Cloud Tab: Update!

The following updates are noted on the Network Management Cloud Tab:

Cloud News
2010-01-26 [HTML] CloudKick Launches Cloud Management
2010-03-31 [HTML] CloudKick Launches Hybrid Cloud Management
...
2012-04-16 [HTML] RackSpace purchases CloudKick Cloud Management
2012-05-08 [HTML] Microsoft Rebrands Azure Cloud Services
2012-05-09 [HTML] Amazon offers former Azure-like Cloud Services on Amazon Cloud
2012-05-10 [HTML] (OpenStack) HP Opens 50% discounted Public Cloud Beta
2012-05-12 [HTML] (OpenStack) HP Public Cloud Beta Program Ends


Joyent Initiatives
[HTML] Virtual Appliance: MongoDB Smart Machine
[HTML] Virtual Appliance: NodeJS Smart Machine
[HTML] Virtual Appliance: Percona Smart Machine (MySQL Database)
[HTML] Virtual Appliance: Riak Smart Machine (Key-Value Database)
[HTML] Virtual Appliance: StingRay Smart Machine (Riverbed: Load Balancing, Traffic Shaping, SSL Offload)
[HTML] Solution: eCommerce
[HTML] Solution: (PAAS) Platform-as-a-Service
[HTML] Solution: StackMob Mobile Application Platform
[HTML] Solution: On-Line Gaming
[HTML] Solution: Managed Hosting Services
[HTML] Solution: Private Cloud
[HTML] Solution: Professional Services

HP Initiatives
[HTML] CDN - Content Delivery
[HTML] Block Storage
[HTML] Object Storage
[HTML] Cloud Compute
[HTML] RDB - HP Cloud Relational Database for MySQL
 
Microsoft Initiatives
[HTML] Cloud Services (formerly: Windows Azure Compute)
[HTML] All Services (formerly: Windows Azure Platform - All Services
[HTML] CDN (formerly: Windows Azure CDN)
[HTML] Storage (formerly: Windows Azure Storage)
[HTML] Traffic Manager (formerly: Windows Azure Traffic Manager)
[HTML] Virtual Network (formerly: Windows Azure Virtual Network)
[HTML] Cache (formerly: AppFabric Cache)
[HTML] Service Bus (formerly: AppFabric Service Bus)
[HTML] Access Control (formerly: AppFabric Access Control)
[HTML] SQL Azure (formerly: SQL Azure)
[HTML] SQL Reporting (formerly SQL Azure Reporting Service)

Ops Center: Manage Mission Critical Apps in the Cloud

Ops Center: Manage Mission Critical Apps in the Cloud

Abstract: 
This short video demonstrates how Oracle Ops Center, included in all Oracle hardware service contracts,  manages a private cloud hosting applications.
 

Network Management Hint: Sort by IP Address

Network Management Hint: Sort by IP Address

How do you sort a host table by IP Address on a UNIX network management platform?

This has been a basic requirement, since the dawn of The Internet.

Let's look at an example /etc/hosts extract:

sun9999/user$ cat /etc/hosts

#
127.0.0.1       localhost
::1             localhost

201.14.24.17    BT-Site-1       # LasPalmas
203.16.54.112   QB-Site-1       # NorthSydney
201.14.24.21    DL-Site-1       # LasPalmas
202.135.192.97  QB-Site-1       # NorthSydney
203.16.54.18    PR-Site-1       # NorthSydney
201.14.24.28    DL-Site-2       # LasPalmas
203.16.54.22    KP-Site-1       # NorthSydney

Each octet in an IPv4 address is separated by a period "." and a simple POSIX sort will use the period as the field separator and then request a numeric sort on the first, second, third, and fourth octets.

sun9999/user$ sort -t . -k 1,1n -k 2,2n -k 3,3n -k 4,4n /etc/hosts

::1 localhost
#
127.0.0.1       localhost
201.14.24.17    BT-Site-1     # LasPalmas
201.14.24.21    DL-Site-1     # LasPalmas
201.14.24.28    DL-Site-2     # LasPalmas
202.135.192.97  QB-Site-1     # NorthSydney
203.16.54.18    PR-Site-1     # NorthSydney
203.16.54.22    KP-Site-1     # NorthSydney
203.16.54.112   QB-Site-1     # NorthSydney

