Updated SunSolve Documents - Services
Reading an SGI Tape on the Solaris OS - Resources
Why Solaris 10 ZFS is so important - Resources
How to Create Patch Sets for Manual Installation - Features
"the Sun Fire x4600 is a superb server with an obvious focus on virtualization,
high-performance computing and database applications. If the local RAID controller
supported RAID 5 and the local disk I/O had more headroom, this server would
be nearly perfect."
He also praised the motherboard design of the server:
Looking at Sun Microsystems Inc.'s brand-new Sun Fire x4600 M2, most would
figure it for a quad-socket system. After all, at 4U (7 in. high), it matches
the profile of the four-way HP ProLiant DL585 and Dell PowerEdge 6850. A quick
peek under the hood tells a different tale, however: The Sun Fire x4600 M2 holds
eight easily swappable sockets.
Armed with current dual-core Opteron processors, this equals 16 cores per server,
so a full rack would bring the total to 160 cores. The Sun Fire x4600 M2 will
also be able to run with the next-generation quad-core AMD Opteron chips, bringing
the total core count per rack to an amazing 320. Packed with 128GB of RAM per
server, that's a full terabyte of RAM in the same rack.
At $51,995 for a single x4600 with eight dual-core
Opteron 8128 CPUs, 32GB of RAM and two 73GB SAS drives, that power doesn't come
cheap, but the x4600 offers quite a bit of bang for the buck.
While unpacking the x4600, the first thing I noticed was the enormous fan arrays.
Two sets of four large fans sit right in the front of the case. The only cooling
fans in the ehassis, they push air directly over the vertically mounted CPU
modules, and they are surprisingly quiet during normal operation. Behind these
modules are six half-height PCI-E and two PCI-X expansion slots with plenty
of elbow room. The almost complete absence of ribbon
cables was also surprising.
Hardware error conditions in the x4600 are handled with aplomb. Should a dual
in-line memory module (DIMM) fail on any of the processor modules, the release
handles light up. Further, pulling a CPU module out of the server and tapping
a button will cause the socket containing the bad DIMM to light up using power
from an on-board capacitor. All these features lead
me to the conclusion that this is one of the best-designed server chassis I've
ever seen.
Powering the x4600 are four 850-watt power supplies operating in a two-by-two
redundant configuration. Although the system wouldn't power up with only two
functional power supplies present, it would continue to run following the loss
of the same two power supplies. This adds up to a lot of power consumption,
but not as much as I expected given the server's overall performance and abundance
of processors.
[Nov 14, 2006] Large cluster at MSU.
Mississippi State University (MSU) High Performance Computing Laboratory
bought computing cluster based on more than 500 Sun Fire X2200 M2 servers running
Solaris 10.
In a blow to VMware and IBM twenty-five companies, including Sun Microsystems
Inc., BEA Systems Inc., XenSource Inc., and Novell Inc., have agreed to join
the
Interop Vendor Alliance announced by Microsoft. Other founding
Alliance members include Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Business Objects SA, Citrix
Systems Inc., NEC Corp. of America, Network Appliance Inc., Quest Software Inc.
and Software AG.
New version of T1 CPU will support heavy-weight (full hardware) virtualization.
With this addition it looks like Sun will soon become the first and only hardware
vendor that competes in all four virtualization weight categories:
Super-heavy-weight
(Hardware domain-based; high-end servers only, essentially "blades with common
memory and I/O devices")
Heavy-weight
(full hardware virtualization; Sun calls it "logical
domains"(Ldom); UltraSparc T1 "Niagara"-based servers will be the first
-- the T1000 and T2000 servers with those capabilities are expected to begin
shipping in Jan 2007). It's unclear if this enhancement will be backward compatible
with T1-based servers produced before this date.
Medium-weight
(Para-virtualization based on Xen; now available for X86 based servers
only; Sparc has separate implementation that will be released in 2007 but two
implementations will merge in the future)
Light-weight virtualization
(Zones). In Solaris 10 11/06, the
next build of the operating system that will be released at the end of November,
admins will be able to clone a Zone as well as relocate
it to another box, through a feature called Attach/Detach. Also now
it is possible to run Linux applications in zones on X86 servers (branded zones).
In comparison IBM mainly competes in just one category (heavy-weight virtualization:
Lpars on Power architecture and VM on System 3xx architecture). Novell and Red Hat
also in one category (Xen-based para-virtualization), Microsoft in two categories
(heavy-weight virtualization and para-virtualization), FreeBSD also in one category
(light-weight virtualization).
With LDoms, enterprises can run up to 32 virtual environments on a single server,
Larry Wake, group manager of Solaris OS Marketing, told ServerWatch. Each of
those partitions can then be divided further into Containers.
Up to 500 Containers can run on a single instance, though Wake admitted that
such a scenario would be unlikely in a real-world deployment. It does, however,
demonstrate the server's granularity.
