Virtually inconceivable

I’ll admit I’m on the VMWare bandwagon. I love the idea of moving a whole system to another device with the click of a button, being able to setup a server to run a single process. My mate Chris would immediately have had a coronary reading that last part. He is of the mind that we greatly underestimate the power of a single Virtual Machine and the hardware underpinning the whole infrastructure… and I agree with him.

I’m starting to see an awful trend with virtual machines. 1 virtual machine (VM) to run one process. I know not every infrastructure is the same and sometimes there is a very real need for this “1 for 1” setup. But I still see it unnecessarily used quite often. At a former company I worked for, they where actually using a VM running Windows Server STD 2003 to execute batch files… (if Chris is reading this, he has had an aneurism and is now dead) 

Now get this… When the ESX box powered up, it launched 9 other similar VM’s running similar configurations to execute similar tasks. I’m not joking. Seems like an awfully expensive way to run batch files. I of course remedied this as soon as I could, much to the delight of the CEO, followed by the despair of the CEO, realising they now owned several redundant copies of Server 2003 they had spent the company’s money on. 

Granted that is a rare and extreme case. But I’ve seen setups where the file and print servers are separate VMs for no good reason. For God’s sake throw some application services on there too, because the bloody things are idling. I refuse to hear arguments of “room for growth” in this type of scenario. We all know the physical infrastructure is only an investment for 3-5 years and the physical infrastructure is a moot point considering how easy it is to move hosts between environments. 

Ramble, ramble, ramble… 

In essence I am seeing ESX boxes running too many unnecessary hosts. It actually reminds me of the Windows Services tab, only a lot more expensive. Instead of Windows Server hosting a service to perform a task, ESX hosts a VM that runs Server 2003 that hosts a service that runs a task… Make sense to you? Me either… 

With all these out-of-the-box plug and play virtual appliances, where by you can have a functional Linux server up and running nearly as quickly as you can download it. I see a change in the need to run Windows Server in a VM all together. In the future could the need to run Windows Server (or any base OS other then ESX) just be a legacy issue? I’m asking, not telling… 

Enough of my rants… For now…

4x4

To all 4x4 drivers.

Burn in hell.

That is all.

iPhone

At last I have joined the magical world of the iPhone. Where the possibilities are endless (provided you don't want to Bluetooth or MMS)

I arrived at the office to find a sleek black box on my desk. "AT LAST!" I thought with glee. I quickly unwrapped the rather simple packaging, crammed in the SIM and... Nothing. Being an IT person and failing to be-able to intuitively operate an Apple product is most embarrassing... Alas, I picked up the manual and skipped to the "Getting Started" section.

iTunes! Curses! This was the key to unlocking my iPhone misery. Not wanting to install iTunes at the office I would have to wait until I got home...

...8 anxious hours later I arrived at home, downloaded iTunes and signed up. I was confronted with the usual questionnaire... Username: This & Password: That... Wait a moment... Credit Card... Curses! I groaned at need to insert these details in order continue. Screw it! Next, next, next and I was in.

App Store. Great
iTunes. Great
Touch Screen. Great (novelty is still yet to wear off)
iBeer. Great

Now what? Can you expect something to exceed your expectations?

It's good, it works and I enjoying checking the footy scores on weekends when I am out and about... But what else is there?

I don't regret getting an iPhone, but I do get a feeling I am missing something... Something important... If you know what this might be, be sure to call me on my Blackberry.

Over and ouddy