What it you want to eliminate colon ":" separated IPv6 addresses, empty lines, and lines with comments? Just perform a little POSIX awk'ing after the sort.

sun9999/user$ sort -t . -k 1,1n -k 2,2n -k 3,3n -k 4,4n /etc/hosts | awk '$1!~/:/ && !/^$/ && !/^#/'

127.0.0.1       localhost
201.14.24.17    BT-Site-1       # LasPalmas
201.14.24.21    DL-Site-1       # LasPalmas
201.14.24.28    DL-Site-2       # LasPalmas
202.135.192.97  QB-Site-1       # NorthSydney
203.16.54.18    PR-Site-1       # NorthSydney
203.16.54.22    KP-Site-1       # NorthSydney
203.16.54.112   QB-Site-1       # NorthSydney

Want to eliminate all localhost entries? Add a localhost elimination pattern:

sun9999/user$ sort -t . -k 1,1n -k 2,2n -k 3,3n -k 4,4n /etc/hosts | awk '$1!~/:/ && !/^$/ && !/^#/ && !/localhost/'

201.14.24.17    BT-Site-1       # LasPalmas
201.14.24.21    DL-Site-1       # LasPalmas
201.14.24.28    DL-Site-2       # LasPalmas
202.135.192.97  QB-Site-1       # NorthSydney
203.16.54.18    PR-Site-1       # NorthSydney
203.16.54.22    KP-Site-1       # NorthSydney
203.16.54.112   QB-Site-1       # NorthSydney

Need to print only the host name, sorted by IP Address, for entries managed by NorthSydney NOC?

sun9999/user$ sort -t . -k 1,1n -k 2,2n -k 3,3n -k 4,4n /etc/hosts | 
awk '$1!~/:/ && !/^$/ && !/^#/ && !/localhost/ && /NorthSydney/ { 
print $2 }'
QB-Site-1
PR-Site-1
KP-Site-1
QB-Site-1

If you are not using POSIX commands to do standard network management work, you don't know what you are missing!

Benefits of Using Ops Center

There was a brief announcement concerning the "Benefits to using Ops Center" on the Oracle Blogs today.

Ops Center 12c also adds Solaris 11 features for bare-metal OS Provisioning, based on the Solaris 11 Auto Install (AI) facility.  Ops Center configures the Solaris 11 AI in a way that shields admins from needing to write custom AI manifests or custom "first boot" packages.  Solaris 11 deployments using Ops Center follow similar profile-based patterns as for Solaris 10 or Linux, all of which can all be deployed from the same Ops Center infrastructure running on Solaris 11.

Some good news:

Solaris 11 with AI, Solaris 10 JumpStart with JET, or Linux with Kickstart or AutoYast.  All of those OS's are handled by Ops Center under the covers, based on whatever network boot capability the OS requires (PXE/DHCP, WANBOOT, or AI), and all from the same Ops Center infrastructure running on Solaris 11.

This, of course, is a welcome addition. The core question of the day is:

• Does Ops Center support other OS's besides Solaris and Linux?

With the death of Xen under Solaris, if you want to run multiple OS's (via KVM) under a solid Solaris foundation including best-in-class analytics (via DTrace) and best-in-class file system (via ZFS) with an option for a public cloud (for Joyent) - there is only one OS option: SmartOS.

Solaris 11 is dubbed "the first cloud OS". Joyent is one of the first Solaris based cloud providers, basing their implementation on a fork of OpenSolaris in conjunction with aport of  KVM. Joyent's SmartOS offers a public cloud option for private clouds built upon SmartOS KVM.

Network Management Connection
Whether Ops Center can support SmartOS on bare-metal is an outstanding question. One might expect that Ops Center would have limited or no visibility to the  KVM based virtual machines. If Oracle has any interest in not forcing commercial cloud providers to have to build competing cloud management technology, they might be well advised to add some level of support to Ops Center, so they could profit from doing next to no work.

