Virtualization, VM Ware, Linux kernel and Linux

Virtualization, VM Ware, Linux kernel and Linux Virtualization, VM Ware, Linux kernel and Linux device drivers Virtualization is a system or rather a technique for hiding the physical characteristics of computing resources from the way in which other systems, applications, or end users interact with those resources. This consists of making a single physical resource (like a storage device, a server, an application, or an operating system) appear to operate as multiple logical resources. It can also comprise making multiple physical resources (like storage devices or servers) appear as a single logical resource. It can also take in making one physical resource to appear, with fairly diverse characteristics, as one logical resource. It is the universal theme of all virtualization technologies to hide the technical detail by means of encapsulation. An external interface that hides an underlying implementation (for example, by simplifying a control system, by combining resources at different physical locations, or by multiplexing access) is created by virtualization. Owing to the recent development of new virtualization platforms and technologies, attention has been refocused on virtualization. It is a confirmed software technology. Through this technology, the IT landscape is speedily transforming and the manner of computing is also fundamentally changing. (VMWare 2008) The technology of virtualization can benefit any person who uses a computer, from the IT professionals and Mac enthusiasts to commercial businesses and government organizations. It saves time, effort and money while it also achieves more with the computer hardware already owned by the users. (VMWare 2008)Virtualization is used in various diverse contexts; they can be grouped into two major types: Platform virtualization involves the simulation of whole computers; and resource virtualization involves the simulation of combined, fragmented, or simplified resources. Certainly, it is also an important concept in non-computer contexts. A virtualized interface is employed to a complex device by many control systems; therefore gas pedal of a modern car does much more than simply increasing the flow of fuel to the engine. The returns on investment in any business can be improved with the use of Virtualization. It effectively lets one computer to do the job of multiple computers, through sharing the resources of a single computer across multiple or several environments. Virtual servers and virtual desktops allow hosting multiple operating systems and multiple applications locally as well as in distant and inaccessible locations. It gives freedom from physical and geographical limitations. Better desktop management, improved disaster recovery processes, increased security, and high availability of resources are the other benefits that one gets from building a virtual infrastructure apart from the basic advantages that are savings in energy and lower capital expenses because of more efficient use of the hardware resources. There are some benefits of virtualization, which are as follows: Through virtual machines, the workloads of several under-utilized servers can be consolidated to a smaller number of machines, possibly a single machine. This results in benefits of savings on hardware, environmental costs, management, and administration of the server infrastructure. They also serve the purpose of running the legacy applications. A legacy application just might not operate on newer hardware or operating systems. And if it runs on it, there may be under-utilization of the server; therefore consolidation of several applications is useful. This is not easy to do without virtualization; applications are usually not written to co-exist within a single execution environment. Virtual machines offer safe and isolated sandboxes for running applications that can not be trusted upon. Such an execution environment can also be created dynamically on the fly as something is downloaded from the Internet. Virtualization plays an important role in building secure computing platforms. They can be used to create operating systems or execution environments with resource limits. Generally, partitioning goes together with quality of service in design of QoS-enabled operating systems. The illusion of hardware or hardware configuration (including the multiple processors and SCSI devices) is provided by the virtual machines. It simulates networks of independent computers. They can run multiple operating systems at the same time, which are of entirely different nature. Some such systems may be hard or impossible to run on newer real hardware. They allow powerful debugging and performance monitoring. Debugging of operating systems can be done without losing productivity, or creating more complicated debugging scenarios. Whatever is run by the virtual machines, can also be isolated by them. So, they provide fault and error containment. Faults can be injected proactively into software in order to study its consequent behavior. Application and system mobility is helped by the virtual machines, since they make migration of software easier. They are excellent tools for research and academic experiments. It is safer to work with them because they provide isolation. They sum up the complete state of a running system: the state can be saved, examined, modified, and reloaded. The existing operating systems can run on shared memory multiprocessors. They can create arbitrary test scenarios and can result in some very imaginative, effective quality assurance. Virtualization can retrofit new features in the existing operating systems without too much work. Several tasks including the system migration, backup, and recovery can be made easier and more manageable. It is an effective means of providing binary compatibility. In co-located hosting, virtualization on commodity hardware is extremely popular. Such