[SunRescue] Q on "optimal" OS for Sun4c machines, now that Solaris 8 won't run

[Ken Hansen]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Magnus Abrante" <magnus.abrante at nocke.Sweden.Sun.COM>
To: <rescue at sunhelp.org>
Sent: Wednesday, July 12, 2000 8:22 AM
Subject: Re: [SunRescue] Q on "optimal" OS for Sun4c machines, now that
Solaris 8 won't run


> We do droped the sun4c support in Solaris 8, but sun4c was borned 1989,
> and we sold the last sun4c box many years ago, i think its very
unrealistic
> expecting sun to support such old hardware.

Agreed.

> The reason to why the sun4c was droped was most likely other reasons than
> commercial/marketing issues.

Agreed.

> Just take the IPX/SS2, the maximum amount of memory in those are 64 MB,
> most of the other 4c's can take even less. Do you really want to run
> Solaris 8 on an IPC with 48 mb memory? Well, perhaps you would, i'm
> running Solaris 7 on a IPC and its working without any problems, but
still.

Agreed.

> There has been four new generations of CPUs after the sun4c; sun4m, sun4d
> Ultra I and Ultra II, and i think the work requierd to support sun4c, both
> from the software developers and the support organisation would be a lot
> more than its actually worth, this is however my own opinion.
>
> And i know, some customers still have support on their sun4c boxes.

An interesting aside - a previous employer decided to start charging
internal groups
"rent" for the floorspace their servers occupied - the smallest unit of
measure was
a 19" rack. But,if you had 4 servers in that 19" rack, you were assessed 4x
the
rack rate, because it was a "per server" charge. The charges were
non-trivial.

When management of my groups servers was going into this new organization
the
first bill was astounding - IPCs as "print servers" were being charged the
same rate
as a mid-range HP server occupying a 19" rack tower. And then they wanted to
charge the grop movement fees to physically relocate the "servers" to their
raised
floor (to ensure physical security).

The bill per IPC "print" server was approaching $2500/year...

We got them to agree that there was no need to either manage nor move those
"dedicated" IPCs, shaving tens of thousands of dollars off our annual costs.
I
can see how a business unit could still be paying for support on a Sun4c
box,
but I would hope the Sun Rep involved would try hard to get them to migrate
(at least up to an SS5/70 ;^) to allow them to run on "current" platforms...

Ken