There are a couple of options that you can choose to help reduce the amount of bandwidth used to pull down and install Windows Updates. The first one, which is available for free and runs on Windows 2000 Server, is Microsoft's Software Update Services which allows you to create a local store of the updates (for any language and all supported platforms) and point the client Windows Update to the internal server. It's not perfect but it works in a lot of cases.
Another option is to use a systems management package (LANDesk, ZENworks, SMS, etc.) to build the packages and deploy them while only using your internal network bandwidth (once you've downloaded the hotfixes anyway).
Of course, the two options above are really meant for company networks, but even those can help reduce the bandwidth used for more important things.
Not all E7505 boards are of the same design
on
Linux SMP Round-Up
·
· Score: 4, Informative
Blockquoth the article:
First thing is that all E7505-based boards are basically the same on the surface due to the basic features of the chipset. They all have dual processor support, support for dual channel DDR, and support for PCI-X up to 133MHz (to name a few). Once a manufacturer gets their hands on the board though, features can be added or it can simply be left as is.
There are some boards out there that don't match the template found in the three boards reviewed. Tyan has a board, the Tiger i7505 to be exact, does not include PCI-X slots but rather has the normal complement of 5 PCI slots.
The PCI-X controller used in almost all of the E750x workstation/server boards is really expensive and adds to the complexity of the board layout and design. It seems that Tyan decided to forgo that chip in order to keep the cost of the board down while making up for it by adding Serial ATA (but no FireWire like it's larger Thunder i7505 brother).
One board that I would like to have seen reviewed is the Supermicro X5DAL (with or without Serial ATA RAID) as it does include PCI-X slots, but it is also a standard ATX-sized motherboard. It only has four memory slots, so that may have changed some of the memory timings and possibly have improved some of the scores by a small amount.
One a side note, FreeBSD 4.8-RELEASE users will also benefit from the newly added support for HyperThreading found in all P4-based Xeons and the 3.06GHz P4. More info can be had here. I'm not sure if that feature is also available in 5.0-CURRENT (I would think it would be MFC).
As the other person mentioned, the Opteron (aka Sledgehammer) is being officially released/launched April 22nd (or 23rd) and it's the Athlon64 (aka Clawhammer, the desktop chip) is the one delayed until September or October.
On the Windows side of things, because the Opteron processors utilize NUMA (Non-Unified Memory Architecture), Microsoft needs to make sure that the x86-64 kernel is stable with NUMA and make sure that 32-bit applications can indeed run while the OS is in 64-bit mode. They (Microsoft, and AMD for that matter) cannot afford a botched release of the operating system.
The one thing that got me curious is that it seems that only Enterprise Edition (and Datacenter Edition as well) of Windows Server 2003 will support NUMA and not the Standard Edition... I wonder if that will also be the case with the x86-64 Edition of Windows Server 2003 (ie: it will be more expensive than Standard Edition, which has a 4GB memory limit anyway).
Microsoft has committed to the Itanium/Itanium 2 with their initial release of Windows Server 2003. I think Microsoft is already working on getting Exchange Server and SQL Server (both would benefit greatly with non-PAE > 32-bit memory addressing) ported and running on the Itanium/Itanium 2 platform. I haven't heard of any announced release dates or public betas yet.
Although there are Xeon-based servers that support more than 4GB of RAM, it just doesn't handle it very efficiently by having to use windows and page addressing extension (I think that's what PAE expands to) to address anything beyond the 4GB 32-bit memory addressing limit. Xeon's support 36-bit memory addressing.
With the AMD Hammer's handling > 32-bit memory addressing natively and without hacks like PAE, it will definitely help improve high-memory use applications like databases, large rendering jobs (think Unreal II, future movies), or scientific crunch jobs.
Thanks... I'll give Mocha Telnet a whirl when I get a chance.
I think if I go with Linux (or NetBSD) on a PDA, I'd put it on a clamshell PDA with a keyboard and a half-VGA display. Yeah, they are more expensive, but I don't think I could write out IOS configs or hack DNS map files using a Graffiti-like input scheme;)
I know... it's probably just cheaper to get a use ultra-slim laptop and put on Linux or FreeBSD... but it's still not as portable as a Jornada clamshell.
