IBM opens first SoftLayer cloud data center in Germany

IBM has announced today the opening of a new SoftLayer data center in Germany. The new facility is based in Frankfurt and aims to give customers the option of using a local center which adheres to Germany and Europe’s security and data privacy regulations.

The opening of the data center is part of the IBM’s $1.2 billion investment in SoftLayer.

The Frankfurt cloud data center will follow SoftLayer’s standard pod design, and will be able to support thousands of physical servers. The site will offer SoftLayer’s full range of infrastructure services, including bare metal servers, virtual servers, storage, security and networking.

“While all our cloud data centers have SoftLayer’s same strict standards for security and privacy, the new Frankfurt facility will allow German companies and clients to benefit from in-country data storage, a requirement in many industries to comply with German data protection laws,” said Lance Crosby, CEO of SoftLayer.

Kubernetes by Google

Kubernetes is a system for managing containerized applications across multiple hosts, providing basic mechanisms for deployment, maintenance, and scaling of applications. Its APIs are intended to serve as the foundation for an open ecosystem of tools, automation systems, and higher-level API layers.

Kubernetes uses Docker to package, instantiate, and run containerized applications. While Docker itself works with individual containers, Kubernetes provides higher-level organizational constructs in support of common cluster-level usage patterns, currently focused on service applications, but which could also be expanded to batch and test workloads in the future.

It is primarily targeted at applications comprised of multiple containers, such as elastic, distributed micro-services. It is also designed to facilitate migration of non-containerized application stacks to Kubernetes. It therefore includes abstractions for grouping containers in both loosely coupled and tightly coupled formations, and provides ways for containers to find and communicate with each other in relatively familiar ways.

Kubernetes enables users to ask a cluster to run a set of containers. The system automatically chooses hosts to run those containers on. Kubernetes is intended to run on multiple cloud providers, as well as on physical hosts. A single Kubernetes cluster is not intended to span multiple availability zones. Instead, is recommended to build a higher-level layer to replicate complete deployments of highly available applications across multiple zones. Kubernetes is not currently suitable for use by multiple users.

Through the Open Source Container Management Project Kubernetes, Google is continuously working with companies such as: IBM, HP, Red Hat, Mesosphere, Windows Azure, CoreOS and VMware; to make sure that Kubernetes works well for everyone. Kubernetes can currently run on:

• Google Compute Engine (GCE)
• Vagrant Fedora (Ansible)
• Fedora (Manual)
• Locally
• Microsoft Azure
• Rackspace
• CoreOS
• VMware vSphere

Key Concepts

A pod is a relatively tightly coupled group of containers that are scheduled onto the same host. It models an application-specific “virtual host” in a containerized environment. Pods serve as units of scheduling, deployment, and horizontal scaling/replication, share fate, and share some resources, such as storage volumes and IP addresses.

Labels are used to specify identifying metadata, and to convey the semantic purposes/roles of pods of containers. Examples of typical pod label keys include service, environment (e.g., with values dev, qa, or production), tier (e.g., with values frontend or backend), and track (e.g., with values daily or weekly), but you are free to develop your own conventions.

Architecture of the System

We’ll break it down to services that run on the worker node and services that comprise the cluster-level control plane. The Kubernetes node has the services necessary to run Docker containers and be managed from the master systems. The second component on the node is called the kubelet. The Kubelet is the logical successor of the Container Agent that is part of the Compute Engine image.

Each node also runs a simple network proxy. This reflects services as defined in the Kubernetes API on each node and can do simple TCP and UDP stream forwarding (round robin) across a set of backends.

The Kubernetes control plane is split into a set of components, but they all run on a single master node. These work together to provide a unified view of the cluster.

All persistent master state is stored in an instance of etcd. This provides a great way to store configuration data reliably. With watch support, coordinating components can be notified very quickly of changes.

API Server validates and configures data for 3 types of objects: pods, services, and replicationControllers.

The scripts and data in the cluster/ directory automates creating a set of Google Compute Engine VMs and installing all of the Kubernetes components. There is a single master node and a set of worker (called minion) nodes.config-default.sh has a set of tweakable definitions/parameters for the cluster.

The heavy lifting of configuring the VMs is done by SaltStack.

