[SunRescue] Ultra 5 questions

[Jonathan Katz]

Reagan wrote:

:Unfortunately, a good U2 still costs more than a new U5.  I want one quite
:badly, but they're way way way out of my range.  www.workstation.net often has
:the best pricing on things like that.  You'd be amazed at how much of a load a
:nicely loaded U2 can handle as far as I/O goes.

U2 IO is amazing [pardon the "me too" flashback moment.] The price is worth
the performance. As more new gear comes out from Sun in the coming 12 months
the prices of the used gear will begin to depreciate further. *hint*

Flashing back to late 1997 when I was flipping Sparcstations for alteon.com 
over a hot grill all day we used Tatung U2 clones as testbeds for the sbus
Gigabit NICs. We'd esaily push 800+Mbits... when the driver wasn't tuned 
we'd wind up seizing the bus (UPA) and hard-locking the box. This was with
a specially hacked version of ttcp pumping out data as fast as it could
generate it... dual processor 250 and 333Mhz boxes if memory serves.

In the field we've (various SunPS consultants) found amazing boxes doing
amazing things:

o Ultra1 (170E) doing IMAP/mail serving for >1000 people (load of under .5)
o SS5/110Mhz as a mail-proxy running sendmail for >600 people (load <.07)
o Ultra2 (dual 333s) doing IMAP/POP3/SMTP relaying for >4000 people (load ~1-2)

I'm stuck on mail tonight for some reason *shrug*.

-Jon
-- 
Jonathan Katz
e-mail: jon at jonworld.com 
website: http://jonworld.com
proprietor: http://bachelor-cooking.com
Cell: 317-698-4023 * Pager: 800-759-8888 1770869 * FAX: 530-688-5347