Upon further research and thought, it appears my comments on the pricing
of AIX servers were off. Based on what I've seen installed in many TSM
environments, it still seems the price of a _typical_ AIX TSM server is
higher than a typical price for an Intel server, but that's not the same
thing as saying AIX servers are significantly more expensive than Intel
servers. What it says (I believe) is that people tend to buy very beefy
servers for their TSM servers. They're not buying servers that are the
IBM equivalents to a Dell server; they're buying servers that have much
more power than a Dell server, and therefore their servers cost much
more, and they should.
If I compare a high end Dell to what appears to be an equivalent
offering from IBM, they don't appear to be that far apart in price, and
the IBM box comes with AIX. That came as a surprise to me.
What it comes down to for many people is that they prefer AIX or they
don't. Some, like yourself, swear by AIX and don't see why anyone would
use anything else. Another contributor to the thread says he doesn't
miss AIX at all after moving to Linux.
There's also a strong argument to be made that IBM knows AIX best, so
the strongest TSM code will probably be on AIX. In addition, you'll get
a lot more support from the TSM community if you're running AIX because
that's what everybody else is running.
---
W. Curtis Preston
-----Original Message-----
From: ADSM: Dist Stor Manager [mailto:ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU] On Behalf Of
Hans Christian Riksheim
Sent: Friday, June 08, 2007 3:53 AM
To: ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
Subject: Re: [ADSM-L] New Linux server issues
The cost of IBM-boxes, which you base your whole argument on, is listed
on www.ibm.com. If you had taken a few minutes to check it out you would
have found that the cost has been reduced significantly the last couple
of years.
In our TSM environment the cost and maintenance of the AIX TSM-servers
is about 5-10% of the total cost, excluding software licenses and the
man hours to keep the TSM environment running. Saving a few dollars by
using Intel/Linux-combo is totally out of the question. In our
experience the AIX-server is absolutely trouble free and it's superior
to Intel/Linux when it comes to handling I/O. In fact I would choose
Windows before Linux to avoid the device driver "kernel panic" nightmare
horror stories I so often hear about.
When you say that "the project would have to go HORRIBLY wrong before he
go to the point that it would be cheaper to stick with AIX", I have to
ask what your backup is worth in the first place. Mabybe you should
consider not backing up your systems at all and save some trouble.
"He could probably spend 6 man months working on this problem before
he'd approach the cost differential between a single Linux and AIX
server."
Sure, but not in the real world.
Best regards
Hans Chr. Riksheim
-----Original Message-----
From: ADSM: Dist Stor Manager [mailto:ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU] On Behalf Of
Curtis Preston
Sent: Friday, June 08, 2007 8:33 AM
To: ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
Subject: Re: New Linux server issues
I've got nothing against AIX, but unless the pricing of AIX boxes has
changed significantly since the last time I looked, the project would
have to go HORRIBLY wrong before he go to the point that it would be
cheaper to stick with AIX -- especially if he's buying a bunch of them.
He could probably spend 6 man months working on this problem before he'd
approach the cost differential between a single Linux and AIX server.
(The same would be true if it were an HP or Sun server, BTW.) Then once
he solves it, he gets to experience the joys of that cost differential
over and over as he buys a bunch more Linux servers at a few thousand
dollars apiece.
We've got many clients using Linux servers all over their production
environment and I don't think it's like the picture you're trying to
paint. There can be just as many problems getting a new
AIX/Solaris/HPUX config working. Man, do I know that. I've banged my
head against many a Sun/IBM/HP/Digital keyboard.
---
W. Curtis Preston
-----Original Message-----
From: ADSM: Dist Stor Manager [mailto:ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU] On Behalf Of
Allen S. Rout
Sent: Wednesday, June 06, 2007 6:26 AM
To: ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
Subject: Re: [ADSM-L] New Linux server issues
>> On Tue, 5 Jun 2007 14:44:43 -0400, Zoltan Forray/AC/VCU
<zforray AT VCU DOT EDU> said:
> We have been having all kinds of interesting adventures trying to get
our
> new DELL 2900 with 5TB with RHEL 4 (fully patched), [...]
Just out of curiosity, have you put enough work into getting this flying
that your management acknowledges that AIX would have been cheaper?
- Allen S. Rout
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