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A Developers Guide to Servers. What you need to know but were afraid to ask.

Dave Oliver — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 18:24:49 GMT

Servers are the backbone of enterprise computing today, most websites for example run on either Apache or IIS and will be running on a server of some description.

Perhaps because of servers ubiquity it is easy to become complacent about them especially as they are rarely seen but understanding what a server can offer you and it's limitations will definitely help with software development.

Servers on the whole are built more of the practicality side than for the esthetics, there is no need to make them look pretty if they are going to spend most of there time in a Data-Centre rarely seen. The server will only have a visit if something goes physically wrong, everything else should be looked after remotely. Ultimately the success of a server is measured in the the amount of time spent looking after it and it performing the task(s) you have set it.

The Differences Between Servers and Desktops

The main difference between Servers and Desktops are Servers are designed to run 24/7 desktop aren't. The components in a server can usually handle higher stress and handle redundancy by having two or more of critical components so if one fails there still is another keeping the server up and the service it is running available.

The Different Types of Server

There are different types of server then mains ones are,

Pedestal/Tower

A Pedestal Server (which is often know as a Tower) isn't rack mounted as the main intention of it's design is to work primarily in an office environment not in a Data-Centre. These machines are usually found as file or print servers.

Rack Mounted

As the name suggests a rack mounted service lives in a rack. Placing servers on top of each other in a rack to support their weight and to provide them with services such as power and networking means that you can have lots of servers taking up less room and room in data-centre's are at a premium. A typical rack is 19 or 21 U (I will explain later what a U is)

Enterprise Class

Enterprise Class servers are free-standing like pedestals but you won't find them in an office! Because of their size, value and special requirements such as multi-phased power supply, larger than domestic voltages or specialist cooling they can only really live in a data-centre. As you can imagine this type of server doesn't come cheap. Enterprise Class machines would have been called 'Mainframes' in year gone by but as they run can happily run operating systems such as Linux, Unix and Windows (The IBM P Series pictured does not run Windows). Their main function today is as a consolidated platform as one of these servers can run the equivalent of several hundred Linux servers saving space and power.

Blade

In a typical rack you can get about 10 rack mounted servers. Blade servers on the other hand are designed for high density, i.e. more servers in the same amount of space. Take for example the HP C Class Blades, a U10 C7000 Blade Enclosure can have upto 16 468c G5 Blade Servers. So a normal rack can have 32 servers in it rather than 10. Blades servers make ideal candidates for hosting Virtualised servers such as Vmware, Hyper-V or XenSource.

The Worlds Most Popular Server

It is estimated by HP that the world most popular server is the ProLiant DL380 G5. As I haven't seen this claim undisputed I will use the DL380 as an example of a typical server as it is the one you are most likely to meet. This next section will give you a detailed overview of the machine.

HP's Official ProLiant DL 380 Overview

Front View:

1. Eight sockets for PC2-5300 Fully Buffered DIMMs (DDR2-667) - up to 64GB RAM is possible

2. Hot-plug fans, full redundancy - air is sucked through the machine from front to back.

3. Systems Insight Display

4. Quick release lever for rapid server access - lifting these levers will allow you to quickly pull the machine out of a rack.

5. Support for eight Small Form Factor hot plug hard drives bays - Typically SAS drive (discussed in the article on Storage) are installed here.

6. Front LEDs (show server status) and Unit Identification button/LED (for easy in rack server identification)

7. Two front USB ports (2 rear USB ports, 1 internal USB port)

8. Intel Xeon Processor (Performance models include two processors)

9. Hot plug power supply, redundancy option (High performance models include redundant power supply) - Yes two power supplies. One can be replaced whilst the server is still working for maximum up-time.

10. Three full-size PCI-E expansion slots in standard expansion cage (or optional mixed PCI-X/E expansion cage). Two additional low-profile PCI-E slots embedded on the system board. Four slots available for use; one consumed by Smart Array controller (Base and Performance models)

11. Quick removal access panel

Rear View:

1. Torx service tool - HP exclusively use a standard screw-driver head in their machines called the Torx T15 to help avoid screw-driver cam-out.

