Archive for the ‘virtualization’ tag
Lenovo T61p, well played…
I recently ordered a new laptop for work and, based on a recommendation from a colleague, opted for the Lenovo T61p. I had not used a Lenovo machine (think ThinkPad) before and was a bit nervous about shifting away from my tablet PC, however, given rather unique requirements and the resulting performance, “ I can honestly say that I am very impressed. My requirements are unique because I need the box to support a number of technologies that Microsoft is working on with Novell - If you are not familiar with our partnership, please follow this link to download our roadmap. Specifically, in the short term, this means Longhorn Server Virtualization with SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, common file access, and document format interoperability (We’ll get to systems management and federated identity some time later). I also wanted to keep a copy of Vista Enterprise on the box for my daily routine.
Setup was pretty straightforward. I used the Windows Server 2008 ‘Longhorn’ RC0 to partition the hard drive (100GB) – basically splitting it in half with  Windows Server on one partition and Vista Enterprise on the other (Both are x64). With that done, I hit the Lenovo site to reload the automatic update utility for both operating systems to ensure that drivers/etc were in place, my last step for initial setup was to create a common directory for my files.
The virtualization install was also pretty straightforward. After enabling virtualization for the CPU (simple toggle in system setup), I simply loaded a couple of modules from microsoft.com and added the virtualization role in server manager. For details on these steps please see:
Download Windows Server 2008 here. Install Virtualization here.
After a few minutes setting up the virtual machine, I was able to load SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 SP1 (x86) onto the box. Both servers are running fine and the CPU performance is hovering well under 10% utilization. Not bad.
My next step is to load the office products and file format translators which I do not expect will cause any further stress on the box.
Needless to say, I like the machine. After it came, I did a bit of research and found this post from Keith Combs. He is also a fan apparently and describes the features in a bit more detail from a user perspective. If you’re in the market, I would definitely give it a try.