As there is no security currently built into the apiserver, the salt configuration will install nginx. nginx is configured to serve HTTPS with a self signed certificate. HTTP basic auth is used from the client to nginx. nginx then forwards the request on to the apiserver over plain old HTTP. As part of cluster spin up, ssh is used to download both the public cert for the server and a client cert pair. These are used for mutual authentication to nginx. All communication within the cluster (worker nodes to the master, for instance) occurs on the internal virtual network and should be safe from eavesdropping.

The password is generated randomly as part of the kube-up.sh script and stored in ~/.kubernetes_auth.

Amazon Web Services announced price reduction for three types of AWS data transfer

Amazon Web Services has lowered prices for data transferred out to the Internet in the US East (Virginia), US West (Oregon), US West (N. California), EU (Ireland), EU (Frankfurt), Asia Pacific (Tokyo), and Asia Pacific (Sydney) regions.

• Outbound Data Transfer – Pricing for data transfer from AWS to the Internet is now 6% to 43% lower, depending on the Region and the amount of data transferred per month.
• Data Transfer to CloudFront – Data transfer from AWS to Amazon CloudFront is now free of charge.
• Data Transfer from CloudFront – Pricing for data transfer out of CloudFront edge locations in the United States, Europe, Japan and Australia is now 4% to 29% lower, depending on the edge location and usage tier.

Price Reduction – Outbound Data Transfer
Here is a summary of the price reductions for outbound data transfer (See the EC2 pricing and S3 pricing pages for more information):

Price Tier	US Standard, US West (Oregon) & US West (Northern California)	EU (Ireland), EU (Frankfurt)	Asia Pacific (Singapore)	Asia Pacific (Tokyo)	Asia Pacific (Sydney)
First 10 TB/month	-25%	-25%	-37%	-30%	-26%
Next 40 TB/month	-6%	-6%	-43%	-15%	-21%
Next 100 TB/month	–	–	-37%	-5%	-13%
Next 350 TB/month	–	–	-33%	-6%	-14%

The prices for the first 10 TB/month take effect after the bandwidth provided as part of the AWS Free Tier has been consumed.

Price Reduction – Data Transfer from CloudFront
Here is a summary of the price reductions for outbound data transfer from CloudFront to different parts of the world (see the CloudFront pricing, pages for more information):

Price Tier	United States	Europe	Hong Kong, Philippines, South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan	Japan	Australia
First 10 TB/month	-29%	-29%	-26%	-26%	-26%
Next 40 TB/month	–	–	-4%	-4%	-4%

These prices take effect after the bandwidth provided as part of the AWS Free Tier has been consumed.

Cisco and IBM Speed Data Center Transformation with New Integrated Infrastructure Solution Delivered by Business Partners

VersaStack™ Solution Pairs Cisco UCS Integrated Infrastructure with IBM Storwize

 

SAN JOSE, Calif. and ARMONK, N.Y. – December 4, 2014: As cloud, big data and the Internet of Things drive the modernization of the data center, Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) and IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced the availability of an integrated solution that combines the innovation of Cisco UCS Integrated Infrastructure with the efficiency of the IBM Storwize storage system.

Available through qualified Business Partners globally, the VersaStack™ solution is designed to deliver high levels of ease, efficiency and versatility for cloud, big data and analytics, and mobility deployments. Over time, the platform will be optimized for IBM business applications, while integrating Cisco innovations such as Cisco® Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI) and Cisco Intercloud Fabric.

CIOs looking for solutions that offer fast deployment and management options are increasingly turning toward integrated systems, in which the full stack of data center technologies is combined into a pre-tested and supported system that is designed to operate and be managed as a whole.

“Organizations today require IT infrastructure to be easy, efficient, and versatile,” said Satinder Sethi, Vice President, Data Center Solutions, Cisco. “VersaStack will help our mutual customers streamline deployment and operation of their IT infrastructure. It will also provide a foundation for innovation between Cisco and IBM—from mobility and data analytics to Intercloud and application centric infrastructure.”

“As cloud, mobile, and big data continue to challenge and transform data centers, more organizations are turning to innovative solutions, like the VersaStack, for help,” said Laura Guio, Vice President, Business Line Executive Storage Systems, IBM. “For its part, IBM Storwize is designed to help clients ease management and improve data center performance through virtualization and the automatic movement of data to the most strategic storage tier.”

Cisco and IBM have collaborated for over 15 years, delivering combined solutions to more than 25,000 customers around the world. Today, Cisco and IBM collaborate around numerous customer opportunities, including big data and business analytics, cloud, collaboration, data center, Internet of Things, and software defined networking.

