen to your environment. What VMware cannot do, however, is kernel-level paravirtualization, which allows for more direct communication between a virtualized OS and a hypervisor. If you have many Linux servers that need the best possible performance, the kernel-level paravirtualization capabilities in open source Xen are beneficial.

Virtualization management with open source Xen and VMware
If this scenario applies to you, you may want to add open source Xen to your VMware environment. But take caution: Implementing software that allows you to manage both platforms in the same environment isn't easy.

With Novell's PlateSpin Orchestrate management tool, for example, Novell recommends that you have an on-site consultant install the software. Managing multiple platforms may involve custom scripting as well, so be prepared to pay extra for that.

VMware has won the virtualization battle so far, and in organizations that predominantly virtualize only one OS, there's generally no reason to add open source Xen. It only adds work for an IT department.

But if your company has a large amount of Windows and Linux servers, it may benefit by adding open source Xen. It will improve performance of Linux virtual machines, thanks to kernel-level paravirtualization.

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OpSource Cloud Files takes aim at Amazon S3

2010-05-10T23:49:00.000-07:00

Here’s the resources: http://www.test104.com/en/misc/all.asp

OpSource presents a "unique" cloud storage service
Upstart cloud provider OpSource has launched an adjunct to its enterprise-focused, point-and-click cloud computing service called Cloud Files. OpSource said the file storage service is unique among cloud offerings for offering full encryption both in transit (via SSL) and at rest; user data is stored under 256-bit AES encryption and users manage their own security keys.

OpSource CTO Treb Ryan said that OpSource is well aware that the market for online storage is saturated with competition, but he believes users will take up Cloud Files for the same reason they use Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3): It's close to their cloud computing resources. He said it will be a cheap and well-integrated way for OpSource cloud users to park data online, even if they aren't running virtual machines at the time.

"Really, it's a way to round out our offerings. We've always been more a of server focused organization," he said.

Ryan said OpSource has priced Cloud Files at $0.15 per GB per month to be competitive with AWS, and users will only incur bandwidth charges on outbound data transfer. Additionally, there will be no charge for using the data within OpSource -- calls to data stores and returning results will be free.

"We don't charge for puts and gets…Web transactions are free," he said.

Cloud Files also offers individual user access management, so administrators can restrict access to individual files and directories and manipulate files through a fashionable, Web-based user interface.

That's all a poke in the eye for Amazon Web Services, which has discounted inbound data transfer until June but charges transaction fees between availability zones and does not offer multi-user access, or rights management, or snappy point-and-click file management tools. While it's unlikely Amazon cares much about the competition, the move by OpSource may prompt a mini-land rush of similar storage offerings from other cloud providers if it takes off. Cloud Files is based on storage technology by Mezeo.

IBM open cloud lab in Singapore
IBM is opening a cloud computing laboratory in Singapore under the wing of the public sector Infocomm Development Authority. The lab is the eleventh of a worldwide collection that are all linked together for experimentation, research and business ventures for the entrepreneur or scientist with the right connections.

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Oracle declares full-court press for private cloud

2010-05-10T00:51:00.000-07:00

Here’s the resources: http://www.test104.com/en/misc/all.asp

Trumpeting two new products and surrounded by floating blue banners proclaiming the rise of cloud computing, Oracle has jumped on the bandwagon with a vengeance, reversing months of public skepticism around cloud computing and its viability. Oracle claims it is ready to provide enterprises with their own internal cloud computing environments from servers all the way up, saying that private clouds rather than public cloud services are what enterprises want.

"We now believe that it's the paradigm and the prevalent mode for enterprise going forward," said Richard Sarwal, senior vice president of product development for Oracle, at the Cloud Computing Expo in New York City.

Sarwal struck familiar notes for Oracle watchers as he outlined the company's strategy for turning enterprise IT environments into clouds, touting Oracle's own use of grid, virtualization and automation as evidence of its newfound expertise in cloud computing.

"We've been using these concepts called server farms for about 10 years; they have been told they have to change their name to 'clouds'," he said, tongue in cheek.

He added that Oracle University provisioned and tore down between two to three thousand instances every week as part of training programs, from which the firm saw significant economic benefits.

However, he said that Oracle was sensitive to the conservative nature of enterprise IT, and he realized some applications and some "IT silos" would never be opened to shared computing resources. He gave another example from Oracle's own IT, saying the company ran a "Global Single Instance" that handled all the financial and business data necessary for the company.

"There's no way on God's earth we'd ever let development and test flex on to this," he said.

Instead, Oracle proposes to help enterprises segregate and parcel off IT using Oracle components. Sarwal said that Oracle's acquisition of Sun gave it the capability to deliver Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS) installations that are 100% Oracle, and it will deliver its applications and middleware as either "private Software as a Service" inside the enterprise or as services consumed directly from Oracle.

"Oracle products are all being effectively reworked in many ways," he said.

Oracle CEO Larry Ellison famously denigrated cloud computing, declaring it a new name for existing technologies and not a fundamental shift, all the while ignoring the success of Amazon Web Services and companies like Google and Salesforce.com in delivering IT services. Despite that, it appears the $23 billion software company has decided there is value in adopting the lingo and re-inventing itself as a cloud computing player.

Sun to lead Oracle into the cloud
Oracle will lean heavily on its absorption of Sun to fill out its cloud computing portfolio, using Sun servers for hardware and making Java a linchpin of programming between infrastructure, Oracle middleware and applications.

"For multiple reasons, we now feel very strongly about Java," said Hasan Rizvi, senior vice president of Oracle Fusion Middleware.

Rizvi said that, put simply, Java was the most popular and widely used open platform out there, and Oracle has it firmly in hand, along with the rest of the pieces that make up an IT infrastructure.

"We have control of the entire stack," he said.

Oracle adds to its cloud lineup
He made two launch announcements that seem to cement the company's commitment to selling top-to-bottom cloud computing environments into the enterprise. Oracle Virtual Assembly Builder allows users to pick and choose predefined resources like servers, database back ends and appliances and build application stacks with Oracle's virtualized software tools.

And Oracle's WebLogic Server can now be virtualized and run "directly on the hypervisor," without a host OS. Rizvi said the WebLogic Suite Virtualization Option used a JRockit Java Virtual Machine to provide basic functionality like network interfaces and process scheduling while running on the Oracle VM hypervisor. He claimed that gave an increase of up to 33% on throughput over a WebLogic server running on a virtual machine instance.

It remains to be seen how receptive users will be, however, since like many private cloud computing pitches, this involves enterprises having to buy more, not less, if they hope to transform their in-house IT departments. While Oracle might sincerely believe it has the best products to make enterprise IT act like Amazon Web Services, many enterprises see removing infrastructure as the primary benefit to cloud computing, not transforming it.

Larissa Fair, senior online marketing manager at ScienceLogic, a network monitoring company, blogged the event and said she saw Oracle's new emphasis on private cloud as a validation of the concept but thinks it might be a tough sell to ask enterprises to stuff more products in to the data center. She said it was encouraging to see Oracle validate the reality of private clouds, but added that it was still early days, especially at the scale Oracle was talking about.

"There still aren't a lot of concrete examples, right?" she asked.

Fair said she was at the event to gauge interest in cloud computing as a whole, and noted that tt still came down to basics, even in the face of whiz-bang presentations.

"People are using it in ways that make sense for their business," she said, something unlikely to change.

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Oracle licensing, support on VMware still a hindrance

2010-05-10T00:50:00.000-07:00

Here’s the resources: http://www.test104.com/en/misc/all.asp

Oracle database pros continue to test the waters of running apps and databases on VMware, but Oracle’s licensing policy could hold some of them back, especially considering the proliferation of processor cores in newer x86 server chips.

One of the now years-long hindrances to adoption is Oracle’s licensing policy on x86 VMware, according to end users. In particular, Oracle considers VMware technology to be soft partitioning; and, as such, end users must license an entire server even if they’re only using a portion of it for Oracle databases and applications. With newly released Intel and AMD chips that have eight and 12 cores, per-core licensing can get expensive quickly. On RISC and Itanium boxes, Oracle allows hard partitioning so that end users can just license a portion of the box for Oracle products.

One end user is in the testing stage of migrating Oracle to VMware on x86 HP Intel boxes, and that licensing issue concerns him.

“It’s something we would consider,” said the director of financial services for a Texas-based manufacturing company, who declined to use his name in compliance with corporate policy. “We’re piloting it right now. We’ve done some application testing, but not any database performance stress-testing.”

Currently the manufacturing company is running Oracle in Solaris on top of Sparc-based Sun servers. But management has decided to standardize the IT environment on Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Linux, and as part of that, they’re moving everything to x86. Like many others, his primary concern for putting Oracle database on VMware is performance. But he is also unsure how the licensing cost structure will pan out with VMware and Oracle on virtualized machines, so that’s another of his concerns.

There is no doubt that Oracle users have virtualization on the mind. The Independent Oracle Users Group (IOUG) just released results from a virtualization survey it took from 381 of its members. It found that 62% are currently using some kind of software virtualization for Oracle on x86. But only about 10% have more than half of their production databases in a virtualized environment.

Support is also important for Andy Birch, the worldwide business systems manager for Starkey Laboratories, a hearing instrument manufacturing company in Eden Prairie, Minn. The company is currently running Oracle databases on HP servers on top of Intel’s Itanium chip and looking to move to x86, mainly for cost savings. If Starkey were to virtualize Oracle products, it would first be at the application tier; then, if that worked out well, the database tier.

“We’ve looked at it, and supportability is the big issue,” Birch said.

The Collaborate Oracle user group conference this week trotted out its share of Oracle-on-VMware success stories, with Indiana University being one of the biggest ones. The university migrated 35 Oracle application databases and more than 100 Oracle database instances from IBM System p series servers running AIX to AMD Opteron-based HP x86 servers running Red Hat Enterprise Linux on top of VMware vSphere and ESX.

The university made an organizational decision to move off AIX, and Oracle was part of that overall plan, according to Nathan Biggs, CEO of Omaha-based House of Brick Technologies, which consulted Indiana University on the project. The project finished last fall, with estimated savings of about $1 million – the difference between having to upgrade Unix hardware and moving to commodity x86 servers.

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Microsoft to issue two critical bulletins, SharePoint to remain vulnerable

2010-05-10T00:22:00.000-07:00

Here’s the resources: http://www.test104.com/en/misc/all.asp

Microsoft plans to issue two critical bulletins next week, as part of its monthly patch cycle, repairing vulnerabilities affecting Windows and Office.
The software giant issued its advance notification, Thursday, and advised customers that the bulletins would not address a serious zero-day vulnerability affecting its SharePoint content management server.

"Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 customers will be offered the Windows related update but they are not vulnerable in their default configurations," wrote Jerry Bryant, Microsoft's group manager of response communications, in the Microsoft Security Response Center blog.

Bryant warned users of SharePoint not to expect a bulletin addressing the SharePoint zero-day vulnerability in which proof-of-concept code is publicly available. Engineering teams are still working on a patch to repair the vulnerability, he said.

Microsoft issued an advisory last week warning of a cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability affecting SharePoint Server 2007 and SharePoint Services 3.0. The vulnerability can be exploited in a browser-based attack and enable an attacker to execute JavaScript code within the vulnerable application.

Last month Microsoft issued 11 bulletins, five critical, repairing 25 vulnerabilities across its product line. In addition to several media handling vulnerabilities, Microsoft fixed a serious Windows Authenticode Verification flaw. Windows Authenticode Verification is a digital signature format used to verify the origin and integrity of software when it is installed on a machine.

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Microsoft woos developers with latest IE9 preview

2010-05-06T22:49:00.000-07:00

Here’s the resources: http://www.test104.com/en/misc/all.asp

Microsoft Wednesday unveiled the second platform preview of its Internet Explorer 9 browser, which isn’t due to be released to market for another year. Industry watchers expect the iterative versions will help Microsoft keep developers interested in its technology as the browser market shares become ever more fragmented.

