New Products

FreeBSD Unveils FreeBSD 5.4

The FreeBSD Project released version 5.4 of the FreeBSD operating system. According to the organization, this new release offers new features, new tools, and improvements in security, hardware, and networking support for the Unix-like operating system. The FreeBSD release supports various hardware architectures including HP/Compaq Alpha systems, AMD's AMD64, Intel EM64T, Intel IA-64 (Itanium), NEC PC-98x1, UltraSPARC, and standard Intel x86 compatible hardware. The release also provides new support for natively running many Windows 64-bit NDIS (network) drivers on the AMD64 platform and improved performance and support for the LSI MegaRAID and Adaptec ServeRAID adapters.

The FreeBSD release also includes various software updates including BIND, Heimdal Kerberos, OpenSSL, and Sendmail. And the third-party software packages collection has numerous updates including to KDE, GNOME, and the X.org X Window System. The FreeBSD 5.4 release is available via online stores and can be downloaded for free via the FreeBSD website. For more information, visit: http://www.FreeBSD.org.

Microway Announces Navion-DC Series

Microway announced the Navion-DC Series, custom 2- and 4-processor SMP servers, based on Dual-Core AMD Opteron processors. According to the company, the Navion-DC-4 is ideal for compute-intensive applications including DSP, CFD, and FEA as well as high-performance database and enterprise-class applications, running on Linux and the upcoming 64-bit release of Microsoft's Windows Server 2003 x64 operating system. The Navion-DC-2 features two Dual-Core AMD Opteron processors 200 Series packed into a cooled 1U chassis. For more information, visit: http://www.microway.com/opteron.htm.

Logical Solutions/Thinklogical Unveils Simple-Link

According to the company, Thinklogical's Simple-Link is a secure KVM over IP device with high performance, simple operation, small size, and low cost. The Simple-Link supports video resolutions up to 1600x1200, utilizes SSLv3/TLSv1 encryption (256 bits), and supports SSL certificate management. Simple-Link is controlled with a browser-based program providing secure remote access to a connected computer from virtually anywhere in the world. Selling price for the Simple-Link and all essential cables is $549.00. Local KVM console capability is possible using an optional cable. For more information, visit: http://www.thinklogical.com.

Asigra Introduces Televaulting for Enterprises

Asigra announced that the company's Televaulting for Enterprises is an agentless solution that enables bare metal restore capabilities across distributed enterprises. According to the company, Asigra's bare metal restore allows administrators to quickly recover lost, damaged, or corrupted data in a streamlined fashion to any bare metal system (at any location throughout the enterprise) without having to manually reinstall operating systems or configure hardware prior to use. Asigra's bare metal restore allows administrators to restore the complete system on new hardware -- regardless of manufacturer -- including local data, user profiles, registry/system state, service pack files, and encrypted files. For more information, visit: http://www.asigra.com.

Aptitune Releases Freemem and SarCheck 6.0 for Linux

According to the company, Aptitune has made their Freemem tool for HP-UX available to systems administrators free of charge. This tool lets you see the values of some of the kernel parameters and thresholds, which will give you an idea how memory is being used by HP-UX. For more information, visit: http://www.sarcheck.com/freemem.htm.

Aptitune also released SarCheck Version 6.0 for Linux. According to the company, SarCheck is a performance management tool designed to help systems administrators learn more about how their systems work and assist them in their analysis of system performance. It translates the output of several monitoring utilities into a text or HTML-formatted report. It identifies performance bottlenecks, finds runaway processes and memory leaks, recommends changes to various tunable parameters and hardware configurations, and quantifies remaining system capacity. For more information, visit: http://www.sarcheck.com.

Appro's HPC Blade Servers and Workstations Support Dual-Core AMD Opteron Processors

Appro announced that Appro's new XtremeBlade, HyperBlade servers, and workstations will support Dual-Core AMD Opteron processors. For more information, visit: http://www.appro.com.

CITTIO Updates Watchtower 2.4

CITTIO Inc. recently updated their Watchtower data center monitoring and management tool. According to the company, Watchtower is designed to monitor and manage large networks, but its core architecture and implementation capabilities also make it a fit for SMB organizations. WatchTower features a single CD that provides the Web server, management portal, and embedded database to automatic discovery, notification, and historical graphing. WatchTower 2.4 tracks system operations using Simple Network Monitoring Protocol (SNMP) to monitor network devices, software applications, database servers, and more. The new release also includes latency monitoring, real-time monitoring, configurable polling engine, advanced reports, and enterprise-class performance. For more information, visit: http://www.cittio.com.