New Products

MRV's LX Series Console Servers Supports FIPS 140-2 Security Standard

MRV Communications, Inc. announced new software for its LX Series console servers. According to the company, the new software supports the Federal Information Processing Standard ("FIPS") 140-2 security standard and includes an upgraded Linux kernel. MRV's LX Series products are console servers that provide out-of-band networking, thus providing network managers a remote means to manage, configure, and upgrade servers and other networking equipment via their serial ports. The company also says the LX Series provides remote power management and integrated infrastructure/security alarming through a single management interface.

The LX Series includes the compact LX 1000S with up to four ports, the rack-mountable LX 4000S with up to 48 ports, and the NEBS-compliant LX 8000S with up to 40 ports. The new features are in the LX Series system software Version 3.6.0, which is available now. Other new features in Version 3.6.0 include support for IPv6 networks and expanded support for SNMP v3, which provides encryption. A new Ethernet redundancy capability allows one port to act as a backup to the primary connection. Version 3.6.0 is based on the Linux 2.6 kernel.

LX Series Version 3.6.0 is currently shipping on all LX Series console servers. It also supports MRV's 5150 Power Control series and IR-7014 Alarm Master. It is a free upgrade for existing LX Series customers via MRV's Web site.

For more information, visit: http://www.mrv.com.

CBT Nuggets Releases LPI Certification Training Videos

CBT Nuggets, Inc. announced their new Linux Professional Institute Certification Level 2 (LPIC-2) training videos, which map to Linux Professional Institute (LPI) exams 201 and 202. According to the company, the videos contain all the exam objectives for LPIC-2 certification, plus tips and tricks for the real-world application of LPIC-2 knowledge in administrating Linux servers for network or Internet use.

The Linux LPIC-2 Series builds on CBT Nuggets, Inc.'s previous LPIC-1 videos, which show how to administer network and Internet servers running the Linux operating system. The videos include instruction on the Linux kernel, Samba and NFS servers, mail management, news serving, DNS, Web and FTP servers, Linux security, and more. CBT Nuggets, Inc. covers the concepts in a series of short, 20-30 minute video segments ("nuggets").

Sample videos from the Linux LPIC-2 Series and from other CBT Nuggets training are available for viewing on the CBT Nuggets Web site.

For more information, visit: http://www.cbtnuggets.com.

SSH Unveils SSH Tectia Server (M) for IBM z/OS

SSH Communications Security Corp. announced availability of the new SSH Tectia Server (M) product for IBM mainframes. According to the company, the SSH Tectia Server (M) is the first enterprise security solution to fully integrate the Secure Shell protocol for IBM z/OS mainframes. SSH Tectia Server (M) incorporates standards-based SFTP (Secure File Transfer Protocol) functionality to ensure confidentiality, integrity, and authentication of critical file transfers. Versatile command-line tools and file transfer client programs enable easy scripting of automated file transfers such as overnight JCL (Job Control Language) batch transfers, log file gathering, and database backups.

When used in conjunction with SSH Tectia Connector for Windows workstations, SSH Tectia Server (M) allows transparent tunneling of TN3270 connections, eliminating exposure of plaintext passwords and securing the data while in transit. The broad platform support of SSH Tectia, which covers key enterprise platforms including Windows, Unix, and Linux, makes it an option for implementing secure, cross-platform connectivity in large-scale enterprise networks.

According to the company, key features of SSH Tectia Server (M) include:

SFTP, SCP, secure terminal, and TCP tunneling including TN3270
Operation and execution from MVS and JCL
Support for MVS (Multiple Virtual Storage) data sets including VSAM
Support for RACF, ACF2, and Top Secret authentication
Full code set translation, including ASCII-EBCDIC for file transfers
Seamless use of hardware acceleration of cryptographic operations for increased throughput and scalability and reduced CPU usage

For more information, visit: http://www.ssh.com.

Virtualmin Launches Virtualmin, Inc.

The developers of Virtualmin announced the founding of Virtualmin, Inc. According to the company, the Austin, Texas-based Virtualmin, Inc. offers easy-to-install software bundles that include all of the components necessary to operate a virtual-hosting Web server and provide a consistent user experience across all tiers of a large hosting provider environment, including systems administrator, reseller, domain owner, and email account user. The company also says it provides customers with professional packaging and support for the Virtualmin virtual host administration tool, as well as Webmin and Usermin. With its launch, Virtualmin, Inc. also announced new features in the Virtualmin software package and support suite.

According to the company, Virtualmin works in tandem with Webmin, which is a Web-based general systems administration tool and provides an easy-to-use graphical user interface (GUI) for the creation and maintenance of Web-hosting domain accounts. It configures industry-standard software like Apache, BIND, Postfix, Sendmail, PostgreSQL, and MySQL and is designed for use with Red Hat Enterprise Linux versions 3 and 4, CentOS Linux versions 3 and 4, and Fedora Core Linux versions 3 and 4.

