[TriLUG] [OT] HP briefing center

[Roy Vestal]

Here's how the IBM licensing works (unless they changed it since Nov 2006)

Every IBM product comes with a license to run either the server or 
client for IBM Director (servers ARE clients to themselves so both are 
not needed on the same machine).

Reguardless of which brand hardware/OS you have, you can purchase a 
license for non-IBM machines.

I setup a cluster of 3 racks of 6 blade chassis with 12 blades per 
chassis, in addition to the customers 4 racks of Dell and HP 
blades/pizza boxes.
They bought one IBM pizza box to run IBM Director. We were able run the 
IBM Director client on each non-IBM box and show the full hardware, 
right down to the MFG part numbers using Director.

Director does firmware, BIOS, ASM/GSM (whatever you managment processor 
is called), OS cloning, installation, package management, custom 
installations, smnp managment, etc. Closest thing I've seen to it is 
Altaire.

Oh, it can INTEGRATE OpenView, Tivoli, OpenManage, etc into it's GUI and 
content for one-stop-shop management.

The communication between client and server can be encrypted using DES 
or Triple DES if you so choose.

So many features, so little screen....

BTW, I don't get paid to talk about Director....anymore...

YMMV,
Roy
IBM Certified
HP Certified
Dell Pro Certified
Sun Certified
Geek just because

jbrigman at nc.rr.com wrote:
> ----- Original Message -----
>> hahahahah. what's wrong with openmanage (sarcastically speaking) .....
>>
>> (btw, i hate it too). 
> ...
>>> And don't even think about Dell OpenManage.
> 
> I don't understand - why do you say Dell OpenManage sucks? Easy, rapid 
> implementation. Decent greenlight/redlight. Web delivered, BIOS and 
> firmware management, can show SIMM failures down to the slot. I've seen 
> it do a fine job for the nearly-free price. (comes free with server 
> purchase, subscription is very cheap) If you're a budget-constrained 
> small business that already owns Dell hardware, you'd be smart to least 
> try it. 
> 
> Is IBM Director free with hdw purchase? If so, how do you keep Director 
> on Linux from killing the machine? I've had it bring a SuSE Linux 8.3 
> box to it's knees, something about a conflict with the remote console 
> card in the server. I de-installed and never went back.
> 
> JKB