Microsoft made available its IE9 Platform Preview 2 download this week, touting speedier performance and better support for standards. The company reported that according to WebKit.org’s SunSpider benchmark test, IE9 had gotten faster, with improved results from the first platform preview to the second by 117 milliseconds. Microsoft is also working on interoperability in its latest browser revision.

“We’re submitting 79 new tests (bringing our total to 183 tests) to ensure true interoperability and achieve the goal of developers writing the same markup. You’ve heard it before: We love HTML5 so much we actually want it to work,” a company spokesperson wrote in a press statement.

Microsoft representatives in March unveiled the first preview platform at MIX 10, saying it would continue to deliver preview versions every 8 weeks. This version comes at about 7 weeks following the first, proving Microsoft is working to keep developers interested in the platform, according the Sheri McLeish, an analyst with Forrester Research.

“It is an iterative process and the product won’t be out for another year, give or take. But if Microsoft is able to have it out in public and have developers banging around on it, that generates and maintains interest,” McLeish says.

The company could be ramping up the release date considering a highly competitive browser market, which for Microsoft is relatively new. Recent data from NetMarketshare shows that for April 2010 Microsoft IE garnered nearly 60% of the Web browser market, with Firefox claiming close to 25%. Other competitors such as Google’s Chrome and Apple’s Safari accounted for nearly 7% and about 5% of the market, respectively. While Microsoft remains in the lead, it has been losing share points and there continues to be “strong competition on the horizon,” McLeish says.

“The impact of Google, the menu choice in Europe, and the rise of Apple -- these things are all making it increasingly difficult for Microsoft to maintain these very wide margins of market share,” McLeish says. “If you roll up the many versions of IE (IE6, IE7 and IE8) currently on the market together, Microsoft is still dominant. But Microsoft’s interest is to get IE9 out there and put all these other versions to bed.”

According to Forrester data, the combined versions of IE on the market today have more than 70% market share, with two versions of Firefox holding 20% of the market. Chrome tapped out at about 7%, with Safari not even garnering 1%. The monthly browser usage data was based on more than 90,000 client visits to Forrester.com. Another survey of 115 collaboration and productivity decision makers showed that 60% felt Internet Explorer was the best at ensuring “functionality of business critical enterprise apps.”

“With these releases, Microsoft gets developers trying out their products, which ultimately helps them put a better product on the market,” McLeish says. “A company as big as Microsoft does have the ability to get a million people hacking away on these applications and it serves them well.”

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Microsoft to fix holes in Windows, Office

2010-05-06T22:47:00.000-07:00

Here’s the resources: http://www.test104.com/en/tech/

Microsoft on Tuesday will issue two critical bulletins that will fix vulnerabilities in Windows and Office, which if exploited successfully, could allow a remote attacker to take control of the computer, the company said Thursday.

The bulletins, part of the company's monthly Patch Tuesday fixes, affect Windows 2000, XP, Vista, Windows 7, Server 2003 and Server 2008, Office XP, Office 2003, 2007 Microsoft Office System, and Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications and Visual Basic for Applications software development kit. Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 customers are not vulnerable in their default configurations, however, the company said in a post on the Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC) blog.

Absent from the Patch Tuesday's bulletins, however, will be a fix for a vulnerability in SharePoint Services 3.0 and SharePoint Server 2007 that was disclosed last week and which could lead to a cross-site scripting attack via the browser. Proof of concept exploit code has been published.

"Our teams are still working on an update for that issue," Jerry Bryant, group manager for response communications at the MSRC wrote in the post. "In the meantime, we recommend customers review the advisory and apply the workarounds."

Meanwhile, Microsoft said support for Windows 2000 and XP SP2 will end after July 13 and customers should upgrade to a supported operating system or the latest service pack to continue receiving security updates.

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Newly Updated Resources (Microsoft, CISCO, CCNA, Oracle)

2010-05-06T22:40:00.000-07:00

Here's the resources http://www.test104.com/en/misc/all.asp

News

Oracle 1Z0-048 Q&A 120 questions updated.
CISCO 642-691 Q&A 151 questions updated.
Microsoft 70-293 Q&A 249 questions updated.
Microsoft 70-294 Q&A 145 questions updated.
CISCO 642-566 Q&A 115 questions updated.
Microsoft 70-536 Q&A 253 questions updated.
CISCO CCNA 640-802 Q&A 340 questions updated.(V25)
Oracle 1Z0-040 Q&A 150 questions updated.
Microsoft 70-516 Q&A 118 questions updated.

Recent Updates:

Oracle 1Z0-048 Q&A 120 questions updated. (2010/5/6)
CISCO 642-691 Q&A 151 questions updated. (2010/5/6)
Microsoft 70-293 Q&A 249 questions updated.(2010/5/5)
Microsoft 70-294 Q&A 145 questions updated. (2010/5/5)
CISCO 642-566 Q&A 115 questions updated. (2010/5/4)
Microsoft 70-536 Q&A 253 questions updated.(2010/5/4)
CISCO CCNA 640-802 Q&A 340 questions updated.(V25)(2010/5/1)
Oracle 1Z0-040 Q&A 150 questions updated.(2010/4/30)
Microsoft 70-516 Q&A 118 questions updated.(2010/4/30)

New Demo

Microsoft 70-293
Microsoft 70-294
Microsoft 70-518
Microsoft 70-516

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IBM buys Cast Iron for cloud computing integration

2010-05-06T02:37:00.000-07:00

Here’s the resources: http://www.test104.com/en/misc/all.asp

IBM has snapped up data integration specialist Cast Iron for an undisclosed sum. The nine-year-old venture-backed software firm focuses on linking enterprise data and business processes to Software as a Service (SaaS) providers.

IBM said in a press conference at its IMPACT 2010 event that the move was designed to augment IBM's own in-house application integration capabilities with external service providers, also noting that integration and middleware were crucial to its strategy as cloud computing continues to grow in the enterprise.

"We have the broadest and deepest portfolio for inside the enterprise. We connect SAP to Oracle and Oracle to SAP better than anyone -- Cast Iron does the inter-enterprise better than anyone else," said Steve Mills, senior vice president for software development at IBM.

Mills said Cast Iron complemented IBM's capabilities within the enterprise and would jump start IBM's ability to sell to enterprises that already had or wanted to look at complex software services. He said that integration was top of mind for enterprise IT.

The importance of integration
"Integration is clearly a top-three worry," said Jeff Kaplan, principal analyst at THINKstrategies.

He said research was clear; enterprises want to know that they can take information they already have and use it, cost effectively, with a service provider.

"Once you get past security and reliability, the next most practical issue that you have to deal with is integrating your enterprise data," he said.

Kaplan wasn't surprised by the move. He said that data integration products are taking off as organizations turn to SaaS. Cast Iron has been in a horserace with competitors like Informatica, Boomi, Hubspan and others, to deliver the crucial link between an enterprise's business processes and cheap, scalable and easily managed SaaS offerings, said Kaplan.

Cast Iron enjoyed several advantages over competitors in IBM's eyes, according to Kaplan. Not only did it have a portfolio of large enterprise customers, it had an inside track with Salesforce.com, the leading SaaS vendor, as Salesforce.com's preferred integration vendor.

Cast Iron CEO Ken Comee said the benefit to customers was that SaaS providers used the same approach for every customer.

"We understand their most common applications," he said. Cast Iron supports all the major platforms, like Salesforce.com, Taleo.com and NetSuite.

When a provider closes a deal, he said, Cast Iron already understands what will happen when the customer attempts to marry its IT to a service.

"Every time they go to a new customer, we're not re-inventing the wheel," he said.

"They've built a very broad ecosystem of cloud providers," said Craig Hayman, general manager for IBM's WebSphere line.

Hayman said there were no plans to trim down that ecosystem in favor of some SaaS providers over others. He said IBM didn't need to discourage that kind of competition, since Cast Iron worked equally well across the board.

THINKstrategies' Kaplan said that while the move looks good on paper for IBM, there's always the danger of losing momentum after an acquisition by the IT giant. While the buy signals the long-term viability of Cast Iron's software, current customers may feel a pinch as progress slows and the 75-employee company is absorbed into IBM's organization. New sales may lose momentum, and there's always the possibility that customers will turn elsewhere during the transition period.

"It all depends on how well and how quickly they can adjust without killing the golden goose, if you will," said Kaplan.

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Microsoft changes virtualization licensing for SQL Server 2008 R2

2010-05-06T02:35:00.000-07:00

Here’s the resources: http://www.test104.com/en/misc/all.asp

IT organizations that virtualize Microsoft SQL Server may have to rethink their strategy with the upcoming SQL Server 2008 R2, which dramatically increases the price of running virtualized instances of the database in some configurations.

Broadly speaking, SQL Server 2008 R2 follows in the footsteps of Windows Server 2008 R2 and introduces a new Datacenter Edition to go along with the old Standard and Enterprise packaging.

But whereas Enterprise Edition used to offer unlimited virtualization rights if all of the processors in the system were licensed, Enterprise Edition for R2 only supports up to four virtual instances. To gain unlimited virtualization rights, customers will need to purchase the new Datacenter Edition, which costs twice as much as Enterprise Edition: $54,990 per processor (without Software Assurance), compared to $27,495.

Scott Cochran, network engineer at a large life insurance company in Baltimore, Md., said his company’s plans to virtualize SQL Server Enterprise Edition were probably “off the table.”

“We were having a hard time getting management to sign off on two processors at the old pricing,” Cochran said.

The plan had been to purchase a single “beefy server” running VMware and move six existing SQL Server instances onto it, plus a couple more instances in the coming months.

In general, Cochran thinks that ending unlimited virtualization rights in Enterprise Edition will put a damper on virtualizing SQL Server in midsized companies and will encourage the bad practice of running multiple SQL Server instances within a single operating system, which licensing still allows.

“I don’t think it’s going to impact large enterprises, because it’s still cheaper than Oracle,” he said. But instead of virtualizing SQL Server, SMBs are going to buy a regular physical server and run multiple instances of SQL Server in a single operating system environment. Without the isolation benefit provided by virtualization, “it’s just not going to work,” said Cochran.

The new licensing throws a wrench in the plans of organizations with aggressive virtualization roadmaps, said Steve Kaplan, vice president of data center virtualization at INX, an integrator based in Houston, Tex. Kaplan has developed a TCO calculator for SQL Server virtualization.

“If you look at systems running vSphere on [Cisco] UCS with Palo adapters, you can absolutely get more than four instances per CPU,” Kaplan said. “The new licensing is absolutely a factor today. It will still be beneficial to virtualize, but companies will have to ask more questions about which license is best for them.”

Independent of the new virtualization restrictions, SQL Server 2008 R2 prices have gone up. Compared with previous suggested retail prices of $24,999 and $5,999 for the old SQL Server 2008 Enterprise and Standard Edition, the new $27,495 and $7,171 prices represent increases of almost 10% and 20%, respectively.

Microsoft made the release-to-manufacturing (RTM) bits for SQL Server 2008 R2 available to MSDN and TechNet subscribers on Monday and will release it globally on May 13.

Microsoft debates impact

Microsoft, meanwhile, maintains that the licensing changes don’t impact very many shops yet.

“We think that this will affect a very few customers,” Joanna Sharpe, Microsoft senior marketing manager for worldwide licensing and pricing, said via email. “We don’t believe anyone who is virtualizing is doing more than four VMs per processor.”

Indeed, most IT shops virtualizing SQL Server tend to take advantage of Microsoft virtual processor licensing, in which they can license SQL Server based on the number of virtual CPUs consumed by the database instance. In contrast, to take advantage of Enterprise or Database Edition licensing, all the processors in the system must be licensed, not just be a subset.