Solaris' Container feature, which delivers essentially application-level
virtualization, is a common denominator, between its SPARC and UtraSPARC span
systems, Wake said.
Solaris 10 11/06, the next build of the operating system, will be released
at the end of November. The version will include new capabilities for Containers.
Admins will be able to clone a Container as well
as relocate it to another box, through a feature called Attach/Detach, Wake
said.
It wasn't just UltraSPARC T1 boxes that got a feature bump this week: x86
environments also received a virtual boost in the flurry of announcements.
In 2007, the systems vendor will offer full support for Xen functionality,
this time in the form of a Solaris 10-based Xen hypervisor. Enterprises will
be able to run concurrent Solaris 10, Linux and Microsoft Windows operating
systems as "guests" on a Solaris 10-based virtual machine, and will be able
to reap the benefits of Solaris 10, regardless of the operating system running.
... Enterprises looking for a more production-ready x86 virtualization option,
will need to be content with increased VMware support, however. Sun Fire x4600
and Sun Blade modular systems can now run VMware ESX 3.0.1.
Sun's remaining three enhancements, though equally touted, were more gravy
than meat. The Sun Fire X4000 Galaxy servers have been upgraded with Rev F Opteron,
AMD's next-gen Opteron processor and Solaris 10 Operating System.
Sun also announced Solution Customer Workshops, two-day sessions that
aim to match customers' needs to Sun technology and determine an appropriate
deployment plan. Sun estimates the value of these session as close to $10,000.
Presumably, the revenue the systems vendor stands to bring in from the sale
will exceed the $10,000 it invested in what is ostensibly a sales pitch.
Finally, Sun introduced the Life Cycle Services for Virtualization
program consulting — education and support services to help architect, implement
and manage customers' virtualization solutions.
... ... ...
More details on Sun's virtualization efforts can be found,
here.
October 18, 2006
Sun
announced a new virtualization function
for its
Sun Fire T1000 and
T2000 servers called Logical Domains
(LDOMs). LDOMs are partitions that enable
UltraSPARC-based servers to run multiple
instances of operating systems simultaneously,
whereby each instance can consume as little
as a single processing thread. LDOMs
complement Sun’s existing virtualization
functions, including
Dynamic Domains (i.e. hard partitions)
and
Solaris Containers (i.e.
OS virtualization). Although each of
these technologies provide similar capabilities
as LDOMs, they have varying levels of granularity
and different mechanisms for maintaining
isolation between OS instances.
Indeed, LDOMs
overcome some of the limitations of both
Dynamic Domains and Solaris Containers.
For example, LDOMs can be configured to
use a fraction of
CoolThreads processors, enabling far
more precise utilization of server resources
than Dynamic Domains, which require partitions
to be configured in multiples of four processors.
At the same time, LDOMs are more suited
for general-purpose workloads than Solaris
Containers, because they actually run their
own instance of an operating system. Users
may also have greater trust in the isolation
provided by the firmware-based
hypervisor in LDOMs than in the pure
software implementation of Solaris Containers
(see
design presentation - PDF) .
From a purely
functional standpoint, Sun's introduction
of LDOMs starts to close a competitive gap
with its UNIX competitors, including
HP and
IBM, each of which have UNIX virtualization
functions that required fewer compromises
than Sun’s earlier offerings. For T1000/T2000
users, LDOM’s ability to run multiple customized
copies of Solaris 10 may facilitate certain
types of workload consolidation more flexibly
than Solaris Containers, and their firmware-based
design may also offer a more reliable platform
for hosting Linux workloads compared to
the pure software-based implementations
of industry-standard virtualization products
such as
VMware or
Xen.
However, the
real value of LDOMs, hosting critical UNIX
applications with fluctuating workloads
more economically by configuring hosts for
average usage rather than over-provisioning
for spikes, may await implementation on
Sun’s next-generation high-end server systems
based on the
Advanced Product Line (APL) processor.
Neither Sun nor partner Fujitsu have promised
LDOMs on APL-based systems. But on these
platforms, which will have the ability to
support true
SMP implementations rather than the
thread-based multiprocessing of CoolThreads,
LDOMs will be suitable for efficiently scaling
typical UNIX workloads, rather than only
new applications with multithreaded designs.
Jun 01, 2006
Logical Domains
support was integrated into
Solaris Nevada
on May 16th. With Logical Domains (LDoms),
it would be possible to simultaneously run more
than one instance of Solaris on one box.
LDoms is supported only on
sun4v systems
(with
UltraSparc T1 processors). So, why is
only sun4v systems supported? Thats because
the UltraSparc T1 processor has Hypervisor support
built in. The firmware on sun4v systems also
support it. At this time the there are only
two sun4v models:
T1000 and
T2000.
