The Solaris 10 OS on Sun servers with the new Xeon 5500 processor series beats Windows hands down on the SAP SD Benchmark. Find out how to optimize the Xeon 5500s using Solaris in a Sun published reference guide.
The latest release of Sun's high performance, free and open source virtualization software, VirtualBox 2.2, is now available for download. It introduces support for the new Open Virtualization Format (OVF) standard that enables virtual machines or appliances to be imported and exported, and adds significant performance enhancements and other updates. VirtualBox is a general-purpose full virtualizer for x86 hardware.
Sun will be hosting a live webcast at 10:30 a.m. PT (1:30 p.m. ET / 17:30 UTC/GMT) on April 14 to announce its new line of servers as part of its Open Network Systems. There will be a live chat with John Fowler, executive vice president of Systems, and Andy Bechtolsheim, chief architect and senior vice president of Systems, along with other special guests.
The new Toshiba laptops with OpenSolaris pre-installed have arrived and are available for shipment within the U.S. The OpenSolaris 2008.11 release accompanies the two available models: Tecra M10 (14.1-inch Widescreen) and the Portege R600 (12.1-inch Widescreen). Distribution of the Toshiba OpenSolaris laptops are expected to be available in the UK by early May 2009, and additional worldwide locations sometime later this year.
There is something to be said for a strong brand. At least that appears to be the point blogger Tom Yager makes in his posting "Unix. IT Should Ask for It by Name". Knowing that one variant of Unix will work interoperably has clearly meant something to IBM, Sun, HP, Fujitsu, and Apple, Yager writes, since each sells Unix without provisos warning against limited interoperability. Yager adds that, "vendors sign a contract guaranteeing IT that applications written for one Unix can run on all Unixes, and that a network of any size and reach can mix Unixes at will with guaranteed interoperability across vendors."
For cutting-edge Sun Labs projects, be sure to watch a short video by Steve Heller, senior research director of Sun Labs & ERO. During his presentation, Heller discusses various new projects, including Fortress and Project Wonderland. He discusses Sun SPOT, a project of interest, and offers advice for students breaking into the IT field.
A member of the BidAdmin Community, Vijay Shankar Upreti has submitted a paper entitled "Installing and Configuring Logical Domains (LDoms) for the Solaris 10 OS" that details the process step-by-step. Upreti's procedure applies to the installation and configuration of Logical Domains Manager 1.0.3 software on UltraSPARC T1 or UltraSPARC T2 processor-based platforms as well. The author adds that the procedure has been tested on the Solaris 10 5/08 Operating System.
Reading this article may eliminate the migraine attached to performing this task of patching or upgrading a single system and, or the adding of a few containers. Bob Netherton's Weblog prescribes a "how to" for the task: Patch or Upgrade Solaris and how the Solaris feature, Live Upgrade simplifies the task.
Sun has announced the adoption by Speech Design, a leading European provider of messaging and mobility solutions for businesses and network operators, of Sun's MySQL Cluster database to promote carrier grade availability, performance and scalability of an innovative new messaging offering with reduced costs and faster time-to-market.
Chander Kant, CEO Zmanda demonstrated at the CommunityOne Event in New York how to backup a MySQL database to Sun's Clouds, using Zmanda ZRM via WebDAV API for integration. Watch the Kant demo for a visual overview on how to perform a typical backup and learn the three main benefits of multi-cloud management platforms from Sun's Cloud Partner, Rightscale's CEO Michael Crandell.
Editor of the Cloud Computing Journal and the first-named Java Champion in the UK, Alan Williamson shares his views on the cloud with Sun staff writer Janice J. Heiss in an interview entitled "Seeding Cloud Computing: A Conversation with Java Champion Alan Williamson."
Judging from the recent comments of Dave Douglas, Sun's senior VP of cloud computing, the company has its eye on a commanding share of the cloud computing market. His comment came in an interview written up for Cloud Computing Journal by Jeremy Geelan, conference chair of the just-concluded Cloud Computing Expo held in New York City.
Curious about the advantages to be had by managing Solaris Containers with Sun xVM Ops Center 2.0 Software? Then have a look at the BigAdmin article by Shanthi Srinivasan entitled "Managing Solaris Containers Using Sun xVM Ops Center 2.0," which will show you how to discover, identify and manage zones in the user interface. The paper also deals with (and simplifies) the patching of zones.
This is a full multi-language product installation to Web Server 7.0. Update 5 includes all the enhancements and features from the Updates 1 through 4 releases and now it adds binary logging, OpenSolaris 2008.11 support, and performance and stability improvements. All users of Java System Web Server 7.0 and any updates are encouraged to upgrade.
If Solid State Drives (SSDs) are so great, why aren't they replacing disk drives at the fastest possible pace? John West, writing for HPCwire has some answers in his article "Solid State Drives: Change in a Flash" where he considers both the merits and the shortcomings of the flash drive. The short answer is that, yes, flash drives do have a role in HPC, and it's getting bigger.