The licensing change will have a bigger impact in the coming years, said Brent Ozar, a SQL Server DBA expert at Quest Software Inc.

“You may not be running SQL Server widely in virtualization environments yet, but ask yourself how many SQL Server 2000 and 2005 instances you’re running today,” Ozar wrote in a blog post. “SQL Server doesn’t just go away – the instances you install today will still be in production for years to come. They might not be virtualized today, but they’re gonna be virtual years from now.”

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Handling weaknesses in remote server management

2010-05-05T02:31:00.000-07:00

Here’s the resources: http://www.test104.com/en/misc/all.asp

If you've ever been in a position that requires you to administer a server in one form or another, it's almost guaranteed that you've worked on them remotely. Whether you've logged on using Citrix's Independent Computing Architecture (ICA) channel or a VPN that allows remote desktop administration, remote server management has undeniably become an everyday necessity as network infrastructure design has taken us beyond the typical server room.

And the remote management tools are evolving. Many servers now ship with a wonderful integrated feature generically called lights-out management (LOM). Usually, a server series will give it a proprietary name. For example, Dell's PowerEdge servers operate using OpenManage and Hewlett-Packard Co. touts the Integrated Lights Out (iLO) feature set on its ProLiant servers. While these embedded pieces of software and hardware may be diverse and feature-rich, it's imperative to understand the pitfalls that come along with these technologies.

Where remote server management fails
First, the obvious: Lights-out management tools will only work if there is power on your server. Of course, you have redundant power supplies on your mission-critical machines, but if both of those power units are dead, you're out of luck. At this point, it's time to call your remote server manager at the site to check the problem. Aside from that, your LOM tools can help you in a bind.

As a remote administrator, what do you do to prepare for some serious off-site work? Proper disaster recovery management and planning will help you deal with and resolve small issues that relate to your remote servers. There are three core problems (aside from the obvious complete power failure scenario) when remote management is concerned.

First, you're always relying on the Internet. If the Internet goes down, remote management is also down. Sometimes users will use dial-up in emergency cases. But if you've ever had to administer a server over dial-up, you know it's no picnic. Many administrators who must have remote locations and cannot be without Internet service will go the redundant route. If you choose to create a secondary Internet line into your facility, make sure to select a different Internet service provider using a different line -- just because you are using two different ISPs does not mean they aren't on the same pipe, so verify that these are completely separate lines going through completely separate carriers. One way to accomplish this would be have one carrier as a T1/T3 line and the other a business-class cable connection. Going even further, some uptime-focused administrators will also follow up with a redundant ISP infrastructure that may include a cellular solution, satellite and, as a last resort, dial-up.

Next, you can only manage what you can see, so employ a tool that will provide the features and interface that is best-suited to your requirements. Administrators can generally select "lights-out management" and IP-KVM (sometimes called iKVM). LOM incorporates a hardware chip that has proprietary server software on it that will allow you to administer a server. On the other hand, a standalone IP-KVM is a secondary product that can administer numerous servers in a rack or server environment. Both have their pros and cons and both can administer servers remotely. For example, Avocent makes an IP-KVM, which allows the administrator to plug in a mouse, keyboard, monitor and even a serial port into the machine. This benefits the admin, because now he can resolve issues with Cisco Firewalls, network switches and other devices that don't have any LOM tools built in. You can even administer a PBX over a serial connection on an IP-KVM device.

David Langlands, the Chief Security Architect at Cyberklix Inc., an international security and IT consulting firm, is required to administer and oversee numerous servers located in various parts of the world. "When you have a remote environment, a colo for example, I feel that an IP-KVM is not an option, but a requirement." However, standalone IP-KVMs have their issues as well. There are downsides to using secondary IP-KVMs, as Langlands points out. "They are often expensive and there is little to no visibility into the physical parts of a server. Sadly, you can't power cycle with a simple IP-KVM."

But whether using a standalone IP-KVM or LOM, you will probably run into some problems trying to fully diagnose a physical problem. These are great tools for remote management and quick fixes, but if an internal fan is malfunctioning or something is wrong with another component within a server, the remote management software may not always show it. Since LOM is not all encompassing, you must have a secondary option ready to troubleshoot severe hardware failures.

This means that when an issue occurs that remote management tools won't see or fix, you'll need trained eyes on the ground ready to resolve the issue. Some organizations may post an administrator at the remote location, rely on the IT staff of a remote hosting facility or engage the services of a contract engineer to provide on-call or as-needed service. Normally, a hosted colocation will have a service-level agreement that states if a server has a hardware failure, on-site staff can replace that piece of hardware almost immediately. Since these locations operate 24/7/365, you won't run into a problem waiting for your servers to be repaired. On the down side, hosted colocation contracts and professional services get pricey, so be cautious. The price isn't much better for contract engineering services. For example, if you're in Chicago and have servers at a remote colocation in New York, you will be relying on external network engineers to help resolve the issue. These contracts can add up, and having a consultant look at your server will cost around $150 an hour, if not more.

Consider limitations in the remote management tools
Remember, remote management tools are not end-all tools that will save you from complete disaster. If anything, they are useful supplementary utilities that you can use in an emergency. No program or piece of hardware is flawless. So, when working with remote management tools such as LOM hardware and software, there are few things to keep in the back of your head.

• Lights-out management usually comes as embedded software on a hardware chip within the server; you may therefore find the GUI to be lacking in some features.
• Due to limited resources, this onboard software may require very specific versions of Java/Active-X or even a specific browser to work.
• If your server requires high resolution, you may run into some problems accessing the server, as some remote management tools don't fully support high-res accessibility.
• Be cautious of using the "function" key combinations (function+f2, function+ctrl+f12) on your keyboard. When using LOM, you run the very real risk of having your software not understand what you're trying to type!

Planning and preparation can forestall remote management limitations
So when does hands-off really mean hands-on? Usually, the answer will be in the planning that you do for your network infrastructure. As an IT administrator, there must be a happy medium between your remote servers and how much hands-on time they receive. When doing a disaster analysis for your company, you must understand just how important your business-critical equipment really is. Ask yourself this question: "How critical is this piece of equipment and how long can I be without it?" Having someone experienced on the other end ready to fix this server is a must. An IP-KVM or high-end lights-out management utilities will only go so far. Business continuity plays a big role in understanding when "hands-off" will sometimes mean "hands-on."

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Microsoft, Symantec reports mirror global information security trends

2010-05-05T02:29:00.000-07:00

Here’s the resources: http://www.test104.com/en/misc/all.asp

Software vulnerability disclosures are in decline forcing cybercriminals to use targeted attacks against third-party browser components, according to two global threat reports issued by Microsoft and Symantec Corp.
.
Version 8 of the Microsoft Security Intelligence Report was issued today, outlining global information security trends observed by the software giant in the second half of 2009. Much of its data is gleaned from users of its Security Essentials software and its Hotmail webmail and Bing search engine. The annual Symantec Global Internet Security Threat Report tracked trends for all of 2009, using data from users of its security software and gateway products.

Vulnerability disclosures were down 8.4% in the second half of 2009, according to Microsoft's analysis. The number of severe vulnerabilities was also down 9% in that same period and down 30% since the second half of 2008.

Symantec saw similar declines, noting a decrease in Internet Explorer vulnerabilities as well as an overall decrease in malicious activity in 2009 in the United States. The U.S. was the top country for overall malicious activity observed by Symantec, making up 19% of all malicious activity, a 3% decrease from 2008.

Ben Greenbaum, a senior research manager at Symantec Security Response, said the decline in malicious activity can be attributed to a number of factors. Attackers have turned to countries where broadband penetration is relatively new, he said. India and Brazil represent the emerging countries making the top 5 list of malicious activity, which includes the U.S., China and Germany. Attackers choose emerging countries because they have fewer laws protecting users, he said. People with Internet access for the first time may also be more susceptible to phishing and Web-based attacks.

"It's kind of a wild west scenario," Greenbaum said. "They have an online population large enough to meet the threshold of being worthwhile for attackers."

Of the top attacked vulnerabilities observed by Symantec in 2009, four of the top five were client-side vulnerabilities. Symantec said attackers targeted remote code execution vulnerabilities in Adobe Reader and Flash Player as well as third-party components in Microsoft Internet Explorer.

Attacks targeting ActiveX vulnerabilities are the most prevalent, but they are on the decline, making up 42% of the total in 2009 from 70% of the total Web-based attacks in 2008. Security improvements in Internet Explorer 7 and 8 have helped alleviate many attacks targeting ActiveX controls. But attackers are turning to other browser components, Greenbaum said.

"Attackers are very adaptable," he said. "As one kind of attack brings to bear less fruit for them, they'll begin to focus on other areas."

Attack toolkits gain sophistication and sharpen focus
Microsoft said automated attack tools, designed to make it easier for cybercriminals to scan victim machines using multiple exploits, are also undergoing change. Many kits contain fewer exploits than in the past due to a rise in successful attacks against third-party browser components, Microsoft said. In the past the kits contained four to six working exploits. In the second half of 2009, the number of exploits dropped, averaging 2.3 exploits per kit, Microsoft said.

However, not all toolkits are equal. Microsoft observed a toolkit with 23 working exploits. Toolkits continue to target Microsoft vulnerabilities. More than 55% of all attacks targeted Windows XP machines, according to a sampling of browser-based exploits analyzed by Microsoft. A growing number are targeting third-party components (45%) on Windows XP. The figure is even higher for Windows 7 machines with more than 75% of Web-based attacks targeting third-party components.

Symantec also noted the growing popularity of the attack toolkit. Greenbaum cautioned that attack toolkits like Fragus, Eleonore, and Neosploit still carry a lot of exploits to older vulnerabilities, as attackers attempt to take advantage of people using outdated software.

The Zeus toolkit, known for causing problems in the banking industry by infecting victims' computers with password stealing malware, contained 90,000 unique malware variants, Symantec said. Traditional signature-based antivirus can't keep up with the tens of thousands of variants, Symantec said, noting that it should be supplemented with behavioral analysis and reputation-based security.

"The increased sophistication of these kinds of toolkits has lowered the technological prowess of those using them to pull off these kinds of attacks," Greenbaum said. "One signature will capture many variants, but not all of them."

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Cisco expands cloud-based security services

2010-05-04T01:06:00.000-07:00

Here’s the resources: http://www.test104.com/en/misc/all.asp

In the latest chapter of what it calls its "Secure Borderless Network" initiative, Cisco today announced expanded reporting capability for its ScanSafe Web-filtering service as well as the addition of a data-loss prevention option for the company's cloud-based e-mail security service.

Cisco, which acquired ScanSafe in December, says its offering now provides user behavior trends, details on any company policy violations, malware statistics and forensic analysis information. "It shows you how people use your network for Internet [access], which Web sites they're visiting, which sites you're blocking," says Garry Scott, Cisco product marketing manager.

NewPage, a Miamisburg, Ohio, coated-paper manufacturer, uses ScanSafe to control Web usage for thousands of employees and has been testing the new reporting tool for a few months and has seen a dramatic improvement.

"The old version just did basic reports, but the new version allows you to process a year's worth of data, using at least 87 different attributes, extremely quickly," says Paul Moorman, information technology strategist at NewPage.

Moorman says NewPage decided to block the vast majority of Web sites in China since it appears that country is an originating point for a very high level of viruses, and at this point there's no specific business need to have access to most Chinese Web sites. NewPage, which has about 7,000 employees, is gradually moving away from an MPLS-based network to use of Internet pipes. This has proven economical, and Moorman says he expects use of Internet-based hosted services to continue to grow at the firm.

Cisco also announced it's adding a DLP and encryption capability to its IronPort-based hosted e-mail security service, which customers can use in lieu of installing the IronPort appliance on their own premises.

The DLP service option for the cloud is based on the technology Cisco licenses from RSA and already added to the IronPort appliance last year.