LDoms support for
Solaris 10
is being integrated sometime in the next month.
After that both Solaris 10 and Solaris Nevada can
be run simultaneously on one system.
To use the LDoms features:
- Upgrade the firmware to the latest release.
- Upgrade the Nevada release to build 41 or
later (build of 17 May 2006 or later would also
do)
- Install the LDoms Manager (code name: Zeus)
which is bundled separately.
At the time of writing this, the firmware and the
LDoms manager is not available outside Sun.
I have some doubts here for which I did not find
any documentation:
- Does LDoms require at least one CPU per
domain or can one CPU run multiple OSes.
If it does require one CPU per domain, then
T1000 will not be able to run LDoms as it has
only one CPU?
- Is there is a limit on the number of domains
that can be run on a box if there is no requirement
of dedicated CPUs for a domain?
- When will the new firmware and LDoms manager
be available for all?
Well, I guess these would be answered soon.
Anyway, the possibilities of its usage, combined
with Zones, is numerous. I have been amazed
by some of our customers who use Solaris in ways
we did not even think is possible. With LDoms
and Zones, I'm sure it'll keep happening...
October 02, 2006. Many people may not remember, but when the T1 was
announced, it was stated it had a built-in hypervisor. Of course, now lots of
people have their T1000's and T2000's. It would appear that Sun will release
at some point a firmware upgrade to enable this feature to create Logical Domains
so you can carve up a T1 based server.
Each LDOM will have it's own OBP instance and act just like a normal Solaris
SPARC environment. The kicker is that this is all in firmware! This is not Zones
or Xen. I see this as a huge step in the right direction for Sun and can only
hope that it gets released soon. Here's an interesting
article on the subject that gives a good idea of what will be possible.
I especially like the slide on page 3 that shows CPU, Memory, and *I/O* being
virtualized with the next version of Solaris. I'm really interested in finding
out more about these features.
With these kinds of features in such a small package, it opens up a lot of
possibilities for virtualization and consolidation. With the ability to have
LDOM's running different versions of Solaris (10, 10u2, Solaris Express, etc)
and run zone's inside of those domains is really interesting. This could benefit
developers, engineers, and of course production environments. When the Niagara
II servers come out, the performance will be there to take this to the next
level. Of course, we'll all have to wait and see how this will unfold.
NOTE: If Sun needs a beta tester, I'm available:)
November 2, 2006 (The
Unix Guardian)
... ... ...
Sun is picking up a theme from the
VMware subsidiary of
EMC , which last year announced
a tool called the VMware Player. With VMware Player, users can move their virtual
machines around and "play" them on any X86 or X64 machine. At the time, VMware
conceived of VMware Player as not just a tool for using VMs, but also as a new
means of distributing software--in essence, a virtualized stack of software
would be put in a VMware format and distributed using VMware Player, making
this a virtual shrink wrapped box.
According to Ratcliffe, Sun is also thinking virtual machines are a means
of distributing software, a kind of rapid deployment methodology that, to its
credit, Sun was talking about years ago when it started up its N1 sales pitch
to dot-com customers. Ratcliffe says that Sun will be encouraging customers
to use virtualization tools to wrap and distribute applications.
"A lot of the focus on virtualization has been on running multiple operating
systems on a server," explains Ratcliffe. "We are working on delivering pre-built
stacks that are not just software on a DVD, but a set of fully integrated, pre-tested,
and actually running software. We think this is the most interesting part of
virtualization, and that it will become the standard way of deploying software.
It will let you go from a dead, cold system to a running system in seconds."
Another thing that Sun is working on is expanding its Solaris container technology
so it will be able to support earlier releases of Solaris on a machine that
is running the latest release. Unfortunately for the 1.5 million or so Sparc/Solaris
boxes out there in the world (that's my estimate), Sun cannot allow Solaris
containers on a Solaris 10 machines to support Solaris 9, 8, 7, or 2.6 applications.
The guts of the Solaris kernel in those versions of Sun's Unix are so different
that they cannot easily be made to share a kernel and file system, which is
how Solaris containers work. But, the good news is that when the next version
of Solaris comes out--say it is called Solaris 11--this version will be able
to support Solaris 10 containers. And so will Solaris 12, Solaris 13, and so
on be able to support Solaris 10 containers, too. In the future, customers could
upgrade their systems and operating systems to a new version or release, but
leave their applications alone on prior releases, not having to port and recertify
them until they see a need to.
On the virtual and logical machine hypervisor front, Sun is also expecting
some of the key features of the Solaris 10 platform to give it an edge over
competing implementations of these same technologies. "Today, the rush is to
make sure you have the right mix of hypervisor technology to run multiple operating
systems," says Ratcliffe. "We think this is going to change. We think people
are going to want more functionality in their hypervisors."