Cloud Migration: iPhone, iPodTouch, iPad

I considered a quick blog posting from Cloud Migration today:

I just keep thinking that the proliferation of iPads and tablets in the enterprise is leading us back to the path of thick client computing. Don't get me wrong, I love the iPad and believe it is a great device....for emails, surfing the web, playing music, playing games, and getting directions. However, it is as thick of a client device as you can get. In addition, just like 3270 screens were proprietary, they are a proprietary platform. It seems like just yesterday everyone was rushing to get off of client/server systems and move to thin client machines with browser based access.

Of course, I thought this was interesting, but this left me with a bunch of thoughts:

[courtesy: thenewiphone.info 2011 rumor]

> proliferation of iPads and tablets in the enterprise is leading us back
> to the path of thick client computing

That is a very interesting thought.

• UNIX is the firmware in the iPad, iPodTouch, iPhone
• UNIX does not make it thick, Sun Workstations were thin
• UNIX makes i* more Open.

There is virtually no customization on the client end,
so I don't quite think that i* are thick clients.


> just like 3270 screens were proprietary

iPhone's and iPad's were specifically called out, "tablets" suggest Windows, but Android is not quite Open...

• Does Android comply with POSIX? OpenFirmware?
• Is Android getting sued for using Java?

What are the thin alternatives?

• SunRay's used to be SPARC based, but no longer. SPARC was Open.
• SunRay's were never based upon Solaris. Solaris was Open.
• SunRay's used a proprietary firmware, not based upon OpenBoot.

The SunRay's are more of an ultra-thin form factor, with firmware
that will update automatically (much the same way that i* devices
will, except the i* devices prompt the user for a convenient time
to update with the ability to customize their firmware.)

Other thoughts about thin clients:

• I don't see SunRay's in i* or tablet form-factors.
• I don't see SunRay's being sold by TelCo providers,
  as basic utilities leveraging their network infrastructure.
• I don't see SunRay's clients provided by non-Oracle vendors

Don't get me wrong, I have 3 SunRay's on my desktop, this very moment,
running SPARC Solaris OpenLook desktops (CDE and JDS are way too heavy
and difficult to customize for real business usage.) All our users run
third-party apps off of an internal Solaris cloud that I built years ago.

Right now, the i* format factor is less expensive, easier to use,
and perceived as more open than other thin client technologies.

Honestly, there is no reason why clouds should not be built on SunRay's.


If clouds are not using SunRay's, then Oracle needs to figure out how to
fix it, and I will be the first one on-board to advocate migrating my
decade old private Solaris SPARC cloud providing 300 thin clients!

EMC: DataBridge

EMC: DataBridge
The Register posted an interesting article regarding EMC DataBridge, which is being displayed during EMC World 2012 in Las Vegas Nevada this week.

DataBridge will support EMC's ProSphere, Data Protection Advisor, Unified Infrastructure Manager, IT Operations Intelligence Suite, Storage Configuration Advisor and EMC AppSync… There will be two DataBridge apps from EMC covering chargeback and resource analysis for visualisations of storage capacity utilisation… Actually DataBridge has an obvious possible extension to cover Vblocks, with storage, network and compute data coming across the data bridge, as it were, from the Vblock's component Cisco and EMC physical gear and the VMware software gear.

What makes this interesting are the variety of software platforms covered in the EMC DataBridge solution. It is a good sign to see them brought in under a single umbrella.

Network Management Connection
EMC is primarily a storage company, which did not have a real management solution for complete storage solutions... but at least they understood managed services. They produced a suite of applications to manage their storage solutions, which were available under multiple hardware and multiple OS platform vendors.

There was a company called SMARTS (an acronym for Systems Management ARTS) which specialized in multi-vendor network fault management (the suite was branded as SMARTS InCharge.) SMARTS understood managed services accounts, where multiple hardware and OS platform vendors were supported. They were later purchased by EMC with their tool suite rebranded as EMC Ionix. Now, EMC's management tool suite is being rebranded again as IT Operations Intelligence Suite, as can be seen above as one of the feeds into DataBridge. Once again, SMARTS was available under multiple hardware and OS platform vendors.