Cisco says the new cloud-service option includes a way to transmit TLS-protected e-mail from the customer's e-mail server to a Cisco data center -- Cisco claims it will have 33 of these data centers globally by year-end -- where the e-mail would be filtered to make sure it doesn't contain sensitive information before re-transmitting it.

Cisco acknowledges it's competing against Google's Postini service, which has some basic DLP features.

Moorman says he expects NewPage might try the Cisco e-mail security service with DLP in the future, but noted the his company has a multi-year contract left to run with the Google Postini service, and that his contract with ScanSafe is actually through Postini. Cisco says there are no immediate plans to change the ScanSafe partner arrangements.

Pricing on the ScanSafe service typically runs $2 to $5 per user per month, and the DLP feature in Cisco's e-mail security service costs between $1.25 to $1.50 per user per month.

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Google exec confirms Jobs' claim that HTML5 is ready for some uses

2010-05-04T01:05:00.000-07:00

Here’s the resources: http://www.test104.com/en/misc/all.asp

Despite concerns that it is far from being finished, HTML5 is ready for use, at least for most platforms and for most duties, asserted a Google developer.

"Depending on who you ask, HTML5 is already ready, or it won't be ready until 2022," said Google developer advocate Mark Pilgrim at the WWW2010 conference, being held this week in Raleigh, North Carolina. "The answer is both, depending on what your definition of 'ready' is."

Of course, with Steve Jobs' directive that Web developers use HTML5, instead of Adobe Flash, for rendering Web pages and RIAs (Rich Internet Applications) viewable on the iPad, the question of HTML5's readiness for duty has been an urgent one.

And not everyone is convinced of the technology's maturity.

"While it's possible that in the long run HTML5 will become an acceptable substitute for some types of RIA platforms, it's not there yet. HTML5 will have a significant impact on how Web applications are built -- but as a complementary technology to leading RIA platforms, not a replacement," concluded Forrester analyst Jeffrey Hammond, in a report released last week

For his presentation, Pilgrim, who is also writing a book about the next-generation markup language, reviewed HTML5's major new features, noting which browsers supported which features. He described his presentation as a follow-up to the Google 2009 I/O conference last year, in which Vic Gundotra, Google vice president of engineering, boldly proclaimed HTML5 ready for duty.

And, in a nutshell, if you include Microsoft still-in-beta Internet Explorer version 9, pretty much all the major browsers -- Safari, Chrome, Firefox, Opera -- now support HTML5, at least to varying degrees, Pilgrim said. On the mobile side, Google's Android and the iPhone support many HTML5 features as well.

Not all of HTML5 features are supported by the browsers, but many of the major features, including the new semantic tags, forms, multimedia, canvas, geolocation and off-line Web applications, have found a home.

For instance, Canvas tag works across all the major Internet browsers except IE. It also works on the iPhone and the Android, Pilgrim said.

Canvas is a "blank slate where you can draw anything you want with JavaScript," he said. He noted that there are a number of JavaScript libraries that can help render images and even a series of successive scenes. He demonstrated a page that uses the Canvas tag that held two pictures of his dog that could be moved around and resized.

"Look! No Flash," he said, as he revealed the source code of the page.

On the multimedia front, HTML5 supports both audio and video. The designer can use a built-in browser control panel or build a customized one from scratch. Like the other HTML5 features, the built-in multimedia tags are declarative tags, meaning the designer can specify what features, such as autoplay or default controls, to include with a single declaration. If these choices were to be implemented in script, "they'd be harder to control," Pilgrim said.

Pilgrim admitted that there is a dispute going on among all the browser makers over which HTML5-ready video codec to support. Safari only supports the H.264 format, while Firefox and Opera only supports Ogg Theora. Chrome will support both. On Friday, Microsoft announced, via blog post, that it would support H.264 "alone," implying that the browser would not support Ogg Theora.

"If you're willing to encode twice, video will pretty much work everywhere," Pilgrim said.

With geolocation, users can offer information about their whereabouts to a Web sites. Thus far, Google is using it for iPhone and Android's mobile search feature. Twitter uses this feature as well.

With off-line Web applications, a site can download data to a user's browsers so that data and functionality will be available even if the user is off-line. "This works today," Pilgrim noted, pointing to how Google uses the technology for iPhone's Gmail application, which allows users to access their email while unconnected to the Internet.

In summary, Pilgrim said that Web developers should start familiarizing themselves with the new capabilities within HTML5, as it considerably changes the definition of what constitutes the markup language. "After awhile HTML5, will just be [referred to as] HTML," he said.

"HTML is getting better, and that's big news," he said.

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v warns of serious SharePoint cross-site scripting zero-day

2010-05-04T01:04:00.000-07:00

Here’s the resources: http://www.test104.com/en/misc/all.asp

Microsoft issued a security advisory late Thursday, warning SharePoint users of a new SharePoint zero-day vulnerability that could allow elevation of privilege.

Jerry Bryant, Microsoft's group manager of response communications, said the software giant was unaware of any active attacks attempting to exploit the flaw. The cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability affects SharePoint Server 2007 and SharePoint Services 3.0. Proof-of-concept code is publicly available. The vulnerability can be exploited in a browser-based attack.

The Microsoft advisory includes a workaround to mitigate against the threat. Microsoft said users can restrict access by adding an access control list to SharePoint Help.aspx XML files. The workaround will, however, disable all help functionality from the SharePoint server, Microsoft said.

Servers are at reduced risk from Internet Explorer 8 clients, Microsoft said. IE 8 includes an XSS filter in the Internet zone that can block an attack.

According to an advisory issued by High-Tech Bridge SA, a security firm based in Switzerland, the SharePoint vulnerability could enable an attacker to execute JavaScript code within the vulnerable application. The firm said that it notified Microsoft of the vulnerability on April 12.

"Successful exploitation of this vulnerability could result in a compromise of the application, theft of cookie-based authentication credentials, disclosure or modification of sensitive data," the firm warned.

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Newly Updated Resources (Microsoft, CISCO, SUN, CCNP, Win7, CCNA, BSCI)

2010-05-04T00:56:00.000-07:00

Here's the resources http://www.test104.com/en/misc/all.asp

News

CISCO BSCI 642-901 Q&A 250 questions updated.
Microsoft 70-515 Q&A 124 questions updated.
Microsoft Win7 70-680 Q&A 193 questions updated.
Microsoft 70-518 Q&A 87 questions updated.
Microsoft 70-513 Q&A 125 questions updated.
Microsoft 70-511 Q&A 102 questions updated.
SUN 310-880 Q&A 111 questions updated.
CISCO CCNP 642-845 Q&A 280 questions updated.
CISCO CCNA 640-802 Q&A 340 questions updated.(V24)
CISCO CCNP 642-892 Q&A 344 questions updated.

Recent Updates:

CISCO BSCI 642-901 Q&A 250 questions updated. (2010/4/29)
Microsoft 70-515 Q&A 124 questions updated. (2010/4/29)
Microsoft Win7 70-680 Q&A 193 questions updated.(2010/4/28)
Microsoft 70-518 Q&A 87 questions updated. (2010/4/28)
Microsoft 70-513 Q&A 125 questions updated. (2010/4/27)
Microsoft 70-511 Q&A 102 questions updated.(2010/4/26)
SUN 310-880 Q&A 111 questions updated.(2010/4/26)
CISCO CCNP 642-845 Q&A 280 questions updated.(2010/4/23)
CISCO CCNA 640-802 Q&A 340 questions updated.(V24) (2010/4/23)
CISCO CCNP 642-892 Q&A 344 questions updated.(2010/4/23)

New Demo

Microsoft 70-511
Microsoft 70-513
Microsoft 70-518
Microsoft 70-515

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Oracle database security and compliance: Are you doing enough?

2010-04-27T01:26:00.000-07:00

Here’s the resources: http://www.test104.com/en/misc/all.asp

When you think about security, is protecting the privacy of your customers and the security of your data at the top of your list of concerns?

You might be quick to answer yes, but CTO Ron Ben Natan said in his session at the Collaborate ‘10 conference on Monday that for most people, compliance is usually the bigger worry — not whether your data is protected, but whether or not you’re going to pass your audit.

But to stay compliant, one must understand the many aspects of Oracle 10g and 11g security, a topic which Ben Natan of Guardium discussed with the approximately 20 people in attendance. He talked about the long process of securing your Oracle data — including hardening, assessing, classifying, monitoring, auditing, enforcing and encrypting — and offered tips for making it through each of these steps successfully.

This process is different for Oracle databases compared to Oracle applications, Ben Natan said. He pointed out that it’s much more difficult to know all of the user privileges and entitlements in an Oracle database environment, thus making the database more vulnerable to breaches involving the “unknown factor.”

What’s the “unknown factor”?

According to Ben Natan, nine out of 10 breaches involve:
• A system unknown to the organization
• A system storing data that the organization did not know existed
• A system that had unknown network connections
• A system that had unknown accounts or privileges

Oracle also has a highly complex privilege model, he said. Privileges grant users the right to run a specific type of SQL statement or perform a certain database operations. These privileges are grouped into user roles, and the high number of roles Oracle has can make it difficult to keep track. However, Oracle 11g only has 30 roles, compared to the 120 that were in 10g.

But some of these privileges, especially system privileges, of which Oracle has over 100, are very risky. Nearly any system privilege can be used by an attacker to assume DBA privileges, Ben Natan said. Oracle even notes this in its own documentation:

“Caution:
System privileges can be very powerful, and should be granted only when necessary to roles and trusted users of the database.”

What’s the best way to combat such vulnerabilities?

Ben Natan stressed the importance of installing quarterly Oracle’s Critical Patch Updates, a practice that not everyone agrees is as critical as Oracle claims. However, he said that “the only way to address vulnerability is to apply these patches,” even when it comes to simple attacks (of which the majority of security attacks are) like password breaches.

Still, the security decisions you make depend on many unique factors within your organization. Where do your security priorities lie? How do you assign roles and privileges in your company? What are your own experiences with applying Oracle’s patch updates?

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Oracle unveils Enterprise Manager 11g and 'integrated stack'

2010-04-27T01:17:00.000-07:00

Here’s the resources: http://www.test104.com/en/misc/all.asp

Oracle has rolled out Enterprise Manager 11g, continuing to push the idea of a full IT stack owned and managed by Oracle.

Oracle's notion of an "integrated stack" is that all products -- from the application layer to the hardware -- come from Oracle; in return, Oracle promises these components will can better communicate with one another, use a single management console and, eventually, all lead to one entity to point to when support is needed. The question is whether data center managers run enough Oracle to need such integration.

Integration throughout the stack could make Oracle Enterprise Manager beneficial for Oracle users who buy into the application-to-disk concept Oracle is trying to sell. But for those with heterogeneous environments, Enterprise Manager won't provide the same level of support.

Other features Oracle touted with Enterprise Manager 11g include business-driven application features that help companies connect and track a business transaction to the underlying IT that supports it. It also announced full support for newer in-house products such as Oracle Database 11g Release 2, Exadata Version 2, and Sun servers. .

Do data centers need an integrated stack
The Oracle acquisition of Sun Microsystems Inc. could bring some IT management benefits to those running Sun servers, or at least, that's what Ajit Solomon hopes. A database administrator at a major financial institution, Solomon said a prior version of Enterprise Manager doesn't provide enough insight into OS operations, and as a result he often ends up jumping between interfaces to get information. His shop runs Oracle databases and apps on Sun servers running Solaris. The new version promises tighter integration with all Oracle products, which now includes Solaris, but it's unclear whether it will solve Solomon's problems.

"I'd like to see more details on the operating system," he said. "If I did, I wouldn't have to manually go into the OS logs to get some of the information."

