System News for Sun Users

Which IO Option for Which Server?

2011-12-31T17:00:00+01:00

If you need to know which IO option cards are available for which server, there is now a new portal on wikis.oracle.com.

This wiki contains a full list of IO options, ordered by server, and maintained for all current systems. Also included is the number of cards supported on each system.

The same information, for all current as well as for all older models, is available in the "Systems Handbook", the ultimate answerbook for all hardware questions.

Technical Product Guide for Sun Ray Clients

2011-11-25T17:00:00+01:00

On Jaap's VDI Blog Space readers will find a link to the new technical guide for all three Sun Ray clients: Sun Ray 3, Sun Ray 3 plus, and Sun Ray 3i. The online documentation provides detailed information about the similarities and differences between the three Sun Ray client hardware models. The "Sun Ray 3 Series Clients Product Guide" lists the features and technical specifications of the Sun Ray Client such as number of ports, chassis, graphics, network interfaces, power supply, operating conditions, MTBF, reliability, and other standards. The guide also contains a separate chapter about environmental data.

Beefing Up Xeon Reliability, Availability, and Serviceability: Slide Set

2011-11-07T17:00:00+01:00

"Beefing Up Xeon RAS with Solaris," a presentation by Ashok Raj originally given at Oracle OpenWorld 2011, is available as a slide set that covers the following aspects of the talk:

Intel Processor Advances
Platform RAS Components (Oracle Solaris FMA)
Xeon Machine Check Architecture Improvements
Future Enhancements

Raj contends that Oracle Solaris has been optimized for Intel Xeon-based systems in terms of scalability, enhanced power management, and mission critical reliability.

Oracle Database Appliance

2011-09-21T16:00:00+01:00

The Oracle Database Appliance is an easy-to-use, affordable, and highly available database appliance that is built using Oracle Database 11g Release 2 and Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC) on a 2-node Sun Fire server cluster running Oracle Linux.

The Oracle Database Appliance features a pay-as-you-grow software licensing for Oracle Database and related software from 2 to 24 processor cores. This allows customers to align their software spend with their business growth without the need for any hardware upgrades.

With proactive system monitoring, one-button software provisioning, full-stack integrated patching, and automatic phone home on hardware failures, the Oracle Database Appliance also reduces the cost and resources required to build and maintain a highly-available database system.

Oracle x86 Infrastructure TCO Study

2011-07-27T16:00:00+01:00

The Edison Group's white paper, "Oracle x86 Infrastructure: The Optimized Stack: Reducing Total Cost of Ownership through Vertical Integration" examines the cost structures across a range of system sizes and deployments for the core x86 system stack by comparing Oracle's integrated complete infrastructure with alternatives from HP and HP, all deployed with Red Hat Enterprise Linux and VMware vSphere, both together and separately.

Among the findings is that TCO with an Oracle solution is as much as 57 percent lower than comparable deployments. Edison evaluated two, four and eight socket systems over three and five year periods using the Oracle Sun Fire X4170 M2 server for the two socket study and the Sun Fire X4470 M2 for the four socket system.

The white paper concludes that, "By engineering the entire infrastructure with service and support in mind, Oracle can deliver lower TCO in the design and operation of its system, in the ease of deployment enabled by VM Templates and Validated Configurations ... and in the efficiency and effectiveness of its ... Premier Support package."

Joerg Moellenkamp on Solaris 11 and UltraSPARCs without a T

2011-07-14T16:00:00+01:00

At greater length than typical Joerg Moellenkamp muses about issues like migration and upgrades, noting the importance of making purchases of either with attention to the expiration of support agreements. (Why upgrade to Solaris 11 if you have hardware issues that will shorten its useful life in your enterprise, for example?) He concludes his reflections with the comment that, "The future of any technology in the marketplace [SPARC, for instance] isn't decided on - sorry - outdated systems, it will be decided on current and future systems. Otherwise you may win the fight because we can run Solaris on old gear, but lose the war. And sorry � everything needed to win or have at least the usual balance is okay to me. Even when it means that my playground systems in the basement are now not enabled to be upgraded to Solaris 11 FCS."