hosting is economical, secure, and appealing on the whole. In core, it can be said that virtualization helps to convert hardware into software. The software like VMware and ESX helps to transform the resources of an x86-based computer hardware that includes the CPU, RAM, network controller and hard disk. In order to create a virtual machine, this is fully functional and capable of running its own applications and operating system similar to a real computer. Multiple virtual machines are known for sharing the resources of hardware without having any interference among each other. This helps to safely run the various operating systems and applications on a single computer. VMWare The VMware Approach to Virtualization: This approach inserts a fine layer of software directly on the hardware of computer or might be on a host operating system. This layer of software is capable of creating machines that are virtual and contain a monitor of virtual machine. This allocates hardware resources energetically and transparently. This helps the multiple operating systems to run on a single physical computer concurrently. (VMWare 2008) Virtualizing a single physical computer marks the beginning. A robust virtualization platform is provided by the VMware. This helps to scale the hundreds of interlinked physical computers and storage devices that can form complete virtual infrastructure. VMware, Inc. is a publicly-listed company on the New York Stock Exchange. It designs and develops proprietary virtualization software products for x86-compatible computers, counting commercially-available as well as freeware versions. The desktop software of VMWare runs atop Microsoft Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X. The enterprise level software and the ESX Server of VMWare run directly on the server hardware without the need of an extra core operating system. The name VMware comes from the abbreviation VM, which means virtual machine and ware comes from second part of Software. Achieving the Benefits of Virtualization: VMware’s proven technology is the basis of free VMware Server. With the help of this software, which is robust yet easy to use, many things can be done. Developers can create multiple environments by means of different operating systems on the same server so as to restructure software development and testing. New applications, IT testing of patches and operating systems can be simplified by permitting system administrator to test in secure virtual machines and by leveraging snapshots to be able to roll back to a clean state. Server positioning can be simplified by once building a virtual machine and then developing it multiple times. In ready-to-run virtual machines, software can be evaluated without installation and configuration. Legacy operating systems such as Windows NT Server 4.0 and Window 2000 Server can be re-hosted in a virtual machine running on new hardware and operating system. Pre-built, ready-to-run virtual appliances can be leveraged, which include virtual hardware, operating system and application environment. On Virtual Appliance Marketplace, virtual appliances for web, file, print, proxy, email and other infrastructure services are available for download. Free operating systems have several advantages as characterized by Linux. One of which is that their internals are open for all to view. Anybody, who has requisite skills, can readily examine, understand and modify the operating system, which is once considered as a dark and mysterious area whose code was restricted to a small number of programmers. Operating systems can be democratized with the help of Linux. The Linux kernel is a large and complex body of code, which is not possible to be hacked. Kernel hackers would need an entry point where they can approach the code without being disturbed by the complexity of its codes. Frequently, the gateway is provided by device drivers (Corbet, Rubini Kroah-Hartman 2005). In Linux kernel, device drivers play an important role. These device drivers are a different kind of black boxes that make a particular hardware piece respond to a well-defined internal programming interface. Also, they completely hide the details regarding the working of the device. With the help of a set of standardized calls that are independent of the specific driver, various user activities are performed. The role of device driver is to map those calls to device-specific operations that act on real hardware. The writing of Linux device drivers is interesting because of number of reasons. In order to gain access to a particular device that is of their interest, individuals need to know about the drivers. By making a Linux driver available for the products, hardware vendors can add large and growing Linux user base to their potential market (Corbet, Rubini Kroah-Hartman 2005). It is necessary to reliably run the Linux kernel without considering whether a new hardware is added or removed from the system. Due to this, an additional burden is placed on the device driver author. For USB drivers, when the device with which a USB driver is bound with, is removed from the system, the pending urbs that were submitted to the device begin to fail with the error – ENODEV. The driver is required to identify the error and properly clean up any pending I/O if it occurs. The hot pluggable devices are not only limited to the traditional devices like the mice and keyboards. Now, number of systems supports the removal and addition of the complete CPU’s and memory sticks. The Linux kernel properly handles the addition and removal of such core system devices so that there is no need for the individual device drivers to pay attention to these things. References VMWare 2008, Retrieved April 17, 2008 from www.vmware.com Mullins, R 2007, VMware the bright spot on a gray Wall Street day, IDG News Service. Corbet, J, Rubini, A Kroah-Hartman, G 2005, Linux Device Drivers. 3rd Edition, OReilly Media.