Solomon runs Solaris on Sparc servers, and so Oracle's integration promises could pay dividends. Forrester analyst JP Garbani said the integration is part of a future state called enterprise management 2.0. Garbani, who spoke at the Oracle launch of the new version of Enterprise Manager in New York on Thursday, said that in many data centers today, you're buying servers from one vendor, custom middleware applications, databases from another vendor, and management tools from some or all of them. According to him, that breeds complexity.

"You're putting it all together, and it's consuming a lot of resources and a lot of time," he said.

Oracle President Charles Phillips also addreseed that concept, saying that with integrated support, there is "no finger pointing" and "we figure it out."

That's all well and good, but the fact remains that most Oracle customers don't run the complete IT stack that Oracle is selling. As a result, they can't expect the IT management features of Oracle Enterprise Manager to be as comprehensive.

"With the Oracle stack, we can do deeper configuration work," said Richard Sarwal, the vice president of server performance at Oracle. "We certainly support a wide variety of non-Oracle hardware and software, but it's just a matter of the depth of management possible."

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Microsoft makes Windows HPC Server more Linux friendly

2010-04-27T01:13:00.000-07:00

Here’s the resources: http://www.test104.com/en/misc/all.asp

Microsoft remains a peon in Linux-dominated supercomputing, but the software giant has tried to gain ground with a more reliable, scalable and interoperable HPC operating system. The question is: will Linux users give it a chance?

Since the release of its first HPC operating system in 2006, Microsoft has worked to make Windows a respectable player in high-performance computing (HPC). But Microsoft's market share hasn't increased much. Only 5% to 6% of the HPC market use Windows, while about 75% of HPC systems run on Linux, followed by Unix, according to IDC data.

And in the latest Top500.Org list of supercomputing sites, more than 78% of systems listed ran Linux (391 in all), while only 1% (five systems) use Windows HPC Server 2008.

"Windows has been not strong in this space. Most HPC users are loyal Linux users because it is reliable and their legacy apps are designed for it," said Jie Wu, IDC's research director for technical computing. "Microsoft also has a large perception issue to overcome."

Microsoft: A leg up in HPC market?
Linux has a long history of reliability, solid performance, and most applications are designed to work with it. Plus, Linux can be cheap. Windows, on the other hand, has none of these advantages in the HPC space, which makes many administrators unwilling to try it.

An IT operations manager at a Seattle-based data center, for example, said he won't give Microsoft a shot on his HPC systems because "Windows always seems to require way more hardware resources than the Unix alternatives do to perform the same task."

Sam Fulcomer, the associate director at Brown University's Center for Computation and Visual Computing, said that, historically, the availability of computational software for Windows lags Linux and the older mainstream Unix variants. Plus, Windows has had an issue with native client support for high-performance parallel file systems.

Fulcomer runs a CentOS Linux build on an IBM supercomputer that Brown University deployed late last year. At the time, he did not consider Windows a viable candidate and said it would take a strong incentive to use such an "unusual" OS.

One administrator who runs a server cluster for a university in the U.K. has Windows HPC Server in-house in case he needs it but runs it only in a sandbox environment. It isn't in production because most software users served by the HPC system "want and need to run Linux."

Microsoft's HPC strategy
That sort of Linux loyalty is not lost on Microsoft, and the company has taken an If-you-can't-beat-'em-join-'em attitude with Windows HPC Server 2008 R2, which became available in Beta 2 this month. The final release is scheduled for later this year.

Microsoft added a "hybrid" option in the R2 version so Linux users can run Windows without disposing of their tried-and-true OS. Users can run Windows and Linux on a cluster at the same time or switch back and forth between Linux and Windows nodes.

"There are certainly cases where even the most devoted Linux user will want to run a Windows app, and now they can do that without ripping and replacing their existing Linux," said Ryan Waite, head of Microsoft's Windows HPC Server engineering team.

By tapping into its massive installed x86 and desktop customer base, Microsoft will also gain customers. Existing Windows shops may be more willing to give their familiar OS a try -- especially if these shops run Windows 7 on desktops.

In Windows HPC Server 2008 R2, Microsoft added the ability to repurpose Windows 7 workstations as compute nodes so that idle PCs can be designated to HPC clusters to perform computational workloads.

The ability to remotely run jobs has been around forever but Windows HPC Server 2008 R2 takes things a step further by integrating that capability into its cluster management software, said Microsoft.

The next HPC OS will also support Visual Studio 2010 for parallel development of HPC applications, and it integrates with a new HPC version of Excel 2010 that runs in parallel and drastically cuts down the time it takes to run data, Waite said.

Though still in beta, Windows HPC Server 2008 R2 appears to be much more stable and scalable, which has caught the attention of more original equipment manufacturers and independent software vendors that have developed Windows-friendly apps and products for it, IDC's Wu said.

"Microsoft is very serious about the HPC space, because it is growing faster than the x86 space," Wu said. "They are doing things to make Windows a real option."

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Oracle’s virtualization support policy, technologies may get a makeover in wake of Sun deal

2010-04-26T00:08:00.000-07:00

Here’s the resources: http://www.test104.com/en/misc/all.asp

Oracle’s virtualization support policy just might get a makeover in the wake of the company’s $7.4 billion purchase of beleaguered IT giant Sun Microsystems -- and experts say that’s just one of several virtualization-related considerations Oracle is facing as it works to integrate Sun’s technology and customer base.

In addition to a possible reexamination of its virtualization support rules, Oracle should quickly address the concerns of existing Sun customers that want better virtualization functionality, analysts say. Oracle also faces the mammoth tasks of bringing Sun’s virtualization technologies in line with its own while simultaneously presenting a clear and unified marketing message to current and potential customers – a process that is already in full swing.

“If you look at virtualization, [Oracle] now has several different pieces of software that they’re going to need to integrate into one,” said Donald Feinberg, analyst with Stamford, Conn.-based research firm Gartner Group. “How long it’s going to take, I really don’t know. But it’s a pretty good bet that they’ll do it. Oracle has yet to screw up an acquisition.”

Oracle announced that it finalized the Sun deal in late January. Sun, a company famous for its Java programming language and “mainframe-like” servers that run on SPARC processors, lost business in recent years owing to the rise of Linux and relatively inexpensive x86-based hardware.

While Oracle offers comprehensive virtualization support services for customers running its own Xen-based hypervisor, Oracle VM, the company officially refuses to support third-party virtualization tools like VMware and Microsoft Hyper-V. But the purchase of Sun and its popular Unix-based Solaris operating system could lead Oracle to rethink its support policy, according to analysts.

Along with Sun, Oracle inherited a significant number of customers that run “Solaris for x86” in third-party virtualization environments. Meanwhile, the ranks of users running Oracle databases and business applications on third-party virtualization tools are growing all the time. The point, analysts say, is that Oracle today serves all kinds of virtualization technology users and those customers may demand increased support for non-Oracle virtualization deployments over time.

“Oracle doesn’t fully support anybody else’s virtualization, but I think that is going to change,” said Dan Olds, a research analyst with Gabriel Consulting Group in Beaverton, Ore. “Virtualization has become too prevalent, and there are simply too many customers that are out there using non-Oracle virtualization.”

To be sure, some analysts think Oracle is unlikely to declare all-out support for the likes of VMware anytime soon, but they say the company could eventually cut deals or create programs that make it easier to get some level of Oracle support for non-Oracle virtualization environments.

“I think there are lots of folks that would like to see them play better with allowing Oracle to run on other [virtualization] platforms, but I don’t think that is currently in the plan,” said Barb Goldworm, founder, president and chief analyst with Focus Consulting in Boulder, Colo. “Ellison’s vision is to own the full stack and tune it to run better with their operating system environments, their virtualization environment and their hardware.”

Sun’s virtualization capabilities lacking?

Oracle is also facing questions from customers who feel that Sun’s SPARC-based virtualization capabilities are lacking, said Tony Iams, an operating systems and virtualization technology analyst with Ideas International in Rye Brook, N.Y.

At a recent Oracle virtualization technology event in New York, Iams spoke with several end users who expressed concerns over Sun’s virtualization track record.

“There was a sense that Sun had not really kept up with improving virtualization technology on SPARC -- that it had fallen behind what you could get on x86 from folks like VMware,” he said.

One popular feature of high-profile virtualization systems is what VMware calls Live Migration -- the ability to move a virtual machine from one server to another without any downtime. Oracle VM, Hyper-V and some other Unix vendors, such as IBM, offer similar capabilities, but Iams said Sun never made it happen for Solaris on SPARC users.

“[Live Migration] is really a key piece of the foundation of VMware’s entire platform, and it’s a really powerful function,” he explained. “When you combine [Live Migration capabilities] with availability and load balancing, power management and so on, it unlocks a lot of the power of virtualization by letting you shift the workloads around and match them to the right resources without interrupting processing.”

Oracle’s marketing machine is already working to send the message that it intends to improve virtualization on SPARC. Oracle began this process recently when it changed the name of Sun’s hardware virtualization technology from Logical Domains (Ldoms) to Oracle VM Server for SPARC, Iams said.

“By giving it the same name, they’re kind of laying out the expectation that [SPARC and x86 users] are going to have equivalent functionality on both platforms,” he said.

The Oracle-Sun virtualization technology integration challenge

With the Oracle-Sun deal finalized, analysts say Oracle must now unify both the technological capabilities and the marketing messages associated with its growing portfolio of virtualization software products. That list of products includes Oracle VM; Virtual Iron, a company Oracle acquired last year; Sun’s XVM virtualization product line; and Sun’s VirtualBox product line.

“The Sun XVM hypervisor never really made it out the door in a standalone version in the kind of form that could compete directly with VMware,” Iams said. “It’s really Oracle VM that is going to be their strategic platform on x86. That is the hypervisor that they’ll take to market and use to compete against VMware and Hyper-V and so on.”

Oracle Enterprise Manager (OEM) will become a key part of Oracle’s virtualization messaging going forward, he said. OEM is slated to become the central management console for the various virtualization technologies that make up the Oracle VM product line, according to the company.

“The hypervisor itself is getting less important, and people are caring more and more about managing the virtual infrastructure,” Iams said. “That’s where you get most of the added value.”

Virtualization of mission-critical systems remains an issue

Analysts cite the slowly increasing use of virtualization for mission-critical deployments like databases as one possible reason why Oracle might want to revisit its virtualization support policy, but end users say they still prefer virtualization for less important systems.

“Anything that is mission critical to me needs its own box,” said John Chaney, IT project manager with JanPak Inc., a Davidson, N.C.-based distributor of janitorial and packaging supplies. “That’s just my [philosophy].”

JanPak previously ran an Oracle Database 9i-based fleet coordination application in a VMware ESX Server virtualization environment. The company ultimately decided to migrate to Microsoft SQL Server 2005 after the logistics application officially ended support for Oracle 9i. Today, JanPak runs the logistics application in a standalone box but still uses VMware for other tasks.

Chaney says he prefers to use the virtualization layer to store images and templates that basically remain unchanged over time. Any dynamic, mission-critical information that finds its way to the virtualization layer should be properly and frequently backed up -- or better yet, moved to a standalone box, he said.

“VMware is really for our Web order entry front end,” Chaney explained. “The next plan is to [deploy] a standby VMware system with all our [static] images ready to boot up.”

As part of that plan, Chaney will spend time making sure that images stored on the standby VMware system do not contain too much information.

“That is my biggest thing about VMware,” he said. “It’s nice to have the image there, but really I want the VMware [layer to consist of just] the operating system and the application front.”

For more news, please access http://www.test104.com/en/tech/

Open source options expanding for Microsoft world

2010-04-26T00:07:00.000-07:00

Here’s the resources: http://www.test104.com/en/misc/all.asp

Developers and testers looking for open source tools for Microsoft platforms and technologies have increasingly more choices than in the past. Indeed Microsoft itself has become a contributor over the past few years, and last year was the founding sponsor of the CodePlex Foundation, which has the stated goal of increasing participation in open source community projects.

