Thinking aloud
Apr. 24th, 2002 10:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ocelotIt appears that I have convinced my boss that ditching the previously discussed linux/sparc monstrosity is a necessity. Yay.
Now I must decide what should take its place. Linux on Intel or Solaris on Sparc would be the two obvious choices.
Benefits of Solaris:
It's what our other servers will be running
Solaris is better suited for being an NFS server than Linux.
Solaris may be prefered by the Data Center, where the box may be located.
<Insert heliocentric views here>
Benefits of Linux:
Either less initial downtime or less cost, as switching would be a simple matter of unplugging the disk array from the current box and plugging it into the new one. With Solaris, I'd have to either reformat/reload the current disk array, buy a new one, or implement an ext2 kludge.
Linux is known to work acceptably for this particular functionality, and since the current system is Linux, a lot of the configuration (firewall script, for example) is ready to go. I'm also significantly more familiar with Linux at this point, so there's more change that things (like that firewall script) would be done quickly and correctly.
In other words, Linux is the best quick solution, Solaris would probably work equally well, if not better, in the long run. Either should perform adequately.
Time is not really a huge issue. While minimum downtime would be ideal, the non-disk-array portions of the configuration aren't a huge rush.
It also depends on whether or not we need to buy new hardware for this thing. We're already quite a bit over budget, so cheaper Intel hardware might be better at this time if we need to buy a new server. If we don't need to buy a new server, it doesn't really matter, as we have both spare Intel and Sun boxes lying around. The cost in that case would depend on whether any other additional hardware was needed (disk arrays, SCSI cards, etc.).
Thoughts?
Now I must decide what should take its place. Linux on Intel or Solaris on Sparc would be the two obvious choices.
Benefits of Solaris:
It's what our other servers will be running
Solaris is better suited for being an NFS server than Linux.
Solaris may be prefered by the Data Center, where the box may be located.
<Insert heliocentric views here>
Benefits of Linux:
Either less initial downtime or less cost, as switching would be a simple matter of unplugging the disk array from the current box and plugging it into the new one. With Solaris, I'd have to either reformat/reload the current disk array, buy a new one, or implement an ext2 kludge.
Linux is known to work acceptably for this particular functionality, and since the current system is Linux, a lot of the configuration (firewall script, for example) is ready to go. I'm also significantly more familiar with Linux at this point, so there's more change that things (like that firewall script) would be done quickly and correctly.
In other words, Linux is the best quick solution, Solaris would probably work equally well, if not better, in the long run. Either should perform adequately.
Time is not really a huge issue. While minimum downtime would be ideal, the non-disk-array portions of the configuration aren't a huge rush.
It also depends on whether or not we need to buy new hardware for this thing. We're already quite a bit over budget, so cheaper Intel hardware might be better at this time if we need to buy a new server. If we don't need to buy a new server, it doesn't really matter, as we have both spare Intel and Sun boxes lying around. The cost in that case would depend on whether any other additional hardware was needed (disk arrays, SCSI cards, etc.).
Thoughts?
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no subject
Date: 2002-04-25 05:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2002-04-25 06:52 am (UTC)But then there's budget issues too :/ I guess Linux isn't tooo bad.
no subject
Date: 2002-04-25 08:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2002-04-25 08:31 am (UTC)1) NFS on Linux. Here, let me get you a few pillows, you'll be banging your head on the wall. It's slow, somewhat unreliable, and otherwise suckful. Solaris NFS kicks its ass.
2) Solaris' UFS is a journaled filesystem, right out of the box. Add "journal" to mount options. With linux, you get ext3 (a hack), reiser (slow and unsupported), or xfs (it's from SGI. 'nuff said.)
3) The sparc gear will get you better IO performance. Everything overall should be faster.
4) Solaris has a kick-ass IP stack. Linux's leaves a few things to be desired.
My dual cpu (2 x 250MHz UltraSPARC-II) Ultra 2 outperforms pasiphae by an order of magnitude, whether pasiphae is running the 700MHz CeleronIII cpu or the 1GHz PentiumIII cpu.
I'm sure you know I was a complete Linux zealot before I moved to California. I got to like Solaris over Linux. If I could find Solaris 9 for Intel images, I'd be running my UNIX DB server on that, instead of Slackware. Solaris 9 is the way to go, it is vastly superior to Solaris 8. Hell, even the unoptimized beta I'm running on my U2 is faster than Sol8release.
Besides, beige and purple gear is cute!
no subject
Date: 2002-04-25 12:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2002-04-25 06:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2002-04-25 06:21 pm (UTC)