If you still need evidence that open source and open standards have real benefits for the consumer, consider Marc Hamilton's remarks on the Sun Virtual Network Express Module (NEM) that sells for far less than the $4,000 per network switch port that some vendors charge.
Sun has announced new configuration options for its Infinite Archive System (IAS), a fully integrated solution that allows customers to manage huge amounts of unstructured, and/or structured static data at significant savings over disk-only based archive systems. With this option, customers will find Sun StorageTek QFS and SAM-FS software, running on the robust Solaris Operating System integrated into IAS, enabling customers to use automated policy-based management.
"Deploying DB2 Database on the Sun Storage 7000 Unified Storage System" gives readers the steps required to configure and install this database. Author Cherry Shu asserts that the Sun Storage 7000 Unified Storage System delivers enterprise-class data services, scalability and performance, making a good vehicle for DB2.
We track how frequently each article is viewed on the web site to determine which the readers consider the most important. For last week, Vol 134 Issue 1, the top 10 articles were:
Unexpectedly the pioneers of Open Source, North America and Europe are lagging behind while Emerging Markets, such as Brazil and South Africa take the lead in the utilization of Open Source technology, thus saving them a great deal of money. However, the Obama Administration is moving toward Open Source and Sun Microsystems is supportive.
Even with recent changes in the SAP SD benchmark, it is undeniable that the Solaris OS on Sun servers with the new Xeon 5500 processor series are a combination to be reckoned with. The Sun Fire X4270 (2 processors/ 8 cores/16 threads), running SAP ERP application Release 6.0 Enhancement Pack 4 (Unicode) with Oracle Database on top of Solaris 10 OS delivered the highest two-processor Unicode result as of March 30, 2009.
This article shows how to set up Logical Domains (LDoms) and LDoms Manager 1.0.3 on UltraSPARC T1 or UltraSPARC T2 processor-based systems. The procedure has been tested on the Solaris 10 5/08 Operating System.
A member of the BigAdmin community offers this tech tip as one of the many useful things that can be done with ZFS in the Solaris 10 OS. Here, he shows how to create a cheap disk-based backup with versioning using ZFS and rsync.
Shedding light on the electrical design of Sun Datacenters, this Sun BluePrint article describes the technology behind Sun’s Global Lab & Datacenter Design Services (GDS) organization. These energy-efficient, pod-based datacenters are based on Sun's technical infrastructure that brings a new generation of datacenters, labs, server and communication rooms and wiring closets.
Sun's next-generation portal server platform, Sun GlassFish Web Space Server enables organizations to pull together applications and content from a variety of Web-based and internal sources and present them as a unified, customizable portal on Web browsers, kiosks, and mobile devices. GlassFish Web Space Server offers features for general users, system administrators, and application and portal developers.
Businesses looking to create value-added mobility services for consumers or to mobile enable business users may find the Sun GlassFish Mobility Platform is just what they have been looking for. The comprehensive platform allows easy mobile access to any application and data, and integrates two-way data synchronization with security, device management, and offline access on an open source platform comprised of GlassFish and MySQL.
Java Card 3 brings major evolution to the Java Card 2 platform. Java Card 3 is a classic edition that has been enhanced into a new Connected Edition that supplies classic interoperability, security, and multiple-application support in the platform. However, its new features bring more memory and processing power, as well as enhanced communication potential.
Installing and configuring your own PHP web stack can be problematic. This tutorial provides detailed instructions for an alternative method: Use a pre-configured PHP web stack. Simplified, this web stack is a downloadable link to a server-only OpenSolaris web stack, provided within this tutorial.
Heralded as the first provisioning solution to fully address compliance challenges and provide role-based user provisioning, Sun Identity Manager enables customers to use business roles for both identity lifecycle management and identity auditing across enterprise and extranet environments. Release 8.1 is the latest version and it brings External Resource Management and Identity Connectors to Sun Identity Manager.
A posting in The Aquarium ("nothing to do with fish but everything to do with Open Source Java EE, XML, SOA...and more") alerts readers to the potentially important role in store for GlassFish Communications Server as a tool in the Telco industry. The blogger, pelegri, predicts that SailFin will play a significant role in accelerating the adoption of the converged (SIP+HTTP) web, pointing readers to an article in the January 2009 Ericsson Review to support the contention.
Solaris Cluster 3.1 and 3.2 now support the Sun Netra CP3260 ATCA Blade Server - a second-generation telecom blade that meets Advanced TCA standards. Solaris Cluster is a multi-system, multi-site disaster recovery solution and it can enhance the value proposition for the Netra CP3260 servers by enabling delivery of higher service levels, at lower service level costs and reduced risk, Sun reports.
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