The Synology DS1512 has been a popular choice for many home labs in recent years. I hoped that the company’s raft of recent product updates would reach this model eventually. Well my wish was granted as Synology have announced the DS1513+.
There are a few modifications to note. The one that stands out the most at first glance is the doubling of LAN capability. The DS1513+ boasts no fewer than 4 RJ45 ports. That does seem like quite a lot. It does open up some interesting possibilities though…
Today, VMTurbo have launched their Virtual Health Monitor tool and they are letting it loose on the world for the whopping figure of… wait for it…
$0 – That’s right, free.
The tool is an updated and evolved version of the Community Edition of VMTurbo’s Operations Manager product and comes without restrictions on where and how often you deploy it and what it monitors. Ok, that’s not so clear.
The tool is downloaded as an appliance from VMTurbo’s website in a format optimised for one of the following platforms:
The format of the appliance is the only difference that you should find between the versions though as it’s capable of monitoring all of them at the same time. You just download the format that matches the virtual infrastructure where you want to host the tool.
The features that VMTurbo offer with the tool include:
As I’m waiting for the 428Mb appliance to download over the wet bit of string that is my broadband tonight I can’t speak to the experience of deploying it and what it looks like yet but I hope to have the time to kick the tyres on it tomorrow.
Whether you love or loathe VMware and their products, one area that you can’t fault is the community that’s built up around them. In that community blood, sweat, tears and a dash of brilliance have produced many amazing things. vOpenData looks like it could be one of them.
vOpenData is the brainchild of Ben Thomas and was built with William Lam and assistance from several other VMware community members. Essentially it is a public database of VMware Virtual Infrastructure statistics / configurations. Users download a script that collects some anonymous data about their infrastructure. Once uploaded and added to the database, the data contributes to a plethora of publicly available statistics.
At the time of writing there are over 50,000 VMs in the database. The average VMDK size is just over 70Gb. For me, as a techie / evangelist / consultant, this is useful information and there’s so much more there besides. Here’s a quick grab from the public dashboard:
As a community project, its value is huge and will get even better the more people contribute data to it. Head over to the vOpenData website and find out more.
If you don’t know what VMTN is, you might be new to VMware virtualisation or the IT industry. Either way, I have an older post that covers it a bit. I posted it in November 2011 just as the campaign to get the VMTN subscription re-instated by VMware was kicking off.
Here we are though, nearly 18 months later, and it looks like it’s not going to happen. One of VMTN’s biggest proponents, Mike Laverick, posted on the VMware Communities thread related to VMTN today that it looks unlikely. In his words:
The prevailing view appears to be that other projects will be sufficient… Such as Project Nee…
Project NEE is VMware’s online learning resource that’s currently being put through its paces. If you read around what it does, you can see why VMware would consequently view the resurrection of VMTN as unnecessary. Whilst it’s a disappointment to people who run home lab setups, want to run legitimate workplace labs and prototypes etc., I don’t think that it’s necessarily the end of the world. The level of automation / orchestration possible in VMware’s suite of products means that re-installs don’t have to take an age to complete. In fact, I want to rip and rebuild my lab regularly because it’s exactly those sorts of tasks and skills that I want to hone. I don’t want my lab to sit and age like some legacy infrastructure. I appreciate though that others may not share my views or enthusiasm.
Either way, my advice is not to hold your breath in the hope of a change of heart. If it’s true that VMTN is going to stay dead, VMware have made this decision with their heads and not their hearts. My head says, keep calm and roll with it*.
* (@h0bbel, another one for your collection?)
I love CloudCamp (or “geekfest” as my wife calls it). The next event is on Wednesday 24th April and it’s back in “The Crypt”.
The topic for this time is “Software Defined Data Centres” – expect some interesting lightning talks and discussions.
Register soon, spaces tend to fill up quickly.
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