HP is working to take Linux into several new areas of the server market, including 64-processor servers and better integration of its management software with open source sever packages, the company is expected to announce on Wednesday, shortly before a major Linux trade show.
The company said in January that it supported Linux on 16-processor Integrity Itanium servers. Now through a program called BigTux, HP is working to build support for 64-processor Integrity Superdome models into the two prevailing versions of Linux sold today from Red Hat and Novell, said Martin Fink, HP's vice-president of Linux. Fink is expected to give a keynote address next week at the LinuxWorld Conference and Expo in Boston.
Silicon Graphics already sells Linux servers with a single copy of Linux running on as many as 2,048 processors in extreme cases. Doing so requires a specialised variation of mainstream Linux; SGI distributes a modified version of Red Hat's Linux called the SGI Advanced Linux Environment.
HP is vying with IBM and Dell for customers attracted to Linux. The fourth major power of the server market, Sun, supports Linux but steers customers instead to Solaris, which is on the cusp of a transition from proprietary to open source software.
On the business front, HP has expanded its Linux Reference Architecture program to simplify software choices with pre-packaged combinations for various tasks. The program now encompasses HP's thin blade server product line, and HP sells services to install and configure Linux Reference Architecture systems.
Also on Wednesday, HP is expected to announce that its OpenView management software can now be used to monitor and control several open source server programs, Fink said. Those programs that can be controlled now include the MySQL database and the JBoss and Tomcat Java server software packages.
HP is also expanding its Linux Elite partnership program to try to coax resellers and other businesses into helping HP sell its Linux products. The program is already running in North America and Europe, but HP is expanding it to Asia and Latin America, Fink said.
Fink also highlighted HP's support for the Xen software to make a single server look like many. The open source Xen software, backed by a start-up called XenWorks, competes with established but proprietary software from EMC's VMware subsidiary.