I have a Pocket PC and would think that WebDAV would be a great feature/component to add to a PDA (mostly those working with WebDAV-enabled CMS or portals, via a WiFi or WAN connection)... but the Pocket Office apps (Pocket Word in particular) just suck.
It would be nice to see an open-source office "suite" for Pocket PC (or even for the Zaurus for that matter) that isn't as braindead or limited as Pocket Word/Excel/Outlook, but not as fat as OpenOffice.org... yet still be able to work with Word and Excel documents natively. Maybe this could be a possibility with the Compact.NET Framework and optimized C++ controls?
Whilst on the topic of open-source software for PDAs... an open-source free or low-cost (as in beer) SSH/SCP/SFTP client would be super nice.
I think it's better that these bugs are found, publicized and patched in a professional manner (like Samba, Sendmail, etc.) then see a company sit on an exploit for a while and state that their products are unbreakable (Oracle) or secure (Microsoft)... even if it's a bug a day. So long as it's fixed, people are notified about it.
As far as people patching them, that's another topic altogether.
Almost every software has bugs... be it disclosed or not disclosed.
What happens to zombie processes in such a system anyway? Will the helpdesk technician also become a certified exorcist to deal with machines that become possessed and start spewing split pea soup (not to mention all of that head or process spinning creating spin locks).
The last thing I want to hear from my computer is that I should clean out the dust and dust bunnies every couple of minutes!
Although floppies are antiquated, but there are still machines that will not boot off of bootable CDs and require a boot floppy (I have several Toshiba laptops that just will not boot from CD no matter what setting is used or how the ISO is burned)... but it's also useful to get a machine booted to either do a re-install or install from an FTP or an NFS server.
Anyway, most bootable CDs use floppy images (be it 1.44MB or 2.88MB) as the boot section of the CD... primarily for legacy/compatibility purposes. With that, you still have to deal with the size limitation of either 1.44MB or 2.88MB.
I download the ISO for CD1 (or even the mini-install ISO since I always use Ports to install software and portupgrade to maintain them) so that I can mount it as a virtual file system for internal FTP installs. I also have a FreeBSD (as well as NetBSD and OpenBSD) CD subscription to help out the respective projects.
Shrinter is something that might have been a hot item for Enron and other fallen companies.
FreeBSD's OpenSSH port updated
on
OpenSSH 3.6 Released
·
· Score: 3, Informative
The OpenSSH port for FreeBSD (under security/openssh) has been updated to 3.6 this morning. One can pull down the individual port tarball from a local FTP mirror or by using CVSup to update a local Ports collection.
I'm not sure if Sun will be dropping their Blade servers anytime soon since it is something that they could make a fair amount of money on, at least on the appliance blades (ie: blades that act as load balancing units, routers, security/encryption units)... as well as sell blades that allow more Netra X1/V100/V120 style servers to fit into a rack.
Sun also has some additional management software for their Blade servers that they would be able to get some money out of.
I agree, Sun definitely needs to focus on what they know best and know how to do best... they also need to get their processors in line (the UltraSPARC IIIi was paper launched MONTHS ago and there still isn't any publically available machines using it; also, the UltraSPARC III Cu is still at a larger limited speed, yet it's not the most efficient processor out there).
The only problem is that a firewall will only help to block exploits from the outside, but in an academic or in a corporate environment, you are also at risk from being attacked from within the internal network. Think if there was a worm available on the Internet that sits idle on an infected machine and sporadically attacks servers within the same subnet as the machine is configured for... say that an employee's laptop got infected while connected (without protection) to the Internet from home, brought it in, connected it to the corporate network and the worm starts to do it's evil job. Unpatched servers would then be at a high risk if they are not protected in same way...
One option is to extend what you said and place the server between two sets of firewalls, or at least on the internal side, use port blockers or packet filters if a full-blown firewall is overkill.
Even that could cause problems because port 135 is quite critical for Windows servers providing file/WINS services.
Whoops... forgot to paste another part of that page:
January 1, 2004 Beginning on this date, non-security hotfixes are no longer available.
Considering that this is a security vulnerability that they are talking about, Microsoft needs to look at what they committed to their customers in that timeline and better get a fix out ASAP!
January 1, 2005 Beginning on this date, Pay-per-incident and Premier support will no longer be available. This includes security hotfixes.
On the page that you linked to, the end date for System Builder (ie: OEM) availability for NT 4.0 Workstation is 30 June 2003 whereas the end date for online support is 30 June 2004.
