MS Beta Software To Manage Unix/Linux Systems 246
Tumbleweed writes "The Cross Platform and Interop team at Microsoft today announced some new beta products for managing Unix/Linux systems from MS Operations Manager 2007, as well as connectors for HP OpenView and IBM Tivoli Enterprise Console. Both betas are available at Microsoft Connect (search for systemcenter), according the blog."
"Resistance is futile..." (Score:5, Funny)
Re:"Resistance is futile..." (Score:5, Insightful)
Maybe I'm just paranoid, but I do wonder whether this is another "Embrace, Extend, Extinguish" tactic. Or at least an attempt by MS to create a "view" of Linux that it can control, perhaps in a way that is unflattering to Linux.
Nope. MSFT needs some Wall St. Cred STAT! (Score:2)
Sometimes it works better than others. Now? Not so much... I see MSFT is down today, and going down further in after hours.
RHT and GOOG are up, however.
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When I hear about Microsoft getting into the "Enterprise Management" arena, I always expect them to pass out red shirts as freebies.
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Maybe I'm just paranoid, but I do wonder whether this is another "Embrace, Extend, Extinguish" tactic.
It is. Microsoft is trying to create an abstraction layer to Linux. This means that, gradually (or in one foul swoop), Microsoft can replace all the abstracted functionality with its own code. That's if anyone bothers to use the product. Why anyone would want to introduce this kind of level of inefficiency is beyond me. Linux is perfectly able to be managed through its own interfaces - with free updates!
If you want to control Linux from a Microsoft system (or OS X), then there already are X clients aroun
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nice 19 firefox
nice -15 iexplore
nice 10 gimp
nice -13 Silverlight
nice 18 bash
nice -18 wmiprvse
nice 17 ssh
nice -20 TrustedInstaller
April Fools Joke (Score:2)
Manage Unix/Linux Systems? (Score:3, Insightful)
How the fuck is MS going to make a gui to manage such systems?
Or are they just reimplementing an ssh terminal?
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I like a lot of webmin, but would rather just script quite a bit of stuff where I can. Much simpler than clickety clicks -- YMMV
The REAL question is: Are there *ANY* *nix system admins out there that WANT MS to manage their systems? My head about exploded when I read the title. On second reading, well, it makes sense to be able to deal wi
Re:Manage Unix/Linux Systems? (Score:4, Insightful)
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So quantity over quality? In the end Windows costs the industry over $60 billions dollars a year. A figure from MSFT's sponsors.
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Think about it. That does include things like Solaris, AIX, etc but Windows represents the bulk of that number. Also remember many businesses buy windows twice for every install. Once for their volume site license, and one OEM install that is required to come with every computer sold by the major manufacturers. Dell doesn't sell a computer without an OS very often, and large corporate need to be sure of the licensing so they wipe and reinstall after paying
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Oddly enough, it's a proprietary app managing thousands of Linux based websites, and doing quite well for itself, and no one's complaining.
Now, imagine MS doing something along those lines, but with a more comprehensive feature set aimed at managing the whole system. If they come up with something that's as good as, if not better than cPanel, you *will* see admins lining up to license it. And you'll likely see productivity enhancements. And the occasional a
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Want to really get your knickers in a bunch? Imagine MS releasing a competitor to KDE and Gnome. In fact, don't imagine it, *expect it*.
I would be all for this, if it was actually a replacement for Windows -- that is, if they were to also deliver sufficient backwards compatibility to run all my Windows games.
In fact, I'd settle for deprecating Direct3D in favor of OpenGL.
Neither seems particularly likely, though. Your cPanel scenario seems a lot more likely -- pretty much anything that lets them force you to have a Win2K3 server somewhere.
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Command line or GUI, what Microsoft needs to do is to restrict the number of options available when administering Unix/Linux systems to the subset available for Windows. Then, the next question is: What can you do with *nix that you can't do with Windows (ignoring the crippled interface)? If the answer to that is: Nothing, then the next question is: Why not just use Windows?
I'll be impressed if they cover two commands (Score:2)
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No, no, no! Remember, we're talking Microsoft here. You administrate the system, not administer it!
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If the answer to that is: Nothing, then the next question is: Why not just use Windows?
I suspect you're playing Devil's (or maybe Microsoft's) advocate, but I'll give you a reason anyway.
Because my employer already has an extensive Linux infrastructure, complete with a mail spool alone which would preclude any version of Exchange short of the full enterprise edition with support for very large mailstores. Last time I added the prices up I came to something like £80,000 setup and a further £40,000 per annum in licensing alone. My entire budget for 1 year including ha
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How the fuck is MS going to make a gui to manage such systems?
Windows (c)(tm)(R) for Linux! (Professional Business x64 Ultimate Edition!) (With powershell!)
With Microsoft's experience in GUI development, Linux will finally be a real alternative to Windows for desktop machines!
Wait...
