Avastu Blog: Sustainable Global Clouds

Check out the video: This new version comes with additional support for VMware ESX, an integration with Puppet for automated configuration management, improvements for the high-availability mechanism and, last but not least, a Cloud-plugin. This new Cloud-plugin provides a fully automated private cloud with a separated Cloud portal for external data-center users to submit their requests to. The Cloud-plugin features a complete automated provisioning cycle including automatic deprovisioning, Deployment of phyiscal and virtual machines from different virtualization types, P2V, V2P, V2V, P2P, "Clone-on-deploy" and a billing system. Check it all out here

Our friend Matt has released a video on deploying KVM VM's with openQRM More information can be found here

The openQRM-Team is happy to announce the 4.1 version of the Data-Center Management platform. After the initial 4.0 release of the "next generation" of openQRM, re-written in PHP, the new release comes with some nice new features. e.g. support for KVM-Virtualization was added and an image-shelf plugin now provides ready-made and ready-to-deploy server-images to get started easily. The 4.1 version also provides lots of usability-enhancements, shorter GUI-sequences, meaning less mouse-clicks), some security- and other bug-fixes as documented in our bug-tracker. Another cool feature was added by request, making it possible to set the root-password for a server-image via the GUI. Binary packages (RPM and DEB) for Centos 5, openSuse 10.3, Debian 4.0 and Ubuntu 8.04 are available at : http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=153504&package_id=291488 and the Changelog at : http://sourceforge.net/project/shownotes.php?release_id=626496&group_id=153504 We hope you...

I've been thinking a lot lately on the Prairietekism (PrairieTek was a company that almost owned most of the 5 and 10 inch disk drive market before going bankrupt because of some fundamental wrong decisions in their product strategy) and wanted to write up an article and compare it with VMware's fate in the coming years to see. It does not have to go this way but will certainly mean that a sound product still does not guarantee you a sound future, if it is not aligned with the rest of the market's expectations and directions. About Qlusters, we already knew that they were going to go away. It is sad but it has happened. Systems management start-up Qlusters Inc. has closed down after seven years. Management yesterday notified the 30 employees of the move. The company failed to take off even though the sector is a hot one with takeovers at hundreds of millions of dollars. According to IVC Online, Qlusters raised $34 million, including $10 million in a financing round a year ...

What's new? Major re-write of openQRM / porting it to PHP We (the openQRM Team) are happy to announce a major re-write of openQRM ! The great feedback we got from the community over the last 2 years helped us to now implement all those feature requests and suggestions how to get better. This major re-write focus on the following design specifications : - KIS (keep it simple) - run everywhere (support for every linux distribution, especially Debian+Ubuntu) - clean up (remove all not needed code) - reduce code base (less code = less bugs) - using existing components (instead of providing own binaries/libs) - better packaging and dependencies - enabling/disabling plugins via the GUI - support for multiple databases (DB2, Mysql, Oracle, Postgres) - porting from java to PHP - focus on rapid-, appliance-based deployment, virtualization- and storage-management - ease-up installation - ... and some more Go get it now!!!

Qlusters is pleased to announce the contribution of openQRM 3.5 open source release to the openQRM SourceForge project. The 3.5 open source release succeeds release 3.1.4 and includes a set of new features based on input from various datacenters and test/dev labs. Release 3.5 is available for download now. It has been pleasing and rewarding to see the openQRM project grow rapidly since its launch in January 2006, including winning SourceForge’s “Project of The Month” in July 2006. The 120,000 downloads to date are the basis for numerous openQRM implementations in datacenters globally, and the many articles published in the industry discussing openQRM have established it as one of the leading open source solutions for systems provisioning and management. Following release 3.5 – the last release from Qlusters – we hope the community will continue to evolve and develop openQRM together with Matt Rechenburg – openQRM’s active project manager, who has been doing a wonderful job not just in ...

I was happy to meet Matt Rechemburg and Kris Buytaert. Both great fellas and we had some really great fun last Saturday. After Matt's presentation, where he told us about some really cool stuff about openQRM and amazing developments on the continuously evolving openQRM product, we went out to have lunch together. Kris stayed back and then we later met up with Kris after we had had some coffee. I found Matt a great and very polite person. Kris was a vibrant guy with loads of energy, I guess I've made some good friends and I'm glad I went over to the T-DOSE! Their recollections of T-DOSE 2007 are here: Matt and Kris I took these pictures during the presentation of openQRM: Pictures openQRM presentation: Private moments with Matt and Kris: Was good to have met you, guys!

Our friend Matt posts some interesting pointers for openQRM deployments. This could make your competitors turn green with envy! I have already proposed openQRM to our international project and we are making good progress there. 1. Server consolidation With its automated provisioning technics openQRM takes server consolidation to the next level. By abstracting the data-center services into virtual environments including their hard- and software-profile plus deployment parameters such as number of systems, cpu/memory requirements, high-availability and eventual service-level agreements openQRM assists the system-administrator to find unused and/or under-utilized resources to either power them down or to migrate their services to other servers. 2. Service consolidation openQRM supports to automatically consolidate critical services in a high-available way. In an active/passive setup openQRM will automatically fail-over its server-services so that services integrated within openQRM via a p...

