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LinuxCare Resurfaces as Linux Device Vendor
An anonymous reader submits "LinuxCare, famous employer of Rasmus, Tridge, and others during the go-go-90's Linux start-up days, has resurfaced as a Linux device vendor. The company, now known as Levanta, is shipping its first hardware product, which it says is the 'world's first Linux management appliance.' At nearly $8K, it's pretty expensive, but the Integra M does appear to bring some of the cool sysadmin features long available on the Windows side over to Linux IT types."
From Levantas frontpage:
"For Us, Levanta is the next best thing to cloning our system administrator."
- Joe Poole, Boscov's Tedhinical Support Manager
Levanta is right in that the most crucial aspect of running a Linux network is having the manpower available to handle all the issues that arise. They solve this by introducing their hardware/software combination that makes such administration easier and more automated than before.
But you'd never know it by skimming their site. Like many tech wizards, they get bogged down with technical details and fail to clearly present their product in a coherent manner.
For all the slick web designing that went into their site, someone could have had the decency to tell them to "dumb it down" for the CIOs out there who haven't got the time to dig into their literature.
After reading the site, I'm still not clear on what the name of the administrative tool is, nor the limitations as to the number of nodes I can attach to the admin machine.
There are some very keen concepts that seem to mimic the concept of a system emulator, where the administrator can deploy experimentally and see the results of those deployments without causing system-wide disaster.
I just wish it were better presented.
Jesus saved me from my past. He can save you as well.
The article was complete fluff... Does the damn thing really work? I would shell out $8,000 just to get snapshots working with that 1.4 TB drive array if it really did work. I guess I was hoping the article would have been more like a tech review and less like a commercial.
When you can make more money selling off the software and support?
Seems like lots of engineering time for something that is basically commodity hardware these days when the focus is the software to begin with.
So, it was the 90ies, and things did get out of hand, but the basic idea of doing Linux services - tech support, consulting, training - was a good one, and many companies continue to pursue these businesses quite successfully. The things that really sunk that company were two of the nitwits that they hired:
Fernand Serrat - CEO
Doug Nassaur - CIO
The second one managed to spend a metric shitload of money on equipment that there were no plans to even use, and, indeed, if you follow his career around, you see him getting turfed out of pretty much everywhere he goes. The sad thing is that, he comes in at such a high level that instead of just being fired like you or I, he gets a big severance package, and no one says anything bad about him anywhere.
It is curious to me to see the frequency that the Linux/Unix enthusiasts complain about the lack of robust/commercial offerings of Linux hosted/compatible systems in various areas compared to those that are Windows hosted/compatible.
We should be supportive of companies and individuals that are attempting to establish a broader base of Linux/Unix hosted/compatible systems since it can only benefit the industry.
If a system truly is a piece of crap, then many will hopefully learn from the experience - even folks not part of the effort. Many great products started as a POS and grew into respectable offerings.
Although I understand people taking the opportunity to thrash this system (it can be fun), I wish that the general attitude of the vocal members of the community was just a little more positive.
KK4SFV
Specialized linux hardware can take linux into the future !
Chris ,
Php Programmers.
I guess that means it won't do much but take credit for all the hard work the techs have to put into it just to get it to boot?
Big deal. It cant be more beautiful than Windows, which gives me map of kernel daily, that too on blue screen.
hilarious
I am really interested, since I've spent the last two years of my life for creating a sysadmin tool, i hope much better than fai, but sort of similar.
Now they come, and create this buzz with only marketing bullshit on their site. I have filled in the form with all my data (curios that they did not ask my mothers maiden name...), and got the chance to download the whitepapers with such a huge amount of marketing stuff in it, that I still don't know how this system works.
So:
- I don't care about cost graphicons
- I don't care about stories
- I don't care about anything, but
could anybody please tell me what the architecture is, what is the way it installs/maintains servers, so how does it work?
Does this further lower the TCO for Linux? Instead of paying some sysadmin 50-60K plus health and dental, you could use this solution.
So lets add up the prospect of this:
1. Debian GNU/Linux: $0
2. Magic box from TFA: $8,000
--
3. PROFIT!
Oh, wait...
Probably not relevant to the new product, but in the same area:
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http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?TERM1=
At least three of the four inventors no longer work for Levanta / Linuxcare.
seems really similar to RedHat's Satellite stuff. we use that where I work and it'll do pretty much all of that. It won't do it with Suse, of course, but the other functionality is there.
-- Who is the bigger fool? The fool or the fool who follows him? --
We don't care about Windows, but we have a 50/50 mix of Solaris and Linux. Supporting both OSs, that would be something.
The simple truth is that interstellar distances will not fit into the human imagination
- Douglas Adams
Well, if you'd read the article summary, it says that this company is run by the guys who started LinuxCare. LinuxCare was a company that did do Linux support. They went bankrupt. They failed. It didn't work. So, apparently, you can't "make more money selling off the software and support".
Isn't Levanta something sold as a "stamina improving aid"?
"Dennis says that porting the Levanta software to an appliance form-factor was "a very smooth operation," which he credits to the maturity of Levanta software as a standalone product.
In related news Microsoft reports they have successfully ported Windows from Intel Desktop ATX platform to VIAs mini-ITX platform
For one...
http://www.rlx.com/
In addition to pioneering the whole concept of Server Blades, we've had a Linux-based management system for quite sometime. We're on our sixth generation, so it's pretty smooth to boot. Target audience varies a little bit, but the "first" they are not.
Just my $0.02.
-buf
PS. I work for RLX, though these opinions are mine.
