Networker

[Networker] Migration Questions - VxVM /nsr, Sparc vs x86 in stability?

2007-09-25 05:55:23
Subject: [Networker] Migration Questions - VxVM /nsr, Sparc vs x86 in stability?
From: T S Kimball <t.s.kimball AT GMAIL DOT COM>
To: NETWORKER AT LISTSERV.TEMPLE DOT EDU
Date: Tue, 25 Sep 2007 05:50:30 -0400
We've been entertaining the idea of replacing a Sun E450 EBS/Networker
server with a Sun x64 system (heck of a jump, yeah, but hey I'm game
if they're willing to pay for it :-) ).

The topic of migration between big- and little-endian servers I've
been following for awhile, but I have some off-beat questions that
have not been fully covered:

--> We have /nsr on a Veritas VxVM / VxFS controlled filesystem, which
in theory should be stored as endian-neutral (due to how VxFS works).
If we can export/import the appropriate disk group to the new server,
would this assist in the migration without needing the asm copy
hassles described on the list?

--> I'm concerned about the stability of any of EMC's x86
implementations for 7.3.x/7.4 - including Solaris x86.  Is anyone here
using Solaris 10 x86 (the required OS for latest x64 servers) and is
as reasonably stable as the SPARC one?  I've read Stan's comments the
other day on 7.4, and if his major issue ends up to be specific to the
library used (we have an STK), I'm willing to give 7.4 a shot on SPARC
at least.  Also, anyone have issues with this 'TCP Fusion' thing I
keep hearing snippits about?

Our environment:

Server:  Sun E450, 4 x 480 Mhz CPU, 4 gig mem, Tier 5 DBO license, ~
32 TB disk from a STK Flex 280 (direct attach, Veritas DMP multipath),
STK L700 robot control + 1 x DLT and 2 x FC-LTO2 (direct), ancient
gigabit-fiber ge0 card, Sun EBS Networker 7.1.3 Server.  Solaris 8
SPARC.

SN1: Sun V240, 2 x 1.2Ghz (IIRC), 4 gig mem, 1 bge @ gigabit, ~ 30 TB
disk from above STK Flex 280 (also direct attach, Veritas DMP
multipath), AlphaStor Server software, 2 x FC-LTO2 (direct) and 2 x
DLT.  Solaris 8 SPARC.

SN2: Sun V880, 3 x LVD-LTO2 (this system dedicated for a client, using
AlphaStor resource queues).  Solaris 8 SPARC.

Clients:  ~ 140, mix of Solaris/SPARC, Solaris/x86, Windows (horribly
various, including one MSCS cluster), one HP-UX, 4-5 Linux.  Most of
these are running 7.1.4.

[Yes, that is over 60 TB (two racks!) of disk in place - we use
adv_file as our primary backup medium in most cases, and VERY happy
with it (we pre-date the first VTLs IIRC); Been meaning to answer
Curtis' post about VTL/adv_file comparisons but not had time...]


Huge TIA,
--TSK

-----=====-----
Timothy S. Kimball
tkimbal (at) att (dot!) net
http://sungak.net
-----=====-----

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