"The percent of open source software that is Windows compatible has been climbing steadily for the last five years," said Scott Collison, chief product officer and head of corporate development for the online network Geeknet Inc., which includes the SourceForge open source hosting site. "More than 80% of open source software today is Windows compatible," he said, based on data collected from Geeknet's Ohloh.net open source directory. While the majority of new OSS projects starting today are operating system agnostic, according to Collison, Windows is the only OS that runs all 10 of the top 10 all-time most-downloaded projects on SourceForge.

In the .NET arena, Collison said the Mono project, a cross-platform .NET development framework, has the largest set of tools that support .NET. "Microsoft also offers some open source tools around .NET, and there's also DotNetNuke," he cited as examples. "There's a good ecosystem of development tools that target .NET."

It wasn't always that way, said Charles Poole, an independent software developer and consultant focusing on the .NET environment, and one of the developers of NUnit, an open source unit-testing framework for .NET languages. When Poole started working on open source, "the open source folks weren't terribly welcomed by Microsoft, and the people working in Microsoft tools weren't very welcome among the mainstream open source folks. It was the open source people who have more a political orientation, who think working with Microsoft software at all disqualifies you, but I see signs that it's changing."

One important thing Microsoft did was to support PHP on the Windows platform, Collison said. "It was a good decision on their part. There are so many PHP applications being written, that not supporting it on the platform would be foolish strategically. That's the biggest commitment Microsoft has made to open source."

Poole said there are still more OSS tools for the Linux world than the Microsoft world, "but there is a lot of choice now. The movement ALT.NET has been a big push among Microsoft developers, but pushing to use a lot of different tools and have more choice."

Over the past few years, Microsoft has steadily increased its participation in open source, according to Brian Goldfarb, director, Developer Platform and Tools at Microsoft. "Microsoft engineers have contributed to more than 300 open source projects," he said, including Windows Installer XMLWiX; Apache Stonehenge, a set of example applications for service-oriented architecture that spans languages and platforms and demonstrates best practice and interoperability; and Web Sandbox, a framework for developing secure standards-based Web applications. Also, he added, "We have invested in systems to support open source development such as CodePlex.com and Snakebite. We provide technical support to projects ranging from Samba to Eclipse to Firefox."

He continued, "From my team alone, we've made a number of investments in open source in the last year. These include contributions to the jQuery JavaScript Library, the Silverlight Media Framework (SMF), the Silverlight Analytics Framework (SAF), the Silverlight Control Toolkit, the AJAX Control Toolkit and Project Orchard."

Goldfarb said Microsoft sees the CodePlex Foundation as an opportunity to participate more actively in open source development. "The CodePlex Foundation has been set up with a unique purpose–to build a set of practices and processes that facilitate better collaboration among the participating software companies, industry partners, and open source communities. We are excited about the opportunities that the CodePlex Foundation will provide–for Microsoft and other organizations–in creating a forum for commercial and community developers alike."

The CodePlex Foundation uses a museum-like model with "galleries" that represent technology themes, said Executive Director Paula Hunter. Currently there are two project galleries, ASP.NET and Systems Infrastructure and Integration.

There are three projects in the ASP.NET gallery: the ASP.NET Ajax Library Beta for building database-driven Web applications that execute in the Web browser; Orchard, aimed at delivering applications and reusable components on the ASP.NET platform; and MVC Contrib, to provide enhancements and alternative implementations to the ASP.NET MVC framework. MVC Contrib is the first project donated to the CodePlex Foundation by an independent group of developers backed by an independent software development company, Headspring. There is one project in the Systems Infrastructure and Integration gallery: Network Monitor Parsers Project, contributed by Microsoft.

Hunter said in addition to getting a technical director in place, near-term goals for CodePlex are to "encourage more contributors, expand the diversity of projects and add new galleries, and add additional sponsors to the mix."

"We anticipate the CodePlex Foundation will act as a mediating, neutral party that can facilitate better collaboration between the participating companies, industry partners and open source communities," Goldfarb said.

Clearly, it's a heterogenous world, and open source is part of that mix. "In my work as a consultant and coach for agile teams, I encourage companies to get the standard edition of Visual Studio which costs a lot less and supplement it with open source tools," Poole said, such as NUnit and NAnt, a .NET build tool. He also encourages some of his clients to consider Mono instead of Visual Studio.

Goldfarb said mixed environments like this are the reality. "Microsoft is open to open source … and shares the common industry view that software users will continue to see a mixed IT environment of open source and proprietary products for years to come." He added, "open source software can represent healthy competition and an opportunity to complement or enhance Microsoft technologies and products. Microsoft's open source strategy recognizes the value of openness to working with others—including open source communities—to help customers and partners succeed in today's heterogeneous IT environments."

While "there's always a certain skepticism around what Microsoft is doing around open source," said Jay Lyman, an analyst at 451 Group, "they have a significant number of projects on SourceForge; a couple years ago they got their license approved as an OSI license; [they] work with the PHP community, [they] work with Apache … and now the CodePlex Foundation is largely following the blueprint of IBM/Eclipse."

Jeffrey Hammond, principal analyst for application development at Forrester Research, added: "I think they've [Microsoft] realized at this point that they have more to gain in some areas by embracing and promoting open source rather than pushing back against it. There are ways they can use open source for competitive advantage, which is reflective of the changes in behavior. Look at what they've done to embrace Linux running on top of Hyper-V; it makes sense because they can compete with VMware. And with the acquisition of Teamprise [which enables developers using the Eclipse IDE or operating on multiple operating systems to build applications with Microsoft Visual Studio Team Foundation Server] they're competing with Eclipse."

Hammond concluded, "Where they've gotten to is a pragmatic outlook on open source software that views it as a potential competitive advantage."

For more news, please access http://www.test104.com/en/tech/

HP-3Com acquisition: An integrated networking portfolio emerges

2010-04-26T00:05:00.000-07:00

Here’s the resources: http://www.test104.com/en/misc/all.asp

HP outlined its 3Com integration plans Monday, including an edge-to-core networking portfolio with a unified data center fabric that executives promise will be less expensive and more power efficient than Cisco's, fueling the ongoing HP-Cisco war. The question remains, however, just how integrated the equipment can be, given how little time HP has had to work with 3Com equipment.

HP's integrated portfolio, announced just a week after the $2.7 billion HP-3Com acquisition closing, combines HP's ProCurve LAN edge products with 3Com's enterprise security, core switching and routing offerings. The new integrated portfolio will be sold under the name HP Networking (both the ProCurve and 3Com brands will be retired). HP doesn't plan to discontinue any 3Com product in the short term -- though it's unlikely that 3Com switches that overlap with ProCurve will be around for long. The integrated portfolio does not yet include new technology.

Waving the ever-popular convergence flag, HP executives said during a media webcast that the goal of the portfolio is to eliminate IT silos and unify networking, servers and storage in a single fabric with one management system. Taking aim at Cisco's strikingly similar offering, executives promised open standards and the ability for customers to transition their networks without the need to rip and replace. The Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) strategy ultimately requires that users build from the ground up.

Enterprise clients are currently "working with fragile network infrastructure" in "management environments that are hard to manage, vulnerable and expensive to maintain," said Marius Haas, senior vice president and general manager of HP networking. "With HP, clients will have a network that is open, flexible and robust," he said, and one with collapsed network layers to enable ease of automation and a flexible pool of resources.

Real integration in the HP-3Com acquisition so quickly?

Considering that Cisco spent years planning its UCS and that the Juniper Stratus data center plan has been in the works for many months and won't be available until 2011, some find it hard to believe that HP can actually have a tightly integrated networking portfolio with a true unified fabric involving 3Com's equipment.

Many believe the HP-3Com acquisition was more a move to gain ground in the hot Chinese market, where 3Com's H3C brand is beating Cisco. In fact, most analysts believed it to be more of an account control move than one that was especially tech savvy. With Cisco's launch into the server space, HP needed to hold ground against Cisco and the possibility that IBM would push back through stronger partnerships with Juniper and Brocade or, even worse, rebuild its own networking portfolio, according to Tom Nolle, president of CIMI Corporation.

"But the buyer isn't interested in sales goals," Nolle said. "You have to create some meaningful integration here. This seems to be facile … that they would have all this done so quickly."

Meaningful integration doesn't necessarily mean just using existing open standards and patching together management systems across the product sets, he added.

David Yen, Juniper's executive vice president and general manager of fabric and switching technologies, speaking to SearchNetworking.com on Monday from the Cloud Computing Expo in New York, also questioned the speediness of HP Networking's integrated portfolio.

"Juniper has been working on this for three years," Yen said, adding that he assumes that HP is promising heavily tested integration. "I am skeptical. Once you remove the marketing façade, it can't come anywhere close. Their first challenge is trying to integrate the two companies' product lines, which have significant overlap … and then trying to integrate the two organizations together. Even for large players with sufficient time and prioritization, it takes time to put together a useful set and get customers started on trying them and giving feedback."

For its part, HP said the networking portfolio has already been deployed in a few major companies, including BMW. And HP drank its own Kool-Aid, announcing Monday that it had opened its own "Cisco-free" data center using 34 3Com routers, four TippingPoint intrusion detection and protection devices, and more than 300 ProCurve switches. The new architecture saves the company 50% in consumption levels, executives said.

The HP Networking portfolio breakdown

Specifically, the HP Networking portfolio can be broken into four categories: a security solution, and product sets for the enterprise, midmarket, and smaller businesses.

The A Series will focus on the large enterprise data center and is most likely to go head-to-head with Cisco. It promises a virtual switching fabric and includes a mixture of 3Com's H3C switches, routers and wireless equipment along with the ProCurve edge 6600 switches and the 6120 blade switch. The E Series focuses on the midsized market and includes wired and wireless LAN integration and wireless access technology, as well as 3Com's VoIP product set and a series of switches. The V Series includes a wireless firewall, security and plug-and-play switches for companies with little or no IT staff. Finally, the S Series includes TippingPoint security products, including intrusion detection and prevention systems.

HP executives said the company is currently developing products that support converged enhanced Ethernet and FCoE, but they didn't elaborate. They also said major storage products would not be introduced as part of the portfolio.

HP's Marius Haas summed up the company's position saying, "We believe storage partnerships are the way to go."

For more news, please access http://www.test104.com/en/tech/

Newly Updated Resources (Microsoft, CISCO, SUN, CCSP, Win7)

2010-04-26T00:01:00.000-07:00

Here's the resources http://www.test104.com/en/misc/all.asp

News

Microsoft 70-519 Q&A 85 questions updated.
CISCO 640-816 Q&A 132 questions updated.
SUN 310-878 Q&A 166 questions updated.
SUN 310-877 Q&A 103 questions updated.
CISCO 642-611 Q&A 101 questions updated.
SUN 310-875 Q&A 89 questions updated.
CISCO CCSP 642-504 Q&A 62 questions updated.
Microsoft Win7 70-680 Q&A 124 questions updated.
Microsoft 70-526 Q&A 126 questions updated.
Microsoft 70-528 Q&A 111 questions updated.

Recent Updates:

Microsoft 70-519 Q&A 85 questions updated. (2010/4/22)
CISCO 640-816 Q&A 132 questions updated. (2010/4/22)
SUN 310-878 Q&A 166 questions updated.(2010/4/21)
SUN 310-877 Q&A 103 questions updated. (2010/4/20)
CISCO 642-611 Q&A 101 questions updated. (2010/4/20)
SUN 310-875 Q&A 89 questions updated.(2010/4/19)
CISCO CCSP 642-504 Q&A 62 questions updated.(2010/4/19)
Microsoft Win7 70-680 Q&A 124 questions updated.(2010/4/17)
Microsoft 70-526 Q&A 126 questions updated.(2010/4/16)
Microsoft 70-528 Q&A 111 questions updated.(2010/4/16)

New Demo

Microsoft 70-519
Microsoft 70-433cn
SUN 310-875

For more details, please access http://www.test104.com/en/news/news.asp

Windows-based attack bypasses file restrictions, network detection

2010-04-22T01:51:00.000-07:00

Here’s the resources: http://www.test104.com/en/misc/all.asp

Functionality in Microsoft Windows that allows for backwards compatibility can allow an attacker to bypass file restrictions or network security defenses such as intrusion detection systems, a security researcher said today at SOURCE Boston 2010.