Levitra? Uh, no, I don't need to buy any, my sex life is fine, thanks..
oh.. *Levanta* is what you're trying to sell me. Ah, I see. A different kind of pill. "The kind of purchase that gets rid of headaches," you say? I'll take 2!
The LinuxCare/Levanta folks are going to be at the next Linuxworld Expo. Is Slashdot going to be there? I've been going since 1999 and the event really has dwindled in size. No more huge Slashdot booth, either.
I was going to go anyway, but this product looks pretty interesting and I'll definitely stop by the booth and check it out.
She is the one with whome Linux is compared.
Some picture perhaps? here and here (particular this one.
When will LInux get a latex clad booth babe? We need one. Now. Errr, to take care of Linux, of course.
Cool system admin tools and Microsoft Windows is an oxymoron.
Lodragan Draoidh
The more you explain it, the more I don't understand it. - Mark Twain
Could someone briefly explain exactly how this thing works? Reading through the website I get some idea of what it does, but how does it do it? Do you need to run a specific Linux distribution on your machines or what? Does it just store a bunch of disk images?
-matthew
"THERE IS NO JUSTICE, THERE IS ONLY ME." -Death
For those who would like more details on how the Levanta technology, and specifically the Intrepid M, works, I thought I'd jot down a quick response. After LinuxWorld, we plan to update the website with additional technical information, as well as a conceptual Flash demo, that should help answer some of the technical questions.
o sting.pdf
In the meantime...
As a basic concept, the Levanta technology marries network-boot provisioning with data virtualization and change control. MapFS, a GPLed Linux kernel-loadable module, is an integral part of this process, as is PXE-boot.
However, rather than trying to post a white paper's worth of content here, with limited space and no ability to draw diagrams (you don't want to see my ASCII art), it's probably best to refer those who are interested to a recent report published by Illuminata, a niche technology research firm specializing in grids, clusters, virtualization, and other leading edge stuff. Illuminata does a good job of giving an introduction to the architecture, including a few basic diagrams.
You can access the Illuminata paper below, no registration necessary:
http://www.levanta.com/downloads/docs/levantaPDFp
[Full Disclosure: Levanta did not commission this paper from Illuminata and it's available to Illuminata subscribers. However, we did purchase redistribution rights to it.]
Currently, Levanta supports managing Linux servers and workstations, although we're seriously considering adding Open Solaris support for next year. Right now, officially supported Linux distros cover Fedora, SuSE, and RedHat, although other RPM-based distros like CentOS are sometimes possible. Levanta can manage these distros running on x86 hardware (racks, blades, boxes), VMWare virtual machines, and z/VM sessions on zSeries mainframes.
Levanta Release 3.3 exists as two software products that support x86 and zSeries. The new Intrepid is actually running Release 4 of the Levanta software. We currently plan to port the new features of Release 4 to the software product lines in the near future.
For those who were asking, "Why sell a device?", there were many factors that contributed to our decision:
-Some were technical. For example, the Levanta Manager needs access to shared storage to act as the data store. Many customers like having the idea of the storage 'built in', especially if they don't already have ready access to NFS, iSCSI, or SAN.
-It costs less. The Intrepid appliance licenses actually cost less than the standalone software. With an appliance, there are fewer things like a multitude of shared storage device drivers and SMIS differences to worry about, which reduces our R&D and support costs. This, in turn, lets us come out with a lower-priced product.
-Simplicity. One of our key goals was to make a product that is easier for a broader range of people to use. This is especially important now that Linux is growing beyond universities, data centers, and hobbyists and (hopefully) is on its way to becoming more mainstream. It was easier to make the technology more 'plug and play' by putting it in a box.
If you plan to be at the SF LinuxWorld, feel free to pop by and ask questions.
Some of the waste of resources and money in the late of 90ies and beginning of 2000 was that it was part of the culture of mismanagement at that time. We had huge parties, fishing trips for seals and tech support teams over the S.F. Bay, which would cost the company 25-30k a piece and those boots in Los Vegas conventions with big guys for 250k a piece, and so on. What bothered me most when the reality hit hard was that there was no plan B. Higher management and people in charge just assumed the bull market of the 90ies would last forever, well it didn't, so they had to lay off people instead putting some cash aside when it was still possible.
IP was invented for the sake of lawsuits.
We're actually considering creating a free downloadable ISO version that basically takes the software inside the Intrepid and can be used to burn a DVD. You could then take this DVD, boot off it, and turn a random machine into a a homebrew version of the appliance. Would this be interesting to the OSS community? If so, how many machines do you think the average OSS guy who might use the DVD would want to manage?
Not to burst your bubble...
It's very hard to make out what your software actually does from your website. Is it a nagios frontend? webmin?
If you're in your 6th generation, provide an online demo or at least some screenshits w/o having to squint to see them embedded in a PDF. I'm not talking about a 'demo' where a salesperson shows me some screenshots that have been selected for their marketing value. I want to see how the software actually works.
I doubt the software RLX came up w/ is any closer to being "the first". rsync? cron? expect?
c'mon man, stop trying to pretend your comment is anything but an ad for your software.
OBTW, I _really_ love the part about how your ticketing software is watched 24 hours a day. right.......
Yep, I never spell check.
More incorrect spellings can be found he
I stopped by their booth at Linuxworld yesterday and got a demo. That thing is slick! At closing time, they had a group of their engineers celebrating cuz they had just been awarded LinuxWorld's Most Innovative Hardware award for product excellence. Mom, can I have one for xmas?