I'm not saying that it's okay... but rather it would be close to waltzing into an unlocked home and using their TV or the phone, or just taking stuff. I know, it's an overused and a bad analogy... but it was the only thing I could think of as a point of discussion.
Slashdot Mirror
Another option is to use a systems management package (LANDesk, ZENworks, SMS, etc.) to build the packages and deploy them while only using your internal network bandwidth (once you've downloaded the hotfixes anyway).
Of course, the two options above are really meant for company networks, but even those can help reduce the bandwidth used for more important things.
Then the devious sellers will find a way to hack the BIOS and not have it display that warning message.
http://supermicro.com/PRODUCT/MotherBoards/E7505/X 5DAL-TG2.htm
Sorry about that.
The PCI-X controller used in almost all of the E750x workstation/server boards is really expensive and adds to the complexity of the board layout and design. It seems that Tyan decided to forgo that chip in order to keep the cost of the board down while making up for it by adding Serial ATA (but no FireWire like it's larger Thunder i7505 brother).
One board that I would like to have seen reviewed is the Supermicro X5DAL (with or without Serial ATA RAID) as it does include PCI-X slots, but it is also a standard ATX-sized motherboard. It only has four memory slots, so that may have changed some of the memory timings and possibly have improved some of the scores by a small amount.
One a side note, FreeBSD 4.8-RELEASE users will also benefit from the newly added support for HyperThreading found in all P4-based Xeons and the 3.06GHz P4. More info can be had here. I'm not sure if that feature is also available in 5.0-CURRENT (I would think it would be MFC).
On the Windows side of things, because the Opteron processors utilize NUMA (Non-Unified Memory Architecture), Microsoft needs to make sure that the x86-64 kernel is stable with NUMA and make sure that 32-bit applications can indeed run while the OS is in 64-bit mode. They (Microsoft, and AMD for that matter) cannot afford a botched release of the operating system.
The one thing that got me curious is that it seems that only Enterprise Edition (and Datacenter Edition as well) of Windows Server 2003 will support NUMA and not the Standard Edition... I wonder if that will also be the case with the x86-64 Edition of Windows Server 2003 (ie: it will be more expensive than Standard Edition, which has a 4GB memory limit anyway).
Microsoft has committed to the Itanium/Itanium 2 with their initial release of Windows Server 2003. I think Microsoft is already working on getting Exchange Server and SQL Server (both would benefit greatly with non-PAE > 32-bit memory addressing) ported and running on the Itanium/Itanium 2 platform. I haven't heard of any announced release dates or public betas yet.
Although there are Xeon-based servers that support more than 4GB of RAM, it just doesn't handle it very efficiently by having to use windows and page addressing extension (I think that's what PAE expands to) to address anything beyond the 4GB 32-bit memory addressing limit. Xeon's support 36-bit memory addressing.
With the AMD Hammer's handling > 32-bit memory addressing natively and without hacks like PAE, it will definitely help improve high-memory use applications like databases, large rendering jobs (think Unreal II, future movies), or scientific crunch jobs.
Probably has happened already with Windows 64-bit Limited Edition for the Itanium/Itanium 2. What we will see is a mismash of 32-bit/64-bit BSOD ;)
Thanks... I'll give Mocha Telnet a whirl when I get a chance.
;)
I think if I go with Linux (or NetBSD) on a PDA, I'd put it on a clamshell PDA with a keyboard and a half-VGA display. Yeah, they are more expensive, but I don't think I could write out IOS configs or hack DNS map files using a Graffiti-like input scheme
I know... it's probably just cheaper to get a use ultra-slim laptop and put on Linux or FreeBSD... but it's still not as portable as a Jornada clamshell.
Thanks for the link, but I've already look at it and it's not going to work for me since I'm stuck on the Pocket PC platform at this point.
I am eyeing out the Zaurus C700 clamshell PDA nonetheless.
I have a Pocket PC and would think that WebDAV would be a great feature/component to add to a PDA (mostly those working with WebDAV-enabled CMS or portals, via a WiFi or WAN connection)... but the Pocket Office apps (Pocket Word in particular) just suck.
.NET Framework and optimized C++ controls?