2. Optional pass through cable door

3. Two Embedded NC373i Multifunction Gigabit Server Adapters with TCP/IP Offload Engine

4. Hot plug power supply bays, redundancy option (High performance models include redundant power supply)

5. Integrated Lights-Out 2 (iLO 2) Remote management port. ILO is a remote management console that can turn a server on and off and take over the screen amongst other features. ILO usually has it's own dedicated VLAN. I will talk more about what that is in A Developers Guide to Networking. What you need to know but were afraid to ask.

6. Video Port

7. Two USB 2.0 Ports

8. Serial Port

9. Keyboard Port

10. Mouse PS/2 Port

11. Two low-profile PCI Express x8 slots. Slot 1 is consumed by the P400 Smart Array controller. (Base and Performance models)

12. Three full-size PCI Express slots in standard cage (or optional mixed PCI-X/E expansion cage)

Specifications

Processors:
- Quad-Core and Dual-Core Intel® Xeon® processors - systems support up to 2 processors
- Intel® 5000P chipset
Memory:
- Up to 64 GB PC2-5300 Fully Buffered DIMMs (DDR2-667)
Storage Controller:
- Performance Models: 512MB (RAID 0/1/1+0/5/6)
- High Efficiency and Base Models: 256MB Controller (RAID 0/1/1+0/5)
- Entry Models: 64MB Controller (RAID 0/1/1+0)
Internal Drive Support:
- (8) small form factor (SFF) hot-plug drive bays to support Serial-attached SCSI (SAS) and Serial ATA (SATA) drives
- Slimline media bay supporting Optical or Floppy drive
Network Controller:
- Two embedded Gigabit Network Adapters
Expansion Slots:
- Four PCI-Express slots
USB Ports:
- USB 2.0 support
- 5 total ports: (2) ports up front; (2) ports in back; (1) port internal
Integrated Hypervisors (Optional):
- VMware & Citrix XenServer virtualization technology ... sadly not Microsoft yet!
Redundancy:
- Fully redundant hot plug fans (N+1)
- Hot plug power supply with optional redundancy (Included in Performance models)
Form Factor:
- Rack (2U), (3.5-inch); Depth 26 inches (66 cm)

What is a U ?

A 'U' or Rack Unit is an Electronic Industry Alliance standard height (EIA 310) measure for a rack mounted server. The reason there is a server is so machines from multiple vendors can all use the same racking.

A U or 1U equates to 1.75 inches or 44.45 millimetres. A typical rack is either 19 or 23 U's high. Our example machine the HP DL 350 G5 is 2U (see Form Factor in previous section)

Good Questions to Ask

One of the most frequent question there is, is why is the system running slowly?

Often the answer to this question is one of the four resources on a server is getting maxed out. CPU, Memory are obvious but the problems usually lie with I/O in the form of networking and disk. So understand what networks the servers is connected to and what storage and how it is configured. Recently I found a SQL Server database was running like a dog because the mdb file was sitting on the same hard disk as many others so the disk was working flat out! However to solve the problem developers were off writing better SQL and .Net code which won't have helped at all.

Is the Live server the same as the Dev? If so, what else is the Live server running?

'It runs ok in development' is frequently heard and we all know that if development and testing environments could accurately simulate a Live environment then more problems could be found before go-live. A far easier thing to do is measure how much resource your new development consumes and profile it over a working cycle such as a day or through a month-end process, then examine the servers it's going to go live on, and watch the server through the same profile you will get a better idea whether your new development will fit, this will be easier than trying to reproduce a Live simulation in test or dev but if you can do that, that's great!

In Summary

I do like hardware! So I am bias but I do believe that getting to know hardware can help bridge divides and help solve problems because if programs don't work well infront of business users the whole of IT looks like smucks and the 'his fault not mine' looks extra lame.

Technorati Tags: Hardware,Developement

What is Live Mesh?

Dave Oliver — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 20:26:38 GMT

Live Mesh seems like a simple thing, perhaps that is the point? But what 'Mesh offers me is of great personal value in that it gives me is a little part of my day back and one less complication in my life.

So what is so great about it? Well I can work on documents, blog posts, spreadsheets, any file, from work or working from home, seamlessly without having to transport them via USB key or emailing them to a home or work account and run the gauntlet of quotas and cumbersome filters.

