new cool tools for Dell server, storage and networking

This tool is very simple to navigate and has a great deal of information.

Storage: http://dellstoragevr.dell.com/

Servers: http://dellservervr.dell.com/

Networking: http://dellnetworkingvr.dell.com/

Dell chassis converged infrastructure: VMWare, M1000e, MXL, PS6210XS, S4810P

This is a highly redundant, high performance configuration that has 80GbE stacking interconnects for vMotion. Since we are stacking chassis 1, fabric A1 with chassis 2, fabric A1, east/west VMware traffic does not need to go to slower uplinks to TOR. Since chassis 1, fabric A2 and chassis 2, fabric A2 are a separate stack it provides resiliency and capability to update switch firmware without downtime.

Since stacking does take down the entire stack when upgrading firmware, this is not considered best practice for all enterprise environments. VLT between MXLs can provide full redundancy and performance but not same performance as stacking.

Rapid EqualLogic Configuration Portal by SIS

http://en.community.dell.com/techcenter/storage/w/wiki/3615.rapid-equallogic-configuration-portal-by-sis

Dell switch configuration guides for Equallogic or Compellent SANs

http://en.community.dell.com/techcenter/storage/w/wiki/4250.switch-configuration-guides-for-equallogic-or-compellent-sans

I didn't realize how hard this was to find until it was lost...

Aruba wireless

Enterprise solution with an enterprise price.

It have capabilities for large deployment services and integration with multiple wired environments.

 http://www.arubanetworks.com/products/airwave/

http://www.arubanetworks.com/products/clearpass/

Guess what? It is in the software, not the hardware that I would be positioning this solution for the win.

Reminds me of a term; software defined networking.

Which is a term completely all to itself and actually completely different than the two softwares above... except not really. There is a virtual solution to clearpass. so maybe not...

SDN is being sold to universities and enterprises with development budgets. The technology is still evolving and man is it interesting.

new focus - storage

www.Dell.com/storage

MD equals flexibility. Add storage in multiple ways. Gives you choice in dependable hardware as to how to expand.

Equalogics equals simplicity. frame-less architecture. It is easy to expand performance and capability linearly. IT admins wearing multiple hats can setup and manage this solution.

Compellent equals total cost of ownership. Once data has been written to disk it is typically read a few times and then needs to be moved deep and cheap jbod. Data progression on CML gives you best disk useage for your workloads and storage's resources.

52 user firewall and wireless solution.

Thursday I helped someone before going to meet my mom for lunch, and it made me happy...

There is an Oklahoma business that is now part of my linkedin profile that hopefully buys SonicWall.

Business has/had Tz210 and the processor and memory was at full capacity. It needed to be replaced. They currently have 52 users behind the firewall and are expecting growth.

They wanted wireless but need multiple access points. Not positive of the amount needed but know need more than one.

Explained that they better not go with the built-in access point. The built-in access point allow seamless roaming with the newer 802.11ac SoniPoints.  

Customer obviously wants to stick with SonicWall, they also want to take advantage of the layer 7 visibility in the user interface. Threat prevention services in SonicWall are enterprise capable and easy to use. The user data integrates with active directory and shows per user data. 

Through a lot of work (any NAC takes considerable configuration) it has a service capable to decrypt and reencrypt user LAN/WAN traffic in real time.

This small business user does not need that level of visibility though. Just need LAN and Guest services. The guest services has a policy on it to only allow internet service. Default rules are on LAN zone only. 

The business in this case will only need to transfer the config from the TZ210 to the NSA2600 to start off. I would suggest working through old config to set up new firewall policy. Also suggest updating documentation (including getting rid of outdated) policies in secure encrypted file. This would provide a good end user and guest policy document for proper use and connectivity of business network.  

Suggest NSA2600 with 3 year secure upgrade option and 2 of the new 802.3AC access points. The 3 year secure upgrade provides a year of comprehensive gateway security suite for free. (or just the way I like to explain the upfront discount of the sku)

I am interested in how it turns out.      

Getting Lubuntu 14.04.1 to boot on old Dell XPS system

Decided to go with Lubuntu for the lightweight OS for 7 year old Dell Vista system. 32 bit version...

So far stable with no problems.

Now trying to get wireless Broadcom card to work.

using these links for instructions.
http://askubuntu.com/questions/500819/wireless-bcm4318-not-working
going with option 2.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BroadcomSTA%28Wireless%29

about to reboot and see if this old thing has wireless.

Update: step-son has been using for couple weeks now. No crashes and has been stable, cheap solution for web surfing.