iSCSI on Solaris

Here's a page of useful information about setting up Solaris as a iSCSI target:

http://www.cuddletech.com/blog/pivot/entry.php?id=779


Good stuff.

It's back!

Say hello to the new machine! I'm back in business!

Time to replace this Desktop..

Looks like I've managed to back up all my data to the new disk (or so I hope). Time to take apart this old PC and upgrade the motherboard and RAM.

Step One: Download X86 Solaris

Getting an iSCSI Target for the cost of nearly zero

Building a cluster for HA using say Redhat Clustering or Microsoft Cluster Services involves getting a shared storage to act as a quorum as a form of communication between the nodes.

As part of the plan to run some tests on clustering I'll be needing a iSCSI target to act as a quorum slice for the various operating systems that I'll be working on. The problem is, I can't find a spare iSCSI target lying around the workplace. The last Dell MD3000 has been deployed for production. The only option left is to see if I can build an iSCSI target as a VM(of course).

Thanks to Google, I've managed to unearth some articles on how to turn an operating system into a iSCSI target. There are a couple of software avaliable, most of the Windows software are payware while the Linux and Solaris ones are the roll-your-own-for-free options.

No prize for guessing that I chose the free options :)

Solaris : Solaris iSCSI Target

Linux 2.6 kernel: http://iscsitarget.sourceforge.net/


I'm pretty tempted to go for the Solaris iSCSI target.

Time to do some reading.

Goodbye world.... of warcraft

With the new job boring me to death and the apparent launch of the expansion WOLK at the end of the year, I'm not really keen to play WoW right now. It seems like a gigantic waste of time, or tedious work at best. I'll rather be watching movies, cycling, drinking with friends or just mgging for my certification. Sorry guys :)

Where do we go from here?

I've been sitting on my desktop upgrade project despite having purchased the hardware. They're all lying around the house -

500gb SATA disks
2GB ram
a new Asus "green" motherboard P5K/SE

I think I'll have to upgrade it Real Soon(tm). I need to run a couple of MS software to test their functionality - starting with Exchange 2007 and I don't think the current system running on 2gb ram is going to be enough for the purpose.

I'll have to purchase the additional RAM this week and get the upgrade going the next weekend.
Time to bust out the vacuum cleaner to suck up all the dust bunnies and get a spare SATA cable for data transfer!

Introduction - A look at Virtualization now

In 1999 and the early 2000s, the only real choice for virtualization was VMware Workstation during . Fast forward to today, the demand for virtualization has exploded with business users clamoring to shrink their datacenter footprint.

Major players today includes VMWare and with Microsoft and Citrix Xen Souce with VMWare still being the primary VM solution provider and numerous competitors entering the market to get a foothold in the virtualization market.

YankeeGroup has performed a survey for 2008-2009 and have stated that 75% of the surveyed affirmed that they will deploy Virtualization solutions for their datacenters, with the driving factor being that of Disaster Recovery, License and Server consolidation.

Desktop virtualization has a more interesting slant, according to the report, 23% of the surveyed reported of using MacOS as a host platform to run virtualized Windows XP/Vista.


Source from: http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/yankee-group-report-validates-virtualization/story.aspx?guid=%7B8961E254-B7CD-4565-8676-DFBF9A55EB67%7D&dist=hppr