Live Mesh is currently in beta but promise seamless interaction with Mac and Windows Mobile devices. The killer features that is already here is the ability to ‘mesh’ i.e. connect with other people which is a pretty handy thing if you’re working in team that is geographically dispersed and doesn’t have ready access to a single corporate LAN and storage hanging off it.

However Live Mesh at the moment does come with concerns about security which Tech Tidbits eloquently points out with the paranoia siren turned up to full volume. A narrow-minded InfoSec Robot will freak-out at the thought of Live Mesh but perhaps the more pragmatic and thoughtful InfoSec Expert would be more pleased. Why? Because transporting files around is something that does happen and nothing is going to stop that short of a dictatorship, in essence it is an essential of modern business and everyday practice, so would you rather send files from place to place via …

A) Electronically – by using security protocols that are the same as the ones used to send credit card details when purchasing online?

… or …

B) Physically - By a laptop, CD-ROM or USB key that can and will get lost, as the UK Government knows all too well?

Live Mesh is the equivalent of setting up a private VPN between you and your other devices and colleagues. This VPN has the added advantage of a 5GB storage cache! Be warned, don’t get hung up on the reliability and robustness of the storage cache, remind yourself it is a product in beta and a free-bee so don’t expect a gold plating SLA.

Of course you do have to be a bit smart and realise that any information that is remotely sensitive shouldn’t be anywhere near Live Mesh and point your anti-virus software to check the Mesh folders several times a day just-in-case would be prudent.

The last thought on security is to check your organisation IT acceptable use policies, or equivalent, that the use of Live Mesh doesn’t land you into any hot water, maybe worth running it past your local friendly InfoSec Officer for the all clear before setting up your Mesh.

If you want to know the security setup of Live Mesh I would highly recommend reading The Live Mesh teams blog post on the subject here.

A bad point about ‘Mesh is that it currently takes up 150MB of RAM which I’m not so impressed about. Ok so I have 2GB in all my boxes but still, it does seem to be a large footprint.

My last thought for the post is on the future of Live Mesh. MobileMe from Apple is a similar service which I admit I haven’t tried purely because I was up using ‘Mesh before I heard about Apple’s offering. I have also heard that MobileMe is going to be a subscription based service, I have no doubt that ‘Mesh is heading in that direction. So would I pay for it? Well the simple answer is, depends on the price and what I get for me money. I wouldn’t be prepared to pay more than the price of USB key which is essentially the competition. I think that £10 p.a. would be about right and less if you already subscribe to over Live services. However, if a free basic service is what you are looking for then Dekoh could be enough for you.

Live Mesh is another demonstration that Microsoft is into ‘Cloud Computing’ and looking to make revenue from it. I am pleased that they believe the future is on as well as off the 'Cloud' as I can’t see many organisations enjoying the idea of having the Internet between their users and essential services, however this won't be the same story with none-essential services.

Anyway, whilst it is still free, ‘Mesh is worth trying out.

The lovely Eileen has also been using ‘Mesh as well. Obviously a women of good taste.

Microsoft may lift the VM Licensing Restriction on the 19th August.

Dave Oliver — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 23:57:48 GMT

The word on the mean streets of Rumoursville town is that Microsoft is going to lift the licensing restriction where currently software is licensed to a physical device.

Why? With technologies such as VMotion and XenMotion, a VM is moved around a farm automatically to where it can make the best use of available resources such as CPU and memory.

With Microsoft products you are required to license all the physical machines that the software is likely to run on, this isn't just Windows but SQL Server, Exchange, Biztalk etc. If it does move to another physical machine by rights it's going to be another 90 days before you can move the software again. A nightmare when in reality you are only using it once in a VM.

So a costly exercise? Potentially but in reality it doesn't happen. Infact what does happen is that other vendors are chosen instead and the migration from Microsoft software starts.

I'm hoping the change in licensing will also help in cold & warm standby DR (Disaster Recovery) scenarios when a license is transfer with the VM via things like Symantec Veritas Netbackup solution.

This rumour is unconfirmed so don't shoot me if it doesn't happen. However it would be an extremely popular move on Microsoft part if they did this.

