Interoperability between Sun and Microsoft are covered in a few articles this week, including how to install Windows Server 2008 on Sun x64 servers [19148], setting up a Sun StorageTek 5320 NAS Appliance on Microsoft iSCSI initiators [19063], along with this Sun NAS Appliance and Microsoft Exchange 2007 Mailboxes [19064].
A head-to-head comparison between the Solaris Operating System (Solaris OS) and Red Hat shows the Sun OS costs less, does more, and runs on more SPARC and X86/x64 platforms [19156].
Learn how you can achieve near-linear scalability using the Solaris OS on NUMA architectures [19122], and significantly speed up LSI design verification time using the Solaris 10 OS and Sun Grid Solution on x86 [18825].
Recent Sun product updates include the Sun Java System Web Server 7.0 Update 2 [19188], two new updates for the Sun Java System Application Server 9.1 [19187], reduced pricing on remanufactured 1.2GHz-based Sun Fire V480 and V880 products [19118], updated XCP Firmware Release for M4000/M5000/M8000/M9000 servers [19143], and new capacity on demand X-option for Sun Streaming System that lowers entry point costs [19119].
Sun's Quad-Core Intel Xeon processor-based servers are now available as part of the Try and Buy Program that allows you to test Sun products for a full 60 days with no risk, no commitment, and no charge. The Sun Fire X4150 Server and Sun Fire X4450 Server are part of Sun's roster of eco-responsible servers, powerful workstations, and secure storage units currently available for trial.
Upgrade to the new Sun StorageTek LTO4 tape drive and save 15 percent. Sun StorageTek LTO drives are designed for midrange tape automation environments. This offer is good through February 7, 2008.
A new promotion from Sun saves you 20 percent on a new Qlogic switch when you trade in a switch from a competitor. Eligible switches include HP StorageWorks SAN Switches and SAN Director switches, IBM SANs, EMC Connectrix, Brocade/McData and Cisco. See the list online for specific details.
A California courtroom will be the place where Sun and NetApp will have their patent litigation heard before a judge instead of in an East Texas court where NetApp had originally filed its Zettabyte File System (ZFS) patent case. This change in venue is considered a small win for Sun who requested this switch in location.
"Don't let the size and single-CPU nature of the Ultra 24" fool you -- there's a lot of power in that little box," states InfoWorld's Paul Venezia, who reviewed Sun's Intel Quad Core-based workstation, testing an Intel Core 2 Extreme Q6850 3.0GHz quad-core CPU, 8GB of RAM, four 250GB SATA drives, nVidia FX1700 graphics card, and the Solaris 10 Operating System (Solaris OS) for x86 platforms.
Sun's philosophy on giving back to the community extends passed the open source world. Under its Innovate, Act, and Share strategy, employees are encouraged to participate in volunteer programs and initiatives within their individual communities and hundreds of Sun workers did just that in 2007.
System News posts items of interest for Sun users on a regular basis on the System News For Sun Users blog. Some of those items will become detailed articles in this newsletter. A quick recap of posts for the last week includes Add Color to Your Terminal, Enabling Solaris CIFS Service in Workgroup or AD Domain, New Sun Program for ISVs to Improve Sales Opportunities, and Five Strategies for Deployment of High Density Enclosures and Blade Servers.
Sun Microsystems Federal's Jim Laurent sets out to prove that the Solaris 10 Operating System (Solaris OS) does more, costs less, and runs on more SPARC and x86/x64 platforms than Red Hat EL 5, in a head-to-head comparison between the operating systems.
Download for free the full product installation of the Sun Java System Web Server 7.0 Update 2 that comes with a PKCS-11 bypass feature to achieve better SSL performance out-of-the-box, more administration options, Solaris Management Framework (SMF) integration, certification on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, and much more.
The Sun Java System Application Server 9.1 has two free new downloads: Update 1 and Update 1 with HADB - Zip/File Based. Based on Project GlassFish, the Sun Java System Application Server is a Java Platform, Enterprise Edition (Java EE) 5 compatible platform for developing and delivering server side Java applications and web services.
Sonac, a Japanese venture of Nitta Group's Electronics Division, has found a way to reduce LSI design verification time from 17 hours to 30 minutes with Sun Solaris 10 and Sun Grid Solution on x86. This is no small gain, since 70 percent of development time is typically spent on simulating and verifying logic.
If you'd like to run Mathematica 6.0 and 6.0.1 on Solaris x86, then you will find this how to install article from genunix OpenSolaris Wiki helpful. Before you begin, however, note this limitation: Mathematica from Wolfram Research is supported on Sun's Solaris x86 operating system, but only on AMD 64-bit CPUs, not any Intel CPUs. On Intel, Mathematica will crash immediately. The article discloses a workaround.
