[rescue] Spark10 CPU question (must fix - SPARC damnit :-) )

[Mark Brown]

On 16-12-15 04:05 PM, Patrick Giagnocavo wrote:

> You can find a lot of good ex-Sun guys at Joyent. They still maintain
> and release a version of Solaris.
>
> Linux is not as good as Solaris - when I run containers on Solaris I
> can count on its excellent memory handling - on Linux I have to watch
> the memory carefully.
>
> Tempted to fire up Illumos/SmartOS on a 1U server I have, however...
>
I've been tempted to reply to this thread - just getting to it now. :-)

I work in the medial imaging software business and we still use SPARC on 
our legacy product. Big relational databases, heavy storage and network 
requirements for image reception and delivery.  In my lab, there are 
several T4's, T3's, T2k's and I think my oldest SPARC is a well loved 
V240.  It's all great kit.

Looking forward - to our next gen stuff -  It seems to be Windows and/or 
Linux.  I won't say anything (nice) about the former...

Linux.  There is nothing -really- wrong with Linux. It's a little 
utilitarian. Almost too much of a good thing. It's in our TV's and in 
our phones. Who thought that was going to happen 20 years ago? It seems 
to take up new features pretty quick, and the paint is always a bit wet, 
either in the kernel, applications or even within the distribution.  I 
think it's always been like that, and I'm not convinced it will ever be 
better.  The paint around a feature will cure, but there is always wet 
paint somewhere.

I don't really remember this churn in Solaris.  There were some pretty 
big features added.  UFS Journaling, Solaris Zones, ZFS, Crossbow.   
They were remarkable in the way that they were mature. I'm not convinced 
that this is only a by-product of being a commercial offering.  
(remember - I'm in the software business).

I really do like the stability and io capability of SPARC.  Its Larry 
that really put me off though.  I cast off all my SPARC gear within the 
last year or two.  It was a little sad, but I do maintain a few 
Solaris(*) machines still around home.

(*)Well ok - Solaris-esque;

- I've got an old OpenSolaris 0906 that still runs well (General purpose 
file server, Mail, DB, and Web services).

- EON Storage (Boots and Runs from USB key - klunky, funny, quirky, but 
it works) Hosts my ZFS send/recv backups. :-)

- I've got a Joyent SmartOS box too.
--The SmartOS system is a really nice box. Boots from USB key, one ZFS 
pool.  Provides Solaris Zones (or is that a SmartOS Zones) and KVM.  
They even implemented the Crossbow network stack as well. It's pretty nice!
--All my (utilitarian) linux images - run within KVM, on top of SmartOS 
(Solaris).  I don't bother with VMware or VirtualBox.
--Joyent have an Image repository - you can slurp down pre-built 
KVM/Zone images - Illumos, Ubuntu, CentOS, etc.
--Booted Windows2k8 in a SmartOS KVM - was a far cry from Windows 3.1 on 
Sunsoft Wabi :-)
--I've created my own images for my own local repo of things like 
OpenBSD and a few other custom images.
--I think some of the later SmartOS work may be around docker -but I 
haven't messed with that stuff yet.

So - I can still get my "Solaris Fix", I just think less about Larry 
when I do it!

Props to Andre Lue (EON Storage) and to the team (past and present) over 
@ Joyent too!

/Mark