There was another company called Voyence, which specialized Configuration and Policy Management of multi-vendor network equipment. Voyence was considered a best-in-class provider, also attractive to the Service Provider business, since they supported multiple hardware and OS platform vendors. They were also purchased by EMC. Their product was brought under the Ionix umbrella and re-branded as NCM or Network Configuration Manager. This is rolled into IT Operations Intelligence Suite.

EMC also purchased a hypervisor company called VMWare. The union of EMC with VMWare seemed to be odd, but it started to become more clear. With EMC providing storage and hypervisor, they partnered with Cisco, and produced a product called Vblock, noted in the article. This is where EMC began to lose focus on Managed Services arena. Multi-hardware and OS vendor support disappearing from their portfolio, it seems EMC is dropping support for platforms which will not run in their proprietary VMWare hypervisor.

Conclusion:
While DataBridge looks like an interesting for EMC shops, it should be noted that EMC appears to be backing away from Managed Service Accounts. VMWare still runs on other platforms, besides Cisco, but one might suggest (from recent EMC history) that is only the case because EMC did not buy Cisco.

If DataBridge will capable of running on any non-VMWare hosted operating system, that would be a surprise with EMC's trend to abandon Managed Services Accounts. If EMC wants DataBridge to be a serious competitor in the market, EMC will have to demonstrate a commitment to partners not locked into VMWare.

LogMatrix: NerveCenter Basics

Abstract:
NerveCenter was one of the first network management platforms in the industry, providing full Fault and Performance Management. Originally created by a company called NetLabs, ports of the software were created by AT&T and NCR under AT&T UNIX and NCR UNIX MP-RAS. Larry Wall, the creator of Perl joined NetLabs in 1991 - Perl is heavily integrated into NerveCenter. NerveCenter was known to scale well, back in 1996. NerveCenter was later purchased by Seagate, Veritas, Open Service Inc., and is now owned by LogMatrix.

New Release:
LogMatrix recently released NerveCenter 6.0. Features include: MIB Browser, Windows 2008R2 support, data enrichment.

Strengths:
NerveCenter provides a platform to model the health of systems using multi-state finite state machines. Most systems understand up/down (Durable Events under SMARTS / EMC Ionix / EMC ITOI) or monitoring single events (Momentary Events under SMARTS / EMC Ionix / EMC ITOI.) The user community can easily provision their own rules by visually building a finite state machine in a drag & drop environment - perhaps the simplest configuration available in any network management platform today.

Weaknesses:
 There used to be a bundled reporting tool. Graphs were able to be produced, using logged data, with the option to view and print reports. This feature was supported by NetLabs in addition to an AT&T (who ported a copy of NerveCenter to SVR4.)
NerveCenter came from an environment which provided a clean and fast X Windows Interface. This interface was exchanged, for a bulky Win32 interface (which cross-compiled into an even bulkier X Windows interface) for the benefit of fat Windows client.

Basics Video:
The following video clip describes a basic fundamental building blocks in NerveCenter.

NodeJS: History of a Great Technology

NodeJS: History of a Great Technology

[2010-06-09] - Why Google V8 is not suitable for Servers (Russian)
[2010-07-09] - Nodes and Jetties
[2010-07-10] - Scaling NodeJS to Multiple Cores
[2011-01-03] - Gartner: Joyent in IAAS Magic Quadrant (NodeJS mentioned)
[2011-01-23] - Quick Benchmark: Java vs NodeJS
[2011-01-30] - Java AIO (NIO.2) vs NodeJS
[2011-01-31] - Node.js Interview: 4 Questions with Creator Ryan Dahl
[2011-02-05] - NodeJS: To V8 or Not to V8
[2011-02-05] - On Bruno’s Concern About the Current Coupling of node.js and V8
[2011-02-06] - Answering Jason on V8 governance and impact to NodeJS
[2011-03-08] - Yahoo code contributed to V8Monkey
[2011-04-11] - Mozilla progresses with JavaScript server project
[2011-04-14] - About That Hybrid "V8Monkey" Engine
[2011-04-19] - NodeJS on V8Monkey with Segmentation Faults
[2011-04-23] - News roundup: ... V8Monkey and SpiderNode ...
[2011-05-05] - Mozilla's NodeConf Presentation
[2011-05-19] - SpiderNode at NodeConf 2011
[2011-06-07] - Spidernode: 'let', 'yield' and array comprehensions in Node.js
[2011-09-10] - Hacker News - NodeJS: To V8 or Not to V8
[2011-09-11] - Ahead with Node.JS and Google V8