How Dole Could Have Used The Issues To His Advantage :: essays research papers

How Dole Could Have Used The Issues To His Advantage In a more or less conservative country, the more or less conservative candidate, Bob Dole, should have been a lock for the presidency; the only problem was President Clinton. Clinton had moved rightward positioning himself between Newt Gingrich's zealous revolutionaries on the right and liberal democratic barons on the left. Clinton's speeches started sounding like a Republican was giving them. Bob Dole had followed the Nixon ideology of going "starboard" in the primaries and coming back to the center in the general election. The only question was whether Dole had gone too far right and would not be able to recover in time. With Clinton's move to the right and his advantage of incumbency, Bob Dole would have to present some exciting new ideas to win over the American people. Throughout the history of presidential elections, there have been a few issues that always appear: abortion, crime and the economy. The position taken by candidates on these issues could make or break their campaign. The first of these issues, abortion, has been a hotbed of controversy. The pro-life versus the pro-choice groups. Throughout his political career, President Clinton has been adamant on supporting a women's right to choose. Clinton stands firm on the fact that abortions should be "safe, legal and rare" without many unnecessary restrictions. To further show his hard stance on abortion, Clinton vetoed a bill in April that would have banned a rarely used procedure termed "partial birth abortions." President Clinton defended his decision, calling it justifiable in extreme situations, such as cases of rape, incest and to save the life of the mother. Unlike Bosnia and gays in the military, Clinton has not wavered on this issue. Bob Dole on the other hand has taken just the opposite stance on abortion. Dole opposed the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion. In 1983 he voted for a constitutional amendment to overturn this settlement but has since softened his stand and supported an amendment to restrict abortion except in cases of rape, incest and if the life of the mother is in danger. Dole, not surprisingly, supported a ban on "partial birth abortions" and has condemned President Clinton for vetoing it, saying, "A partial birth abortion blurs the line between abortion and infanticide, and crosses an ethical and legal line we must never cross." Dole's position could pose a potential obstacle to the presidency. His stance is responsible for his huge gender gap. Women perceive Dole as rigid and insensitive to their needs. What Dole must do is stick to his guns but reassure

Be Yourself Essay

Good morning to the honorable judges, teachers and friends. Today I am going to deliver a speech about â€Å" Be Yourself†. Firstly, find yourself. You can’t be yourself if you do not understand, and accept yourself first. Stop caring about how people perceive you. The fact is, it really doesn’t matter. It’s impossible to be yourself when you’re caught up in wondering â€Å"Do they think I’m funny? Does she think I’m short? Do they think I’m stupid?† To be yourself, you’ve got to let go of these concerns and just let your behavior flow, with only your consideration of others as a filter—not their consideration of you. Beside that, Be honest and open. What have you got to hide? You’re an imperfect, growing, learning human being. If you feel ashamed or insecure about any aspect of yourself—and you feel you have to hide those parts of you, whether physically or emotionally—then you have to come to terms with that and learn to convert . Relax. and stop worrying about the worst that could happen, especially in social situations. So what if you fall flat on your face? Or get spinach stuck in your teeth? Learn to laugh at yourself both when it happens and afterwards. Turn it into a funny story that you can share with others. It lets them know that you’re not perfect and makes you feel more at ease, too. Next, Have a Productive Day. Accept that some days you’re the pigeon, and that some days, you’re the statue. People might raise eyebrows and even make fun, but as long as you can shrug and say â€Å"Hey, that’s just me† and leave it at that, people will ultimately respect you for it, and you’ll respect yourself. Lastly, believe in who you are. If you’re always working to be someone you’re not, you’ll never be a happy person. Be yourself and show the world you’re proud the way you are! Yea and don’t forget that being yourself and honesty is the best policy! 2010 English speech