Microsoft is been behind in matters of VM, it's time for them to catch up and plug a hole that is making them lose out.

Technorati tags: Microsoft, VMware, Citrix, Symantec, VMotion, XenMotion

Which Enterprise Architecture Methodology do you use?

Dave Oliver — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 15:24:00 GMT

There is a bewildering array of Enterprise Architecture methodologies so it will be of great interest to me to find out which one people are actually using, if at all.

So to find out, I have put together a pick poll so please take the two minutes and leave your choice.

You get a chance to select up to 3 options because I suspect that people are using a combination of more than once approach, rather than following one prescriptively.

This is purely for interest purposes, I'm not going to use this data for marketing. I'm also sure it's not particularly scientific but it is chance for you to express your opinion.

The poll is here on the EnterpriseArchitecture.co.uk forum.

Technorati tags: Enterprise Architecture

SQL Server 2008 RTM is available now on MSDN

Dave Oliver — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 01:50:26 GMT

Need I say more? And to save time here is the link to MSDN Subscriptions Pages.

Enterprise Architecture: Data has a life and a death but should it?

Dave Oliver — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 05:53:45 GMT

I have this belief that understanding how to manage time is an essential task of Enterprise Architecture but oddly this is a principle that isn't spoken about much, if at all. Oddly some Enterprise Architecture software tools only seem to provide time management tools for software support life cycles. Hence a previous post that went in some way to start the debate with a mindmap to capture and categorise the elements that Enterprise Architecture would be interested in.

After reviewing this mindmap it became apparent to me that allot of data has a life. Take for example financially data, it has to be kept for x number of years then archived and/or deleted.

If it is lucky enough to get archived the data format that it is held in is going to get old and as technology moves on at a pace we soon won't have the equipment available to read it. But who cares about old data? Well actually as any historian will tells you, everyone should! Data held in electronic formats is the equivalent of ledgers and manuals written out by hand, printed or typed in previous times that provided a valuable history allowing reviews to re-examine what was going on so lessons could be learnt and history, in effect, didn't have the opportunity of repeat itself as previous mistakes made could be avoided in future.

Take for example the current 'Credit Crunch', could we better understand more about the lead up to previous economic down-turns if we had access to more data from those times than just the summaries and analysis performed at the time without the benefit of using the knowledge and tools we have now? Yes, this way we could put in better economic markers allowing a greater degree of fine-tuning and less likely to lose large amounts of money on a bad idea constantly hidden, because it take such a long time to reveal itself and kicking us up the butt.

So old electronic data siting on a tape real or floppy disk in a store-cupboard is a waste as it provides insight into your organisations history, how did it get to where it got to today? What mistakes did it make? What did it do very right? All this information is more than just useful to historians but can actually become a handy revenue stream as Analysis companies will pay good money to write case-studies and books about what your organisation did right which they can package up and sell that doesn't do your business reputation any harm whatsoever, all helping the share-price. Also allows you to discover if faltering area of your business every did work right allowing you to play back to when it started going wrong. Also when mistakes are made with more access to more data won't it be easier to spot trends?

With data storage being so ridiculously cheap it could be well worth dusting off that old media and loading and transforming it into something that can be used. Yes, this all will take time and where exactly is the ROI? Well, I think this will actually be an easy sell as many friends that work in finance have spoke to me that they wished they still had access to old data, so I don't think this will be a hard fight.

I believe that data should never be deleted and if it is archived will then it should be into systems where it can easily be retrieved that are kept up to date, invested in and brought forward.

The fly in the ointment is software vendors and their constant games to provide some kind of lock-in or incentive to upgrade. These tactics will effect the ability to retrieve historical data so we must look to either taking matters into our own hands and transforming data to vendor neutral data formats or avoid software vendors that use proprietary data formats all-together. We need to pick our vendors wisely and put format neutrality into our 'must-have' requirements rather than 'nice-to-have'.

When you think about this, it is a serious issue, an elephant in the room that no-one sees.