Re:Manage Unix/Linux Systems? (Score:4, Informative)
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If you already have TEC implementation in place, you should have
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Nice to see such extensive innovation.
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Is it just me... (Score:2)
Or does that Connect Center login look like a dating site?
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Better late than never (Score:2)
Keep away (Score:2, Insightful)
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Hmmmmm. (Score:2, Funny)
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please, don't do a half-assed job, mmmkay?
# killall clippy
# find / -name "*clippy*" -exec rm -f {} \;
see ? that's how's done
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Translation, for the Unix-challenged: /etc/rc.local, at least on Ubuntu, is run at the end of a normal boot. This adds three lines to it and executes them. The first kills with -9, which sends signal 9, the "real" kill signal, which is near-immediate and cannot be ignored by the process. The second is lik
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# `tee -a /etc/rc.local`
killall -9 clippy
find / -iname '*clippy*' -type f -exec shred -ufn 50 {} \;
find / -iname '*clippy*' -exec rm -rf {} \;
^D
That is technically a one-liner. In fact, let's literally make it a one-liner, because I'm bored.
# `echo killall -9 clippy; find / -iname '*clippy*' -type f -exec shred -ufn 50 {} \;; find / -iname '*clippy*' -exec rm -rf {} \;; | tee -a /etc/rc.local`
Technically not equivalent, as it makes the lines added to rc.local just as ugly, but it's probably the safest way of doing this. Of course, beware of bugs in the above code; I have neither proven it correct nor tested it, and I don't endorse actually doing this, for obvious reasons.
we really promise to play nice this time... (Score:2)
Microsoft Linux (Score:3, Interesting)
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I think that this is why microsoft has been hiring up so many xen/suse people. From their hires and acquisitions, you can tell that microsoft is investing a TON into the virtualization market.
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Ha, I'm doing just the opposite (Score:5, Interesting)
It's working out pretty well, actually... I set up cygwin with sshd installed in interactive mode, so I can run a script on the central server and have a cluster of WinXP machines all open an application simultaneously, such as play a video simultaneously or connect to a set of VNC servers all at once. I can also use rsync to efficiently distribute and keep a set of files up to date.
Still running into a bunch of limitations of what I can do remotely, such as set the display mode to a certain resolution, etc. so it ultimately won't keep me from replacing the remote machines with a bunch of custom Knoppix LiveCDs eventually. But at least this way I can still leverage the other Windows sysadmins we have an abundance of.
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It's called QRes, and it's BSD licensed. Maybe it can help you out: http://qres.sf.net/ [sf.net]
There's a setup file which produces some GUI app I've nev
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use reg.exe to alter
"HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\VIDEO{FOO_HHHHHHHHH}\0000\Default Settings.XResolution" and
"HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\VIDEO{FOO_HHHHHHHHH}\0000\Default Settings.YResolution"
Note that FOO_HHHHHHHHH is a
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Or maybe it's that it forces me to preview first -- which, by the way, seems to make the "slow down" message go away in non-AJAX mode.
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Another nVidia / nView problem I'm running into is launching applications on other di
Interesting implications (Score:2)
Ignorance is bliss (Score:3, Informative)
Does anyone here have even a faint idea of what Operations Manager is? Judging from the posts so far, the answer is obviously "Not a clue".
It's not a remote shell.
"Infringing the GPL?!" LOL!
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Come to think of it, I think it deserves a full-blown ROTFLOL!
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Here [microsoft.com] for information about what Operations Manager is for those who might like to read before commenting. I know, this is Slashdot and that's frowned upon...
This may be a good thing in the long run (Score:5, Insightful)
Long term, this might be a help for Linux and other UNIX variants. A lot of companies are required, either due to regulations, contract or their own corporate policies to perform audits on computer systems. Having a "one stop shop" by MS where someone can punch a button and generate a report on vital machine statistics for every single thing hooked up to the corporate network, down to the USB powered urinals, regardless of OS being run, will allow IT shops more freedom in choosing operating systems.
Having OS independence for this tool would allow a shop to use Linux for a number of servers, but when audit time comes around, it will be as easy to print out a report about the machine's and how it adheres to corporate policy as the Windows machines. Audits of machine and network infrastructure security are a critical part of a lot of businesses and any tool that allows this to be made easier is definitely a help.
Using a tool like this, a business can not just say to a prospective client that "all our network connected computers have antivirus, antispyware, and firewall software installed that are kept updated", but actually show it, by showing a report that even the Solaris boxes have Mcafee installed [1] with current vdef files.
[1]: Yes, we all know about UNIX boxes and viruses, but there are lots of times when virus scanning software has to be present on all machines due to contract or legal reasons, even if the installed program just takes up space in
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Listen to the man—he knows whereof he speaks.