So when Sun rolls out support for the Xen hypervisor in the first half of
2007, expect the company to make a big deal about the DTrace system telemetry,
its related predictive self-healing, and user rights management features, and
various security features that are all part of Solaris 10 today. "The way we
will implement Xen will bring the benefits of Solaris 10 to operating systems
that do not have these features," says Ratcliffe. "So rather than trying to
make Solaris the operating system of choice, Solaris becomes the strategic choice
of hypervisors."
For example, customers will be able to, for example, run a DTrace on Windows
applications running on a Galaxy box inside Xen virtual machines, and thereby
be able to better tune them and perhaps boost their performance or reduce the
amount of resources they consume.
Of course, a hypervisor is just a new kind of single point of failure, and
Sun as well as its customers are well aware of this. So Sun will be creating
virtual machine methodologies that will checkpoint and snapshot running VMs
from time to time, offering customers a chance for recovery.
But this capability of snapshotting and moving whole stacks of software also
presents an interesting dilemma. "If you can checkpoint an entire system and
recreate it, is this a security risk," asks Ratcliffe.
Sun has already developed data labeling technologies in the Trusted Extensions
to Solaris, which are coming in the 11/06 update, that won't allow people with
the wrong clearances to see data on a screen or move it to peripherals. Virtual
machines will need similar kinds of controls and tight security. You won't have
to hack an operating system any more, but just steal the hypervisor and software
stack and hack it later at your convenience.
New sun4v platform
Sun Microsystems' comprehensive approach to
virtualization
lets customers apply the right technology in the right place at the right time.
Today Sun is expanding its offerings with new systems, technologies, services,
and tools that make it even easier for customers to simplify datacenters and
maximize resource use through virtualization:
A Comprehensive, Flexible Approach
For an enterprise to be as agile and efficient as possible, Sun understands
that virtualization must be available everywhere—at the server level, the network
level, the desktop, and in storage solutions. Unlike competitors that take a
one-size-fits-all approach, for years Sun has been providing a range of technology
choices that span the datacenter to address
customers' unique
needs.
Sun's approach to virtualization provides both bottom-line and environmental
benefits. Energy-efficient systems from Sun that provide high compute density
in small footprints enable customers to reduce the amount of space required,
resulting in real estate, power, and cooling savings. Sun technologies also
allow customers to consolidate servers and applications onto fewer systems for
improved resource utilization, simplified IT management, and lower costs.
Sun's virtualization and consolidation capabilities help customers reduce
IT costs by as much as $2 million a year, achieve 99.99 percent availability,
deliver up to 80 percent system utilization, and simplify infrastructure management.
Key technologies include the following:
- Solaris
10 Operating System: The most secure OS on the planet, the Solaris
10 Operating System is the ultimate virtualization platform, allowing customers
to easily achieve higher utilization rates and consolidate servers without
compromising service levels, privacy, or security.
-
Solaris Containers: Provided for free in the Solaris 10 Operating
System, Solaris Containers let customers consolidate hundreds of applications
onto a single efficient Sun Fire system for increased resource utilization
and simpler management.
- Highly
Efficient Servers: Sun's extensive portfolio of UltraSPARC processor-based
and x64-based servers help companies lower costs by reducing energy, space,
and cooling requirements.
-
Virtualized Storage Solutions: Unlike other vendors, Sun offers
a wide range of storage virtualization technologies that address SAN, NAS,
file system, and backup layers to provide organizations of all sizes with
appropriate solutions.
-
Management Tools: Sun provides a unique set of tools that let
customers create an efficient management architecture with high levels of
automation for managing systems more easily.
- Virtualization
Resources: Sun offers proven virtualization methodologies, return
on investment (ROI), and total cost of ownership (TCO) approaches as well
as lifecycle services to help customers architect, implement, and manage
their virtual IT environment.
Sun's Latest Innovations
At the core of Sun's virtualization approach is making it easy for customers
to optimize their Web tier and business tier infrastructures. New innovations
include the following:
- New x64-based Servers: Sun's and AMD's partnership delivers the
fastest, most scalable, most energy-efficient, x64-based systems on the
market. Sun was the first vendor to ship systems with the Next-Generation
AMD Opteron processor with the recently announced
Sun Fire
X2100 M2 server and the
Sun Fire
X2200 M2 server. Today Sun is announcing availability of the
Sun Fire
X4100 M2 server and the
Sun Fire
X4200 M2 server, with the
Sun Fire
X4600 M2 server soon to follow. Also featuring the Next-Generation AMD
Opteron processor, these servers are ideal platforms for virtualization,
delivering outstanding performance, energy efficiencies, and scalability.
NewEnergy Associates was able to consolidate their datacenter consisting
of 18 x86 servers, 24 CPUs, 22 power supplies, 44 hard drives, and 26 GB
of RAM—which consumed more than 14,000 watts of power—onto a single Sun
Fire X4200 M2 server.