SNMP Tab: Update!

The Network Management SNMP Resources Tab was updated!

SNMP MIB Repositories

[HTML] - MIBSearch.COM
[HTML] - SNMPLink.ORG [Brocade|Cisco|Extreme|Juniper|Standards]
[HTML] - OIDView.com [on-line application]


SNMP Network Management Platforms
[HTML] - HP Network Node Manager 9i

HP Network Node Manager - Data Sheets
[PDF] HP Network Management Center
[PDF] HP Network Node Manager (NNMi) Software
[PDF] HP Solutions for Automated Network Management
[PDF] HP NNMi Data Sheet
[HTML] NP NNMi Manuals
[HTML] HP NNMi 9.1 Supported Device Matrix
[HTML] HP NNMi 9.0 Supported Device Matrix


HP Network  Node Manager - Specifications
[HTML] HP NNMi 9.10 (Advanced)
[HTML] HP NNM iSPI for IP Multicast 9.10
[HTML] HP NNM iSPI for IP Telephony 9.10
[HTML] HP NNM iSPI for MPLS 9.10
[HTML] HP NNM iSPI Performance for Metrics 9.10
[HTML] HP NNM iSPI Performance for Quality Assurance 9.10
[HTML] HP NNM iSPI Performance for Traffic 9.10

HP Network Node Manager 9.10i - A Quick Analysis

HP Network Node Manager 9.10i - A Quick Analysis
Abstract:
For as long as there was communications over wires, Network Management existed. With the advent of SNMP, management could become sophisticated enough to allow for proactive management of intelligent devices and the health of various resources they managed. HP's Network Node Manager, considered "the gold standard" in network management, continues to upgrade their platform with newer features.

Key Information:
Real information on Network Node Manager is available in various datasheets and specification pages. What separates HP's Network Node Manager from the rest of the competition includes:

• Multi-Platform Support
  Solaris, Linux, Windows, and HPUX.
  Solaris support provided for Managed-Services grade, Linux for Enterprise grade, Windows for Small-Medium Business grade network management needs.
• Robust Performance
  Single station capable of 25,000 devices, up to 1,000,000 interfaces.
• Robust Virtualization
  HP Network Node Manager supports Zones under Solaris - providing Solaris based Managed Service Providers with secure multi-tenancy at 0% systems overhead penalty.
• External Authentication
  Users and Roles can be mapped to an LDAP directory
• Excellent Device Certification Documentation
  Clear on-line documentation regarding which device and features are supported.
• Database Support
  Embedded Postgres and third-party Oracle are both supported.
• Multi-Tenancy Interface
  Network Node Manager old interface offered this, the new one offers this, as well.
• Encryption and SNMPv3
  The old Network Node Manager did not offer SNMPv3 encryption, without a proxy from SNMP Research. The data sheets do not clearly indicate SNMPv3 encryption support under multi-tenancy and security.
  

Analysis:
Everyone who wants to be a managed services provider plays in the Linux space, but only development houses truly capable of supporting large telco environments play in the UNIX space. Solaris is the dominate market leader, with more installations than IBM AIX and HP-UX combined, but HP-UX is still supported (for the time being - their Itanium based HP-UX platform is at-risk.)

