What are the implications of the numerous migrations by UNIX users to Linux and to Windows, the folks at Gabriel Consulting Group asked their survey audience. Turns out the answer may not be the imminent demise of UNIX, since, among its other virtues, the platform's availability and security and its virtualization capabilities enable consolidation and cost reductions that appeal to more than just a few users.
StubHub, an eBay affiliate, and the world's largest ticket marketplace, upgraded a mission-critical, online transaction processing (OLTP) database from Oracle 9i Real Application Clusters (RAC) to Oracle 10g RAC. To take advantage of high scalability and mainframe-class performance, StubHub also moved the database from a 32-bit platform to a 64-bit platform with Sun SPARC Enterprise M5000 servers running the Solaris 10 Operating System.
Difficulty is an argument that won't wash with Ben Rockwood when it comes to skeptics on the issue of Solaris Auditing (BSM). It is truly a simple process, he argues. The difficulty is that most of the tutorials available on the subject fail to deal adequately with exactly how to make use of auditing data. In a recent post, Rockwood discusses how to make intelligent use of the audit trails that result.
Having a bootable DVD for system recovery and bare-metal rebuilds is essential to many system administrators. Ross Moffatt has shared his approach for a full install onto a 16G virtual disk using a zfs root file system. Moffatt's work begins with a system that runs the Solaris 10 OS for x86 platforms within a Sun VirtualBox.
Chrooting, a technique commonly used with MySQL at the file system level, is typically achieved by creating a separated and minimal operating system disk-image to improve system and application security by providing them with a higher degree of isolation. Thierry Manfe has written a how-to that goes a step farther, utilizing the zone and Crossbow virtualization technologies that come with OpenSolaris to get to the next level in terms of isolation.
A 25-page Sun white paper introduces the concept of transparent security and makes the case that the intelligent disclosure of security design, practices, and procedures can help improve customer confidence while protecting critical security features and data, thereby improving overall governance. Written for prospective cloud computing customers, the paper presents a model leveraging the ISO 27000 series standards as a commonly understood framework for disclosure.
Released in Dec., Sun Java System Web Server 7.0 Update 7 is a full multi-language product installation. It comes with performance and stability improvements, plus support for Kerberos via Simple Protected GSS-API Negotiation (SPNEGO) authentication and more. The Sun Java System Web Server delivers a single, secure infrastructure for all web technologies and applications.
Get details on the systems architecture of the Sun Fire X4140, X4240, and X4440 servers, and learn more about their key software components in a 52-page PDF. Sun Fire X4140, X4240, and X4440 servers provide a range of dense and scalable systems based on the latest quad- and six-core AMD Opteron processors.
A Sun blog considers the Sun Storage F5100 Flash Array with an overview of the business and technology environment leading up to the development and release of the database accelerator, and highlights its benefits, design, use, and architecture. "This blazing fast storage is a trail blazer in its category and way ahead of traditional storage that would need over 3000 disk drives to put up an equivalent performance," the writer notes. "With the full array consuming only 300W, it is a big saving on space and power - a hundred times over."
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 142 Issue 5, the top 10 articles were:
The Relevancy of Sun in the IT Industry
The Clock Is Running for RAID-6
White Paper: "Practicing Solaris Cluster Using VirtualBox
Solaris 10 Security Essentials
Sun Java Enterprise System 7
Toshiba OpenSolaris Laptops
Sun ZFS Plus Intel SSDs Equal Hybrid Storage Pools
Deploying Oracle Databases Using NFS on Sun Open Storage Systems
MySQL Performance in Virtualization Environment on xVM Hypervisor
Sun Ops Center: Changing the Economics of Datacenter Operations
The longer version of this article has list of top ten articles for the last 8 weeks.
Deploying Oracle 10g or 11gR1 ASM Using iSCSI on Sun Unified Storage Systems
This quick-start guide provides an overview of configuring the volumes in a Sun Storage 7000 Unified Storage System. First the volumes are exported as iSCSI targets, and then those iSCSI LUNs are configured at the database server for use with Oracle Automatic Storage Management (ASM).