Sun SPOT Java Development Kit

2011-05-23T16:00:00+01:00

The Sun SPOT Hardware Developers Kit Rev8, now available in the Oracle Store contains all the essential components for implementations of Small Programmable Object Technology. A Sun SPOT device is a small, wireless, battery powered experimental platform that is programmed in Java, allowing programmers to create projects that once required specialized embedded system development skills. The hardware platform includes a range of built-in sensors as well as the ability to easily interface to external devices. Clearly, Sun SPOT devices are much more than just an embedded microprocessor that runs Java. Each Sun SPOT Java Development Kit contains two free-range Sun SPOT devices (with processor, radio, sensor board and battery) and one base station Sun SPOT device (with processor and radio). Also included in the kit are software development tools and a USB cable allowing you to start developing applications for your Sun SPOT devices.

Consider Oracle's Upgrade Advantage Program

2011-04-21T16:00:00+01:00

The Oracle Upgrade Advantage Program (UAP) offers superior trade-in discounts toward new Sun systems from Oracle when returning used equipment. The UAP also includes an Eco Returns Program that recycles, reclaims, and reuses components and entire systems at no charge to the customer. Consider UAP as a means of boosting performance, utilization and availability on crowded networks while simultaneously reducing TCO. UAP advantages also extend to improvements in eco-efficiency and ease of regulatory compliance.

Reduce TCO with Oracle�s x86 Infrastructure: 4-Page Executive Brief

2011-04-12T16:00:00+01:00

The recently released executive brief Reduce TCO and Get More Value from Your x86 Infrastructure makes the impressive claim that, "By integrating the full hardware, software and support stack, Oracle can reduce your three-year TCO on its Sun x86 infrastructure by as much as 51% over comparable HP and IBM servers deployed with Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) and VMware vSphere." Part of the reason for this impressive rate of savings, the brief goes on to explain, is that Oracle Linux 5 is as much as 75% faster than Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5; Oracle Solaris is able to provide flexible and efficient resource sharing of idle resources; and Oracle VM Server for x86 is the only certified virtualization technology for Oracle software. Furthermore, the brief concludes, Oracle dramatically simplifies administration by offering a single tool to manage the entire stack and a single support organization: award-winning Premier Support.

Oracle Exalogic Elastic Cloud: X2-2 Hardware Overview

2011-03-22T16:00:00+01:00

IT architecture is moving inevitably in the direction of tightly integrated, engineered systems as a cost effective, simple way of obtaining optimized purposefully built systems that offer improved quality and efficiency over custom-built systems assembled ad-hoc within IT departments. The Oracle white paper "Oracle Exalogic Elastic Cloud: X2-2 Hardware Overview" focuses on the hardware aspects of Exalogic Elastic Cloud, including the selection process and rationale, as well as technical insights into what systems modifications have been engineered to offer a system optimally suited for middleware workloads. Oracle Exalogic Elastic Cloud takes the performance of Java- and Java EE-based applications to the next level by offering a platform with a particular focus on WebLogic server and the rest of Oracle Fusion Middleware.

About integrated memory controllers, crossbars, system architecture and overly simplistic world views

2011-01-20T17:00:00+01:00

After an extremely long introduction in which he settles some scores, Joerg Moellenkamp proceeds to write "About integrated memory controllers, crossbars, system architecture and overly simplistic world views" in a recent blog. He looks at circumstances in which integrated memory controllers are better suited to a given situation when such issues as remote vs. local memory are involved. The number of CPUs and the method of their interconnection are also factors in this equation, he writes.

Q&A with Rick Hetherington, Oracle Vice President of Hardware Development

2010-12-15T17:00:00+01:00

Oracle VP for Hardware Development Rick Hetherington shares his perspective on developments at Oracle in a Q&A in the Conversations with Oracle Innovators series. Among the topics discussed are the SPARC roadmap (T4 and T5 processors); what's in the works for SPARC processors (critical thread API); system on a chip; and the use of Oracle Solaris, Oracle OVM for SPARC and the Oracle database in the process of chip design, and the resulting edge this practice gives Oracle over its competitors.

