July, 2008

Self-Service Password Management SharePoint Webpart

Allows users to manage their passwords via SharePoint.

The Dot Net Factory

Novell iFolder for Replication

Off-line files/folders is nice but it doesn’t work when you are on the road. iFolder is an open source product developed initially by Novell. It gives you a folder that will do block level synchronization over the Internet. You can check out iFolder here.

Additional Remote Access App

There are several remote access applications out there. LogMeIn is one that has been around of a while but is worth looking at nonetheless.

LogMeIn

VMWare Releases Enhanced Vmotion

The ability to VMotion between dissimilar processor types has been a limitation for VMWare’s ESX server. Just recently they released an announcement that they will be releasing an update to their product which will allow VMotion between certain types of dissimilar processor types.

VMWare’s Release

VMWare Converter for System Backups

While there are several ways to image a desktop or server there are only a few that can go from the backup file to a running state without being converted or restored using a simlar method as the backup. VMWare converter is a free tool that allows you to take running OS’s and “convert” them to virtual versions of themselves.

While it may be a bit unorthodox using VMWare converter to backup your systems before a major change can really save you some time. The nice thing about using VMWare converter is that apart from being free it will give you a running OS as soon as it is done if you need recover from a failure.

VMWare ESXi - Now Free

The tech world is abuzz with the news the VMWare will make their ESXi product free. The previously 500.00′ish product will be free to the general public by the end of the month.

For more information you can use these links:
http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/server_virtualization/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=209400823
http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Infrastructure/VMwares-ESXi-Hypervisor-for-Free/

Lightweight Remote Troubleshooting Tool

We all need to troubleshoot remote computers/servers from time to time. While there are a wide number of remote troubleshooting tools out there most of them require the installation of an ActiveX control or an EXE that you have to download and install. The heavy weight applications abound but the light weight ones are far and few.

Inletex is small company that produces a little known product that requires that the remote client/computer/server download a small file and run it. The remote user enters a code which is given to them by controller. This method allows the controller (you in most cases) to have several sessions and distinguish them apart. The controlled is given back control at the end of the session.

If you are looking for a lightweight remote application give Inletex’s ERC client a try.

Are you ready for Microsoft Hyper-V

Virtualization is popular these days for obvious reasons. Who wants to purchase more hardware then they need? Microsoft’s offering into the virtualization market is their Hyper-V solution. They have recently released the “Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit 3.1 for Hyper-V”. An article from Technet on the topic can be found here.

Xen Server Hardware Compatibility List

In a previous post i mentioned that with VMWare ESX server you will want to make sure that the hardware that you purchase will support the VMWare kernel properly. Here is the same compatibility list but for Citrix’s newly acquired Xen Server.

Xen HCL

VMWare Hardware Compatibility List

When looking at virtualization it is important to make sure that the hardware that you are going to use will work properly. If it doesn’t then all of the servers/desktops that rely on that hardware will crash or act erratically.

VMWare’s hardware compatibility list found here will allow you to make certain that there wont be any hardware related issues with compatibility.