I have been using NetBackup on Sun/Sparc hardware since version 3.2, and
a majority of my challenges came from the clients.  It got easier when
Windows 2000 became the normal windows client, and I started using LTO
media.  Solaris 9 and 10 have been very stable deployments as well, and
10 is supposed to have a faster tcp stack.

The x86 systems are clearly faster in GHz compared to current sparc
systems, and I think you still pay a premium license to Veritas for
using sun/sparc hardware for media servers.  Current sun hardware has
some impressive internal bandwidth speeds, but this assumes you can
effortlessly get the data into the media server and back out to a tape
or disk.  Internal bandwidth might win in a bake-off if you are trying
to see which server can buffer data faster in memory.

Over the years, I have appreciated how sun/sparc/solaris systems behave
like big computers and less like a PC.  The newest Dell/Sun x86 systems
have integrated lights out managers, which will let you see the last
thing your dying server said before going down, which helps diagnose
hardware faults that would otherwise be lost on a headless x86 system
running linux.

Since we can now buy dual processor multi-core servers, that have clock
speeds significantly higher than sparc, we have likely seen the last
sun/sparc media server in our datacenter.  Unless I can convince
management that the T2000 is a good idea and a great price, but this one
is going to be a political issue instead of a technical one.




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