UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

any admin would love to have the best in all catagorires. But what management wants is the most bang for the buck.

in all honesty if i had to do it all over agian. i wouldnt have gone solaris. (altho i am most familure to it and enjoy working with it on a daily basis) for the functionality of my company it is overkill.

you could build a dozen high powered x86 machines for the cost of 1 enterprise class Sun server. and you can run a variety of excellent OSes on those machines to manage the various software components you require.

in my mind it really comes down to 5 things.

1) how easy is it going to be to administer
2) how much is it going to cost for the hardware.
3) how much is the os going to cost
4) how much is the software going to cost.
5) how well can i expand on those machines in the future of this company.


these are questions that only you can answer. and you really need to weigh your options and do alot of studing on the different OS/software/hardware trends/costs/upgradeabilty of what you are looking for.

dont get me wrong haveing an enterprise class server and an enterprise class os w/ enterprise classed support is really a perk i think everyone should enjoy but to get it your going to spend enterprised class dollars.

To answer your question Verbose Bob we run Netra 1405's, Enterprise 3500's and SunOS 5.8

thanks for the replies so far guys

That is the part I disagree with you on Optimus_P. That would have been true a few years ago. But now you can buy a entry-level Sun server for roughly the same price as a server quality Intel box from HP or Dell.

Here is a link to their entry level servers page:
http://store.sun.com/CMTemplate/CESe...CP&catid=48589

Notice you can get a 2 processor 2 gig ram server for only $7000, and a 4 processor 8 gig ram server for $16,000. They do have single processor models starting as low as $995 if you want to go the "lots of cheap machines" route as well.

That is what I meant by the fact that you no longer have to spend huge bucks for Sun. Used to be that even their cheapest stuff was tens of thousands of dollars, but not any more. $7000 or $16,000 seems like a lot compared to a standard PC, but I'm assuming the original poster isn't considering going that route. And if you look at the "enterprise" class servers Dell, HP, or whoever sells they aren't that much cheaper than an entry level Sun.

dollar for dollar you can get more bank for the buck with a x86 machine then a sun machine.

you can turn it any way look at it in the sun and hit it with a hammer but unforunetly its not going to change.

actually guys.. I had orginally been looking at Sun hardware.

I was originally looking at buying some of the SunFire V120's and V210's... or possibly V240.

Although I am now looking at Dell and HP. If I were to run a Dell or HP server, I'd run a BSD variant.. probably FreeBSD b/c I'm most familiar with it.

However I was also looking at some of the IBM p-series AIX machines... but I don't know that AIX is best for my application.

The problem with Dell and HP is that I won't get that nice hardware/software relationship that I'd get with Sun.

The one company I have yet to really even look at is SGI. I know that some companies run SGI servers with their IRIX. Again though I know very little about them.

Another option I suppose is to go Sun with x86, although I hear that if I even were to consider this, I should wait until Solaris 10 is standard as apparently 9 on x86 is slow.

I dunno. I totally understand both points of view and to be honest they have basically been the points of view of the two arguing voices in my head (not literally.. I'm not schitzo ).

The entry level Sun hardware is decently priced and I actually am still awaiting a few bids from my local Sun authorized reseller.

On the other hand, I could still get more for my money with x86 Del, HP, IBM, etc.

The one thing that really bothers me is that I can't really tell what's equivalent between Sparc and x86. For example the V210... if I were to go dual CPU with it... I'd love to know what it stacks up to compared to x86. I just can't tell. While the entry level Sun servers are reasonably priced, what they stack up to compared to x86 does come into question.

It's a tough situation and decision... hence why I posted here

I still am baffled as to why my sig isn't working