Thursday, May 13, 2010

Landscape 1.5: Ubuntu Server Monitoring & Management Tool

Canonical has released its new server monitoring and management tool Landscape with its Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Long Term Support) edition. The application is meant to make Ubuntu sever monitoring, management and package provisioning easy.

Ease of use is the main advantage of Ubuntu based distributions. However not much solutions were available to manage and monitor a group of Ubuntu servers simultaneously. Finally Canonical developed its own solution and that is “Landscape”. And with the release of their new distribution Ubuntu server 10.04 LTS Lucid Lynx, they have updated the older version to Landscape 1.5. The new version Landscape 1.5 is available as an on-site server and an online service from Canonical. Landscape is a simple and easy to use web based application that provides powerful automated system management capabilities such as management, monitoring and provisioning of packages across multiple machines, thereby lowering your per-systems cost of management and administration.

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Server Edition Released

Canonical, on April 27 2010, announced the release of the Ubuntu 10.0.4 LTS server Edition release. This release includes extended security and maintenance updates free of charge to all users for five years. Ubuntu 10.04 LTS is the successor of the widely acclaimed Ubuntu 8.04 LTS. Ubuntu 10.04 LTS will be available for free download from Thursday 29 April.
   
Ubuntu 10.04 LTS will also spot a larger network of open-source and proprietary application providers certifying their applications on Ubuntu Server Edition than ever before. About 100 organizations have signaled their intent to certify applications on the platform, including Alfresco, Ingres, IBM, VMware, Zimbra, Yahoo! and many others with more expected to follow post-launch. Dell has announced its intention to support Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Server Edition and will offer Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud as an option on its PowerEdge-C product line - servers specifically designed for building cloud environments.

RedHat Enterprise Linux 6 Beta released.

Good news for all the RedHat enthusiasts: Red Hat Enterprise Edition 6 Beta has released. This beta release is the first step forward to the next major release of the Red Hat Enterprise Edition platform 6. Red Hat Enterprise Linux is expected to address the modern IT requirements and diminish the gap between virtual, physical and cloud computing. This first beta release of the RHEL 6 features updated core technology from the kernel to the application infrastructure to the development tool chain. RHEL 6 is going to meet the needs of the coming generations of hardware and software technologies.

The major themes of the release include pervasive virtualization, improved scalability and availability, increased power efficiency, and delivery of some of the latest software technologies. Now I will describe the highlights and noteworthy improvements in this RHEL 6 beta release.

  • Comprehensive power management capabilities:

RedHat Enterprise Linux 6 is more focused on power consumption by improving the 'Time-keeping' within the kernel. It helps to transit the processors which don't have active tasks to idle state frequently. The result is cooler CPUs and greater power savings. The new monitoring tools like 'powertop' and tuning tools like 'tuned' are also worth mentioning.