- Logical Domains Preview: Today Sun is previewing a new server
virtualization and partitioning technology called Logical Domains for servers
with the
CoolThreads technology in the
Sun Fire T1000 and
Sun Fire T2000 servers. By deeply integrating with both the industry-leading
multithreading capability of the UltraSPARC T1 processor and the Solaris
10 OS, Logical Domains technology helps to enable customers to run multiple
operating systems simultaneously. Up to 32 logical domains can be supported
on a single CoolThreads server, and each logical domain can run as an independent
OS instance. Due for release early next year, Logical Domains capability
will complement Solaris Containers to help customers better utilize server
capacity and increase efficiencies and ROI.
- VMware ESX Server 3.0.1 Certification: VMware ESX Server 3.0.1
software is now certified to provide virtualization capabilities on the
x64-based
Sun Blade
8000 Modular System; certification for the Sun Fire X4600 M2 server
is due soon. The VMware software lets customers create virtual machines
to consolidate and easily manage several Solaris, Linux, and Windows servers
on a single physical system instead of multiple systems, enabling customers
to reduce complexity and achieve a server consolidation ratio of up to 20:1
or even higher. Right now, customers can take advantage of a
VMware
Starter Kit that gives subscribers a 10 percent discount on select Sun
Fire x64-based servers.
Virtualization Made Simple
Sun is also offering a number of new and enhanced services, methodologies,
and tools to make datacenter virtualization as easy as possible for customers:
-
Sun Solution Customer Workshop: This new workshop lets customers
engage with Sun consultants in a two-day collaborative session designed
to assess current customer business requirements, match these requirements
to technology requirements, provide a high-level TCO analysis and long-term
savings estimate, and determine actionable next steps. For a limited time,
customers can receive this service worth an estimated $10,000 at no cost.
-
Lifecycle Services for Virtualization: The Sun Architecture Service
and Sun Implementation Service help customers design and implement solutions
to extract maximum value from their virtualization investments.
-
Online Virtualization Learning Center: This Sun learning center
provides quick access to multimedia presentations, how-to guides, and demonstrations
for learning more about virtualization's datacenter benefits.
- Upgrade
Allowance Programs: Sun programs let customers trade in existing
equipment when building new virtualization solutions for significant discounts.
- Virtualization
Resources: Sun BluePrints, technical white papers, and valuable
tools help customers learn even more about virtualization implementations
and calculate potential savings.
By giving customers all the innovations needed to truly optimize their datacenters,
Sun's comprehensive virtualization approach lets businesses reap cost savings
today and more easily take advantage of opportunities tomorrow. Continued innovation
will ensure that Sun remains on the cutting edge of virtualization advancements
well into the future.
For more information go to
sun.com/virtualization.
|
- Date: Tue, 16 May 2006 16:35:07 -0700
- From: Vanessa Heppolette <vanessa dot heppolette at sun dot com>
- To: onnv-gate at onnv dot eng dot sun dot com
- Subject: Heads up: Logical Domains for sun4v platforms support in Nevada
With the putback of
6391870 LDoms v1.0 Solaris Changes
Solaris Nevada now supports the Logical Domains (LDoms) feature. This provides
the ability to create multiple software partitions on sun4v based platforms.
Each of those partitions can run a separate instance of Solaris without affecting
any other.
The LDoms product as a whole (Firmware and Solaris) implements the following
ARC cases:
Case Number Case Description
---------------- -----------
FWARC 2005/633 Project Q Logial Domaining Umbrella
FWARC 2006/055 Domain Services
FWARC 2006/074 sun4v interrupt cookies
FWARC 2006/072 sun4v virtual devices machine description data
FWARC 2006/110 Domain Services MD node and other misc properties
FWARC 2006/105 LDOM support for NCP
FWARC 2005/739 sun4v channels
FWARC 2006/184 sun4v channels shared memory
FWARC 2006/140 sun4v channels transport protocol
FWARC 2006/195 Virtual IO Communication Protocol
FWARC 2006/135 sun4v channel console packets
FWARC 2006/075 Channel devices, Virtual Disk client and server
bindings
FWARC 2006/076 Virtual Network Client and switch Bindings
FWARC 2006/081 Virtual Logical Domain Channel (vldc) Bindings
FWARC 2006/086 LDOM Variables
FWARC 2006/117 Virtual Console Concentrator Bindings
FWARC 2006/141 FMA Domain Services
FWARC 2006/174 NCS HV Update
PSARC 2006/152 Logical Domain Channels Transport API
Firmware Information
In order to use Logical Domains, firmware that includes support for LDoms
is required. These firmware images are currently released by the LDoms team.