For more information, visit: http://www.virtualmin.com.

GNOME 2.12 Desktop and Developer Platform Released

The GNOME Foundation released the latest version of the GNOME Desktop and Developer Platform, a desktop for Linux and Unix operating systems. According to the company, Version 2.12 improves the usability and power of GNOME in response to user feedback and developer contributions. GNOME makes stable releases every six months, which allows developers and distributors to plan their GNOME-based products. As a result, distributions such as Fedora, SUSE, and Ubuntu will include GNOME 2.12 in the next release of their products.

According to the GNOME Foundation, key features of GNOME 2.12 include:

An updated default theme
Easier file management
Intuitive clipboard behavior
A unified document viewer
The About Me control panel

Also new are the Services control panel and menu editor, and improvements to the underlying GTK+ toolkit. GNOME 2.12 is available in 43 languages, with many more languages partially supported. Galician, Estonian, Indonesian, Macedonian, Nepali, Slovak, Vietnamese, Thai, and Xhosa are new supported languages in GNOME 2.12.

For more information, visit: http://www.gnome.org.

SCO Partners with MySQL AB

The SCO Group, Inc. announced that it has entered into an agreement with MySQL AB to jointly deliver a certified, commercial version of the MySQL database for SCO OpenServer 6. According to the company, the companies will work together on a range of joint marketing, sales, training, business development, and support programs. Additionally, SCO will include a trial subscription to the MySQL Network enterprise database service with each new copy of SCO OpenServer, and offer full MySQL Network subscriptions through its reseller channel.

According to the company, MySQL Network is a comprehensive subscription offering that provides businesses with what they need to develop and deploy ANSI-SQL database solutions with MySQL. It includes access to certified MySQL software, updates and upgrades, proactive alerts and advisors, the online MySQL knowledgebase, and full production-level technical support. Later this year, MySQL AB will deliver a certified version of MySQL 5.0 for SCO OpenServer 6.

For more information, visit: http://www.sco.com.

Altiris Launches Altiris Deployment Solution 6.5

Altiris, Inc. announced its Altiris Deployment Solution 6.5 with new speed enhancements, advanced security features, and "best-of-breed" heterogeneous hardware and software manageability. According to the company, Deployment Solution provides customers with the power to rapidly change and manage diverse computing resources to facilitate dynamic business requirements while automating hardware and software change, deployment, and migration for optimal security and availability.

The company says that Deployment Solution now supports Windows Preinstallation Environment (WinPE) and Linux as pre-boot environments that help speed system deployment times by 200 to 300 percent while supporting removable media (CD, DVD, USB), PXE, and automation partitions in both environments. Deployment Solution also offers role- and scope-based security rights integrated with Active Directory groups and key-based client/server authentication.

For more information, visit: http://www.altiris.com.

Apple Updates Xserve RAID

Apple updated its Xserve RAID storage system, a 3U high-availability, rack storage system to deliver 7TB of storage capacity at $1.86 per GB. Apple also upgraded its Xserve 1U rack optimized server with up to three 500GB drives, achieving 1.5TB of storage. Prices for Xserve still start at $2,999 and prices for Xserve RAID start at $5,999. According to the company, the architecture of Xserve RAID is designed with 14 independent 500GB Ultra ATA drive channels and provides up to 7TB of storage capacity, while the dual independent RAID controllers with 512MB cache per controller offer sustained throughput of over 385MBps. Xserve RAID is certified to run in Mac OS X, Windows, NetWare, SUSE, and Red Hat Linux environments.

Xserve RAID connects to any Xserve server or Power Mac desktop system using the dual-channel 2GB Apple Fibre Channel PCI-X card sold separately and works seamlessly with Xsan, Apple's 64-bit cluster file system for Mac OS X.

For more information, visit: http://www.apple.com.

Sun Announces New Servers

Sun Microsystems, Inc. announced a new family of enterprise-class x64 (x86, 64-bit) multi-core available servers. According to the company, the servers are powered by AMD Opteron processors, offer the highest-performance x64 processors on the market, and run the Solaris 10 operating system. The new servers are about one-third the power, one-and-a-half times the performance, and cost half as much as comparably configured 4-way servers from Dell. The industry-standard x64 servers can also run standard distributions of the Linux and Windows operating systems.

Additionally, the company announced Sun System Service Plans for Microsoft Windows Server. This new service offering is backed by Sun's support and engineering groups and provides integrated hardware and Microsoft Windows Server support for the latest Sun Fire x64 servers.

The new industry-standard x64 multi-core available server family begins with the Sun Fire X2100, the lowest cost single-socket x64 rackmount server, starting at $745, and includes the two-socket, 4-way Sun Fire X4100 and Sun Fire X4200 servers. Future servers in this same family are being designed to accommodate up to eight multi-core processors to achieve 16-way mid-range system performance levels.

For more information, visit: http://www.sun.com.