The Good Computer Guy Blog

08/31/2009

Virtualization: VirtualBox, VMware Server and Other Stuff

Tags: Software

Virtualization is all the rage these days, with good reason. Virtualization lets you run multiple computers on one piece of hardware. Larger companies are using it to host multiple servers on fewer physical boxes, saving in administration problems, electricity, and heat generated to name just a few benefits. Come to think of it, smaller companies are doing the same. I know because I'm one. I also really like virtualization for ease of backup and fast disaster recovery - more on that later.

Several months ago I started virtualizing my own infrastructure. First, I built a hefty machine with a Gigabyte UltraDurable series motherboard, quad core AMD Phenom processor, 8 GB of RAM, and mirrored 1 TB hard drives. I am using 64-bit Ubuntu Desktop 9.04 as my host operating system. I chose Ubuntu because of a few reasons: it's free, light weight, and (fairly) stable. (I've also played around with VMware's ESX3i which is also free and very nice, but is very picky about what hardware it runs on. Hypervisors are a bit out of the scope of this article anyway.)

Once I decided on an operating system (and NOT the hypervisor route) I had to choose my virtualization platform. The two biggest right now are Sun VirtualBox and VMware. I initially went with VirtualBox becasue it is free, open source, and my buddy Shane at Southeastern Technical Consulting had gone that way. Nothing is really simple in Linux but eventually things were working OK under VirtualBox. I now have 4 virtual machines running there: my primary Domino server running on Windows Server 2003, a client's backup Domino server, my Asterisk phone system, and a test Domino server running the managed beta 8.5.1 and Lotus Notes Traveler (for push e-mail to my iPhone.) Eventually I'd like to get my Untangle firewall running on there, too.

I haven't been completely happy with VirtualBox though and have been looking into VMware Server again. In fact, the possible final nail in the VirtualBox coffin was recently when I tried to set it up for a client using the same setup I have for myself. Windows guest machines freeze up when shutting down, requiring a reboot of the host. That's a big no-no when it comes to virtualization. I do NOT want to have to take down ALL of my machines just because one is misbehaving. I've seen other people with this issue but no solutions. Also, USB support, important for external drive backups, is kind of flaky. Bridged networking was flaky and difficult to get working right. Finally, remote access consists of either native remote support to the individual machines or VNC to the Ubuntu host, which is a bit sloppy. With VirtualBox there is no remote access to the management console.

VMware Server, though, has a slick new web-based interface for version 2. There is no client anywhere but it is accessible from any machine. Installation was not difficult and everything from networking to USB support worked out of the box. The management console has many more features than the VirtualBox client and there seems to be more mainstream support for VMware. The machines I have set up under VMware are fast and easy to access, either on the host itself or comfortably from my chair at my desktop.

I'm not really sure why VirtualBox seems to have more grass-roots love - I'm having a much better experience with VMware. I even have a Mac OS X virtual machine running to do iPhone development. More on VMware and other virtualization topics later. I'm going to cover backup and disaster recovery next.

Posted by Bill Greenberg At 1:16 PM | Digg This | Permalink | Comments (1)

08/25/2009

Dell Next Business Week Warranty?

Tags: Hardware

I have been a pretty good Dell fan for years. Decent prices, easy ordering, great warranty, good machines. Except their prices really aren't that great any more. And Corporate Crackdown points out some major flaws with Dell's next business day warranty. I have actually had some good customer support from Dell, but all of the things I liked about them have been going downhill. That's why I have been custom-building machines lately. Using better components than Dell does I can still come in cheaper than Dell. And using off the shelf components means I can get machines back running pretty quickly when necessary. Sorry Dell, it was nice while it lasted, but I'm pretty much done.

Posted by Bill Greenberg At 7:14 AM | Digg This | Permalink | Comments (0)

08/20/2009

Lotus Notes for iPhone is here!

Tags: Software

I am having way too much fun with my iPhone. After getting tired of the Ubuntu theme that didn't quite work right, I decided that a Lotus Notes theme made more sense for me anyway. And now I'm with a new carrier - IBM instead of AT&T, of course. OK, really really need to stop playing with this thing and get some work done now...
A picture named M2

Posted by Bill Greenberg At 3:10 PM | Digg This | Permalink | Comments (0)