A Sun Docs article considers Solaris patches providing an overview of the various types of patches, patch characteristics, patch dependencies, and the basic interrelationships between patches.
A new Sun BluePrints article, "Installing Microsoft Windows Server 2008 on Sun x64 Servers," demonstrates that Sun is a serious vendor of x64 hardware with the company now supporting Microsoft Windows in addition to the Solaris OS and Linux. The BluePrint details the workarounds needed to install pre-release versions of Windows Server 2008 on Sun Fire and Sun Blade servers.
Senior Product Manager Lisa Federico in Sun's Systems Marketing highlights the features of the Sun Fire UltraSPARC IV+ server family, from the V490 to the E25K, in an eight-minute webcast. The UltraSPARC IV+ servers can scale up to 72 processors, and with the 1.95/2.1 GHz UltraSPARC IV+ processors, systems can go even faster.
Customers interested in Sun Fire V480 and V880 servers and their associated products are in for significant cost savings. Sun has reduced the price for all remanufactured 1.2GHz-based V480 and V880 products since recent material costs for these products have dropped.
Customers of the Sun SPARC Enterprise M4000/M5000/M8000/M9000 servers should download the updated XCP firmware release hosted on the Sun Download Center. This free download comes with 129 changes, bug fixes, security enhancements, revised timezone information, and BUI support for Capacity on Demand.
Sun has lowered the entry point for buying its Sun Streaming System by offering a new Capacity on Demand (COD) X-option, giving customers the option to purchase a Sun Fire X4950 Streaming Switch line card with only one port enabled. Additional ports can be enabled as needed via licenses. There is a four port maximum per line card.
Each week, we determine which articles have been most frequently referenced by logged-in subscribers to provide you with a list of the most popular articles for the last 4 issues. The top 10 articles for last week, Vol 118 Issue 3, were:
Ryan Pratt's Big Admin white paper "Setting Up a Sun StorageTek 5320 NAS Appliance on Microsoft iSCSI Initiators" describes how to attach and use iSCSI targets from the Sun StorageTek 5320 NAS Appliance using the Microsoft iSCSI Initiator software. This is possible since Microsoft supports iSCSI software for Microsoft Windows client/server environments.
Ryan Pratt has written two Big Admin papers on the development of a Sun StorageTek 5320 NAS Appliance Storage Solution. One is for 1200 Exchange 2007 mailboxes and the other for 3000 Exchange 2007 mailboxes. Of both Ryan writes, "Not only does the Sun StorageTek 5320 NAS Appliance provide a great performance/price ratio in a Microsoft Exchange environment, it can also serve the needs of any NFS, CIFS, file, print, or iSCSI attached application."
It has been seen as a problem that certain applications seem not to scale easily on Non-Uniform Memory Architectures (NUMA) since the addition of CPU cores does not proportionately increase application performance. Rickey C. Weisner has written an article, "Achieving Near-Linear Scalability Using Solaris OS on NUMA Architectures," that presents his success at increasing the performance on two different applications, one on a Sun SPARC E6900 and the other on an AMD Opteron X4600 machine.
In Dirk Grobler's Big Admin article "Building a Virtual Desktop Infrastructure Demo With Sun Virtual Desktop Connector 1.0 (Beta)" readers will find a cookbook for building a demo using Sun's new desktop broker, the Sun Virtual Desktop Connector 1.0, currently in beta.
If you've had questions about Solaris Trusted Extensions, there are answers at Solaris Trusted Extensions Technical FAQ, where Sharon Veach puts a number of possibly nagging queries to rest.
The multi-titled Daniel Raskin (product line manager, access manager, and federation manager at Sun), provides examples of how enterprises can benefit from the use of identity federation in his article "Identity Federation: The Inside Story (Literally)".
The second installment of the article by Lakshman Abburi, Aravindan Ranganathan, and Marina Sum on "Securing Applications With Identity Services" shows how readers can configure an example client application built with the NetBeans IDE. It shows as well how to configure OpenSSO to allow authenticated users to perform authorized tasks. A troubleshooting section is included.
"The Craft of System Security Released" provides a evolutionary look at the history of computer security taking readers up to the modern day where each tool in today's security practitioner's toolkit is examined and its use is explained in solving real-world problems.
A new monthly podcast called FAMTalk is dedicated to the discussion of federation and access management (FAM). Launched in December, FAMTalk's goal is to host a podcast once a month covering FAM-related topics. One of five hosts, Terry Sigle invites participation in the form of emails, comments, and suggestions, stating, "...if you have a project to share, join us live on an episode. Even send us an audio file of your questions and we'll try to include that in the show."
Customized news reports about Sun Microsystems. Just the news you need, none of what you don't. 50,000+ Members. 20,000+ Articles Published since 1998.