Reviving Ophelia essays

Reviving Ophelia essays The book is called Reviving Ophelia: Saving the lives of Adolescent Girls by Mary Pipher, Ph.D 1. Why did the author write this book? Mary Pipher wrote this book for a number on reasons. One of her goals was to educate her readers about the difficulties and struggles that almost every adolescent girl must conquer to find her true self. Dr. Pipher wanted to know why so many girls are in therapy in the 1990s? Why are there more self-mutilators? Why are drugs and alcohol so common in the stories of seventh graders? Why do so many girls hate their parents?(Preface). These are just a few things that Pipher uncovers as she touches in the minds of the young girls themselves. These are questions that we should all have a better understanding for. I believe she wrote the book to also encourage parents through this time as well as their children. She wants people to be aware of the unfortunate issues that society in condoning. This book will hopefully help protect at least some of the girls in the future and will also bring awareness to them. She wanted to show how much more oppressed girls are today. Dr. Pipher knows how uneducated parents, friends, and teachers can be in dealing with young girls because our world today is completely different from what it was twenty or even fifteen years ago. She offers many helpful suggestions and ways to save the lives of these girls. 2. What did you learn from reading this book? I learned so much that I am not too sure where to start. The first thing I realized was how tough girls have it nowadays. It sounds so much more complicated now than when I was in junior high, which was not very long ago. Before reading the book I had noticed that society, with television, movies, magazines, etc., is not influencing people in a positive direction, but I try to ignore it and see the lies that we are told everyday. However, I c ...

Media Bias essays

Media Bias essays The media is biased. Now, every news company will tell you that they deliver an unbiased depiction of the world's daily on goings. But, every one of them is lying. While many people would raise an eyebrow to a statement such as this, if you think about it, of course its true. And, it is true for one simple reason: people love money. As the book so aptly puts it, "Television is big business," and big companies need to make money to stay in business. Television directors and producers select what we get to hear about, and they select the stories that will attract the largest body of listeners. Within this fact lies the most obvious bias of media bias. On television, ratings count. Producers for major news companies realize what sells, and that is what they show us. There is always an eye grabbing spin on everything. Take, for example, the books definition of the Bias against Losers. In the 2000 election networks early on described the two candidates, but did so unequally, calling Gore wooden and boring in personality, and having a lack of traction in gaining voters. Bush, in contrast, was depicted as "warm and easygoing." This is that bias. Remote control toting viewers would quickly lose interest in an unbiased display of political discussion, so instead the politics of the candidates are quickly touched upon, and then judgments both negative and positive are passed upon them. They do this to gain viewers, as the highest number of people watching means more money for the company via advertisements, and other sources of revenue. This is not saying that a network will pick a particular candidate or issue, and spin it in a complete ly one sided bias, and far from it. This can be seen clearly, again, within the 2000 presidential election. Following the primaries, where Gore was shown to be leading Bush, television companies changed their spin on things, now depicting Bush as ignorant for lack of pronunciation and other "trivial matte...

Enterprise IT at Cisco Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Enterprise IT at Cisco - Case Study Example These strategies can encompass what are known as the four building blocks of competitive advantage; superior efficiency; quality; speed, flexibility and innovation; and responsiveness to customers. Discussion What was Pete Solvik's approach to IT governance? what was the primary style in use at the network/infrastructure level? What about the data level? How about the application level? Pete Solvik completely decentralized the IT functions and distributed the IT funding among all departments in a way that all functions and departments had the autonomy to make decisions regarding the IT system that they wanted to deploy and go ahead with the investment. At the time, IT was considered as an overhead cost and this needed to be changed. He restructured the way in which IT decisions regarding the investment on applications were made. As the IT system of Cisco was failing and the technology was becoming outdated, Solvik decided to implement an Enterprise Resource Planning system to attain a more robust infrastructure. The ERP system was implemented to control the functions of the inventory and manufacturing department and to keep the departments in sync. With the help of the infrastructure implementation, Cisco then launched intranet service for the employees and a web-base online resource for the customers. Solvik enabled all functions and department to select the IT systems that they wished to implement and gave them an autocratic environment of decision making as well as the budget to make the IT investments. He also divided the IT budgets among regional department to give different regions a choice to implement the systems that they found more feasible. However, with the number of different systems deployed, data was being entered into the ERP differently through each department which made it all the more difficult to track information. Although this approach proved successful in the short run, eventually there were too many projects to implement and handle and t his caused various issues. What problems did Cisco have with its internal IT by 2001? Why didn't the ERP system help more? There was a lot of investment over IT implementations but hardly any proved to be fruitful. By giving all departments and functions the autonomy to have their own IT tools caused duplication. This was wasted funds over the same type of systems that had similar functionalities. This not only wasted funds but also caused miscommunication within the company. Also, different tools had different keywords to extract data which caused further problems. As Solvik decentralized the system, there was no single centralized group that overlooked the IT decisions and systems that were being implemented to ensure that there are no redundancies. The problem with interfacing the ERP system was that the various different systems tried to access different information in different ways. Data from the ERP was used differently by the independent systems as there were a number of int erfaced developed to communicate with the ERP. Implementing an ERP system is not enough, the system has to upgraded and extended with the passage for time for it function better. The updating and extension of the system was hindered with the different interfaces used to communicate with the system. Moreover, the employees had become accustomed to the systems that