Microsoft didn't just dream this up. Their customers, including a few of my clients, have been asking for this. A lot of non-trivial data centres run a mix of platforms—LAMP for Web, Windows Server for file services and AD, something else for databases,... They want to manage all this with a single management environment and toolkit.
Microsoft is doing what it does best. It's responding to a well-defined customer need.
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Last time I checked our hosts ran a mixed set of services, most of which are best (and most comfortably) "managed" from the command line - by editing config files.
What is MS gonna do, create a GUI frontend for every piece of OSS unix software out there?
Preferably a unified one?
Excuse me while I go laugh my ass off.
It's called Tivoli -- And it's by IBM. (Score:2)
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Man you give a whole new meaning to the phrase 'hot plug'.
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Sure, microsoft frantically desires to be relevant, and it's no doubt their wet dream to have a world where you can't manage unix without ms windows.
But, I'll pass - thanks but no thanks. Give me one or two skilled unix admins, and I'm good.
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[...]A lot of companies are required, either due to regulations, contract or their own corporate policies to perform audits on computer systems. Having a "one stop shop" by MS where someone can punch a button and generate a report on vital machine statistics for every single thing hooked up to the corporate network, down to the USB powered urinals, regardless of OS being run, will allow IT shops more freedom in choosing operating systems.[...]
Seeing you say that at least seems to verify my suspicions about these kinds of programs; people do not use them because they actually want to, but because they are required to.
One Command (Score:2)
8-(
From Microsoft (Score:2)
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Awesome! (Score:2)
OH BOY !!! (Score:3, Funny)
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Bite the Bullet (Score:2, Interesting)
Why doesn't Microsoft just bite the bullet and base the next version of Windows on Linux or BSD?
We could finally see a secure and maintainable version of Windows. And Linux might finally see its adoption on the desktop like it has always sought.
It is obvious that Windows has become stagnant. Adoption seems to be nil, or possibly even negative. When ordinary (read: non-geek) acquaintances go out of their way to trash Vista, you know it's in trouble. And I don't believe their code-base is the issue, e
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I think you are being too harsh. Windows ME is widely regarded as the gold standard of POS operating systems. Vista comes close, at least on slashdot.
some more information (Score:3, Informative)
Microsoft leverages two community projects promoting open protocols for network management-- Web Services for Management and OpenPegasus-- to enable cross-platform support. Microsoft also has joined the steering committee for the OpenPegasus project and will contribute royalty-free code to the project
some articles via Google News [google.com]
Nexus SC: The System Center Team Blog [technet.com]
Information Week [informationweek.com]
Microsoft won't just rip the code from OpenPegasus, but will join IBM, HP and others on the OpenPegasus Steering Committee and contribute code back to the project under the OSI-approved Microsoft Public License, which the Free Software Foundation has said is compatible with the GNU GPL version 3. The terms of the Microsoft Public License mean that any code Microsoft contributes will be freely modifiable and usable by anyone, so long as copyrights in the code are left intact.
"It's very important to me that we use OSI-approved licenses when using open source," Sam Ramji, Microsoft's director of platform strategy and one of its top open source advocates, said in an interview.
Microsoft's adoption of OpenPegasus for the Operations Manager add-in could be seen as a small data point that shows Microsoft is getting a little bit more comfortable with the open source world by working with IBM and others on an open source project. It's not like Microsoft is open sourcing all of System Center, but it is a step nonetheless.
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IBM Called (Score:2)
yet another virus vector (Score:2)
Say what? (Score:2)
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Re:Wierd since MS is embracing the command line no (Score:2)
Bad analogy time (Score:2)
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Yeah, that's why all those cpanel and webmin products are so unpopular. Oh wait... they are extremely popular. Hmmm... maybe people do want this.
I know I do... I like to be able to ssh and change all the settings. But I also like being able to flip a checkbox on a form when I just need to change one setting, or even better, delegate flipping that setting to somebody much less
Re:Chose Wisely (Score:5, Funny)
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For OSS unix-management stuff I'd point to puppet, cfengine, FAI (debian specific) and others. As usual there is not "one tool to rule them all" but a set of building blocks that competent staff will assemble into something suitable to the task.
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Adding network cards: Yast manages udev detection, persistent interface naming, and ip/mask. Command-line would be too cumbersome.
Adding NFS mount: command-line wins here (1 line in
Adding software: yast is OK. Yum
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Well, for those of us using MS management tools, this may (potentially) provide a nice consolidation of the tools we use. If I could get a plug-in that would consolidate the updating processes and reporting, then yes, that would be handy.
Certainly I can do everything that I need to with the tools from each system, but it wouldn't hurt my feelings if it could all be done through one interface with the reports bundled into one system that works well with MS Severs that I already have to support. No argument
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Could you translate that into old Elvish to make it sound less darkly evil and more sagely beneficial?
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I'm not surprised Microsoft is going after this market, but I don't think support for Linux and other *nix is going to mean a lot unless the product itself becomes a lot better.