Server specs: IBM updates PowerExecutive

By Mark Fontecchio, News Writer 21 Nov 2006 | SearchDataCenter.com

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IBM is releasing a new version of PowerExecutive, software that allows data center managers to measure and control how much power their servers are using.

Big Blue said the new release monitors the power to individual servers or groups of them, and has a new feature that can set a ceiling for how much power can flow to a particular area of the data center.

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One feature for PowerExecutive is the ability to measure the power consumed by individual blades in a chassis -- even with a single power supply. IBM says it installed sensors on each blade to keep track of how much power each blade consumes.

The tool works with IBM BladeCenter and System x servers. It is available now and ships with all new systems. The software can also be downloaded for free.

Open source systems management adds power leveraging

Palo Alto, Calif-based Qlusters, developer of the open source systems management platform openQRM has released plug-ins for its management tools that that allow data center managers to measure power use and lower consumption of certain servers when they're not busy.

OpenQRM can manage Linux, Unix and Windows environments and has seen 50,000 downloads and "hundreds" of implementations, according to William Hurley, CTO of Qlusters. The plug-ins support Dell and Hewlett-Packard servers using the Dell remote access card (DRAC) and HP's Integrated Lights Out (ILO) power management systems.

Hurley said that Qlusters developed the capability for openQRM due to demand from users.

IT certifications not worth as much anymore

A survey by research group Foote Partners in New Canaan, Conn., revealed that pay in the last year for almost 130 different IT certification skills has dropped while pay for 124 noncertified IT skills has jumped.

About 55,000 IT workers were surveyed for the study, which saw a small 1.2% slide in the past year for certified skills such as Sun Certified Enterprise Architect for Java Platform and Novell Certified Internet Professional.

Meanwhile, noncertified IT skills such as proficiency in Oracle and SAP saw a 7% increase in the last year, according to the survey. Foote Partners concluded that companies are looking for a wide breadth of skills – business and IT – in their potential employees now, and so certification isn't as important as it once was.

Unisys adds Intel Xeon dual-core chips to es/7000

Unisys has added the dual-core Intel Xeon 7100 chip to its ES7000/one servers, saying the move will help users virtualize their data centers.

The systems are available now and range from $29,000 for a four-processor machine to $350,000 for a 32-processor system. They include Intel's latest Xeon chip, codenamed Tulsa, which was released in August for x86 multiprocessor servers.

Multicore chip technology basically allows two or four CPUs to be fit on one stretched piece of silicon. Mark Feverston, vice president of enterprise servers and storage for Unisys, said the chip has a large shared cache that makes it ideal for IT managers that want to implement virtualization in their data centers.

Unisys plans on including quad-core chips in its systems next year.

SWsoft updates Virtuozzo virtualization software

SWsoft has updated Virtuozzo, its operating system-level virtualization software, adding networking features for the Linux and Windows environments that it supports.

The new additions allow the virtual environment to run applications off Ethernet, have their own virtual networking infrastructure, and manage processor use with more detail. The new version for Linux is available now; the version for Windows will be ready in one month.

Let us know what you think about the story; e-mail: Mark Fontecchio, News Writer

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