AIX

I'd like to start by saying how extremely new I am to any UNIX OS, although I've been dealing with Linux systems off and on for roughly a year now, and am trained primarily on Windows Servers.

Our company has an old AIX system, running AIX version 4. The server we are using is more then 10 years old. We are going to be upgrading to a new system soon.

We are a very small business and we don't have an extremely large amount of money to spend on a new server, as the conversion of all our data will be pretty expensive. I'm hoping someone could point me in the direction of what kind of server I'm looking for. Possibly some good specifications on a server that is looking to handle at the most 150 people. Any help will be appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
Steven

Could you please post an output (in [ CODE] tags) of the following commands:

Code:

prtconf -v
lscfg -vp

We'll also need some idea of the application you are running.
You will probably need to ask the vendor / supplier what levels of AIX the application will run on as AIX 4 and 5.1 are out of support now.

Have a search of ebay. You should find one or two 44P machines and even an occasional B or F series to. These will quite happily run AIX 5.2 and you should not have to pay much for the machine. As has already been said we need to know what your company means to run on the machine also how many users.

Thank you for all of your responses.

We will be running IBMs UniVerse software as well as a collections software by Columbia Ultimate. if anyone is familiar with that it would help greatly.

Right now we only have about 75 people that would be using the UNIX system, but it could eventually be 100-150 depending on business growth in the next few years.

We had recently received a server configuration from one of our other hardware vendors, with what I'm looking at being the recommended specs from this company. Its quite a bit more expensive then we would like to spend. the hardware and software both coming out to well over 30k.

If theres anywhere that you can see that we can cut a little bit without sacrificing too much performance I would GREATLY appreciate it, as I know almost nothing of what is required for a UNIX system.

4.7 GB IDE SLIMLINE DVD-RAM DRIVE
SCSI CABLES PCI RISER TO LVD SCSI Media
2048MB (2X1024MB) DIMMS, DDR-2 SDRAM
NUMBER OF AIX PARTITIONS
CONFIGURATION ORDERED WITHOUT SUBSCRIPTION
ONE PROCESSOR ACTIVATION FOR 1 -CORE & 2.1 (P5+)
1-CORE 2.1GHZ POWER5+0-CORE Active/36mb Cache
ESCALA PL250T+ SYSTEM
PWR GX135P GRAPH ACCEL W DIGIT
73.4 GB ULTRA320 15k SCSI DISK DRIVE Raid 10
DUAL CHANNEL SCSI RAID ENABLEMENT DAUGHTER CARD
36/72GB INTERNAL 4MM DAT TAPE
US POWER SUPPLY
AC POWER SUPPLY, 850W, HOT SWA
16 port Digi Port Server II, RJ45
SCSI Controller to access external 1/4" tape drive
Cable to connect external 1/4" tape drive
External 2.5 gb 1/4" tape drive to read archived tapes only
OEM DESKSIDE COVER SET

Hmm, seems to be a BULL copy of an IBM power 5+ machine.

I can only assume the "ESCALA PL250T+ SYSTEM" includes a basic configuration of enough to make a running system and then they have specified some extra hardware. Otherwise they have specified a raid card for only one hard drive!!

No mention of an operating system or licence for the same!

Do you need a DVD writer, a 36GB 4m tape drive and an external 2.5g tape? - you could buy a CD or DVD ROM and backup to a tape drive.

Do you need the graphics card? Does your existing system have a graphics card?

If you need the graphics card, or not, I see no mention of the USB keyboard, mouse and monitor you will need to use it.

Do you need the extra serial ports - "16 port Digi Port Server II, RJ45", IBM do a dual port card if you need more than just console or modem access - the system will have a couple of serial ports but they are not full RS232 ports so you need a rs232 card if you need to use more than a dumb console or console access over a modem.

If you are not using it in an office environment you won't need the sound kit - OEM DESKSIDE COVER SET.

I'd ask an IBM bp / var / reseller for a similar spec (new and used) p505 / p510 / p511 / p520 and see how it adds up.

Without knowing anything about your current hardware it is impossible to say how this might compare to what you already have.

If your existing kit is over 10 years old and you don't have any performance problems with 75 users, you can probably get what you need for 500 users second hand from a reseller for about 5k to 10k and it will run AIX 5.3 and IBM will support it for many years to come.

If your 10 year old box was a top of the range at the time the spec you mention might be no better (or much worse) than what you have!

There is a p520 on ebay UK at the moment (similar spec without the added bits) with a starting bid of £2600, keep an eye on it for an idea of what they are going for;

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/9111-520-IBM-p...QQcmdZViewItem

If you have the space (and huge amounts of power ;-) there is also a p680 currently at just under 1.2k and that will run rungs around a tiny p5 box like the Bull:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/7017-S85-IBM-p...QQcmdZViewItem

As I say, with no idea of what you have there is no way to tell if this system is any better or worse than what you currently have.