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Data Centre based Content Manager -- Local USB Dongle?
Thursday, 04/26/2007 -- by Jeff Vormittag. Subject: Data Centre based Content Manager -- Local USB Dongle?
We're currently still in testing phase of our network, but we are planning to move our Content Manager to a dedicated server in a remote data centre soon. The question: Will we need to courier the USB dongle for CM to the remote data centre to be plugged into the dedicated server? or will it work to just have the CM dongle plugged in on the local machine when we connect to CM?
Saturday, 04/28/2007 -- by Marvin Droogsma (www.pthgroep.nl). Subject: Dongle
Dongle has to be on the server.
Monday, 04/30/2007 -- by John Schilling. Subject: Obviously the Server needs the Dongle...
You have a couple of options:
(1) Contact our local Sales Office. If the need is that critical, I'm sure that something can be arranged to loan you a temporary second Dongle.
(2) Scala Players, "Play"--they are not dependent on the "Sever", as such, for their minute by minute function. Load up their Playback schedules for a couple of days in advance. Transfer the Dongle at a leisurely pace.
Regards,
--JSS
Monday, 07/16/2007 -- by Bryan. Subject: Virtualization
We run multiple different instances virtualized on top of our base/ red hat linux. Are servers are rebooting in their natural cycles and when they come on they are not recognizing the USB dongle. You must manually go into VM ware and create the pass through so Windwos server sees the USB dongle.
We are working with a fortune 500 that just got done virtualizing their data centers and want to virtualize the scala software that we just sold them.
After talking with my friends who are high up on the chain at EMC they say in a virtualized environment it is limiting to have USB dongles due to the lack of addressability of of different instances seeing certain dongles. he says complications between usb drivers and vmware will not support it. I guess what I am getting at...is there any way in the future that scala will adopt authentication like Microsoft- minus the dongle. We are still not to the bottom of this...
Any suggestions may help
Regards,
Bryan
Monday, 07/16/2007 -- by John Schilling. Subject: That is why there is a "Software Dongle" contract..
If people are running "VMware Server"--they need to have the IT-knowledge set to know how to configure a "static" USB port for their VM's. [i.e. "read the VMware KB!"]
For VMware ESX users there is a "Software Dongle" CM5 contract.
Contact your Scala Sales Rep. [note: this is not available to "small clients"--there are specific contractual/auditing obligations with the SW-Dongle contract that make this only appropriate for the larger "Data-Center/Fortune500/Government" customers.]
Regards,
--JSS
Thursday, 07/19/2007 -- by Scott. Subject: Virtualizing Scala?
> want to virtualize the scala software that we just sold them.
Bryan, I'm interested in how you're going about virtualizing Scala. I would imagine that the dongle is only the begninning of the issues. Are you using IC3 or IC5? Have the higher ups at EMC looked at Scala?
Thursday, 07/19/2007 -- by John Schilling. Subject: Properly Virtualizing NM3EE or CM5 is no trouble
At any given time, Scala, Inc. is hosting anywhere from 3-7 customer networks. [we have two dedicated "physical VM Hosts"--4xOpteron 270's, 8 GB, 1.25 TB in RAID-1+0 that run these, and other test configuration, VM's on a 7x24x365 basis]
This is mostly done for "new customers" in order to allow them to "bootstrap" their network quickly. At some point they get their own "Data Center Issues" in order and we transfer operations of the networks over to them.
We have "template", stock/blank" pre-configured Win03WE VM's with NM3EE/IC3-BCSTsvr/CM5--the customer just needs to sign the P.O. and in about 30 minutes their Players can be up and running.
We've been doing this at various levels for over three years now.
--JSS
Saturday, 07/21/2007 -- by Sam. Subject: VMWare video drivers and video out
So, it's a server-only thing, you're saying, right John? VMWare doesn't fit into the player configuration at all, due to video performance issues, for which it is notoriously slow. In other words, you wouldn't set up a VMWare server, install 5 players, then pump the video out to 5 different displays saving all that player hardware cost, right?
What if someone wants to virtualize their entire Scala system?
Monday, 07/23/2007 -- by John Schilling. Subject: For testing purposes its trivial to Virtualize an entire network
Running a Virtualized Designer, Player, Network Manager/Content Manager is nothing particularly new. [if fact--at the Launch/Presentation of IC3 some five years ago that is exactly how I ran my demo--four VM's on my laptop--a dedicated Designer VM, an NM3EE, and two Players]
As for the desirability of _PLAYBACK_ -- there is one major problem:
DirectX v1..9 was not designed to be "Virtualizable". [DX10 had it as a design goal--but its "broken" in the current VISTA implementation]
So--there is no "good" method for implementing full HW acceleration. Video is slow in VMware because it is essentially "CPU-Drawn"--with the graphics card acting, for the most part, as a "Dumb Frame Buffer".
