The real strength of Solaris/Sparc is the ability for the machine to
handle extreme stress;i.e, high CPU, pushing drivers/hardware to their
max, etc. I've seen and know numbers of instances where linux system
under stress have crashed. And for support, even when you go with the
major vendors, you are very likely to get into fingerpointing between
vendors of fiber cards, ethernet cards, system vendors and RedHat. How
much is your time worth?

Also, if you end up buying a "Certified System" such as an IBM server
with RHEL, the cost is usually GREATER than equivelent sparc systems
now. The fact that you already have a server makes that moot. Anything
you buy is a cost you would otherwise avoid. The 450 has plenty of CPU
to run Legato. Also, it's large amount of internal drives (20) means you
can have plenty of ways to offload disk I/O. Also, it has plenty of PCI
slots to add addition scsi/fibre cards.

The real advantange of Linux is it's support of esoteric devices that
Solaris will never support. However, if all you need is already in the
box, what advantage does Linux offer? I'm sure what is being pushed is
consolidated administration. However, if your Legato server is already
setup, what sysadmin work really will need to be done on it? 

--
Matthew Huff           | One Manhattanville Rd
Director of Operations | Purchase, NY 10577
OTA LLC                | Phone: 914-460-4039 
mailto:mhuff AT ox DOT com    | Fax:   914-460-4139   

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Stan Horwitz [mailto:stan AT TEMPLE DOT EDU]
> Sent: Saturday, February 14, 2004 10:41 PM
> To: NETWORKER AT LISTMAIL.TEMPLE DOT EDU
> Subject: [Networker] Merits of Linux and Solaris
> 
> 
> Hello all;
> 
> There's some talk here at Temple about migrating from
> proprietary operating systems to open operating systems. 
> We're seriously considering standardizing the University on 
> Red Hat Linux.
> 
> I am wondering if any of you who run a Legato NetWorker
> server on a Red Hat Linux platform can comment on your 
> experience with it. Would you do it again if you had the 
> choice? What's your NetWorker environment like?
> 
> We use Solaris 9 on an Enterprise 450 with NetWorker 6.1.3
> and about 110 clients with about 3TB of data backed up 
> nightly.  We are considering getting another server and tape 
> library for a storage node to handle anticipated growth in 
> the volume of data we will be backing up and to keep more 
> data online. Our NetWorker server has a Qualstar tape library 
> with 600 slots and twelve AIT-2 drives, four of which are 
> deployed via SnapImage for NDMP backups (no drive sharing). 
> As such, one fly in the ointment for us is that SnapImage 
> isn't offered for Linux. Has anyone on this list heard if 
> there are any plans on Legato's part to offer a Linux version 
> of SnapImage?
> 
> --
> Note: To sign off this list, send a "signoff networker"
> command via email to listserv AT listmail.temple DOT edu or visit 
> the list's Web site at 
> http://listmail.temple.edu/archives/networker.> html where you 
> can also view and post messages to the list. 
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> 
> 

--
Note: To sign off this list, send a "signoff networker" command via email
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