Dan Crowley, a tech support engineer at Core Security Technologies, presented several means of bypassing these protections in the Windows versions of four Web servers: Nginx; Cherokee; Mongoose; and LightTPD. The most glaring is through the use of 8.3 aliases in Windows. These aliases are DOS-compatible aliases created every time a file is created in Windows. Both file names can be accessed, even though they aren't the same.

The 8.3 filesystem pseudonym vulnerability was reported in February by Core Security.

8.3 aliases are eight-character filenames followed by a three-character file extension name. In Windows, these are the first six characters of a filename, followed by a tilde, a digit, a period and the file extension (exampl~1.txt). All other characters in the filename are truncated by Windows. This greatly increases the effectiveness of brute-force attacks because the time and resources needed to guess a filename would be greatly reduced, Crowley said. Theoretically, an attacker could call a file via its alias, view source code, manipulate it by uploading malware, and the next time the file is called legitimately, the system would be owned.

He added that all of his testing was done on Web-based platforms, but he said any application that accepts user input would be vulnerable as well.

"Applications do string-based analysis of filepaths," Crowley said. "This is done to decide how to handle files, deny access or determine if input is malicious. These alternate file names, or even mangled file names, can bypass or break a lot of things. The operating system interacts with the file system, not the application. Because of this, it does a string-based analysis and passes that on to the file system if it is satisfied with what it sees, rather than asking the file system if this is OK."

Problems arise with IDS rules, for example, if they are tuned to look for example.php, exampl~1 would not be flagged. An attacker would be able to access files or send remote code.

Crowley says one mitigation technique is to disable the use of 8.3 aliases.

Ideally, he said, the best mitigation is to stop the practice of string-based analysis of filepaths, acknowledging the performance hit other techniques would impose on systems.

For more news, please access http://www.test104.com/en/tech/

Microsoft pitches cloud to help manage PCs

2010-04-22T01:49:00.000-07:00

Here’s the resources: http://www.test104.com/en/misc/all.asp

Microsoft is trying to help midsize business keep their PCs in tune.

On Monday, the software maker is set to launch a beta for Windows Intune, a service that uses the cloud to offer management, patching, and antivirus capabilities for a company's PCs. When it launches in final form, the Intune service will also include upgrade rights for a company to move its PCs to the enterprise edition of Windows 7. It will also include the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack, a collection of asset management, virtualization, and other services that typically are only available for large businesses that have a Software Assurance contract with Microsoft.

Sandrine Skinner, a director in Microsoft's Windows unit, said that Windows Intune is aimed at companies that have up to 500 PCs that are looking to manage their machines with just a small IT staff.

"They aspire to have enterprise-class infrastructure, but don't necessarily have the means," she said.

One of the key features of the service is its ability to schedule and manage updates of Windows and other Microsoft software, a capability that in the past required Windows Server Update Services or another management tool.

"We're removing the need to have such a server," Skinner said. Although the Intune service can manage updates to Microsoft software, it can't update third-party software, nor can it handle the initial deployment and installation of programs.

On the anti-malware front, Intune uses the same engine that powers Microsoft's Forefront business software and its free Windows Security Essentials consumer product.

A single Silverlight-based Web console can show an overview of a company's entire fleet of PCs, showing which machines do and don't have the latest updates as well as any issues with malware.

The beta for the online services part of Intune will start this week, Skinner said, with Microsoft aiming to sign up about 1,000 businesses, all in North America. Customers will get a free trial of the online tools, but not the Windows 7 upgrade rights or the desktop optimization pack.

Intune can only manage PCs that are running one of the business versions of Windows XP or later. Windows XP machines must be running at least Service Pack 2, though Service Pack 3 is recommended.

Skinner said that Microsoft hopes to launch the final version of Intune within the next 12 months, although it is still working on a number of issues, including how to price the service.

"We're still working on it, honestly," Skinner said. The company hopes to sell it similar to the way it sells other Microsoft Online services, with businesses signing up for a one-year initial contract and then month to month after that.

In a March interview with CNET, Microsoft's head of small- and midsize business efforts said that the cloud has the potential to be a great equalizer for small and midsize businesses that are looking for enterprise-type capabilities but that have limited budgets and IT staff.

"Cloud computing, from a pure economics standpoint, is a more efficient way of servicing small business," Steen said. "It's not a one-time thing. It's pay as you need it," Birger Steen said in the interview.

The announcement of the Intune beta comes just days after Microsoft launched "Fix it Center"--a more basic automated troubleshooting service for consumers and small businesses.

For more news, please access http://www.test104.com/en/tech/

Microsoft to fix IE8 cross-site scripting problem, again

2010-04-22T01:47:00.000-07:00

Here’s the resources: http://www.test104.com/en/misc/all.asp

Microsoft will plug a hole in a built-in filter in Internet Explorer 8 that can be used to launch the very types of attacks on Web sites it was designed to help prevent, the company said on Tuesday.

The company will update the IE cross-site scripting (XSS) filter in June to fix a hole that researchers warned about at the Black Hat Europe conference in Barcelona last week. The researchers showed how problems with the filter could be used to inject malicious code onto sites including Google, Microsoft's Bing search site, and Twitter.

"A June release is what's usual for the testing involved for updates," a Microsoft spokesperson said.

This will be Microsoft's third attempt to fix security issues with the XSS Filter in IE8.

"The XSS Filter related Blackhat EU presentation discussed a vulnerability that was previously disclosed and addressed in the January security update to Internet Explorer (MS10-002)," David Ross wrote on the Microsoft Security Response Center blog.

That was followed by a critical update in March. (MS10-018)

The update scheduled for June "will address a SCRIPT tag attack scenario described in the Blackhat EU presentation," Ross wrote. "In the case of the Internet Explorer XSS Filter, researchers found scenarios that are generally applicable across XSS filtering technologies in all currently shipping browsers with this technology built-in."

For more news, please access http://www.test104.com/en/tech/

Newly Updated Resources (CCNA, Microsoft, CISCO)

2010-04-15T19:52:00.000-07:00

Here’s the resources http://www.test104.com/en/misc/all.asp

News

CISCO ISCW 642-825 Q&A 247 questions updated.
Microsoft 70-504 Q&A 186 questions updated.
Microsoft 70-510 Q&A 76 questions updated.
Microsoft 70-502 Q&A 115 questions updated.
Microsoft 70-503 Q&A 145 questions updated.
Microsoft 70-350 Q&A 115 questions updated.
Microsoft 70-448 Q&A 100 questions updated.
Microsoft 70-582 Q&A 74 questions updated.
CISCO CCNA 640-802 Q&A 340 questions updated.
CISCO 642-654 Q&A 50 questions updated.
Microsoft 70-623 Q&A 130 questions updated.

Recent Updates:

CISCO ISCW 642-825 Q&A 247 questions updated. (2010/4/15)
Microsoft 70-504 Q&A 186 questions updated. (2010/4/14)
Microsoft 70-510 Q&A 76 questions updated.(2010/4/14)
Microsoft 70-502 Q&A 115 questions updated. (2010/4/13)
Microsoft 70-503 Q&A 145 questions updated. (2010/4/13)
Microsoft 70-350 Q&A 115 questions updated.(2010/4/12)
Microsoft 70-448 Q&A 100 questions updated.(2010/4/12)
Microsoft 70-582 Q&A 74 questions updated.(2010/4/12)
CISCO CCNA 640-802 Q&A 340 questions updated.(V24)(2010/4/9)
CISCO 642-654 Q&A 50 questions updated.(2010/4/9)
Microsoft 70-623 Q&A 130 questions updated.(2010/4/8)

New Demo

Microsoft 70-582
CISCO 642-654
CISCO 642-892
CISCO 642-812

For more details, please access http://www.test104.com/en/news/news.asp

Newly Updated Resources (IBM, Microsoft,CISCO)

2010-04-08T23:43:00.000-07:00

Here’s the resources http://www.test104.com/en/misc/all.asp

News

Microsoft 70-623 Q&A 130 questions updated.
CISCO CCNP 642-892 Q&A 344 questions updated.
CISCO BCMSN 642-812 Q&A 241 questions updated.
IBM 000-085 Q&A 45 questions updated.
Microsoft 70-445 Q&A 92 questions updated.
Microsoft 70-444 Q&A 95 questions updated.

Recent Updates:

Microsoft 70-623 Q&A 130 questions updated. (2010/4/8)
CISCO CCNP 642-892 Q&A 344 questions updated. (2010/4/7)
CISCO BCMSN 642-812 Q&A 241 questions updated.(Pic revised)(2010/4/7)
IBM 000-085 Q&A 45 questions updated. (2010/4/1)
Microsoft 70-445 Q&A 92 questions updated. (2010/3/26)
Microsoft 70-444 Q&A 95 questions updated.(2010/3/26)

New Demo

IBM 000-085
CISCO 642-892
CISCO 642-812

For more details, please access http://www.test104.com/en/news/news.asp

Cloud storage: Five best practices for moving to the cloud

2010-03-19T02:35:00.000-07:00

Here’s the resources: http://www.test104.com/en/misc/all.asp

These are still early days for cloud storage, but we've already gleaned valuable best practices from administrators and other experts for getting the most from a move to the cloud, whether you're looking to do it today or down the road:

Best practice #1: Scrutinize service-level agreements

Proceed with caution when it comes to getting a service-level agreement (SLA) from a cloud provider. That means read the SLA closely before committing.

"There are a few major providers offering SLAs that are very vague about things like guaranteed recovery and assured destruction of data," Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) storage architect Michael Passe said at a Storage Decisions session last year. "You want to look behind the wizard's curtain to see what is really there."

Lauren Whitehouse, a senior analyst at Milford, Mass.-based Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG), said data access is one area that bears close examination in an SLA.

"Generally, SLAs have to do with access to the service, not to data," she said. "Generally, the service has to be down more than 10 minutes before it's considered an outage, so two nine-minute outages in an hour don't count as an outage. If there's an outage of the service, they just adjust the bill -- that's the kind of game that gets played. You have to ask, 'What about access to data?'"

Best practice #2: Follow your business needs

Lantmännen, a collective owned by 40,000 Swedish farmers, saved more than $6 million in the first year after building an internal private cloud with EMC Corp. storage and Riverbed Technology WAFS devices, said Dennis Jansson, Lantmännen's chief security officer.

Jansson said users choose what type of application they need through a web interface, and each service has a fee, SLA and integrated enterprise security management application.

"We're able to actually follow business needs," Jansson said of the cloud. "It doesn't make decisions on applications the users need."

He called the cloud "an easier way to say consolidation, virtualization and standardization."

Best practice #3: Repurpose your own resources

Online advertising sales rep firm Gorilla Nation Media LLC built an external customer-facing cloud and an internal cloud for employees by using servers it already owned along with cloud vendor ParaScale Inc.'s Hyper-scale Storage Cloud software to build an object-based clustered NAS system for unstructured data. Alex Godelman, vice president of technology at Gorilla Nation, said the cloud replaced a more expensive NAS setup.

"To grow the internal cloud, we just add more nodes," he said. "The design of the system is also very simple -- we just kind of use it. And it allows us to breathe some life into a huge existing investment, which means we created the system virtually for free."

Best practice #4: Prepare for the future

Even if you're not ready for the cloud now -- or the cloud's not ready for you -- start thinking about how it may help you down the road.