More information on how to prepare and install a sun4v machine to use LDoms
can be found at the following location:
http://cpubringup.sfbay.sun.com/twiki/bin/view/LDoms/LDOMSSnapshots
Bug Filing
A new bugster product 'ldoms' has been created for filing bugs against Logical
Domains software. The responsible manager is jay dot jayachandran at sun dot
com and any Solaris bugs in the 'ldoms' product should be filed under one of
the following newly created categories/subcategories:
Cat/Subcat Description
---------- -----------
solaris/misc LDoms Miscellaneous Solaris bugs
solaris/dr LDoms Dynamic Reconfiguration Solaris bugs
solaris/io LDoms Virtual I/O Solaris bugs
doc/doc LDoms Documentation bugs
If there are any questions on LDoms, please contact ldoms- internal at sun dot
com Sincerely, Logical Domains Software Tea
January 25, 2006, SAN FRANCISCO--Sun Microsystems later
this year will introduce virtualization technology to let its newest Sparc-based
servers run multiple operating systems simultaneously, thus catching up to a
feature already built into Unix machines from rivals IBM and Hewlett-Packard.
The technology, called logical domains, will be added to Sun's two
UltraSparc T1 "Niagara"-based servers--the T2000 server Sun began shipping
in December and the T1000 it plans to begin shipping in February, said David
Yen, executive vice president of Sun's Scalable Systems Group.
"This calendar year, on the T2000 and T1000, we will introduce our first
generation of virtualization to bring people beyond the container technology
Solaris 10 already offers," Yen said in a meeting with reporters and analysts
at Sun's offices here. "We have real customers demanding it," particularly in
the financial services industry, he added in a later interview.
Running multiple operating systems is useful for making a single computer
more efficient and is a major trend in the server market today. Building the
feature into Sun servers will address a key piece that's been missing from the
Santa Clara, Calif.-based company's mainstay product line.
Sun is feverishly working to restore its server group's fortunes. The company's
server shipments dropped 6 percent in its most recent quarter.
To run multiple operating systems on a Sparc server now, Sun has offered
only hardware partitions, a relatively inflexible method that lets higher-end
Unix servers be subdivided into four-processor partitions. At the other end
of the spectrum, a Solaris 10 operating system feature called containers lets
a single instance of the operating system appear to be several--but that technology
offers less protective isolation for different applications.
"This is something that Sun has needed to do for a long time in order to
get parity with HP and IBM," said Gabrial Consulting analyst Dan Olds. The next
step will be to make sure the feature fits into higher-level management tools,
he said. "They need to show customers that their systems have the ability to
manage IT resources according to business need--without human intervention--in
order to catch up to HP and IBM."
The movement to run multiple operating systems on a single server has been
maturing long enough that even comparatively lowly x86 servers have the ability
through use of VMware's virtual machine software. And an open-source software
project called
Xen is under way with similar features.
Xen is the future, Yen said. Although the company developed its own logical
domain software, Sun eventually expects it will become one with Xen.
"Eventually we expect Xen will get industrywide acceptance, and we'd like
to be part of it. Some time, probably in the second half of 2007, we will merge,"
Yen said.
John Fowler, who as head of Sun's Network Systems Group is Yen's counterpart,
said Xen for his x86 server group is gradually maturing.
"A lot depends on Xen 3.0 getting done. This is not up to marketing intent
but to the engineering gods," Fowler said. "This kind of software is pretty
hard. There's rocket science in elements of the stack and in making sure you
get it right and it doesn't fall over."
Xen and operating system companies "have talked optimistically about this
spring" for Xen 3.0, but "I think it'll take a little bit longer. I think this
year is very possible," Fowler said.
Firming up firmware
The logical domain feature will be available in an update to the T1000 and T2000
firmware, software that runs at a lower level than the operating system, Yen
said. The update won't degrade performance or require customers to recertify
their software, he added.
That firmware has another important function, Yen said. It provides a new
foundation for Solaris. As Sun worked to move Solaris to x86 chips such
as Advanced Micro Devices' Opteron, the company realized it needed a more flexible
connection between the operating system and the chip it's using. The firmware
provides that new interface, he said.
"All Solaris has to do is talk to the API (application
programming interface) presented by that layer," he said.
The layer also will ease development for the
programmers who work on Linux for Sparc-based computers, Yen said. "To facilitate
Linux porting...we will publish the API for the internal firmware," he said.
Sun will
release the underlying hardware description of the UltraSparc T1 by the
end of March, he reiterated. And Sun will also release its UltraSparc 2005 specifications,
which detail extra features Sun's chips have that aren't in the Sparc V9 standard
promulgated by the Sparc International organization.
Sun has shipped thousands of T2000 systems so far, Yen said. Most customers
are buying just one or two for evaluation purposes, but a global telecommunications
company placed an order on Tuesday for 75 of the machines, he said.
Yen said that late this quarter or early next quarter, T2000 and T1000 customers
will get a new option: an expansion device that increases the number of input-output
slots that are available.
