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I would think that a company managing 7000+ servers would have an automated patch scheduling system similar to BMC Marimba Altiris, or Opsware. You surely don't have time to purchase and install one of these mosters now, but it might be wise to pursue in the future.

There are also some GPL things that may work. Can't think of them right off hand. If these are *nux desktops/servers, you have plenty of time to write a perl/bash/python to accomplish the task. Some other slashdot user is going to have to give you advice for a windows environment at this stage of the game you are in.

Loudcloud ditched the service model, started selling their Opsware automation package, and are still major player in the datacenter automation market.

The development of this server was overseen by several of the original authors of the LDAP RFC's including Howes, Smith and Good.

These guys had a fair amount of experience of the problem that was under investigation, so the engineering team had cogent technical leadership (and as I recall, the engineers themselves were fairly black-belt when it came to coding ability and dedication to the cause).

Additionally, this server is several generations old with significant input from large corporate customers whose almost always demanded 100% availability as their number one priority (and speed as number two).

There are all kinds of things that this release version won't be able to do because it's development has no doubt slowed of late (multi-mastering? management of ephemeral session data? etc?); but what it can do, thanks to the GPL, is provide a fantastic reference implementation for other projects such as OpenLDAP and Samba, and perhaps even a useful set of binaries in it's own right.

Yeah, except Opsware changed it's name from Loudcloud. Go on, read it.

Now, what were you saying about idiots?

You mean Opsware. Marc's a nice guy though. We're his next door neighbors and used to see him quite a bit across the street at Hobee's. He's probably still got his table there....

It might be worth noting that Andreessen's company, Opsware, sells software that "automates the complete lifecycle of managing servers and business applications." - essentially what he is pushing in this article. It's more than a little suspicious. That isn't to say that he doesn't truly believe what he's written; it's quite possible. But I would be more impressed if he was open about it; saying something like "... and that is why my company creates software that will help usher in this revolution..." His not mentioning it seems a little dishonest, its the kind of disclosure that really should be made.

This is just a marketing spiel for OpsWare, the product that his company develops in support of their old LoudCloud business and that they're trying to sell to whoever will listen.

Way to go ZDNet.