What the penguins are planning for LinuxWorld Expo

In case summer activities have caused you to lose track of time, don’t forget that next week is the LinuxWorld Expo in San Francisco. This year’s show – running Aug. 5-7 at the Moscone Convention Center – will feature a plethora of new Linux products for enterprises, as well as keynotes and sessions with key industry leaders and leading users. And as usual, count on one or more people walking around in a penguin suit.

Several Linux management software vendors are making announcements at this year’s West Coast show. Among them is Candle, which will launch software for managing and fine-tuning the performance of IBM WebSphere servers on Linux, as well as tools for monitoring basic Linux server hardware functions.

Candle’s PathWAI Monitor for WebSphere MQ Linux is software that can be used to test, manage and configure Linux servers deployed with IBM’s application server platform. The company will also debut its OMEGAMON XE for Linux. This application can be used to monitor hardware-level parameters such as disk usage, file system and network health, and overall performance statistics.

Linuxcare, the former Linux help-desk-for-hire concern, will have an updated version of its Levanta software for managing multiple Linux virtual servers deployed on IBM’s mainframe hardware platform. Since IBM ported Linux to its mainframes several years ago, some firms have found a mainframe running multiple Linux instances to be a good answer for server consolidation. The Levanta software now allows administrators to manage thousands of Linux instances in a single interface.

And for Linux users paranoid about future SCO/Linux lawsuit repercussions, Aduva will have an application at the show that it claims can detect and replace Linux code that may violate intellectual property rights. The firm says its OnStage 2.0 and free SoundCheck software packages can be used to, among other things, detect code on a Linux server that may be deemed to be infringing on copyrights – an allegation SCO has made in public and in a lawsuit against IBM.

The use of Aduva’s software for this purpose is a hypothetical exercise of course, since no court has yet ruled that there is any stolen code in Linux. For more practical purposes, OnStage 2.0 can be used to audit Linux kernel code for potential security holes and system problems, such as driver incompatibilities.