Sun might indirectly benefit from further weakening of Red Hat position as well
as better Open Office interoperability with Microsoft products.
November 2, 2006 (CNET News.com ) ... The companies will
create a joint research facility at which they will build and test
new products, and work with customers and the open-source community.
The focus will be on three technical areas: virtualization, Web
services for server management, and Microsoft Office-OpenOffice.org
compatibility...
... ... ...
Novell will offer a version of Suse Linux Enterprise Server
with optimized virtualization features for Windows Server Longhorn;
Microsoft, in turn, will sell a version of the upcoming Windows
server product that is optimized to run the Novell software in a
virtual environment, he said. Neither company, however, will
sell the other's operating-system product.
... ... ...
The two companies also said they will provide each other's customers
with patent coverage for their respective products. Moreover,
Microsoft said it will not enforce its patents against individual,
noncommercial Linux developers.
"Today, Novell is the only company in our industry that is able
to provide the customer not only with the code to run Linux, but
also with a patent covenant from Microsoft," Brad Smith, Microsoft's
general counsel, said at the event.
In addition, Microsoft promised not to assert patents against
developers being paid to create code for
OpenSuse, Smith said.
... ... ...
For Bill Schrier, chief technology officer for the city of Seattle,
the arrangement means that Suse Linux is now an option.
"We don't use any open-source products today and one reason
is because of the intellectual property issues," he said. "In this
case, where Microsoft says they won't assert their patents, it makes
Linux more attractive to us."
Sun used to provide slightly cheaper support then Red Hat. Oracle undercut this
price so this advantage is lost. Still Solaris stands on its own as an enterprise
OS (and it serves as Oracle standard 64-bit platform) and in this role it competes
more with AIX and HP-UX then Linux (although X86-64 changed that). So this
development might hurt Sun a little bit on low end but it is not applicable to midrange
and high-end server were Oracle mainly used. Actually IBM AIX is the major Sun's
competitor in his space due to Power 5 CPUs scalability. But all three major Unix
vendors have sizable Oracle deployment (surprisingly HP-UX is a strong contender
in this space and many large corporations use HP-UX to run Oracle).
According to WimCoekaerts, Oracle's director of Linux engineering, Oracle's
own production servers are
rolled out with Linux -- not Solaris -- and
Linux is now the de facto standard platform for 9,000 Oracle developers.
Sun is quick to point out the technical advantages of Solaris over Linux,
and to be fair, they are numerous; score a point for Sun. What's more, Solaris
is open source, just like Linux.
... ... ...
Sun says that, when you run the numbers, Red Hat's subscription pricing is
expensive compared with what you get with a Solaris license. Oracle apparently
agrees, because its baseline Linux support contract will be priced at half what
Red Hat charges.
In short, whatever the effect Oracle's
Unbreakable Linux has on Red Hat, it will also have a heavy impact on Sun.
For the list of systems (currently approximately a dozen) see
Oracle Validated Configurations
August 14, 2006 Oracle Validated Configurations
are pre-tested, validated architectures with software, hardware, storage and
networking components together with documented best practices for deployment.
Oracle and its strategic partners offer and recommend these configurations to
enable end-users to deploy fully tested solutions to achieve standardization
with high performance, scalability and reliability while lowering infrastructure
costs.
... ... ....
Oracle is seeing significant end-user demand for Linux x86-64 architectures
and is fully committed to developing, advancing
and promoting the 64-bit commodity Linux. All new chipsets and
servers are now being shipped with x86-64 architecture, thereby offering a much
wider hardware selection to end-users than some of the other architectures.
Therefore, Oracle has chosen to initially make Oracle
Validated Configurations available on Linux x86-64.
Oracle is involved with Linux, Coekaerts says, foremost because Oracle uses
Linux. A lot of Linux. Right now almost 10,000 Linux servers are in use internally
at Oracle. Essentially, every production server at Oracle is a Linux server.
In addition, about 9,000 developers at Oracle are using Linux to develop products.
A lot of that can be attributed to one simple
factor: cost savings. "We use Linux for the same reason all the other companies
are using Linux," Coekaerts says.
< a lot oks to optimize database performance, it's easier to do with an open
source, community-driven OS than a proprietary one. Hence the number of Linux
kernel contributions from Oracle engineers; as a fast research and prototyping
tool, Linux can't be beat.
The end result of all this in-house Linux experience is a whole lot of in-house
expertise. In a way, then, it was only natural for Oracle to enter into the
Linux support business. It's not widely recognized, but Oracle has provided
enterprise Linux support through its
Unbreakable Linux program for about four years. Now, with its new
Oracle Validated Configurations initiative, it is poised to take that a step
further.