It would be nice to see an open-source office "suite" for Pocket PC (or even for the Zaurus for that matter) that isn't as braindead or limited as Pocket Word/Excel/Outlook, but not as fat as OpenOffice.org... yet still be able to work with Word and Excel documents natively. Maybe this could be a possibility with the Compact
Whilst on the topic of open-source software for PDAs... an open-source free or low-cost (as in beer) SSH/SCP/SFTP client would be super nice.
I think it's better that these bugs are found, publicized and patched in a professional manner (like Samba, Sendmail, etc.) then see a company sit on an exploit for a while and state that their products are unbreakable (Oracle) or secure (Microsoft)... even if it's a bug a day. So long as it's fixed, people are notified about it.
As far as people patching them, that's another topic altogether.
Almost every software has bugs... be it disclosed or not disclosed.
What happens to zombie processes in such a system anyway? Will the helpdesk technician also become a certified exorcist to deal with machines that become possessed and start spewing split pea soup (not to mention all of that head or process spinning creating spin locks).
The last thing I want to hear from my computer is that I should clean out the dust and dust bunnies every couple of minutes!
Although floppies are antiquated, but there are still machines that will not boot off of bootable CDs and require a boot floppy (I have several Toshiba laptops that just will not boot from CD no matter what setting is used or how the ISO is burned)... but it's also useful to get a machine booted to either do a re-install or install from an FTP or an NFS server.
Anyway, most bootable CDs use floppy images (be it 1.44MB or 2.88MB) as the boot section of the CD... primarily for legacy/compatibility purposes. With that, you still have to deal with the size limitation of either 1.44MB or 2.88MB.
I download the ISO for CD1 (or even the mini-install ISO since I always use Ports to install software and portupgrade to maintain them) so that I can mount it as a virtual file system for internal FTP installs. I also have a FreeBSD (as well as NetBSD and OpenBSD) CD subscription to help out the respective projects.
I know FreeBSD now has support for that RFC. ;)
Shrinter is something that might have been a hot item for Enron and other fallen companies.
The OpenSSH port for FreeBSD (under security/openssh) has been updated to 3.6 this morning. One can pull down the individual port tarball from a local FTP mirror or by using CVSup to update a local Ports collection.
An in-progress discussion on the exact same topic with the exact same submit text, done by the same person, can be found at K5, here.
I'm not sure about that "madhatter", but I know about this Mad Hatter (McNealy that Mad Hatter anyway).
I'm not sure if Sun will be dropping their Blade servers anytime soon since it is something that they could make a fair amount of money on, at least on the appliance blades (ie: blades that act as load balancing units, routers, security/encryption units)... as well as sell blades that allow more Netra X1/V100/V120 style servers to fit into a rack.
Sun also has some additional management software for their Blade servers that they would be able to get some money out of.
I agree, Sun definitely needs to focus on what they know best and know how to do best... they also need to get their processors in line (the UltraSPARC IIIi was paper launched MONTHS ago and there still isn't any publically available machines using it; also, the UltraSPARC III Cu is still at a larger limited speed, yet it's not the most efficient processor out there).
That's my US$0.01 worth.
The only problem is that a firewall will only help to block exploits from the outside, but in an academic or in a corporate environment, you are also at risk from being attacked from within the internal network. Think if there was a worm available on the Internet that sits idle on an infected machine and sporadically attacks servers within the same subnet as the machine is configured for... say that an employee's laptop got infected while connected (without protection) to the Internet from home, brought it in, connected it to the corporate network and the worm starts to do it's evil job. Unpatched servers would then be at a high risk if they are not protected in same way...
One option is to extend what you said and place the server between two sets of firewalls, or at least on the internal side, use port blockers or packet filters if a full-blown firewall is overkill.
Even that could cause problems because port 135 is quite critical for Windows servers providing file/WINS services.
Considering that this is a security vulnerability that they are talking about, Microsoft needs to look at what they committed to their customers in that timeline and better get a fix out ASAP!
http://www.microsoft.com/ntserver/ProductInfo/Ava
The key part of that page is:
On the page that you linked to, the end date for System Builder (ie: OEM) availability for NT 4.0 Workstation is 30 June 2003 whereas the end date for online support is 30 June 2004.I'm not saying that it's okay... but rather it would be close to waltzing into an unlocked home and using their TV or the phone, or just taking stuff. I know, it's an overused and a bad analogy... but it was the only thing I could think of as a point of discussion.