1 IDC, Worldwide Integrated Systems 2014-2017 Forecast, March, 2014.

 

Highlights

• The VersaStack solution combines the performance and innovation of Cisco UCS Integrated Infrastructure with the versatility and efficiency of the IBM Storwize V7000 storage system to deliver a more responsive model for IT.

• Cisco UCS® Integrated Infrastructure, which includes the Cisco Unified Computing System™ (Cisco UCS), “ACI-Ready” Cisco Nexus® and Cisco MDS switches, and UCS Director, can accelerate the deployment of applications and can improve the ability to adapt to business change.

• The IBM Storwize V7000 includes technologies that both complement and enhance virtual environments with built-in functions such as Data Virtualization, Real-time Compression, and Easy Tier, which automatically migrates data between tiers based on real-time usage patterns, for extraordinary levels of performance and efficiency.

• The initial VersaStack solution targets data center and private cloud deployments as well as big data and analytics for large commercial and enterprise customers. Cisco and IBM will look to introduce additional reference architectures over time.

• The VersaStack platform is based on Cisco Validated Design (CVD) reference architectures, enabling channel partners and customers to deliver applications quickly and with great confidence, while helping to reduce risk.

• The VersaStack solution will be sold globally through qualified Business Partners who are experienced in Cisco data center technologies and IBM Storwize storage systems.

• IBM Global Technology Services will offer services from strategy through maintenance. Solution support services will be available from Cisco, IBM and qualified Business Partners.

• IBM Global Financing and Cisco Capital each offer a full range of financing capabilities for all aspects and components of the VersaStack solution, including hardware, software, and services. Through simplified payment options, clients can accelerate return on investment and manage their IT lifecycle.

 

Additional Information

• Watch Cisco and IBM Executives Discuss the VersaStack Solution

• Read the Cisco Blog – VersaStack: A Foundation for Innovation

• Read the Cisco Blog – Five Things Channel Partners Need to Know About VersaStack

• Read the Avnet Blog – How Avnet Partners Can Benefit from Cisco and IBM’s New VersaStack Solution

• For additional information on the VersaStack Solution visit our website.

 

About Cisco
Cisco is the worldwide leader in IT that helps companies seize the opportunities of tomorrow by proving that amazing things can happen when you connect the previously unconnected. For ongoing news, please go to http://thenetwork.cisco.com.

 

About IBM
For more information on IBM visit www.ibm.com; for more on IBM Storage, visit www.ibm.com/storage and follow us on Twitter @ibmstorage.

 

Amazon Web Services is investigating problems with CloudFront, its content delivery network.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is investigating issues across North America, South America, Europe and Asia Pacific.

The AWS status page shows CloudFront as still functioning. However, a message timestamped 5pm PST (12pm AEST) stated: “We are currently investigating increased error rates for DNS queries for CloudFront distributions”.

Update: AWS now lists the issue as resolved. A message timestamped 6.24pm PST states: Between 4:12 PM and 6:02 PM PST, users experienced elevated error rates when making DNS queries for CloudFront distributions. The service has recovered and is operating normally.

“We haven’t received a post-mortem from Amazon but the CloudFront outage appears to have been a network-wide issue for Amazon, caused by a fault in its DNS service,” said Stewart McGrath, the CEO of Web acceleration specialist Squixa, which provides a multi-CDN platform to reduce the risk of outages.

“Though the problem has since been rectified, it has come at a bad time for online retailers preparing for Black Friday and Cyber Monday in the United States — it’s like having your store closed because someone forgot the key to the front door.”

“For websites and retailers that are heavily reliant on CloudFront, it would mean they needed to direct all traffic and Web requests back to their origin Web server. If their origin server was not built for that sort of traffic load, they would suddenly see a significant impact on performance.”

The problem was global and noticed as far away as Australia, where posters to the AusNOG mailing list reported problems lasting for up to two hours. Chat on the list suggests Amazon has re-routed traffic over different submarine cables to address the issue.

Earlier this month Microsoft’s Azure cloud suffered a service interruption.

Chromebook buyers now get 1TB of Google Drive storage free for two years

Google has announced it will be giving away 1TB of free Google Drive storage space to all new Chromebook buyers, reports PC World.

Google’s 1TB offer is similar to that offered by Microsoft, which bundles a year’s worth of Office 365 Personal for new buyers of selected laptops, says PC World’s Mark Hachman. A subscription for Office 365 includes 1TB storage space in Microsoft’s OneDrive.

