[olug] Specking out Sun Solaris box(es)

[Matthew G. Marsh]

On Mon, 17 Feb 2003 IrishMASMS at olug.org wrote:

> > IrishMASMS wrote:
> >> So, to those who are experienced with specking out sun systems my
> >> quandary: is the SunBlate 150's good enough for our situation, or
> >> should we go with something more? Something like a SunFire or
> >> UltraSparc?
> >>
> >> Any & all comments would be appreciated
> >
> > Well, first off, they're all UltraSparcs :)  Perhaps you meant the Ultra
> >  workstations and Enterprise servers...
> >
> > A SunFire is Sun's latest and greatest.  The V280R (dual processor -
> > 900MHz, 8MB cache - FC disks) would be a good one.  Everything else
> > starts at the $10k+ mark.  Some of the 1U rackmounts might be
> > interesting, but suffer some of the problems as the SB150...
> >
> > A SunBlade 150 won't necessarily make a good server, and will most
> > likely make for a slower database server than what you have now (not
> > dual capable, small L2 cache for a Sun: only 256kb.  Most other Suns
> > start at 1 or 2 MB ), and is IDE only.  It's also a pizza-box chassis,
> > meaning running cables for any SCSI hard drives will be tough.
> >
> > You can see a picture of the insides here:
> > http://sunsolve.sun.com/handbook_pub/Systems/SunBlade150/component.top.html
> >
> > A good choice would be one of these (probably what you were thinking
> > when you said "UltraSparc"): the Ultra60 or Ultra80 (2-4 CPUs, tower
> > chassis), E220R or E420R (same as Ultra60 or Ultra80 but with 19"
> > rackmount chassis & redundant power), or E250 or E450 (deskside, 2-4
> > CPUs, dual or triple power).  They all take UW, Ultra2 or Ultra-160 SCA
> > disks (the bus is only UW).  All of these systems are available cheap on
> >  the used market, with support contracts if you talk to the right
> > people.

Second the Ultra{##} and Ex50 opinion. Definately lean on a SMP for the DB
- Oracle (as with most DBs) has very good threading performance. Under
sufficient memory conditions the threading alone will add perfomance under
multiple connection opeations. FWIW NEbraskaCERT just bought an Ultra60
used for $795 USD (dual 300Mhz / 512M / 9G) for the new database server
for the websites and "other" work.

Since you are govm'NT can you obtain a "donation" of a to be retired
system? I know there have been a bunch of E250's just pasturized.

> > --
> >
> > Phil Brutsche
> > phil at brutsche.us
> Thank you for the superb info Phil! Let me see if I can clarify the
> situation a bit more.
>
> I am not sure what we mean; since I have never worked or specified Sun
> equipment. This is why I turned to the fellow list members for assistance,
> knowing full well there are a few smarter individuals out there than
> myself on this topic (at least 8)!
>
> The first bit of research I conducted was try to find out what the other
> organizations that use this system have in terms of hardware. The
> information I was able to glean was that some sites were using SunFire
> Servers, UltraSPARC® 900 MHz; and for what sites that reported memory
> configurations they were between 1 GB to 8 GB.
>
> Discussing the issues with the database & system vendor, the system
> implementation fellow said that a small sun box,(like a SunBlade 150)
> would be good for our sized operation; although we might want to get two –
> one for the database and system behind the firewall and the second on the
> DMZ running the Apache web server interface for the customers.
>
> FWIIW, our database has around 31,0600 records, with anywhere between two
> to ten staff members using the client software at any one time. I can say
> that with our current configuration we have had some response issues when
> four or five of us were interacting & manipulating the database through
> the client software.
> We do not have the web interface set up for our customers yet, so I am
> unable to predict any usage that way.
>
> The current NT system does have two redundant 18 GB hard drives and a 4 MM
> tape backup. Split into two partions, the 2 GB C: (system partioton) has
> around 700 MB free and the 16 GB D: (database) has about 4.25 GB free.

One of the nice features of Sol8 at least is the software raid is actually
easy to use and setup - and has held up under some of my torture tests
(pulling drives out while running into swap...) very well. So with a
couple of 36G or even 18G drives you can have nice redundancy. (personally
I mirror everything...)

> Phil, I will go take a look at your recommendations; hopefully with the
> further information I provided will help clarify our situation further.
>
> Unfortunately since this is a Government project, the used market is not
> an option. Something to keep in mind for the future, outside projects
> though!
>
> Support contracts are not an issue, if and when we migrate to Sun Solaris
> platform the vendor assists with support.
>
>
> Irish
>
>
> <i>”An IT vision without funding is a hallucination.”</i>
> Comment overheard by counterintelligence IT expert James Shinn, a fellow
> with the Council on Foreign Relations, at a government IT conference held
> by the Industry Advisory Council, an organization of IT professionals
> (as reported in the November 11, 2002 issue of informationweek.com)

Heh - I wonder what the speaker thinks of Linux...

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Matthew G. Marsh,  President
Paktronix Systems LLC
1506 North 59th Street
Omaha  NE  68104
Phone: (402) 932-7250
Email: mgm at midwestlinux.com
WWW:  http://www.midwestlinux.com
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