Acheiving network resiliance with VMware
A critical factor in all services is availability, and therefore also network resilience.VMware ESXi allows for network teaming; that is adding two or more interfaces in a high availability configuration. The interesting bit is that, if the network infrastructure does not support Link State Tracking (which marks a port as down if its uplink is known to be down), ESXi broadcasts a ‘beacon’ signal from each of the teamed ports and listens for that beacon on the other ports. If it does not arrive, then that port is down. Clean!
Here is a vmware blog explaining this in more detail.
We used to maintain different build documents for Windows, Solaris and Linux for achieving network resilience. With a virtual platform, this will become obsolete making our lives even easier to manage.
Seeing the multiple benefits of using virtual platforms, I am seriously considering moving ALL services, including production, to a virtual platform. In my case, I am selecting VMware because I am short of human resources and would like a platform that is widely deployed and supported.
IT Monitoring Tools
I thought it would be useful to share, after many long days of research, the tools I found best on the market. One is aimed at monitoring an application, while the other is useful to monitor and troubleshoot the network’s performance.
Paessler IP Monitor
This tool used to be called IPCheck Monitor. It is the most versatile and effective monitoring tool I have come across to date. Monitoring at the applicatoin layer, it can monitor a large variety of applications, including MS SQL, MYSQL, windows servers, VMware ESXi, websites, email servers, and a whole lot more. For each service, you can define a set of monitors.
Permissions are very easily delegated. For guests, read-only ‘maps’ can be created so that the monitoring infrastructure and the ‘end-user graphs’ can be administered separately with minimal work.
We have been using this tool for 2 years and found it to be very effective.
Apparent network’s PathView Cloud
The PathView Cloud (PVC) Sequencer is an agent, deployed anywhere on your network, which generates ICMP traffic to a target and uploads the information to the service provider. Management is perforemed via a web interface. The service does not monitor the service itself (ex to check that a webpage is loading correctly) like tradional monitors, but more specifically monitors the network performance to the server by analysing ICMP data.
PVC are not using any traffic above layer 3 (OSI). By analyzing the ICMP data, PVC can offer metrics for Loss/Latency/Jitter/Capacity (and further Voice capabilities). Further it offers diagnostic information with actionable output for resolution (media errors, duplex mismatch, rate limiting, etc). Alerting can be set on any of the mentioned metrics.
News Digest
The old saying holds true – beware emerging technologies. DDoS attack on EC cloud affects multiple services
The drivers for servers change seem to be the same for all
Security Report – As Pirate Bay closed down, dozens others sprouted. What’s more DDoS is becoming a true business, complete with service demos
Happiness fails us not
If happiness forgets you for a while, fail not.
She will return to you sooner or later.
Jacques Prévert
Poet and Artist
Suicidal Thoughts
Of course sometimes I thought about reaching my last day,
But I never knew which day to start from.
Jacques Prévert
Poet and Artist
The cycle of life
Eat the grass,
Waste not your time,
For sooner or later,
The grass will feed on you.
Jacques Prévert
Poet an Artist
News Digest
IT pains much the same all over
Secuirity
Hackers using cloud computing. Just like everyone else.
An ugly deal for PLAY.com. No card data lost, though.
Knowing All
When I learn to learn from the most ignorant of us,
Only then will I know all.
Justin Vassallo
2nd Aug 1999
Boundless birds
Birds know no frontiers.
neither do the people who admire them.
Justin Vassallo 9th Mar 2000
