Gustav Brock
gustav at cactus.dk
Wed May 15 03:18:25 CDT 2013
Hi Jim The free Hyper-V from Microsoft is a stellar product. First, here is a more handy link: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/server-cloud/hyper-v-server/ Click "Free Download" to download the ISO. Second, even though not branded as a Windows server but as a bare-metal hypervisor, it is nothing but a Windows Server 2012 stripped down to an absolute minimum - and offered for free. Still, it offers file sharing, SMB client (net use) and iSCSI client to access remote shares/targets, all kinds of disk handling the Windows way, it hooks to your AD just like that which means security handling is snap, provides full backup and restore features including bare-metal-recovery, and offers remote desktop the usual way. However, to control and configure the VMs, a tool (also free) for Windows 7 and 8 is at hand: Hyper-V Manager. This also configures your virtual networks and virtual disks, and provides a console/desktop access to your VMs. It is far superior to the free sPhere Hypervisor from VMware: http://download.microsoft.com/download/5/7/8/578E035F-A1A8-4774-B404-317A7AB CF751/Competitive-Advantages-of-Hyper-V-Server-2012-over-VMware-vSphere-Hype rvisor.pdf So, in fact it can operate as a basic Windows file server. It cannot, however, work as an iSCSI target natively or by Microsoft's add-in. The bare-metal-recovery is a masterpiece: 1. Boot the install cd-rom 2. Select Repair. 3. It scans all connected disks, internal and external, listes all system backups found, and offers the latest. 4. You deselect disks not to be formatted. 5. Restore Of course, with a nice no-frill GUI. Even a junior notwork guy can handle this. /gustav -----Oprindelig meddelelse----- Fra: dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] På vegne af Jim Lawrence Sendt: 14. maj 2013 20:01 Til: 'Discussion of Hardware and Software issues' Emne: [dba-Tech] Latest Linux kernel The latest Linux kernel is here, 3.10 but it will be a few months before it appears in a Distro near you. As of this post all the major core distributors, like Debian, Suse, Redhat and so on are working on incorporating this new kernel in their variants and then, once the cores go on line we should expect upgrades to ripple through to the user GUIs like Ubuntu, Mint, Arch etc. The one major improvement is in virtualization, which will allow multiple systems and servers to run on a single computer, with greater reliability and better performance. Then the virtual servers can be migrated straight into the Cloud. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/05/14/linux_kernel_310_rc1_released/ For those of you who want to see some of the improvements now, download the latest Hyper-V server from Microsoft. (There has been some real benefits from Microsoft's financial support and development collation between Linux development and itself.) https://login.live.com/login.srf?wa=wsignin1.0&rpsnv=11&ct=1368553756&rver=6 .0.5276.0&wp=MCMBI&wreply=https%3a%2f%2fprofile.microsoft.com%2fRegSysProfil eCenter%2fwizard.aspx%3fwizid%3d5e91c6ca-a0fe-464a-8c04-83c1336c254e%26lcid% 3d1033%26ci%3d393&lc=1033&cb=LCID%3d1033%26WizID%3d5e91c6ca-a0fe-464a-8c04-8 3c1336c254e%26brand%3dmicrosoft%26subbrand%3dprofile%2bcenter&id=74335&cbid= 50861&mkt=en-us (What a link!!!) So just sign in and download. It is worth noting, that just like Linux Cores, this server has no default GUI but you can use the below link to download a OSS basic GUI management tool but be willing to get your hands dirty...this is definitely not something your Aunt will figure out any time soon. http://blogs.technet.com/b/keithmayer/archive/2013/03/20/managing-free-hyper -v-server-2012-with-a-local-gui-console-tool.aspx#.UZEn2aLbPDo A good friend is using these two products to manage his website hosting company and is very pleased with the stability and isolation. Jim