Patching With Solaris Live Upgrade: Process Flow Chart
A new diagram provides the steps for using Solaris Live Upgrade to patch a system. Other resources for patching have also been added recently to the BigAdmin Patching Center.
Methods for aligning flash modules for optimal performance are the subject of a tech tip in the System and Application Performance, Monitoring, and Tuning wiki that outlines how to take advantage of the solid state flash devices (SSDs) for Solaris as well as Linux. Both Solaris and Linux methods are explored with this wiki tech tip offering up examples for each. The Solaris example works with SMI and EFI Labels, while the Linux lesson shows the use of fdisk and parted.
Sun architects are making groundbreaking progress towards sophisticated synchronization support for multicore systems, find Dave Dice, Yossi Lev, Mark Moir, Dan Nussbaum, and Marek Olszewski. In their research for a Sun Labs technical report on commercial hardware transactional memory (HTM), the men report on a number of promising results using HTM to improve performance in a variety of contexts, in addition to lessons learned on more effectively using the feature.
Sun's Federal Services Chief Technologist Peter Colson has written a post entitled, "Introduction to iSCSI Booting for x86/x64 Platforms." Initially a skeptic about iSCSI booting, Colson is now a convert, having realized that the technique offers better storage utilization, economy, and easier, less risky disaster recovery.
A three-part video deep dives into the Java Store and the Java Warehouse. The Java Store is a JavaFX-powered storefront that provides an easy and secure way to discover and acquire compelling Java and JavaFX applications. The Java Warehouse is the repository for applications submitted for distribution through the Java Store. Bernard Traversat, director of Engineering for the Java Store at Sun, discusses and demonstrates how to use the two with Sun Senior Information Engineer Ed Ort.
A replay of the Java EE 6 and GlassFish v3 Virtual Conference, which took place on Dec. 15, is available. There are 16 individual sessions, all of which can be accessed separately so viewers can pick and choose the topic(s) of interest to watch. Also, anyone interested in learning even more about Java EE 6 may want to sign-up for a one-week online codecamp, which begins Jan. 12.
Details on NetBeans 6.8
Specifics on Features & Benefits, Supported Platforms & OSes, System Requirements
To help developers get the most out of Java EE 6 and GlassFish v3, the NetBeans IDE 6.8 is the first IDE to provide complete support for the Java EE 6 specification, including support for JSF 2.0 (Facelets), EJB 3.1, and GlassFish v3. This latest version of the integrated development environment also upgrades its support of dynamic languages with PHP 5.3 support and support for the Symfony framework, along with new improvements and features in several other areas.
Developers in search of an integrated development environment that offers an opportunity for working as part of a team should have a look at "A Guide to Using NetBeans IDE with Kenai Projects." This tutorial demonstrates how the collaborative tools in the IDE enable users to take advantage of the services offered by the Kenai.com infrastructure and facilitate communication and sharing among developers who are working on a project hosted on Kenai.com. The combination of Kenai services and the integrated support in NetBeans IDE provides a complete development environment.
The City of San Antonio (CoSA) allows its residents to pay a traffic ticket, apply for a job, or find information about the dozens of activities online. As its server infrastructure had sprawled to keep pace with its service delivery, CoSA decided to upgrade its IT infrastructure to reduce space, maintenance costs, and enhance service. The solution: Sun’s SPARC servers as a platform for Solaris 10 and Solaris Zones, which provided the best roadmap for return on investment (ROI) with its virtualization technologies and energy-efficient, mainframe-class servers.
The Internet SCSI (iSCSI) protocol allows a client system (initiator) to send SCSI commands to targets on a remote server over an existing IP network infrastructure, thus providing a low cost alternative to a Storage Area Network (SAN) infrastructure. Learn how to configure the volumes in the Sun Open Storage system so they can be exported as iSCSI targets, and then configure those iSCSI LUNs at the database server to be used for Oracle Automatic Storage Management (ASM).
News and Solutions for Users of Solaris, Java and Oracle's Sun hardware products
Just the news you need, none of what you don't –
42,000+ Members – 24,000+ Articles Published since 1998