An Oracle Validated Configuration is essentially
what it sounds like. Oracle and its partners have selected specific combinations
of hardware and software -- including server hardware, chip sets, Linux OSes,
drivers, and storage -- and subjected them to approximately 60 to 70 tests designed
to tax each system to the limits of its performance. The Validated label means
you're getting a complete system that has been fully configured, certified,
and optimized to run Oracle, down to specific kernel module parameters.
The Oracle stamp of approval doesn't just benefit Oracle users. Because Oracle
is such a heavyweight application, it tends to highlight problems more quickly
than other kinds of software. A system that runs Oracle well is almost guaranteed
to run other applications well.
By comparison, Coekaerts says it typically takes customers nine to 12 months
to get full server stacks properly configured when they do it themselves. "We're
saving lots of people's time, including our own," he says.
But the bigger picture is one of perception. Over the long term, Coekaerts
would like to see Oracle recognized for the contributions it has made to Linux
throughout the years. As the world's second-largest software company, Oracle's
influence over the industry isn't going away, but its reputation as an outsider
in the world of open source just might.
"We're doing Linux the way we should be doing it," Coekaerts says. "We're
trying to use our influence to do something good."
On October 25, 2006 Oracle announced its own support for a clone of Red Hat.
It is evident that Oracle will eat Red Hat lunch, but this is also a severe blow
to Suse (making Novell almost irrelevant in enterprise Linux space). Some
people think that this is a revenge for Jboss, but big business is not about retribution.
Still details are pretty interesting and somewhat damaging for Solaris at mid-range:
Sun should be very careful with licensing and cost of support to avoid the falloff...
Currently, Red Hat only provides bug fixes for the latest version of its
software. This often requires customers to upgrade to a new version of Linux
software to get a bug fixed. Oracle's new Unbreakable Linux program will
provide bug fixes to future, current, and back releases of Linux. In
other words, Oracle will provide the same level of enterprise support for Linux
as is available for other operating systems.
Oracle is offering its Unbreakable Linux program for substantially less than
Red Hat currently charges for its best support. "We believe that better support
and lower support prices will speed the adoption of Linux, and we are working
closely with our partners to make that happen," said Oracle CEO Larry Ellison.
"Intel is a development partner. Dell and HP are resellers and support partners.
Many others are signed up to help us move Linux up to mission critical status
in the data center."
"Oracle's Unbreakable Linux program is available to all Linux users
for as low as $99 per system per year," said Oracle President Charles
Phillips. "You do not have to be a user of Oracle software to qualify. This
is all about broadening the success of Linux. To get Oracle support for Red
Hat Linux all you have to do is point your Red Hat server to the Oracle network.
The switch takes less than a minute."
"We think it's important not to fragment the market," said Oracle's Chief
Corporate Architect Edward Screven. "We will maintain compatibility with Red
Hat Linux. Every time Red Hat distributes a new version we will resynchronize
with their code. All we add are bug fixes, which are immediately available to
Red Hat and the rest of the community. We have years of Linux engineering experience.
Several Oracle employees are Linux mainline maintainers."
(LinuxToday) For those of you that weren't at the wake, Cobalt was a Linux-based
appliance developed in the late 90s. Praised for it's elegant simplicity, millions
of these servers were sold. Sun bought Cobalt in 2000 for an estimated $2B in
stock. In January of 2003, Sun took a $1.6 billion charge against earnings and
put Cobalt into an end of life track (ok, they killed it).Many have speculated
that Sun did in the Cobalt products because they were cannibalizing the lower
end of the Solaris line. Others link it to their ever shifting Linux strategy.
The purpose of this post is not to question Sun's decision, that would be beating
a dead horse (sorry, the macabre keeps creeping in).
In fact, we should give credit to Sun for releasing the source code of the
two main product lines under an open source based license.
During my walk down memory lane, I was surprised to have found that there
are active user groups (some even call themselves fan clubs) that are keeping
the dream alive. There are patches to the 2.6 kernel that are specifically identified
as Cobalt related. I have heard reports of "cubes" that have run non-stop for
years.
On the heels of last weekend's Ruby Conference in Denver (for a report, see
Jack Woehr's blog), Sun Microsystems made a Ruby-related announcement of
its own. Led by Charles Nutter and Thomas Enebo, the chief maintainers of
JRuby, a 100% pure
Java implementation of the Ruby language, Sun has released JRuby 0.9.1. Among
the features of this release are:
- Overall performance is 50-60% faster than JRuby 0.9.0
- New interpreter design
- Refactoring of Method dispatch, code evaluation, and block dispatch
code
- Parser performance enhancement
- Rewriting of Enumerable and StringScanner in Java
- New syntax for including Java classes into Ruby
In related news, Ola Bini has been inducted into JRuby as a core developer
during this development cycle.
Details are available at
Thomas
Enebo's blog and
Ola Bini's blog.
Continued