Scalability of 25K devices with 1M interfaces is a terrific improvement, over the old days of HP Network Node Manager. The older NNM platforms seemed to become sluggish between 1,000 and 2,000 devices. Modern day telco managed services engagements regularly deal with multiple core devices have 1,000,000 interfaces per core device (not to mention end-points) - which this writer was able to do a half-decade ago with EMC Ionix on an old 8 socket UltraSPARC IV platform (as well as other customers.) Running a separate NNM instance for every internal core device is completely unrealistic. Most people do not consider the vertical scalability needs of network management tools - single customers with large interface counts MUST support large socket counts on UNIX systems like Solaris and HP-UX to meet the business requirements.

With 0-overhead virtualization technologies like Solaris Zones, Node Manager is able to play "in the big leagues" with managed service providers, to provide simplistic multi-tenant solutions where overlapping ip addresses must be managed. Each Solaris Zone can route to a different customer, with identical IP Addresses - with no cost in system resources, since Solaris Zones all share the same kernel resources.

Authentication of users to an external LDAP directory provides for Single Sign-On capabilities and resolves a variety of issues with auditing requirements, password changing issues, locking out users who are no longer with the service provider, etc.

It is critical for a managed services organization to understand whether a device can be monitored and managed. Clear documentation, which is available for the world to see, provides that kind of feedback to the community, to level-set expectations with telco providers to communicate to joint customers.

Embedded Postgres and third-party Oracle are both supported, the former for service providers to avoid Oracle service provider fees, the latter for enterprises with few DBA  resources to provide singular database support across an entire enterprise.

Multi-Tenant requirements are tremendously diverse. The new web interface offers configuration, like the old X-Windows interface, but the data-sheets are strangely silent about SNMPv3 support - an absolute minimum for dealing with multi-tenancy, so customers know their data is secure during the traversal of shared networks. Any security minded individual be concerned about support or robustness of support of SNMPv3 by this product.

Additional Information
See the SNMP Resources Tab on the Network Management Blog for more information.

Solaris Tab: Update!

The following has been updated on the Network Management Solaris Tab.

Solaris Reference Material
2012-02 [HTML] Lab: How to Publish Packages to the Image Packaging System
2012-03 [HTML] Power Management on SPARC CMT Servers  
2012-04 [PDF] How the SPARC T4 Processor Optimizes Throughput Capacity: A Case Study 
2012-04 [HTML] How to DTrace a Java Application Under Oracle Solaris

SPARC White Papers
2012-03 [HTML] Power Management on SPARC CMT Servers 
2012-04 [PDF] How the SPARC T4 Processor Optimizes Throughput Capacity: A Case Study

Oracle Solaris 11: Session 4: Core to the Oracle Systems Strategy

Oracle Solaris 11: Session 4: Core to the Oracle Systems Strategy

Online Forum
Oracle Solaris 11:
What's New Since the Launch
April 2012

Abstract:
Oracle released a series of 4 sessions on Oracle Solaris 11: What's New Since the Launch (see Session 1, Session 2 and Session 3.) Oracle Executive Vice President of Systems, John Fowler, elaborates on how Solaris is the core to the Oracle systems strategy. Notable was the fact that there are more Solaris instances in the marketplace than AIX and HPUX combined and engineering is pushing SPARC and Solaris into the future with ever sophisticated systems requirements.



Executive Vice President of Systems
John Fowler

Oracle is investing in 3 ways:
1) servers and storage
2) enterprise core technologies
(testing and problem resolution, incorporate software)
3) oracle engineered systems
(server, storage, networking, and Solaris integration)


Engineered Systems: Exadata, ExaLogic, SPARC SuperCluster
Acceleration of: Database, WebLogic, Java


Oracle SPARC T4 - Driving Outstanding Performance


Solaris unlocks key features to increase performance


Oracle Storage - Everything runs faster


Oracle Solaris - More installations than AIX and HPUX combined


Oracle Solaris - #1 UNIX for the Next Decade of Hardware


Top business application are under Solaris 11


One Engineering Team: Hardware, OS, Middleware, Applications

HP Network Node Manager 9.10i - WhyUpgrade?