As for Cost--For Virtual Players--while there would be a savings--its not that significant:
Each VM needs an OS license;
Each Scala product needs its appropriate license;
The machine that would "host" multiple Players would need to have HW of a nature to actually handle the extreme video/audio/ CPU/memory-bandwidth requirements that actual Multi-Media Playback would require.
--the result is that in an era where DELL will sell you a perfectly nice AMD Athlon64-X2 3600+/1GB/Gf6150/80GB/DVD machine for about USD$360--your "savings" might be on the order of 20%.
[You do need a host for your VM's have has enough capability for realistic Playback--and "Workstation"-class motherboards with 3-4 PCIeX16 slots are *NOT* cheap! ...plus you now have a "super causality". Not a particularly good trade-off in my opinion.]
On the other hand--RAM and disk capacity are low cost. NM3EE's and CM5's are of high value. [and "Servers" spend a great deal of their time _idle_] This makes them perfect candidates for VIrtualization.
--JSS
Monday, 07/23/2007 -- by CME. Subject: Virtualization not quite ready for high availability production servers
But isn't it true that hard drive I/O is also a major limitation of virtualization, making it inappropriate for many production environments? Without an SAN or NAS to speed up I/O anything that's hard drive intensive becomes unreliable?
For example, a sustained read or a sustained write going through the virtualized drive layer can cause hiccups, whereas native hardware has dedicated hardware-level interrupts. From my experience, applications needing high availability really ought to not be virtualized, or at very least, ought to be on a network with an SAN or NAS solution, the cost of which wipes out any cost savings of virtualization.
Monday, 07/23/2007 -- by John Schilling. Subject: As with all things--your mileage will vary...
In our environment VM's have been useful and effective.
Near our facility--in King of Prussia, PA--SMS, Siemens Medical Solutions, runs a server farm of rather impressive scale--on the order of 1000's VM's across several hundred physical Servers. [a neighbor of mine works in their IT shop] Their work is a totally different calculus as compared to most other, non-mainframe, environments. Again--for them it works.
[see: http://www.vmware.com/vmtn/vmworld/ for some useful guides/experiences/success/failures ]
As for Disks/IRQ's, etc.--if the HW and its device drivers are properly designed--this should be a non-issue as long as the total work load is appropriate for the underlying hardware. Knowing how to characterize work loads it a key skill in appropriate use of such technologies. The concepts here are _appropriate_ Rationalization of HW-usage, "Manageability" and "Work-load Isolation"--rather than going for "maximum performance" or "Maximum VM's per physical box. [in our shop--an Internet connection that is limited to a couple of bonded T1's, Quad-Core Servers with six drive RAID-50 arrays, I define "appropriate" as 3-5 768 MB Win03WE/CM5's per server--average CPU% loading is about 15%]
For the 7x24x365-crowd, Virtual-Clustering tools such as VMware's "V-Motion" and Vizioncore's "esxReplicator" are worth their weight in gold pressed latinum! (obligatory "Star Trek" reference when playing with truly "geeky" IT topics!)
--JSS
Thursday, 09/20/2007 -- by Bryan. Subject: Different versions
In vmware ESX version can you configure a static usb port? Or is the only way to go is software dongle with contract
The difference between vmware server and the ESX version is one is free and the other costs...correct? Thanks
Bryan
Thursday, 09/20/2007 -- by John Schilling. Subject: ESX does not have any support for USB devices
USB is a primarily "CPU Polled" interface--this is something one would want to avoid in a VM environment.
ESX Server is about $3.7K/per server. Its functionally quite a bit superior to the "free" product. [in the realm of management/automation]
ESX Server v.3i is now available--this is a version that is actually built into t he firmware of some Server products.
--JSS
Tuesday, 09/25/2007 -- by Bryan. Subject: Tets done
Have you ran any tests with ESX Server v.3i operating with windows server and scala to see if their is any issues. Is Scala supported and or certified.
Bryan
Thursday, 09/27/2007 -- by John Schilling. Subject: No tests--but I don't see the point in really doing any...
v3.i is just a "Packaging Job". [trim the fat, place the code that is important into a FlashROM] We work fine with V.3.0.1. [how could we not? All we are is a standard application that is running under an OS--if the OS is running fine, we are going to be running fine!!!]
Its a nice product idea--and I expect they will make a good bit of $$$ with this concept. [...for at least a couple of years until M$ does a WordPrefect/LANtastic/Netscape to them!] M$ is at 1.0--by 3.0 they will be a spoiler in the marketplace for VMware--2011 or so should be very interesting.]
--John
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