This is huge for Chromebook lovers, considering how much Chrome OS relies on the cloud to get things done. To get the free space, you’ll need to redeem the offer before January 1, 2015. The 1TB of Drive storage will only last two years before you need to start paying for it, but it’s still a long time to ride on that much space.

Looking at the closest competition to Google’s Chromebooks, HP Stream is also a good bargain. Microsoft is already offering unlimited storage with HP Stream 11, which is based on Windows 8.1 and sports an 11.6-inch HD display with Intel Celeron processor beneath. HP Stream 11 costs the same as the entry-level Chromebook.

Cloud Path for IBM – Cloud Migration Software as a Service

Racemi Cloud Path for IBM is a no charge (self-service) Software as a Service (SaaS) that enables customers to migrate existing physical, virtual, or cloud servers to IBM’s SoftLayer platform with no server downtime. The service was launched on April 2014 and later on August it was updated to Cloud Path 2.0 while adding support for SoftLayer’s Object Storage (which I have covered in some recent posts) for Racemi Image Library (the location where all temporarily cached and saved Racemi server images are stored).

Since Racemi Cloud Path for IBM is provided free of charge, obviously, you can save money during your migration to the Cloud or even between Cloud providers. But more important, since this is an automated and unattended server migration, you can save also time when comparing it to a manual migration processes or needing to rebuild all your servers from scratch.

If you would like to use Racemi Cloud Path for IBM to migrate any workload to SoftLayer, the prerequisites are:

1. Have access to the source server or servers.
2. You need to have an active SoftLayer account.
3. Of course, you need to have a Racemi account.

How to create the Racemi Cloud Path for IBM account?

1. Access this link.
2. Click the Sign Up button to proceed.
3. Complete all the mandatory fields in the registration form, accept the Cloud Path Terms and Condition, and click the Sign Up button to proceed.
4. Check your inbox, you should receive an email saying that your Cloud Path Account was Successfully Created. Do not forget to click on the link provided in that email to activate your account.

As soon as you login to Racemi Cloud Path for IBM you will be able to register your IBM SCE Cloud or SoftLayer Cloud credentials.

Next you must provide your SoftLayer Object Storage account and register your storage account credentials with your Cloud Path for IBM account. If you do not already have a SoftLayer Object Storage account, you can create one using the SoftLayer portal (https://control.softlayer.com) by going to the Storage -> Object Storage menu and clicking on the Order Object Storage.

Downloading and Installing a Migration Agent

You must download and install the updated migration agents when you migrate servers. You can download your new migration agents from the Actions→Download Agent page.

Cloud Path currently supports the following operating systems:

• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2, Standard, Enterprise, Datacenter, and Web Editions
• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R1, Standard, Enterprise, Datacenter, and Web Editions
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003 R2, Standard, Enterprise, Datacenter, and Web Editions
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003 R1, Standard, Enterprise, Datacenter, and Web Editions
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.x
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.x
• CentOS 6.x
• CentOS 5.x

Download and install agent for Windows servers

1.    Click Download Windows Agent to download the agent file to the download location specified in your browser settings.
2.    Copy the folder windows-agent-installer.zip to the server you want to migrate.
3.    From the directory on the server where you placed the folder, unzip the folder.
4.    In the unzipped folder, right-click setup.cmd and select Run as Administrator to install the agent.

A command window will open to install the agent; the installation will take about two minutes and your server should be visible in Cloud Path in about 5-10 minutes.

After the server is visible in Cloud Path, you can initiate a migration operation from Actions→Migrate or a capture operation from Actions→Capture or from Resources→Source Servers.

Download and install agent for Linux-based servers

1.    Click Download Linux Agent to download the agent file to the download location specified in your browser settings.
2.    Copy the file linux-agent-installer.tgz to the server you want to migrate.
3.    From the directory on the server where you placed the archive, unzip the archive.
4.    From the directory on the server where you unzipped the archive, type the following command to change the file permissions for the agent installation file:
Example: chmod 777 linux-agent-install-4.2.0-12345.sh
5.    From the directory on the server where you unzipped the archive, type the following command to install the agent:
./linux-agent-install-x.x.xx-xxxxx.sh
Example: ./linux-agent-install-4.2.0-12345.sh

The agent will take about two minutes to install and your server should be visible in Cloud Path in about 5-10 minutes.

After the server is visible in Cloud Path, you can initiate a migration operation from Actions→Migrate or a capture operation from Actions→Capture or from Resources→Source Servers.