Charles Shepard, director of systems architecture at the MGM Mirage in Las Vegas, said he will consider an external private cloud when technology advances make it feasible.

"When Fibre Channel over Ethernet [FCoE] becomes completely adaptable and adopted over the next five years, and when it is completely standardized, that is the pathway to develop a full cloud outside our data center," he said. "If you have a big enough pipe, like 10 Gigabit Ethernet [10 GbE] or even 100 [Gigabit] Ethernet, you might be able to take a database and write from it to the cloud."

He said FCoE would be well suited to multitenancy, which is a crucial component of the cloud.

"It inherently subsegments networks for internal and external multitenant environments," he said.

Best practice #5: Beware of hidden costs

Cloud storage providers will tell you the basic cost per gigabyte of cloud storage up front to help you figure out how much it will cost you per month depending on the amount of data you need to store. But these basic costs are only part of the picture, and providers may also charge extra for data transfers, metadata functions, or copying and deleting files. And don't forget the costs of connecting to the cloud, perhaps with a T1 line.

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Patch for Microsoft Virtual PC weakness unlikely

2010-03-19T02:33:00.000-07:00

Here’s the resources: http://www.test104.com/en/misc/all.asp

Microsoft is dismissing weaknesses discovered in its Virtual PC software that enable an attacker to bypass Windows security features and exploit common vulnerabilities in applications.

A Microsoft spokesperson said Wednesday that it has no immediate plans to address a Virtual PC hypervisor memory protection vulnerability discovered by an exploit writer at Core Security Technologies Inc.

"As the behavior described in Core's Advisory simply calls out a way for an attacker to more easily exploit security vulnerabilities that must already be present on the system vs. a new, standalone vulnerability, we have no plans to alter the Windows Virtual PC environment," the spokesperson wrote in an email message. "Microsoft is of course always evaluating ways to strengthen security mitigations present in its software and may choose to integrate them when they reach a sufficient level of quality and offer value to our customers."

Users of Windows 7 can use Virtual PC technology in XP mode to run applications that aren't compatible with Windows 7. The memory allocation error makes coding flaws, which normally would cause an application to terminate on physical machines, into exploitable vulnerabilities, said Ivan Arce, chief technology officer of Boston-based Core Security Technologies Inc.

Arce said the vulnerability enables an attacker to bypass Data Execution Prevention (DEP), Safe Exception Handlers (SafeSEH) and Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR) security features used in Windows systems to prevent malicious code from executing in the Windows kernel. He was unavailable to respond to Microsoft's response to the issue.

The Microsoft spokesperson said only applications running inside a guest virtual machine are at risk. Users of Virtual PC should follow common security practices, including making sure a firewall is enabled, antivirus software is installed and up to date and all software has been updated with the latest security patches.

"An attacker could not take over a whole host machine running multiple virtual machines. The safeguards within Windows 7 on the desktop OS (DEP, ASLR, and SafeSEH etc.) remain in place," the Microsoft spokesperson said.

In a blog entry issued earlier this week, Microsoft's Paul Cooke, a director in the Windows Client group, stopped short of calling the Virtual PC issue a vulnerability.

"The functionality that Core calls out is not an actual vulnerability per se," Cooke wrote. "The protection mechanisms that are present in the Windows kernel are rendered less effective inside of a virtual machine as opposed to a physical machine. There is no vulnerability introduced, just a loss of certain security protection mechanisms."

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Scaling SQL Server 2008 performance and efficiency

2010-03-19T02:25:00.000-07:00

Here’s the resources: http://www.test104.com/en/misc/all.asp

Two goals of SQL Server 2008 were to increase scalability and deliver predictable performance. To squeeze maximum scalability from SQL Server 2008, Microsoft added the following features:
• Resource Governor
• Management Data Warehouse
• Policy-based management
• Increased hardware support

Resource Governor

Resource Governor is a feature introduced in SQL Server 2008 Enterprise and Developer Editions. It was designed to deliver predictable performance across a SQL Server instance. It allows you to scale the number of databases, applications and users that SQL supports. This capability prevents one query from consuming SQL Server resources and degrading all other processes running on that server.

You can also throttle the amount of CPU and memory that a group of processes will consume. For example, if you are using backup compression in SQL Server 2008, you may want to limit the amount of CPU consumed during the backup process so that other jobs running during that time don't experience CPU contention or performance degradation.

Resource Governor is configured by identifying processes at login using a login name, host name or application name. The processes then run in a resource group. More than one resource group runs within a resource pool. You can limit a resource pool's minimum and maximum CPU and memory, which limits the processes when the SQL Server is low on CPU or memory.

Other high-priority tasks can be directed to a resource pool with larger amounts of CPU and memory dedicated to it. Consequently, when running in conjunction with workloads in different resource pools with fewer resources, the tasks won't suffer from performance degradation.

What does this mean for a DBA? Overall, it means predictable performance—essential tasks can be configured with the necessary resources to complete a task with little resource contention. DBAs can prioritize workloads, and nonessential reporting tasks will then operate in the background without contending essential processes. SQL Server 2008 also supports more workloads simultaneously and allows more databases to be consolidated on a single SQL Server That way, DBAs can scale up to support more users without having to invest in additional hardware or machines.

Management Data Warehouse

SQL Server 2008's Management Data Warehouse feature lets you collect performance statistics on one or more SQL servers. You can then store and aggregate the information for reporting and analysis to quickly obtain metrics from SQL Servers to understand why they're underperforming or how performance patterns are changing over time.

DBAs can perform forensics on transient performance problems or determine why a query executed incorrectly one day and worked fine the next. They can also see which servers are underutilized and which ones are underpowered. With the Management Data Warehouse feature, DBAs can understand why a machine is underperforming and know how to fix it.

The Management Data Warehouse feature is only available in SQL Server 2008 Enterprise Edition.

Policy-based management

Not following best practices is one of the biggest factors limiting SQL Server scalability. Storing database log files and data files on the same drive will cause I/O contention and limit the scalability of all applications that access that SQL Server.

With policy-based management, you can configure a set of policies to ensure that all SQL Server instances adhere to a set of best practices. You can configure policy-based management to deny any change to a stored procedure, table, function, database and so on that would make it fall out of compliance. You can also configure policy-based management to report on SQL servers that no longer follow best practices or company standards.

Increased hardware support

SQL Server 2008 now supports Hot Add Memory and CPU, Non Uniform Memory Architecture (NUMA) as well as the ability to host 50 SQL Server instances on a single machine. By hosting 50 SQL Server instances on a single machine you only need one license for Windows and one SQL Server 2008 Enterprise license. This will pay dividends compared to virtualization, where you would need to purchase licenses for the hypervisor, SQL Server and Windows for each virtual instance.

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Researcher publishes exploit for new IE hole

2010-03-11T22:50:00.000-08:00

http://www.test104.com/en/misc/all.asp

An Israeli security researcher has published exploit code for an unpatched hole in Internet Explorer that Microsoft disclosed two days ago.

Microsoft had warned in an advisory that a new vulnerability in IE 6 and IE 7, which could allow an attacker to take control of a computer, had been targeted in attacks.

Releasing the exploit code publicly increases the chances of attacks on the zero-day hole and could pressure Microsoft to issue a patch before its next scheduled Patch Tuesday in four weeks.

Researcher Moshe Ben Abu announced his work in a blog post on Wednesday and said it was being included in the open-source Metasploit exploit database.

He was able to create the exploit code after figuring out where an existing exploit was in the wild, based on information in a McAfee blog post, he told Ryan Naraine of the Zero Day blog at CNET sister site ZDNet. It took him about 10 minutes to de-obfuscate the exploit and pinpoint the vulnerability, he said.

Ben Abu told CNET that he would have found the original exploit code sooner or later without McAfee's help.

Asked how serious the zero-day hole is, he wrote in an e-mail to CNET: "The exploit covers Internet Explorer versions 6 and 7, which are not the latest version [IE 8] but many users still use it. In addition, the exploit is quite unstable, with about 60 percent to 70 percent success rate. So I guess it is critical, but not for users who update their Windows with the latest IE."

Microsoft's advisory on the vulnerability includes information on workarounds but suggests that IE 6 and IE 7 users upgrade to IE 8 immediately.

A McAfee spokesman said the company would be more careful about the details provided in its blog posts in the future.

"McAfee Labs does not support the release of exploit code, particularly in advance of a security patch being made available. We regularly sanitize blog content to prevent providing information that might assist attackers, while at the same time providing a service to customers and the security community to help improve protection levels," the spokesman said in a statement via e-mail. "The post in question did not contain enough information to directly lead anyone to exploit code. However, we regret that in this unique situation the post did contain details that may have given exploit writers a starting point to hunt for exploit code. Future blog posts will be subject to additional sanitization."

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Newly Updated Resources(Win7, IBM, CITRIX, CIW, Microsoft)

2010-03-11T22:41:00.000-08:00

http://www.test104.com/en/misc/index.asp

News

Win7 70-680 will be updated soon. Members please delay your Win7 70-680 exam.
IBM 000-100 updated.
CIW 1D0-541 updated.
CITRIX 1Y0-A09 updated.
Microsoft 70-663, 70-683 and 70-662 updated.

Recent Updates:

IBM 000-100 Q&A 96 questions updated. (2010/3/11)
CIW 1D0-541 Q&A 91 questions updated. (2010/3/11)
CITRIX 1Y0-A09 Q&A 96 questions updated. (2010/3/10)
Microsoft 70-663 Q&A 100 questions updated. (2010/3/10)
Microsoft 70-683 Q&A 75 questions updated. (2010/3/10)
Microsoft 70-662 Q&A 147 questions updated. (2010/3/9)

New Demo

SUN SCJP 310-065
CIW 1D0-541
CITRIX 1Y0-A09
Microsoft 70-663
Microsoft 70-683
Microsoft 70-662

For more details, please access http://www.test104.com/en/misc/all.asp

CloudSwitch offers free beta for cloud computing migration

2010-03-08T01:21:00.000-08:00

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Looking to migrate to AWS? Contact CloudSwitch
VMware-centric cloud enabler CloudSwitch has announced a tantalizing test program for toe-dippers, CloudSwitch Explorer, which will let users migrate a virtualized application stack (a bunch of servers that work together or one server that does a bunch of stuff) into Amazon Web Services with the click of a mouse.

A free version of the company's existing CloudSwitch Enterprise product, CloudSwitch Explorer will let users migrate up to five virtual machines into Amazon EC2 to see if it's right for them. The move is aimed at enticing enterprises into the cloud, where they will hopefully fall all over themselves to pay CloudSwitch's $25,000 fee for the real deal. "Try before you buy" has got to be enticing for the IT manager who has to re-up on servers, and if we've proved anything yet this year, shiny, enterprise-ready point-and-click cloud tools are popular.

Engine Yard drops subscription fees
Platform as a Service provider Engine Yard is reshuffling its pricing to be more in line with cloud computing's pay-as-you-go ideals.

Previously, users were required to pony up a whopping $25 minimum (OMG) to use Engine Yard's Ruby on Rails environment, plus additional costs more when they used capacity above that purchased with the initial "investment." Product manager Abheek Anand said in a blog post that Engine Yard had cut prices three times in a month and could do so because it didn't have to worry about its own infrastructure costs.

Engine Yard hosts its Ruby service platform on Amazon EC2 instances and sells those to users. Anand said that meant if AWS made it easier or cheaper to use EC2, the effect trickled down.

"[Engine Yard is] taking advantage of Amazon's just-released consolidated billing feature to get reduced costs for these instances," he said.

NYC to consolidate data centers for city IT, go cloud
Rich Miller reports that New York City is planning a massive data center consolidation. He reports that city officials still make unintentional puns, since "cloud computing is being explored at a high level," which is where real clouds are normally found, get it? It's meta.

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