Matt is very much into openMosix (just like Kris Buytaert) and I got to know him through the openQRM project . Very talented dude and deserves a place on my blogroll! Check out is blog here.

Kris has written a neat and concise introduction to what openQRM can do. I have chosen openQRM as a provisioning tool for our project in Africa. This is amazing and what it all can do is absolutely mind blowing! Anyways an excerpt... openQRM, which just reached version 3.1, is an open source cluster resource management platform for physical and virtual data centers. In a previous life it was a proprietary project. Now it's open source and is succeeding in integrating different leading open source projects into one console. With a pluggable architecture, there is more to come. I've called it "cluster resource management," but it's really a platform to manage your infrastructure. Whether you are deploying Xen, Qemu, VMWare, or even just physical machines, openQRM can help you manage your environment. and they are also working for plugins for Microsoft Virtual Server, so don't lose heart there. Excited? Then download our ready-to-use data center openQRM appliance...

The Avastu Team with close cooperation with the openQRM Team , has released the Virtual Appliance. Get it on the VMTN Appliance Market Place : NOTE 1: To download the appliances please send email with motivation to: info[at]avastu.com NOTE 2: For requesting downloads @Avastu please do NOT use free email addresses such as hotmail.com, yahoo.com etc. This is a "Complete Datacenter Management & Provisioning software" with o File system images of Fedora Core 5 AND Centos 4 o Two diskless nodes We can customize the product and help you deploy it in your test, development labs and even production! (We are already assisting our current client with several openQRM installations in production). Details for Testers/Developers/Administrators: user = root password = sysadmin File System Images: Fedora Core 5, Centos 4 Nodes : 2 (two) diskless nodes IP address for url: 192.168.1.100 WebAdmin username= qrm WebAdmin password = qrm What can openQRM do? Data center needs and problems Gro...

No I'm not kidding. I was just on phone with Matt (from openQRM) and he told me to check out his walk on the Virtual Side. Check this out, this is so cool! Me and Matt have cooked the openQRM Virtual Appliance sometime back (which I will be coincidentally releasing today on the VMware Appliance MarketPlace!). Here you're looking at Matt in his hideous black hood managing the data center! One word: YottaCool!!! Great job, Matt!

Matt has done an excellent job here. I have worked with Matt on cooking our openQRM Virtual Appliance (which you will see soon on our Avastu site!) and he is a great guy to work with. Here Matt is showing XenSource migration.

Go here and get your Lab Manager. For those who want to know a brief history of Lab Manager: It is the Akimbi which we spoke about in our last few blog posts. Akimbi's site is still online but I'm sure the staff and the stuff has relocated to the VMware's HQ. A print shot: Anyways Lab Manager is a great provisioning tool but with a price of $ 15,000 (I don't know the details) it might be difficult for me to promote this tool against the openQRM . A some places like SMB and Educational and gov. institutions the prices keep adding up. I am still excited about the tool and am pretty curious to test it as last time I was not able to build a lab environment with Akimbi. It had some problems with installing the agent on the ESX 2.5.x which , back then, was apparently supported by the Akimbi. I'll check if its fixed now.

Who are the guys behind openQRM initiative. If you remember I did cover that in the older post of site, you will find out more about them. They are the founding members of the OMC club. I may do an interview with the guys in the coming weeks. I am in talks with the folks (among others) as I will be displaying the openQRM during my trip to Africa . BTW: If you want to follow my trip to Africa , please do check my Travel Blog at RealTravel . Now getting back to openQRM. What is it? In Qluster's words: openQRM provides provisioning of the entire software stack on physical servers and virtual machines like VMware and Xen. openQRM also has a policy engine so that resources can be provisioned based on external business needs and the requirements of internal organizations automatically. The Qlusters’ Hot Migration enables the migration of running applications from one machine to another without service interruption. My take on DataCenter Management and SMB: ...

"As companies increasingly rely on virtualization solutions to achieve optimal utilization of their data center operations, it is important that they easily integrate within their systems management solutions," said William Hurley, CTO of Qlusters. "openQRM is the only offering that can integrate VMWare, Xen, QEMU and Linux VServer into a single open-source systems management platform. As a result, the integration of these technologies creates a powerful open source solution for organizations looking to automate their physical and virtualized environments." Read here ... David Dennis from Levanta has some word of caution for a Linux deployment. I guess that's why the guys call their Linux appliance intrepid :-)

Resistance is good. Results are always very sensational. Check out the site . Members? About the Open Management Consortium The Open Management Consortium was announced to help advance the promotion, adoption, development and integration of open source systems/network management software. The founding members of the Consortium are Ayamon, Emu Software, Qlusters, Symbiot, Webmin and Zenoss. For more information, please visit http://www.openmanagement.org. About Qlusters, Inc. Founded in 2001, Qlusters provides open source systems management software to automate the data center. openQRM significantly reduces annual management costs for the data center while helping increase server utilization and minimizing downtime for Fortune 1000 companies. Qlusters is partners with leading vendors including HP, IBM, Intel, and Red Hat. The company is headquartered in Palo Alto, California with offices in Israel and New York. For more information, please visit http://www.qlusters.com. About Emu Softwa...