The European Commission said that the proposed acquisition of VMware by Broadcom may go forward, thanks to an investigation that suggested that the market would not be harmed and the acquiescence to several conditions by Broadcom.The Commission, in a statement issued Wednesday, said that its investigation centered on answering the question of whether Broadcom, if it acquired VMware, would be in a position to harm the competitive balance of the marketplace in several key technology areas, including Fibre Channel host bus adapters, network interface cards, and storage adapters.The investigation found that Broadcom didn’t have a strong enough position in the NIC and storage adapter markets, but noted that the proposed merger would let Broadcom harm its only rival for FC HBAs, Marvell, by making sure that VMware’s virtualization software didn’t work well with Marvell’s hardware.To read this article in full, please click here
Some of the most convenient “tricks” on Linux depend on the use of a handful of special characters. This post takes a look at a number of them and shows how they work.Using > and >>
Using the > and >> characters will have similar but different effects, and both depend on how you use them in a command. The > character can be used to direct output into a file. For example, these commands will put the specified text into a file. If the file exists, however, any former content will be overwritten. Notice how only one "hello" remains in the file.$ echo hello > world
$ echo hello > world
$ cat world
hello
Using >>, on the other hand, will add the text provided to the end of a file. If the file doesn’t exist, the command will create it.To read this article in full, please click here
The mkdir command can do more than create a single directory. It can create multiple directories at once and can even create an entire directory structure with a single command. The required command will be a tad complex, but not particularly challenging.NOTE: If you try to set up a multi-level directory structure with a command like the one shown below, it won't work if the initial directories ("this" and "that") don't already exist.$ mkdir this/that/the_othermkdir: cannot create directory ‘this/that/the_other’: No such file or directory
Add a -p (for "parents") and the missing directories will be created and your this/that/the_other directory structure will be set up in your current directory as intended.To read this article in full, please click here
The adoption of artificial intelligence is changing the way servers are being procured while having a quick and positive impact on firms that deploy AI technologies, according to a pair of research reports from Omdia.In its upcoming cloud and data center market report, the research firm predicts a reduction in the number of server shipments for the first time since 2007. However, the server drop in 2007 was due to a global economic crisis. The current shift in server buying has a more positive spin.Omdia found that demand for compute resources remains high. However, it also reports that demand for more expensive servers with specialized hardware for AI model training (translation: GPUs) are being prioritized over the typical enterprise server with just a CPU.To read this article in full, please click here
If you’re fairly new to Linux, you might need some help getting started on the command line. But you made it here, so let’s run through a number of ways that you can get comfortable and up to speed fairly quickly.Man pages
Every Linux command should have a "man page" (i.e., manual page) – an explanation of what the command does, how it works and the options that you can use to specify what you want the command to show you. For example, if you wanted to see the options for formatting the output of the date command, you should look at the man page with the command “man date”. It should among other things, show you the format of the date command like this:To read this article in full, please click here
Servers can consume more than half of the energy in modern data centers, which makes server efficiency attractive to companies looking to hit carbon-neutral sustainability targets. Plus, reducing energy usage can save money.To help reach that goal, here are five ways to boost server efficiency, according to recent research from the Uptime Institute, which is focused on improving the performance, efficiency, and reliability of business-critical infrastructure.
Upgrade to a newer server generation. For decades, server energy efficiency has consistently improved thanks to improved efficiency of processors that power them.
Pick servers with high compute capacity as measured in number of transactions per second. Those are the most energy efficient.
Go for high core count. In general, efficiency improves with the number of cores, although there is some tapering off at the highest end.
Be aware that while a server can be more energy efficient, its actual overall power consumed (Watts) can increase even as its efficiency (transactions per second per Watt) increases.
Embrace power-management features in two ways: by reducing core CPU voltage and frequency as utilization increases, and by moving unneeded cores to idle state.
For its analysis, Uptime focused servers that use AMD EPYC or Intel Xeon Continue reading
Hi, this is Sandra Henry-Stocker, author of the "Unix as a Second Language" blog on NetworkWorld. In this video, I'm going to show you how to take a file that was password-protected with vim and turn it back into a regular text file.
As adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) technology accelerates, IT organizations are concerned that their existing infrastructure isn’t powerful enough to keep up.AI hardware – especially training hardware – is becoming more and more power hungry, according to Equinix, which just released its 2023 Global Tech Trends Survey.The power draw from traditional racks in a data center is between 5 kW and 10 kW per rack. But, increasingly, newer generations of GPU-based racks are pushing power draws north of 30 kW per rack, and in some cases as high as 72 kW per rack, according to Kaladhar Voruganti, senior technologist at Equinix. “So, definitely, it's very hard to host this type of infrastructure in private data centers,” he said.To read this article in full, please click here
The Linux find command can locate files based on almost any criteria that you might need. This post describes the many criteria you can use to find what you’re looking for – even when you can’t remember what you named a file or when you last changed it or added content.Basic find syntax
The basic syntax for the find command looks like this:$ find [starting location] [criteria] [options] [action to take]
The starting location can be a directory name (e.g., /var/log), the current directory (.), your home directory whether you’re sitting in it or not (~), or a directory relative to your current position (e.g., ./bin). You can be as specific as you want when entering the starting location.To read this article in full, please click here
PuTTY is a great tool for connecting between systems of different types. In case you’re not familiar with the tool, the name has no connection to Silly Putty. Instead, the capitalization of the TTY part of the name suggests its connection with the acronym tty. It provides an easy way to log into a Linux system from Windows as well as many other systems.Say you want to log into your Linux system from a Windows system. This tool will allow you to set up a connection (IP address, host name, etc.) and control the size, colors and font to be used. This post explains how to set PuTTY up to optimize your view of the Linux command line. PuTTY was actually born on Windows to make this kind of connection possible.To read this article in full, please click here
AMD has unveiled plans to invest $135 million over the next four years in several strategic research and development projects in Ireland. To support its R&D efforts there, targeted at developing technology for data centers, networking, 6G infrastructure, and next generation AI, AMD said it will be hiring 290 skilled engineers and researchers, in addition to a number of additional support roles.To read this article in full, please click here
AMD has unveiled plans to invest $135 million over the next four years in several strategic research and development projects in Ireland. To support its R&D efforts there, targeted at developing technology for data centers, networking, 6G infrastructure, and next generation AI, AMD said it will hire 290 engineers and researchers, in addition to a number of additional support roles.To read this article in full, please click here
Hands-on experience with network hardware and software can solidify certification-test concepts or let you practice skills that may be part of a cert exam, and the process can be helped along by use of a home lab. But how do you go about building one?Start by identifying your learning goals and figuring out the hardware and software they’ll require. If you’re focused on applications, server environments, automation, or identity management, a server for hosting virtual environments may suffice. But if you’re interested in networking at Layers 1, 2 and 3, you’ll need some physical networking hardware such as routers, switches, or hardware firewalls. This is especially true if you’re seeking vendor certification on specific devices.To read this article in full, please click here
Shortages due to supply-chain problems has faded from the headlines, but they persist and are actually getting worse in some sectors.A report from AFCOM, an organization of data-center professionals, found that 44% of data-center operators surveyed had suffered downtime or an outage because they couldn’t get needed parts.In the report “State of the Data Center 2023,” 94% of respondents said that they have had supply-chain issues of one kind or another. The most commonly cited items in short supply (59%) are basic IT equipment such as servers and switches, followed by power systems (51%) including generators and UPSes.But even acquiring security systems (34%) such as secure doors and cameras and building materials like concrete (35%) were an issue for many respondents.To read this article in full, please click here
Lenovo is planning a major push into AI with a $1 billion investment in new hardware and software over the next three years. Its AI focus is not only on the data center, where a lot of the action is, but also on the edge. To that end, it announced two new edge servers specifically designed for AI processing.First up is the new ThinkEdge SE360 V2, an edge server designed to provide advanced computing performance for AI applications such as computer vision, voice AI, and generative AI. The ThinkEdge SE360 V2 is built on Intel and Nvidia processors with support for Nvidia's AI Enterprise software platform and Qualcomm's Cloud AI 100 platform for processing intense workloads at the data source. It features a compact size and ruggedized form factor designed to withstand remote and rugged environments.To read this article in full, please click here
AMD is coming for Nvidia’s AI crown in a big way with the launch of its new Instinct processor, which it claims can do the work of multiple GPUs.CEO Lisa Su called the Instinct MI300X “the most complex thing we’ve ever built.” She held up the chip, which is about the size of a drink coaster, at an event on Tuesday in San Francisco.Weighing in at 146 billion transistors, the MI300X comes with up to 192GB of high-bandwidth HBM3 memory shared by both the CPU and GPU. It has a total of 13 chiplets on the die. The chip also has a memory bandwidth of 5.2 TB/s, which is 60% faster than Nvidia’s H100.The chip consists of Zen CPU cores and AMD’s next-generation CDNA 3 GPU architecture. The enormous amount of memory is the real selling point, according to Su.To read this article in full, please click here
Keeping your files private from anyone but those with superuser (root) access is easy on Linux. File permissions provide everything you need. By default, you'll have a username and primary group assigned to your account, and you can use the chmod (change mode) command to control what anyone else can view or change.(If permissions like "750" and "rwxr-x---" don't ring any bells for you, check out these posts for insights into how file permissions work on Linux: A deeper dive into Linux permissions and Unix: beyond group and everyone else)To read this article in full, please click here
Using aliases on Linux systems can save you a lot of trouble and help you work faster and smarter. This post examines the ways and reasons that many Linux users take advantage of aliases, shows how to set them up and use them, and provides a number of examples of how they can help you get your tasks done with less trouble.What are aliases?
Aliases are simply one-line commands that are assigned names and generally stored in a startup file (e.g., .bashrc) that is run when you log in using a tool like PuTTY or open a terminal window on your desktop. The syntax is easy. It follows this pattern:$ alias NAME = 'COMMAND'
As a simple example, typing a command like that shown below enables you to clear your screen simply by typing “c”.To read this article in full, please click here
Colocation provider Cyxtera Technologies has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after spending the last few months trying to find a buyer or reduce its debt load. The company will now attempt to restructure through bankruptcy or perhaps a suitor will come along to buy out the company.Meanwhile, the company says it will be business as usual for its customers, but with the reorganization that comes with Chapter 11, it’s hard to say whether that will last, according to Bill Kleyman, an independent consultant to data-center companies.To read this article in full, please click here