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

[P.A.OsborneP.A.Osborne at ukc.ac.uk]

On Thu, Jul 13, 2000 at 09:52:09AM -0400, Dave McGuire wrote:
> > >From my position I cant justify financially keeping the older SS2s etc,
> > the maintenance for a SS2 with 4 hour call out from Sun costs my employer
> > around 400 gbp per year - we can get new Ultra5s  for just over 800 and
> > the maintenance is absolutely minimal for the first three years.
> 
>   "Maintenance for an SS2"?!  You've got to be kidding.  That company
> up in NJ that I wrote about several messages ago, with the stack of
> SS2s..."maintenance" consists of having a closet full of spare SS2s
> (at market prices of US$30/ea that's not difficult) and swapping out
> the base if something dies.  Now, to that, one could argue that one
> needs technical knowhow on-site to do that...not really; a trained
> monkey can swap out an SS2 base in just a few minutes.


Yeah I know!  Yes I know that they are built like Tonka Toys (I dropped
one down some stairs at home once...),  but the powers that be have
allocated us a maintenance budget so we are going to use it.  Its all
well and goo saying have a stack of SS2s spare just in case - but that
doesnt apply when you are down to your last SS2.  At what point do you
have to have a stack of E450s?

I know the parts are cheap etc and for me at home I am happy,  but for
an in service machine if the mobo packs up I cannot go to my boss and
say "well the mobo will be here in a couple of days if my bid goes 
through Ebay".  At the moment I can say "Yeah the Sun engineer is on
the way and the courier has just delivered the bits".   Thats what we
pay for.   
> 
>   Upgrading due to pressure from a vendor's commission-driven sales
> force is bogus.  IMO the only good reason to change out a system for a
> newer one is when the original one is no longer cutting the mustard in
> a way that is acceptable.

No we are upgrading stuff for another reason (apart from maintenance
costs): someone found a bag of gold that we have to spend in this
years budget or lose it for ever.  When you consider that quite a 
bit of our kit is old SS2s SS10s SS20s  circa 90-93 then just to
get shot of the older kit and have some new kit in the machine room 
with some grunt is nice.  Besides I might end up with some SS10/20s 
at home!

>   If the machine is broken, sure, replace it.  If you want more speed,
> sure, that's a perfectly good reason to upgrade a system.  But doing
> it just because the [commission-driven] sales droids want you to is
> pretty...well, sad.

I quite agree which is why we are still running old kit,  as it is 
the sales people dont come and see us,  we call them and say "you 
know that E450 thats up for 25grand - well here is fifty quid how 
does that sound?"

Cheers

Paul