Technorati tags: Enterprise Architecture, Data

Lite EA is renamed Coherent EA

Dave Oliver — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 02:57:29 GMT

John Wu is a good guy. Out of respect for Fenix Theuerkorn and his work on Lightweight Enterprise Architecture, John has decided to rename his EA Methodology from LiteEA To Coherent EA.

Coherent EA is a actually a better, more descriptive name for John’s work IMHO and as a regular contributor to the ITToolbox conversations his methodology has the benefit of faster development from genuine experience than most of the others I could mention.

I certainly have benefited from Coherent EA in the past and think that it is a great resource, so I for one will be updating my book-marks.

Farnborough Airshow 2008

Dave Oliver — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 02:11:53 GMT

Today I managed to sneak into the Farnborough Airshow under a trade pass to sample the delights of this bi-annual event without the public crowds of the great unwashed in my continuing search for innovation. After all, the defences, aviation and IT industries are joined at their respective hips as innovations in one are keenly felt in the others. Take for example the Eurofighter Typhoon Cockpit, it is pretty uncomplicated and has far fewer switches and buttons than most jet fighters. Pretty amazing when you think there is only one person to flying, navigate and use the weapons, when it's predecessor, the Panavia Tornado had two pilots. This is because computing power has taken the job of one man away and made the remains pilots job far easier as well, he doesn't even need to fly the plane as the computers do a lot of that for him (and sadly I do say he as, as yet no women has) . Infact after a catastrophic power failure the plane will not be able to fly or even glide so the only option is to eject.

The Geek side of me couldn't wait to see the Airbus A380 and watch this Goliathan nimbly roll around the sky. This was such a treat. I suspect however that it wouldn't pull half the stunts it did at the airshow on a normal flight as people and luggage would get thrown about everywhere, weight allowing!

What I found hard to believe was the A380 green credentials which are 50 mpg per person. And as it uses a jet kerosene and 40 percent gas to liquids (GTL) fuel so there is far less sulphur which improves air quality over existing planes, still the same amount of CO₂ so no winner there.

So does the A380 herald a time of larger but fewer planes? Well this is the promise, however I suspect that it will really end up being more larger planes which in-effect is what the 747 did back in the 1960's. Boeing however have taken a different track with the 787 which is wide-bodied and will hold upto 330 seats using mostly composite materials, it's aim will be to be more fuel efficient.

To the important stuff now, the level of 'swag' at the show was much lower than other years, however a fan with a LED display was the coolest thing I was given (by a very nice Texan) on the National Utilities Co. stand.

I also found rather ironically that UK Trade & Investment Agency, which is a Government body, was giving away squigy brains, obviously freshly sucked from civil-servants heads that morning and USB keys. Sadly mine didn't have any bank-details of single-mums just a Quicktime movie that didn't work but at 512MB I'm not complaining.

What I found very sad this year was that some of the larger companies didn't have stands in the main halls but displays in stands of their own. Many of them could only be visited by Invitation only which I thought was particularly bad in the case of Northrop Grumman who are the beneficiaries of many UK tax pounds thanks to the purchase of the F-35 Lighting II and all we got to see was a nice full-sized model tucked out the way so I thought a little more effort could have been made so we can see what we are getting and an explanation why this plane is so great.

The next point I would like to make is for the red-blooded readers. The 'Booth Babes' were out in force this years and in particular were the 'TRAC girls' from Trac Group Ltd (or I suspect some modelling agency), or should I say army! For such a small stand tucked away at the back of Hall 4 they generated attention by marching these girls around the show, luring unsuspecting males to their stand like sirens. The stand itself was pretty unassuming apart from the crowd of pilots and army soldiers desperate to get digits. I have to say all joking aside, this kind of thing is so twenty years ago. I do wonder if it did infact work and Trac got some orders out of it, however it couldn't have done their credibility any good? As Trac did seem a little tacky?

The highlight of the day was seeing the restored Vulcan bomber, a pity I didn't see it flying but this will be a treat for the weekend visitors. What will also be a treat is that they are between corporate sponsors so an advertising opportunity for a beautiful machine that is generating a lot of interest. I for one have parted with my cash and become a member of the club to keep it flying as I prefer my national heritage better off in the sky than a museum.

