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Updated OpForce from Veritas Discovers Applications
Veritas will ship this month version 4.0 of its OpForce Enterprise Edition distributed server provisioning software.
The new version can automatically detect, configure and manage dissimilar servers. It also adds streamlined deployment and provisioning of BEA WebLogic server applications.
Other new features include the ability to perform remote, unattended installations of Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition, Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server, and Red Hat Linux Advanced Server 3.0. In addition, a new “portable snapshot” capability leverages Microsoft Sysprep technology to create a Windows server snapshot that can be matched with any server to be provisioned.
“OpForce Version 4.0 allows a single Windows-based software image to be deployed across servers regardless of underlying hardware, instead of requiring a new image for each type of server," says Jeff Hausman, director of strategic marketing for Veritas’ Server and Storage Management Group. “OpForce can significantly reduce time, cost and complexity in managing data-center servers,” he adds.
Version 4.0 also extends support for Veritas’ Storage Foundation software, enabling administrators to automatically provision “bare-metal” Sun Solaris and IBM AIX servers with Veritas Storage Foundation software, more closely coupling storage and server management. On the network front, the update provides enhanced support for network personalization on servers including network interface card (NIC) teaming, Infiniband host channel adaptor (HCA) support and simple network management protocol (SNMP) trap detection.
The new version “enables IT administrators to simultaneously discover, provision, configure and track distributed servers and applications throughout their lifecycle across multi-tiered heterogeneous data centers,” according to a company statement.
Veritas’ OpForce 4.0 runs on IBM AIX, Red Hat and SuSE Linux, Sun Solaris and Microsoft Windows. Pricing starts at $7,500 per management server and $500 per managed CPU.
About the Author
Stuart J. Johnston has covered technology, especially Microsoft, since February 1988 for InfoWorld, Computerworld, Information Week, and PC World, as well as for Enterprise Developer, XML & Web Services, and .NET magazines.