If we could still remember the phenomenal “Love Bug” virus that sweeps millions of computers in the world. Most of the hardest hit sectors are large-scale companies and data centers particularly those serving gigaflops of information across the globe. I can still recall an online thread about a company restoring their operation after it had been hit by the virus. Their administrator was really put to test since most of thier computers need an immediate re-configuration much to say reformatting. Although they have program inventories the demand of getting-up requires patience and overnights. However such event is already a history…
Here comes…Data center automation in an almost complete package. Boosting the capabilities of DCA management, Symantec launched its upgraded Veritas Server Foundation. New capabilities were added to Veritas Server to ensure a smooth data center administration.
The Application Director is the industry’s only solution that enables IT operators to monitor complex applications across even thousands of physical or virtual servers supporting major operating system, in a secure, error-proof way. Application Director enables customers to define an application run-time requirements, such as its CPU and memory needs, network and storage connectivity, dependencies across internal application components and tiers, and its business priority. Application Director also provides a more granular level of visibility and control for virtualized environments by monitoring the applications within the virtual server, the virtual server itself, and the underlying hardware, as well as enabling the user to start, stop and migrate the applications and the virtual server across hosts.
Further enhancing its Server Foundation suite, Symantec has also released Patch Manager, which provides a centralized approach to patch servers and applications across operating systems. It automatically performs scanning and assessment, examining the current patch footprint in each application or OS and comparing it to available patches using policy-based rules to automatically manage updates. In addition, Patch Manager includes pre-release testing, patching repository management and automatic patch distribution with deployment, rollback, and failed patch recovery. That means no more headaches updating patches even on fresh installation. Patch Manager simplifies patch administration across the enterprise, enabling substantial savings in time and money compared to manual or semi-automated patch management.
Symantec also released upgrades to existing elements of its Server Foundation family, Configuration Manager and Provisioning Manager. Configuration Manager discovers all servers, applications, and complex dependencies among them, and tracks any changes in real-time. This enables customers to gain control over configuration changes to improve application availability and ensure configuration compliance to internal standards. Provisioning Manager automates the provisioning of operating systems, applications, and network personalization settings to improve administrator productivity, reduce errors and improve server utilization.
Veritas Server Foundation from Symantec is available today. Licensing fees start at $300 per CPU for each managed server. All Server Foundation components can be purchased separately or as part of a Server Foundation bundle.
