[rescue] fastest Ultra 5 marketed by Sun?

[Lionel Peterson]

>From: Mark <md.benson at gmail.com>
>Date: 2007/07/21 Sat PM 05:57:11 CDT
>To: The Rescue List <rescue at sunhelp.org>
>Subject: Re: [rescue] fastest Ultra 5 marketed by Sun?

>On 21 Jul 2007, at 21:55, Patrick Finnegan wrote:

<snip>

>> And, for most people, the benefit of cheap IDE drives outweighs the  
>> IDE
>> vs SCSI performance difference.
>
>That's on of the nicest things about the U10 - finding a DVD drive in  
>order to install from Sun media is distinctly easier!

I have an Ultra 5 in my home "rack" that has a 120 Gig IDE drive, IDE DVD drive (actually a Sun badged DVD from an Ultra 10) and I use it as a headless quick-and-dirty installation machine. I simply log in, set up the boot parameters in a single command line, then run a "boot net - install" (from memory) and the install just flies. Having 120 Gig drive space means I can archive older versions of Solaris without problem, and the IDE drive means I can add new versions of Solaris from real Sun media. That it is only about 5 inches tall means it doesn't take up a lot of space, and the 250 watt power supply isn't a big deal to leave on most of the time. I may upgrade my "install server" machine and put it on a Sun KVM, just to give me easy console access - so far, with it on a UPS I've not needed console access in months... (though, oddly, I may need a VGA Male to 13W3 adapter to put it on my Sun KVM, assuming I don't go with an Ultra 10 and an upgraded framebuffer)

In short, they make very nice single-point function machines, even good multi-function machines, for limited networks - for greater needs, the U2 and Ultra 60 are very nice server and desktops at good price points...

Lionel