Anyway, I would actually recommend going this weekend if you can, there is plenty there to fill aday and well worth the £28 entry which seems rather cheap for a day-out these days. Also if you have kiddy-winks it is a dream come true as this kind of thing will turn them into future Geeks and the swag is cheaper than a trip to Toy R Us and may last as long.

All said and done, a good Geek day out.

Update: I can't believe that I've had 150 hits from 'airshow+trac+girls' Google searches! What is up with you? The girls were rediculous! If you wanted any proof here you go! NOw pass this link round all your friend because this is not one Google search I want to bet at the top of.

Technorati tags: Farnborough, airshow, northrop grunman, F-35, airbus, a380, geeks

The Open Groups SOA Ontology

Dave Oliver — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 02:51:52 GMT

The Open Group has recently released a draft version of a SOA ontology.

The Open Group has always had a mandate to help boundaryless information flow and the ontology (specification of conceptualisation) for SOA is a demonstration of just that. The ontology is written in the Web Ontology Language (OWL) defined by the World-Wide Web
Consortium and this for me is what makes it a hurdle to learn as it's not an intuitive meta-language but then is any? Perhaps if it wasn't for the graphical tools we would get stuck.

Open Group explains the benefits as:

1. It defines the concepts, terminology and semantics of SOA in both business and technical
terms, in order to:

Create a foundation for further work in domain-specific areas,
Enable communications between business and technical people,
Enhance the understanding of SOA concepts in the business and technical
communities, and
Provide a means to state problems and opportunities clearly and unambiguously
to promote mutual understanding.

2. It potentially contributes to model-driven SOA implementation. The ontology is designed for use by:

Business people, to give them a deeper understanding of SOA, and its use in the
enterprise;
Architects, as metadata for architectural artifacts; and
Architecture methodologists, as a component of SOA metamodels.

The full draft can be found here:

http://www.opengroup.org/projects/soa-ontology/doc.tpl?gdid=16940

After reviewing the draft I am left cold. My first opinion is that business will find this difficult to adopt in the same way they found UML difficult. Why because they are both coding languages, you may as well stick in a 'Print' command. The gap between logical design and executing code is a large as ever.

I still hold the belief that business and IT can only really align on the logical level. Business doesn't want to know about detail they will want to be abstracted away from that, this is actually a key SOA deliverable, just a very unspoken one, hence why REST services appeal. I believe that IT cannot handle business logic detail on it's own, so alignment between business and IT will come when hybrid groups formed of technologically minded users and business oriented IT exist to make, maintain and specialise in services that support their business area based on IT standards and underlying IT technologies and services.

Why I believe these groups need to exist is because business and IT can never align because they have very different goals and therefore different headings. Align the destination and the groups will align, not possible with business and IT as they are very different by reson d’etre. You can't marry creatures of different species. You can however translate and interface.

These groups do actually exist all over successful organisations they just lack boundary, form and recognition perhaps even by the very people that make them up. E.g. So you code in a Spreadsheet? So do you report to the Sales-Manager or Dev Team Leader?

Back to the Ontology, I think the Open Group need to ask a fundamental question, how does business see and understand logic? I really do think we need to revisit DSL's.

Technorati tags: DSL, SOA, Open Group, Ontology

Why Developers and Testers will LOVE VMLogix LabManager MORE !

Dave Oliver — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 04:12:50 GMT

VMLogix LabManager is in same space as VMware Lab Manager what I reviewed recently. However, its key differentiators is around automation – enabling developers, testers and IT Pro staff to entirely automate the process of setting up synchronized multi-machine deployment (including the software stacks in the virtual machines) no matter what virtualisation technology.

Yes, VMLogix LabManager is virtualisation platform agnostic! So if you decided on VMware, Hyper-V or Citrix you will still be able to benefit from using this product.

Feature for feature the VMLogix product does compare favourable against the VMware product, however I haven't as yet determined the difference in price and when I do I will update this post.

So the moral is, if you are going to eval VMware LabManager you will want to compare the VMLogix product against it especially if you haven't made the jump to ESX.

Anyone like to guess how long it will be before Microsoft or Citrix will buy this company?

Technorati tags: Developers, Development, Testers, VMware, VMLogix, Virtualisation, Testing, LabManager