New Products

Cluster gurus rejoice! The OSCAR working group recently released version 5.0 of its Open Source Cluster Application Resources (OSCAR) toolkit. OSCAR is a software package that “supports the use of high-performance computing by reducing the work of cluster configuration, installation, operation and management.” OSCAR's developers have revamped the application's infrastructure and included many new features, such as smart package managers, yum-based package installs and image building, easier client updating via a new repository approach and optimized startups to reduce build times. A new utility called netbootmgr has been added, which “greatly reduces the amount of time spent mucking about in the BIOS by centrally managing a nodes behavior when a network boot is detected”. In preparation for future releases, a new package and database structure has been designed in anticipation of Debian support. OSCAR 5.0 also has been fully tested for use with both IA32 processors and x86_64 processors under several major Linux distros. OSCAR is available for download from the group's Web site.

oscar.openclustergroup.org

Got Postfix? Then Message Partners wants you to use its MPPv3, the company's integrated pre- and post-queue spam filter for Postfix. Message Partners claims that MPP “solves all of the problems that complex e-mail environments run into in a single high-performance application”, including solutions for virus and spam filtering, content filtering, access-controls, end-user quarantine and white/black list management, archiving and other features. A key new feature is the Postfix Policy Server, which adds the “capability to make pre-queue admission decisions for every type of e-mail (including multirecipient and multidomain).” Message Partners also touts its innovative sharing of a common database and configuration by the pre-queue and post-queue filters, which improves management of per-domain SMTP restrictions in large environments. A free trial is available at the company's Web site.

www.messagepartners.com

Our contacts at Scalix Corporation informed us about Scalix 11, the company's Linux-based, open-source supported messaging, e-mail and calendaring platform. Some of Scalix's main features include easy administration, “deep integration with legacy environments” and Outlook-level functionality without the costs and license lock-in of MS Exchange. Scalix's target customers are those requiring the “product integrity of an enterprise platform with the community support of an open-source project”. New features include two new Web services, a lightweight mobile client, enhanced management capabilities, and improved Web client and Outlook support. Vis-á-vis the new Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, Scalix claims advantages, such as “vendor choice, better administration and broader client selection while maintaining the best Outlook support in the market”. A trial of the commercial edition and a free community edition are available for download from Scalix's Web site.

www.scalix.com

Virtualization is dynamic these days, and VMLogix adds to the fabulous ferment with LabManager, the company's virtualization solution centered on the software development life cycle. LabManager, says VMLogix, offers “rapid, highly repeatable, resource-optimized deployments of complex, multimachine software test environments” that allow developers to reduce cycle times and infrastructure costs, share resources seamlessly and improve the quality of the final product. LabManager's approach enables users to exchange development environments with each other regardless of time, location or project status. Other product advantages include platform agnosticism, physical- and virtual-machine capabilities and compatibility with most testing and development tools. Free evaluation licenses and downloads of LabManager are available at VMLogix's Web site.

www.vmlogix.com