Check-list prior to migration:

1. Make sure the server or servers are running at the time of migration.
2. Verify access to your server or servers – Linux instances need to be accessible via Secure Shell (SSH) and Windows instances via Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP).
3. Make sure the Racemi migration agent is installed.
4. Disable Anti-Virus Software, it can interfere with capture operations, you should temporarily disable any anti-virus software that is running on the server before you begin to capture the server image. After the capture operation completes, you can re-enable your anti-virus software.
5. Firewall requirements: if your corporate firewall does not filter outgoing SSL connections, then no changes are required.If your firewall blocks outgoing connections, then you must open port 443 for the following server: https://107.20.227.217 (Allows servers in your environment to communicate with the Cloud Path management system over SSL).

Selecting the Server Size:

When you deploy an image or migrate a server to SoftLayer, you can choose the server size of the target server based on the RAM and CPU that best meet your requirements; Cloud Path will create a server with enough disk space to accommodate your source image. Because Cloud Path determines the size of the storage on the target server based on the size of the source image, the Disk size value displayed when you select the server size for your task is marked as N/A (not applicable).

Racemi Cloud Path for IBM Video Demo

Microsoft’s Azure Cloud Service, MSN.com, Office 365 and Xbox Live! down…

(Reuters) – Microsoft Corp’s Azure cloud-computing service, which hosts websites and lets customers store and manage data remotely, suffered serious outages on Tuesday taking its popular MSN web portal offline.

According to Microsoft’s Azure status page, the problems started around 5pm Pacific time and have still not been fully solved. “We are experiencing a connectivity issue across multiple Azure Services,” the page said.=

“Microsoft is investigating an issue affecting access to some Microsoft services,” said a Microsoft spokesperson. “We are working to restore full access to these services as quickly as possible.”

They are also a headache to the many customers relying on Azure to host websites. That includes Microsoft itself, whose MSN.com site was inaccessible on Tuesday.

Microsoft suffered its last major Azure outage in August.

(Reporting by Bill Rigby; edited by me)

Microsoft Azure’s status page says problems began at 00:52 GMT across the globe. The faults could set back the company’s efforts to sell Azure. Microsoft is attempting to make gains on the market leader, Amazon Web Services, as well as IBM, Google and others offering rival products.

Access to Microsoft’s Office 365 online suite of apps and its Xbox Live gaming facility are among services affected.

 

OSv “Aspen”… sub-second boot time OS for masses, created by the KVM kings

Cloudius-Systems provides an operating system built from scratch called OS^v. OS^v is a new lightweight OS, it uses the company’s own kernel not based on Linux, and was designed from the ground up to run in a virtual cloud environment, with maximum performance, low latency, and simple management. OS^v is designed to run on top of hypervisors only and serve web-scale workloads like NoSQL, micro services, and common run-times.

Using it as a load balancer in the cloud is a good use case, because of the fast boot. The company said it has sub-second boot time, an image size under 20 megabytes, and TCP latency is reduced by 70 percent. OS^v is not only exiting because Cloudius-Systems’ goal is to deliver the fastest guest OS possible, Avi Kivity, Cloudius’ CTO,  was the creator of KVM; and Dor Laor, Cloudius’ CEO, is the former KVM product manager.

Simplified cloud stack

The JVM, OS and hypervisor all provide protection and abstraction. OS^v minimizes the redundancy in these layers by simplifying the OS.

Use Cases

Virtual appliance

ISVs who offer a packaged application as a virtual machine image can benefit in several ways from releasing on OS^v. The VM images for OS^v-based virtual appliances are small, often only 12-20MB larger than the application itself. And the ISV does not need to maintain and support the large set of software and configuration required by even the simplest guest images on other platforms.

Network functions virtualization

Virtualizing network devices requires extreme low latency and high network throughput. OS^v, with its Network Channels-based network stack, removes bottlenecks at the guest OS level.

Java application server

The user can upload an application WAR file, via a REST API, and the application runs without further configuration. The deployment process can be connected to a continuous integration system or IDE.

C and C++-based applications

Several C and C++ applications have been ported by OS^v developers or third parties. Porting additional applications often requires only a two-line Makefile change. OS^v can use unmodified shared libraries built on and for Linux. The images containing these applications can be downloaded and deployed as needed, with lower overhead than on legacy guest OSs.