08/18/2009

Best Skins Ever, part 2

Tags: Hardware

As I mentioned last week, I like my stuff shiny and scratch-free, so I've been using BestSkinsEver on my phones since last year. Since I just upgraded to an iPhone and got my wife a Samsung Eternity it was time to re-skin. The skins arrived within a couple of days of me placing the order - much faster than I expected. I tackled my wife's Eternity first. The instructions suggest spraying the soap/water solution on the skin but I have had better luck just dipping in a shallow dish of the solution and then drying much of it with a paper towel. The skins really aren't difficult to put on, but you need good light and a bit of patience, both of which were missing by the time I got to working on my iPhone late at night (hence one little bubbles I didn't notice until the next morning when I woke up - doh!) As the instructions said, I put the screen protector on the iPhone first, then worked on the back. The backs for the iPhones come in 3 different versions - I ordered the most complicated for the best coverage. I think when I put it on and was working on the corners I might have messed up the screen protector without noticing. Like I mentioned - don't do this late at night with poor lighting! You'd think by the fourth phone (2 last year, 2 this year) I would have figured that out by now.

End results, though, came out great. My wife can now throw her Eternity into her purse without worrying about it getting all scratched up (let's face it - she was going to do that anyway!) And I don't have to treat my iPhone like the screen was made out of tissue paper any more. The touch screen, even with the bubbles from my sloppy application, still works and looks great. It may not be quite as slippery as unprotected screens are but you get used to it quickly and can't even tell the skin is on there.

<Update> I just realized, a couple days later, that the bubbles completely disappeared! You would never know there was a sloppy application. I don't know how that happened, but the screen now looks completely perfect.

Posted by Bill Greenberg At 8:41 AM | Digg This | Permalink | Comments (3)

08/16/2009

Lotus Notes Bashing

Tags: Software

I just read through yet another round of Lotus Notes-bashing. OK, yes, I've been a diehard fan since the mid-90's, but for good reason. Most of the people I see complaining don't seem to really understand the product (yes, it can be complicated) or the fact that they're complaining about an old version. Or, possibly most important, that they're complaining about some crappy application that someone wrote. Um, just because you have to use a poorly written app is NOT the fault of Notes - it's the fault of the person who wrote the app. Notes is just the platform it was written on. If you come across a bad iPhone app, do you blame the app or the iPhone?

But the thing that really gets me is when people call the interface old, outdated, and clunky. Um, some of the big UI innovations that people love now have been part of Lotus Notes since the early 90's. Tabbed browsing - would you use a browser without it? Gmail's now very popular "labels." Yeah, that kills me - Lotus Notes has ALWAYS had "categories." In fact, way back in version 3 that was how we organized our email. Yep, you could put messages in multiple categories, just like Google now. And finally, the killer - the Lotus Notes "chicklets" or big square icons on the workspace. Ah, have you looked at the iPhone interface lately?? If that's not a Notes copy, I don't know what is...

Lotus Notes - I wouldn't run a business without it.

Posted by Bill Greenberg At 7:05 AM | Digg This | Permalink | Comments (3)

08/10/2009

Best Skins Ever

Tags: Hardware

So now that I have my shiny new iPhone I want to keep it that way. Last year when I got the Dare (and my wife's LG Chocolate) I wanted the same thing. There are a huge number of options out there but you can't go wrong with the extremely reasonably priced BestSkinsEver. The skins don't look like much at first but boy are they tough. I know my phone is going to get thrown into pockets, briefcases, my wife's purse, etc, and have run-ins with keys, coins, and probably the street at some point. With a BestSkinsEver skin wrapped around the phone nothing makes a dent (ok, well, don't drop the phone from 3 feet.) The touchscreen still works fine and the skins are designed for each device to wrap around corners, buttons and holes. They seem to make them for just about every electronic device out there from phones to cameras to music players and even lap tops. At less than $8 it's no-brainer insurance to keep your phone looking pristine so I'm about to order two more - one for my new iPhone and one for my wife's new Samsung Eternity. It really is the Best. Skin. Ever.

Posted by Bill Greenberg At 2:27 PM | Digg This | Permalink | Comments (1)

08/10/2009

The iPhone wins

Tags: Hardware

I haven't updated my blog on my cell phone escapades lately because I've been too busy playing with my new iPhone, which I've had for a couple of weeks now. Holy smokes, this thing is great! It really does everything. Yeah, there's an app for that. Seriously, it's just about everything I need and much much more. It felt a little funny jumping ship from Verizon Wireless after 11 years but they just didn't have the technology to meet my needs. I was thinking that I should have done this years ago, but the iPhone 3GS just came out recently with some very favorable upgrades.

More on the iPhone later, but if you're on the fence or thinking about getting an iPhone I can definitely recommend it (like you needed me to tell you that.)

Posted by Bill Greenberg At 2:03 PM | Digg This | Permalink | Comments (0)