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Red Hat Enterprise Linux arrives in Oracle’s cloud

Red Hat and Oracle announced jointly Tuesday that they have partnered to bring Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, broadening Oracle’s available public cloud options and creating a measure of détente between two long-standing competitors.The announcement couched the news as step one in a broader partnership between Red Hat and Oracle, but provided details mostly of the OCI integration. RHEL will be available on Oracle’s VMs, ranging in size from 1 to 80 CPU cores and from 1GB of memory up to 1024GB. Initial support will be limited to the newer OCI virtual machine shapes, which use AMD, Intel and Arm processors.To read this article in full, please click here

Using Linux hexedit and xxd commands to view and modify binary files

Linux systems support a number of file editors – like vi, vim, neovim, ne, GNU Emacs etc. But you can also install an editor that allows you to view the contents of and make changes to binary files--hexedit.With hexedit, you can edit images, executables and other binaries, though you have to know a lot about the format of the file you’re editing to make valid changes that don't disrupt the file's format. After all, you'll be editing one byte at a time. This is not meant to imply that you can't use this command for viewing or editing text files. There's just little or no reason to do that.To read this article in full, please click here

Juniper targets data-center automation with Apstra update

Juniper Networks is releasing a new version of its Apstra intent-based networking software that includes more extensive configuration capabilities, additional multivendor hardware and software support, and improved environmental analytics.Apstra keeps a real-time repository of configuration, telemetry and validation information to ensure a network is doing what the enterprise wants it to do. Companies can use Apstra's automation capabilities to deliver consistent network and security policies for workloads across physical and virtual infrastructures.In addition, Apstra performs regular network checks to safeguard configurations. It's hardware agnostic, so it can be integrated to work with Juniper’s networking products as well as boxes from Cisco, Arista, Dell, Microsoft and Nvidia.To read this article in full, please click here

Melbourne home to AWS’ second region in Australia

Amazon Web Services (AWS) on Tuesday said its second infrastructure region in Australia has been made available for customers.The new region in Melbourne (codenamed: ap-southeast-4), which was first announced in December 2020, will consist of three availability zones.Availability zones are the building blocks of an AWS region that place infrastructure in separate and distinct geographic locations.AWS had launched its first infrastructure region in Sydney in 2012, which also has three availability zones.Other than the two regions, Australia is home to seven Amazon CloudFront Edge locations in Australia, backed by a Regional Edge cache in Sydney. The company had launched an additional CloudFront point of presence (PoP) in Perth in 2018.To read this article in full, please click here

Working with image files on the Linux command line

While the best way to view or manipulate image files on Linux is to open them on your desktop for viewing or manipulating with tools like Gimp, there are quite a few ways to get important details on the command line.Identifying image type by file extension In general, image files can be identified on the command line by listing their names. Clearly ".jpg" represents a jpeg file, ".png" a portable network graphics file, ".gif" a graphics interchange format file, ".tiff" a tagged image file and so on.$ ls -l images -rw-rw-r--. 1 shs shs 256093 Jul 15 2018 mycats.jpg -rw-r-----. 1 shs shs 784238 Jul 15 2018 mycats.png -rw-rw-r--. 1 shs shs 6760 Jul 15 2018 arrow.jpg -rw-r-----. 1 shs shs 8853 Jul 15 2018 arrow.png Nearly all of the time you can rely on file extensions accurately reporting the file type, but there's more you can do with additional commands.To read this article in full, please click here

IT to shoulder more responsibility for data center sustainability

Cutting-edge server chips are turning heads for their potential to boost performance, but next-generation processors also run hotter than older designs, and data-center operators will struggle to figure out what to do with limited guidance from chip makers.At the same time, there’s going to be increased scrutiny on the role that IT equipment can play in energy efficiency efforts. These interrelated trends are among the top predictions Uptime Institute is making for data centers this year.“Operators will struggle with new, hotter server chips,” said Jacqueline Davis, research analyst at Uptime, during a web conference on the institute’s 2023 data-center predictions. Meanwhile, “energy-efficiency focus is going to expand to include the IT equipment itself, something that we think is overdue.”To read this article in full, please click here

Roundup of server vendors selling new Xeon processors

It’s only two years late, but the fourth generation of Xeon Scalable processors, aka Sapphire Rapids, is hitting the ground running, with every major OEM offering new servers featuring the chips.The 4th Gen Xeon Scalable is notable because it contains a number of specialty computing engines in addition to its x86 cores, and it also has lots of cores as well; up to 60. One of the special engines is for AI acceleration, as Intel is determined to make the CPU viable as an AI processor instead of GPUs. So not surprisingly, many of the new servers are built with AI processing in mind.To read this article in full, please click here

Roundup of server vendors using new Xeon processors

It’s only two years late, but the fourth generation of Xeon Scalable processors, aka Sapphire Rapids, is hitting the ground running, with every major OEM offering new servers featuring the chips.The 4th Gen Xeon Scalable is notable because it contains a number of specialty computing engines in addition to its x86 cores, and it also has lots of cores as well; up to 60. One of the special engines is for AI acceleration, as Intel is determined to make the CPU viable as an AI processor instead of GPUs. So not surprisingly, many of the new servers are built with AI processing in mind.To read this article in full, please click here

