NEW YORK—Linuxcare Inc. officials said this week that their software designed to ease the management of Linux on IBMs eServer zSeries mainframes and high-end servers is generally available.
IBM zSeries servers run z/VM, virtualization software that enables users to carve up the servers into multiple partitions, or “virtual” Linux servers.
According to Linuxcare President and CEO Avery Lyford, Levanta brings more organization to the running of the multiple partitions by enabling data center administrators to deploy Linux using best practices and by enabling collaboration between various data center experts—such as Linux, PC, mainframe and networking people—by offering interfaces for each of them.
Finally, by automating much of the configuration of the multiple virtual servers, Levanta reduces the number of people needed to manage them, Lyford said in an interview at the LinuxWorld show in New York.
“It eases the management and collaboration of the whole system,” he said.
Lyford would not say where the Levanta technology—which was first introduced in August 2002—would be applied next, though he did say that blade servers “could be a next logical step.”
IBM at LinuxWorld also touted its efforts to make it easier for users to run Linux on their zSeries systems. It is offering an integrated package of Linux-based technology designed to get businesses running the open-source operating system on its high-end zSeries servers.
IBM already offers a similar package for its xSeries line of Intel-based servers, with plans to extend across its Unix-based pSeries servers and midrange iSeries servers later in the year.
Those components include SuSE Linux Enterprise Server for S/390 and zSeries 7, z/VM 4.3, WebSphere Application Server AE 4.0.4 and IBM Directory Server 4.1.
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