Horizontal scaling

OS^v’s sub-second boot time makes it ideal for NoSQL and other applications requiring horizontal scaling or failover. It is often faster to boot a fresh OS^v guest than to fail over to an already-running guest.

Beta Release

OS^v “Aspen” is the first of a series of closed Beta releases of  OS^v. This release focuses on stability, management and ease of use. Cloudius is accepting applications for the OS^v beta program. To apply, visit the Beta Registration page.

Cloud Support

OS^v is fully functional on the following cloud providers:

Cloud Providers	Fully Functional	Experimental	More information
EC2	✅		EC2
GCE		✅	GCE

OS^v is fully functional on the following hypervisors:

HV	Fully Functional	Experimental	More information
KVM	✅		KVM
Xen	✅		Xen
VMware Workstation*		✅	VMware Workstation
VMware ESXi		✅	VMware ESXi
VirtualBox*		✅	VirtualBox

* Also available on Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows

Linux Compatibility

OS^v is binary compatible with Linux, and can run most Linux applications.

For more information, visit Porting Linux applications to OS^v

REST API

OS^v has a REST API for OS and application-level configuration and runtime management. Detailed information is in the OS^v API online documentation.

The REST API supports:

• Optional SSL
• Swagger UI – browser based front end for the API and documentation
• New command line interface for the REST API

Available OS^v Virtual appliances

Image	OSv**	OSv-Cassandra	OSv-Memcached	OSv-Tomcat	OSv-IPerf
QCOW2 for KVM***	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
OVA for VirtualBox***	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
VMDK for VMware	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
OVA for VMware	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅

** Basic image with a CLI

*** Also available using Capstan search

New Dashboard

A new browser based Dashboard allows easier management and monitoring of OS^v at run-time. The Dashboard visualizes ethe REST API, presenting a unified picture of every aspect of the system: CPU, threads status, custom trace points and much more.

When running OS^v as a virtual appliance, the dashboard will automatically include run-time and application tabs, with specific metrics for each. For example, JVM and Cassandra tabs. You can also add your own tabs when developing a new appliance.

Trying OS^v locally

If you want to try OS^v locally, the easiest way is to use the Capstan tool to run one of the images from Cloudius-Systems’ public repository.

Capstan is available on the following platforms

Capstan running on OS / Launch VM on	KVM	VirtualBox	VMware	QEMU*	GCE	EC2
Linux	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
Mac		✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
Windows		✅	✅	✅	✅	✅

* QEMU will work, but very slow.

Install Capstan

Linux/Mac Installation

Copy the following bash command and paste it to your terminal

curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/cloudius-systems/capstan/master/scripts/download | bash

Capstan is now installed.

Windows Installation

 

Run OS^v with Capstan

The following will use capstan to download and run basic OS^v image with CLI

$ capstan run cloudius/osv
Created instance: cloudius-osv
OSv v0.10
eth0: 192.168.122.15

[/]%

Building and running from sources

If you want to run OS^v from sources, start by cloning the git project:

$ git clone https://github.com/cloudius-systems/osv.git

Then follow the instructions in the README file.

ControlUp 4.0 – New Citrix XenServer / VMware vSphere Support and Enhanced IOPS Troubleshooting

ControlUp recently added support for Citrix XenServer and VMware vSphere and now allows full management and visibility of the physical hosts running the virtual Citrix environment.

The new Hypervisor Integration introduced in ControlUp 4.0 enables you to connect ControlUp to the virtualization layer and gain immediate visibility to all physical hosts. All that is needed are XenServer Pool Master or vCenter web service URLs and credentials with read-only access to the hosts. Once the virtualization layer is added to ControlUp, the new Hosts view will display real-time statistics of Citrix XenServer and VMware vSphere hosts including CPU, Memory, networking, IOPS and CPU overcommit columns.

VM Power Management action set includes popular actions such as Force Reset VM and Power On VM which simplifies day-to-day management of virtual workloads. More advanced virtualization related actions can be created using ControlUp’s Script-based Actions feature, making ControlUp a single point of management for all virtual machines in your environment.

New Processes options are now available, including a Start CPU throttling action which enable to cap any process’s CPU usage based on a user-configured threshold. This is especially useful when you need to limit the CPU consumption of a sensitive process that cannot be terminated.

The new release of ControlUp is packed with tons of improvements to the overall scalability, performance, stability and functionality of the product, a full list of ControlUp 4.0 features, bug fixes and known issues can be found in the release notes.