IBM boosts Power CPU core count…for Oracle

Last month, IBM quietly quietly announced it's planning to release a 24-core Power 10 processor specifically for the benefit of an Oracle database, and Oracle doesn’t know why.An announcement dated Dec. 13 called "a statement of general direction" detailed IBM’s plans around the Power S1014 server. The S1014 server is a single-socket, 4U rack mounted server with 16 NVMe SSDs and a maximum memory capacity of 64GB. The document said in part:"IBM intends to announce a high-density 24-core processor for the IBM Power S1014 system (MTM 9105-41B) to address application environments utilizing an Oracle Database with the Standard Edition 2 (SE2) licensing model. It intends to combine a robust compute throughput with the superior reliability and availability features of the IBM Power platform while complying with Oracle Database SE2 licensing guidelines."To read this article in full, please click here

Commands and setting for managing user accounts on Linux

If you’re administering a Linux server, chances are you have a lot of user accounts to manage and, along with these, a lot of files and settings to control. Here are some commands and issues that are important in setting up and managing user accounts and access rights.Dealing with IDs First, in managing user accounts, you need to be aware of both user IDs (UID) and group IDs (GID). Most accounts are set up with each user being the sole member of a group that has the same name as the user’s account. In fact, both are set up when an account is created using the useradd command. When you list a user’s home directory, you should see something like this:To read this article in full, please click here

Commands and settings for managing user accounts on Linux

If you’re administering a Linux server, chances are you have a lot of user accounts to manage and, along with these, a lot of files and settings to control. Here are some commands and issues that are important in setting up and managing user accounts and access rights.Dealing with IDs First, in managing user accounts, you need to be aware of both user IDs (UID) and group IDs (GID). Most accounts are set up with each user being the sole member of a group that has the same name as the user’s account. In fact, both are set up when an account is created using the useradd command. When you list a user’s home directory, you should see something like this:To read this article in full, please click here

Top 10 outages of 2022

The most significant network and service outages of 2022 had far-reaching consequences. Flights were grounded, virtual meetings cut off, and communications hindered.The culprits that took down major infrastructure and services providers were varied, too, according to analysis from ThousandEyes, a Cisco-owned network intelligence company that tracks internet and cloud traffic. Maintenance-related errors were cited more than once: Canadian carrier Rogers Communications experienced a massive nationwide outage that was traced to a maintenance update, and a maintenance script error caused problems for software maker Atlassian.BGP misconfiguration also showed up in the top outage reports. Border gateway protocol tells Internet traffic what route to take, but if the routing information is incorrect, then traffic can be diverted to an improper route, which happened to Twitter. (Read more about US and worldwide outages in our weekly internet health check.)To read this article in full, please click here

Nvidia, others promise to use new Intel Xeon processors

Intel has formally introduces its 4th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable Processors (aka Sapphire Rapids) and the Intel Max Series CPUs and GPUs, which isn’t much of a secret as we have documented the processors here already, but there are a few new features to go along with them.Those new features include a virtual machine (VM) isolation solution and an independent trust verification service to help build what it calls the “industry’s most comprehensive confidential computing portfolio.”  To read this article in full, please click here

Cisco amps-up its UCS server line with new Intel processors

Cisco has  punched up the power and sustainability features of its Unified Computing System family with new UCS servers based on Intel’s latest generation processors.Intel introduced those processors—the 4th Generation Xeon Scalable processors and the Xeon  CPU Max Series—this week after months of delays. The new processors include a new micro-architecture, up to 60 cores per chip, plus support for DDR5 memory, PCI Express Gen 5, CXL 1.1, HBM2E memory and a of special-purpose accelerators for storage, networking, analytics, AI, and CPU-core load balancing.To read this article in full, please click here

Linux filels: creating, listing, updating, and more

There’s a lot more to working with files on Linux than creating, listing and updating them. After all, files can be Linux commands (i.e., binaries), scripts, images, simple text files, pointers to other files or folders. You might remember the "everything is a file" description of Unix and Linux systems.Even sockets and named pipes are files in their own way. Sometimes only the owner can see and use files, sometimes everyone can and sometimes select individuals will also have access. Here are some of the subtleties.Listing files Listing files on Linux is easy. You use the ls command. On the other hand, commands like ls, ls -l, ls -a and ls -ltr work very differently:To read this article in full, please click here

Linux files: creating, listing, updating, and more

There’s a lot more to working with files on Linux than creating, listing and updating them. After all, files can be Linux commands (i.e., binaries), scripts, images, simple text files, pointers to other files or folders. You might remember the "everything is a file" description of Unix and Linux systems.Even sockets and named pipes are files in their own way. Sometimes only the owner can see and use files, sometimes everyone can and sometimes select individuals will also have access. Here are some of the subtleties.Listing files Listing files on Linux is easy. You use the ls command. On the other hand, commands like ls, ls -l, ls -a and ls -ltr work very differently:To read this article in full, please click here

AMD unveils exascale data-center accelerator at CES

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) might be the last place you’d expect an enterprise product to debut, but AMD unveiled a new server accelerator among the slew of consumer CPUs and GPUs it launched at the Las Vegas show.AMD took the wraps off its Instinct MI300 accelerator, and it’s a doozy.The accelerated processing unit (APU) is a mix of 13 chiplets, including CPU cores, GPU cores, and high bandwidth memory (HBM). Tallied together, AMD's Instinct MI300 accelerator comes in at 146 billion transistors. For comparison, Intel’s ambitious Ponte Vecchio processor will be around 100 billion transistors, and Nvidia’s Hopper H100 GPU is a mere 80 billion transistors.To read this article in full, please click here

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