HP Network Node Manager 9.10i - WhyUpgrade?
Abstract:
Reasons to move from NNM 7 to NNM 9i: completely web based, scales even better, bundled virtualization technologies,  and smart plugins for enhanced capabilities. A company called Pepperweed created additional value-add technology referred to as "ePacks". The ePacks provide a fixed price skew which include best practice implementation, including: knowledge pack. The Pepperweed representative indicates that ePacks are designed to get you up and running in under a week

Video:
The following video introduces the Pepperweed CTO and allows him to introduce his product with NNM 9i to the general network management community.




[Pepperweed CTO, Alex Ryals, introduced NNMi platform and their product]

Data Sheets and Specification:
See the SNMP Resources Tab on the Network Management blog for more details.

Illumos Tab: Update!

Abstract:
Sun open-sources Solaris to release OpenSolaris during the early days of Solaris 10. Oracle purchased Sun and ceased the flow of updates to OpenSolaris community. OpenSolaris became Solaris 11 Express and later Solaris 11. Various employees did not device to remain with Oracle and left for various other Solaris, GNU, and Linux based communities. A new Open Source code base, based upon OpenSolaris - called Illumos was born. Various distributions have been formed based upon OpenSolaris and Illumos code bases - the latest being OmniOS.

Update:
The following update has occurred to the Illumos Resource Tab.

Illumos Based Distributions
[http] OpenIndiana
[http] SmartOS
[http] NexentaStor
[http] StormOS
[http] Illumian
[http] OmniOS

Oracle Solaris 11: Session 3: Why We Moved to Oracle Solaris 11

Oracle Solaris 11: Session 3: Customers and Partners: Why We Moved to Oracle Solaris 11

Online Forum
Oracle Solaris 11:
What's New Since the Launch
April 2012

Abstract:
Oracle released a series of 4 sessions on Oracle Solaris 11: What's New Since the Launch (see Session 1 and Session 2.) Various customers described by they chose to implement under Solaris. Some of the more interesting customers made decisions to move from VMWare to Solaris Zones.

Viewbiquity: Moved From RAM to Solaris, ZFS, and SSD's
Viewbiquity ran their cloud on a system based upon adding RAM to their platform as data scaled.With the move to ZFS, 4.5x data compression noted using ZFS, performance increased by merely adding SSD's, splitting mirrors across chassis (and rotate mirror off-site.)

BH Photo: Moving to Solaris 11
Immutable zones, Least Privilege for users in Zones, higher performance, regulatory requirements for one-function-per-server using zones, move zones between different hardware type (T or M) to resolve performance problems.

 

 

Oppenheimer: Moving from Windows/VMWare to Zones/Solaris
Reduced downtime for patching, reduced security footprint for account requirement using role-based administration, zones are invisible as far as storage and system capacity, 20 zones on a server.

 

Wells Fargo: Consolidation by Business Function
Reduce maintenance windows, patching with high-availability requires less technical resources (without splitting mirrors), 40K server environment with 40% human error downtime is being eliminated, zones for tier-1 applications for higher-availability, able to move zones directly into Solaris 11 environment seamlessly.

ULM University: Patch, Availability, and Live Debugging with DTrace
Patch management is easy with ZFS taking snapshot (allowing for rollback.) Patching takes a minute with fast reboot. DTrace is one of the most "outstanding tools of my career", outstanding uptime, makes administrators more relaxed.

MSC Software: Solaris 11 and Certification of Applications in Partner Remote Lab
Scheduled to do performance testing in the summer of SPARC SuperCluster. Oracle Solaris Remote Lab, to certify their applications. Oracle Partner Lab provides zones for customers to get qualified easily under Solaris 11. Virtual machines using latest solaris, database, and middleware - completely pre-configured, taking minutes to turn up for partners.

SAS: Solaris OS Differentiates with ZFS, Zones, and DTrace
Long time partner, SPARC in 1993, x86 in 2006. 30 Million lines of portable code between Intel and SPARC. Excellent relationship with Oracle Solaris Studio for development. ZFS, Zones, and DTrace differentiate product from all other vendors on the market. High performance without tuning. Guaranteed binary compatibility is an advantage as a cost savings. The November 1996 release of SAS still works, when loaded under Solaris 11.