Woody Allen as a film Autuer Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Woody Allen as a film Autuer - Essay Example The term â€Å"auteur† has French origins, and it refers to the theoretical approach to filmmaking, where the director is the central creative force in motion pictures (Menne 36); this concept has persisted over the years, and the term film auteur describing film directors that write and direct films through which they express their personal artistic vision. In as much as there is no clear evidence between â€Å"regular directors† and â€Å"film auteurs†, the distinction between the two does become codified, elucidated, and isolated with time with regards to the art, artist, and the particular categories to which they belong. The film auteur does not only express a cinematic vision, they are prolific in what they do by taking direct roles in relation to the medium and craft of filmmaking; the creative influence of a director on a film must be so profound for them to be considered the film auteur. According to the auteur theory in film criticism, a film reflects i ts director’s personal, creative vision, and the directors stand out as the original auteur; the list of strong distinctive film directors who qualify the title â€Å"film auteur† is very short. This paper will explore the world of Woody Allen, as a distinguished and highly talented film auteur, as seen in the movies Midnight in Paris 1978, Annie Hall 2005, and Manhattan 1979, in which he creates a unique world that no one else could bring to life except himself. Born in Brooklyn, New York in 1935, and raised in a Jewish family that had a strong comedy culture, Woody Allen found his niche in comedy, and later in filmmaking when he first directed What’s Up, Tiger Lily in 1996. Since then, Woody Allen has a library of films to his name including his most acclaimed Annie Hall 1977, Manhattan 1978, and Midnight in Paris, where his one of a kind neurotic, unconfident, and flamboyant cinematic vision emerges. An auteur approach to filmmaking is evident in all his film s particularly because Allen uses themes and styles that make him distinguishable and unique from the pack as a film maverick (Quicke 95); for instance, a dominant theme in most of his films is the struggling artist as in the films Manhattan 1978 and Annie Hall 1977. In all these films, the backgrounds to the protagonists, the cinematography, and lighting elucidates auteur style in filmmaking, distinct and unique, unlike other regular directors. In Manhattan 1978, Allen explores the woes of a struggling television writer who is dating a high school girl but still develops feelings for his best friend’s mistress; Isaac, the main protagonist, is uncomfortable in his job and on top of it all, he cannot establish a solid intimate relationship with a woman his age. Isaac is a very frustrated artist, who feels confined in his current position yet his possibility for success seems obscured by his present situations, thereby further heightening his anxiety and unhappiness; his intern al and external struggles are captured vividly to present a picture of the struggling artist, as is often the case in Allen’s masterpieces. In the film Annie Hall 1977, Allen still explores the theme of the struggling artist through the protagonist Alvy Singer, a Neurotic comedian from New York, who falls in love with a woman named Annie Hall and becomes embattled with relationship issues in Manhattan (Knight 214). Allen brings a part of his own persona into the film by reveling a suffering in Alvy and himself by connection, in finding someone who truly understands him and appreciates his presence. This masterpiece reveals many struggles in Alvy, the whining comic persona; through Alvy’s decision to do an unconventional film that entails him talking straight to the camera concerning his problems, Alvy reenacts his life as a