You get an OVF package with a ready to use WAS profile running on Linux. The OVF package can be deployed on VMWare ESX/ESXi and IBM's cludeburst appliance.
Websphere also say that they carried out WAS best-practice tuning for the OS. Not sure how mattering this tuning is considering the generic nature of WAS (different application=different tuning), and the generic drivers that a VM uses.
[caption id="attachment_252" align="alignnone" width="210" caption="Joys of installation"]
[/caption]I wonder how enterprise IT administrators would accept an OS different from what they usually roll with.
important to mention that similar zero-install pre-configured WAS environment are available on the IBM test cloud (in Beta).
The real important message made here by IBM is that the WAS hypervisor edition is only a first bird. Although naked manual WAS installation is not a biggy, IBM products running on WAS are. As the OVF standard matures and virtualization becomes the default production hosting environment, we will be seeing complex WAS based products (say Portal, and Process Server) shipped as ultra consumable OVF packages. Even a complete topology consisting of many servers can be delivered as a single OVF package.
This delivery mode is quite similar to VMWare's software appliances, only applicable to more than one Hypervisor when packaged as OVF (theoretically).
Bad news to professional services people and install manager software developers.
You were right about the WAS-based products being available for deployment by the WebSphere CloudBurst Appliance. Many more products are including Portal, Business Processs Server and DB2.
ReplyDeleteComplete topology in a single OVF is not what one should expect though. WCA deploys what it calls patterns and these patterns can contain multiple servers running various products. So, just like you don't pile everything on a single srver in a more traditional physical world, you wil not have WCA do the same for virtualised environments. Instead, it deploys patterns consisting of multiple interconnected and coordinated servers. My post on this subject: thttp://freedb2.com/2011/03/16/websphere-cloudburst-appliance-a-vending-machine-for-it/
Hi Leon. Good info indeed.
ReplyDeleteI await the day in which OVF will be the common way to distribute complex software.