A Resource for Information on Oracle's Full Line of Integrated Sun Servers and Storage Systems

2010-10-27T16:00:00+01:00

Learn about Oracle's Full Line of Integrated Sun Servers and Storage Systems from the Oracle Product Line Card, which provides details on the Oracle portfolio of servers, storage, software and networking solutions that offer the industry's most innovative, performance-optimized solutions for the datacenter.

Oracle Exadata Database Machine X2-8

2010-09-23T16:00:00+01:00

Only recently released by Oracle, its Exadata Database Machine is now available in three configurations, the most impressive of which is the Oracle Exadata Database Machine X2-8, billed by Oracle as the world's most secure database machine. The Oracle Exadata Database Machine X2-8 delivers the ability to query fully encrypted databases with near-zero overhead at hundreds of gigabytes per second, which is accomplished by moving decryption processing from software into the Exadata hardware.

SPARC T3 Processor and SPARC T3 Systems

2010-09-21T16:00:00+01:00

Oracle announced the industry's first 16-core server processor and new SPARC T3 systems. The Sun SPARC Enterprise T-Series Rackmount Systems have added the SPARC T3-1, T3-2, and T3-4 Servers, while the Sun SPARC Enterprise Blade Server Modules' newest addition is the SPARC T3-1B Server. These systems range from a single socket 16-core blade to a 4-socket, 64-core server with 512 threads in a compact five-rack unit. Some SPARC T3 server models are expected to begin shipping in the next 30 days.

Sun SPOT Online Store Now Open for Business

2010-08-18T16:00:00+01:00

The Sun SPOT Store is now open for business, declares David G. Simmons on his On the SPOT blog. Products include eSerial boards, batteries and add-on components. View a few short video snippets demonstrating how the Sun SPOT can be used at the store's main Website, where a list of available products is also accessible.

The Opportunity for Parallelism Is Where You Find It

2010-07-22T16:00:00+01:00

Ponder this: " ... multicore processors are a hardware development that software is poorly equipped to utilise." That, writes Darryl Gove in his blog on multicore processing and quoting David Patterson's IEEE Spectrum article entitled "The Trouble with Multicore." Gove takes issue with Patterson; in Gove's view, multicore is the solution, not the problem.

Sun Hardware's Value Proposition for Oracle

2010-07-15T16:00:00+01:00

In his breezily titled piece "How Oracle has made Sun rise again" silicon.com writer Tim Ferguson observes that, a mere six months from Oracle's acquisition of Sun, the latter company has turned the profit and loss corner for the first time in more than a year. " During the first full quarter with Sun under the Oracle umbrella, Ferguson continues, Sun's hardware business added some $1.2bn in revenue to the Oracle ledgers, which amounted to $400m in profits.

Sun SPOT Repriced

2010-06-10T16:00:00+01:00

Sun SPOT devices have been repriced and they are selling out fast. As of this writing, there were still availability for Sun SPOT Java Development Kits for commercial orders only in the United States and Canada at the selling price of US$399.00 and 415.00CAD.

Oracle's Hardware and Systems Support Policies

2010-04-07T16:00:00+01:00

On March 16, Oracle published its hardware and systems support policies statement, which covers its newly acquired Sun hardware and software. Speculation on the effect Oracle's policies will have on Solaris and OpenSolaris licensing has caused FUD (fear, uncertainty, doubt)-driven rumors to arise. This article will take excerpts highlighting what is actually stated in the policies document and present a couple of interpretations.

Microelectronics Innovation Just Got a Lot Bigger at Oracle

2010-03-29T16:00:00+01:00

Former Sun Fellow and 20+-year Sun veteran Mike Splain is excited. As Oracle Executive Vice President and leader of Oracle Microelectronics, Splain sees the opportunity to innovate at Oracle as a much bigger playing field than he formerly had at Sun. "Now we get access to the entire stack," Splain said, as noted by Paulo Folgado on the Oracle PartnerNetwork Portugal blog. "We can look all the way through the stack and say, 'Okay, what would make the database go faster? What would make the middleware go faster?'"

