I've done consulting for Opsware(HP), worked for BladeLogic(BMC), and worked with xCat(IBM). Here's my take on it:
BladeLogic will provision all of the operating systems you mentioned, with the exception of HP-UX. The cost and work involved in configuration is surprisingly steep, particulary to do AIX and Solaris. (Linux is easy.) BladeLogic works well if you're in a situation where you have to manage many OS types and you don't want to deal with six different applications. It unifies and abstracts that for you. xCat is surprisingly simple to install and configure, is fast, but doesn't cover as much ground as BladeLogic. They are very different tools. As noted in other emails, it doesn't do as many operating systems. Puppet was started by a former BladeLogic employee, and it addresses some of BladeLogic's shortcomings. It's fast, elegant, it scales. On the downside, it's functionality is nowhere near as broad as BladeLogic. You might see that as an asset though; I personally think that BladeLogic would be a better product if it didn't try to do "everything and the kitchen sink." There is a competitor to Puppet out there called Chef that might be worth a look. I haven't tried it personally. I've used the four products mentioned above. On Tue, Nov 22, 2011 at 1:32 AM, Hans-Joachim Ehlers <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi > > I have to maintain a small Computing center which support AIX, Linux > (Suse/Redhat) , SunOS , HP-UX and MS Windows running on > Power/Intel/AMD/Sparc . Most is virtualized using IBM VIOs ,ESX and KVM. > > Underlying Hardware is IBM BladeCenter , p6 & p7 Hardware , INTEL and SUN > Server. > > > > Even its small i have to support many projects with different needs. The > needs ranging from a special software up to full blown virtual HPC > environment. > > > > From a top view : The current approach (planned ) is the keep all projects > and there requirements in LDAP and take the information from LDAP to build > the project environment. > > > > From a bottom view: We need a foundation to deploy and maintain all > Operating systems on bar metal or on virtualized env. > > > > So do you think xCAT fits well ? > > What are the limitations of xCat in multi Cluster / Multi project > Environment ? > > > > Are you using additional tools to build your Multi Cluster / Multi Project > Environment ? > > > > > > Tia > > Hajo > > > > -- > > Hans-Joachim Ehlers > > UNIX Systems Engineer > > EUMETSAT > > Eumetsat-Allee 1 > > 64295, Darmstadt, Germany > > Tel : +49 6151 807-7307 > > mailto:[email protected] > > http://www.eumetsat.int > > > > > > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > All the data continuously generated in your IT infrastructure > contains a definitive record of customers, application performance, > security threats, fraudulent activity, and more. Splunk takes this > data and makes sense of it. IT sense. And common sense. > http://p.sf.net/sfu/splunk-novd2d > _______________________________________________ > xCAT-user mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/xcat-user > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ All the data continuously generated in your IT infrastructure contains a definitive record of customers, application performance, security threats, fraudulent activity, and more. Splunk takes this data and makes sense of it. IT sense. And common sense. http://p.sf.net/sfu/splunk-novd2d _______________________________________________ xCAT-user mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/xcat-user
