> From: "Goslin, Paul" <pgoslin AT CINCOM DOT COM>
> Reply-To: EMC NetWorker discussion <NETWORKER AT LISTSERV.TEMPLE DOT EDU>, 
> "Goslin,
> Paul" <pgoslin AT CINCOM DOT COM>
> Date: Thu, 5 Mar 2009 08:48:05 -0500
> To: <NETWORKER AT LISTSERV.TEMPLE DOT EDU>
> Subject: Re: [Networker] NetWorker host: Solaris vs. Windows vs. Linux
> 
> I've run Networker on both Unix (HPUX) and Windows for the past 10
> years. Having a Unix background , I much prefer that over Windows since
> I have a better understanding on how the OS is put together (to me, it's
> much more logical and reliable than Windows). It just seems to run
> better/smoother on Unix. And since Networker was originally developed on
> Solaris and I think Solaris is still the platform where they first
> develop and implement patches & bug fixes, it's still being used as a
> base platform for the product. Everything else it runs on has been
> ported to that OS from Solaris. I don't have the hard data to prove it,
> but I feel Networker simply runs best on its native platform, or as
> close to it as possible (Linux or any Unix). I think it looses something
> when it's ported to run on Windows... For example, we have a
> multi-processor server(4), and it never really seems to utilize all the
> processors available to it... It only seems to utilize one of the 4
> processors most of the time. I'd almost bet that it would perform
> measurably better on any Unix platform (Solaris would be best) verses
> Windows...  

The bottom line in selecting a new NetWorker platform is two-fold. You need
to consider which features are needed and the availability of on-site
expertise to support your NetWorker server and its OS (and any storage
nodes).

For years, I insisted we run the only NetWorker server and storage node here
on Solaris 10. For that reason, we still back up most of our data to
NetWorker on Solaris 10, but we added a second tape library and server.

Last year, I got funding for a new tape library and a new server, plus some
NetWorker licenses. My direct supervisor is a big Linux fan, as two of our
key system administrators. I also like Linux for some applications. This
mailing list, for example, is hosted on a Linux box. We need NetWorker on
Solaris because we do NDMP backups and that functionality isn't available on
Linux yet and I won't go to Windows for it, nor is HP-UX a viable option for
us.

In in our 2006-2007 budget year, I decided to throw my Linux-loving
colleagues a bone. I ordered a new tape library with four LTO-3 drives, a
Dell 2950, and one of my SAs installed Red Hat Linux AS 4.5 on it. We are
using it with Power Edition NetWorker server 7.4.2. We have yet to fully
utilize that server, but for what we use it for, it works well. I back up
around 75 clients to it, including Exchange 2003 and 2007.

My decision to go with Linux for this server was quite easy. There was no
way I could get enough funds to run another NetWorker server on Solaris due
to higher licensing and hardware costs.

No offence to Windows fans out there, but I do not trust Windows at all for
anything. We have more and more Windows 2008 servers and as far as I am
concerned, Windows 2008 is unproven technology, especially with VSS which is
troublesome. 

One major benefit of Solaris 10 is that if you run it on sparc hardware, the
throughput is far better than Windows and Linux. Solaris has better tools
than Windows and Linux for doing diagnostic analyses such as monitoring tape
drives and network cards. Solaris 10 is rock solid. Linux sits comfortably
in between Windows and Solaris in terms of reliability and functionality.

It is very likely that I will get funds to start replacing our main
NetWorker server hardware this summer. By than, we will no longer need to do
NDMP backups. Since we have no Solaris gurus on site and we will be phasing
out the servers we back up via NDMP, our next NetWorker server will be
Linux-based.

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