Sun's Niagara 3

2010-02-25T17:00:00+01:00

Sun's Niagara 3, a one billion-transistor, 16-core processor, and the IBM POWER7 are the subject of Jon Stokes's Ars Technica piece that introduces readers to the floorplan of both chips.

What is Flash Memory and Where Will Flash Technologies Lead?

2010-02-18T17:00:00+01:00

The basics of flash memory are the topic of a blog entry in The Zone Manager. Engineer Brad Diggs attempts to explain why flash through the ZFS secondary cache, or L2ARC, and ZFS Intent Log (ZIL) can improve overall directory performance. He also asserts the use of flash memory and ZFS will enable "radical" new directory services architectures, and explains further in a secondary posting.

Choosing SPARC or Intel Processors

2010-01-22T17:00:00+01:00

Are the advances in Intel processor design edging SPARC processors out of the marketplace, asks Karim Berrah in a recent blog entitled "SPARC or Intel?" He offers some points of comparison that result in a necessarily ambiguous conclusion, as each processor has advantages in its favor, according to him.

Sun Flash Accelerator F20 PCIe Card

2009-12-23T17:00:00+01:00

The Sun Flash Accelerator F20 PCIe Card is a Flash PCIe card with an integrated disk controller that increases server storage I/O and application performance. Targeted at I/O intensive applications, such as databases with 4K block aligned workloads, the Sun Flash Accelerator delivers I/O performance equaling that of up to 300 disk drives, Sun reports.

Sun Flash Accelerator F20 PCIe Card

2009-09-22T16:00:00+01:00

The Sun Flash Accelerator F20 PCIe Card is part of the Sun's FlashFire product family. It delivers up to 96 GB of solid-state disk capacity and 100K IOPS without consuming any disk slots. It also provides 87,000 write IOPS at 4k. The card contains a super-cap to ensure that there is power to write down the caches to the flashes.

Hardware Upgrades for Select Sun Blade Systems

2009-04-03T16:00:00+01:00

New solutions are available for the Sun Blade Server Product Group: 16GB (2X 8GB DDR2-667, Dual Rank DIMMs) Memory Kit; Enhanced AMD Opteron Processor Options -- Model 2376 HE for Sun Blade X6240 Server Module and Model 8376 HE for Sun Blade X6440 Module; Support for 300 GB (10K RPM) SAS drives on Sun Blade X6240 and X6250 Server Modules; Sun Blade X6240 and X6440 Server Module Solaris preinstall.

Sun Ultra 24 Supports Intel PRO/1000 PT (PCIe) Desktop Adapter

2009-03-16T16:00:00+01:00

The Intel PRO/1000 PT (PCIe) Desktop Adapter is available as an XATO option for the Sun Ultra 24 Workstation. This adapter can maximize system performance and increase end-user productivity through the use of auto-negotiation technology, which allows the adapter to run at the highest available network speed (10, 100 or 1000 Mbps) while maintaining full bandwidth capacity with the dedicated 2.5-Gbps bandwidth of a PCI Express (PCIe) input/output (I/O) bus.

Hardware Certification Test Suite Version 4.2

2009-01-19T17:00:00+01:00

The Hardware Certification Test Suite (HCTS) Version 4.2 is the latest release in the Solaris Operating System HCTS Program for x86 systems and components. Version 4.2 includes new features such as support for hard drives with more than one terabyte capacity and support for OpenSolaris. The Solaris HCTS Program enables independent hardware vendors (IHVs), system manufacturers, system integrators, and end users to certify their systems and components for the Solaris OS on x86 and x64 platforms.

Sun Rack II: A New Generation of Data Center Optimized Cabinets

2008-11-03T17:00:00+01:00

The Sun Rack II product line represents a new generation of data center optimized cabinets, including a selection of innovative low profile, highest density Power Distribution Units (PDUs) available in 12 different models, from 5kVA to 37kVA in single and three phase, low and high voltage versions. This allows as many as 42 C13 & 6 C19 outlets and 45 C13 & 9 C19 outlets on a single PDU. The Sun Rack II product line will enable higher than ever density of IT equipment within a standard 42RU rack footprint.