Hi Jon,

> 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.

It's a shame the Niagara CPU was not built for multi CPU servers. The T2000
is fast but in a multi CPU box it would be amazing. That's why SUN is
bringing out the ROCK and the Niagara 2 (also known as Huron I believe ?)
due this month in Aus. I think you can bank on the Niagara 2 boxes but it's
early days for the Rock. The Rock brings big promises and I hope it
delivers.

SUN certainly did have a low point for a while but I believe they are doing
well to get out of it and I am happy with their new products. I am also
looking forward to playing with their new boxes. I wouldn't give up on them
just yet.

Dom

-----Original Message-----
From: Jon Bousselot [mailto:jon_bousselot AT sd.vrtx DOT com] 
Sent: Saturday, 6 October 2007 8:24 AM
To: veritas-bu AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu
Subject: Re: [Veritas-bu] NetBackup on Linux (RH4) vs. NetBackup on Solaria

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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