ask | dr. root

Simulator for ZFS Storage appliances available to download.

2010-10-21T15:38:00.002+01:00

Oracle's Unified Storage Simulator makes it possible to install and manage a virtual storage system on any laptop or desktop and experience the power of Open Storage. Get a feel for breakthrough storage features, including:

A graphical interface that lets you choose which replication profile makes the most sense for the storage that will be managed by your appliance.
Oracle's Solaris DTrace analytics, a dynamic tracing framework that gives you insight into storage performance data
Support for various data protocols, including CIFS, NFS, iSCSI – and more!

"The Sun Unified Storage Simulator is great!! It has allowed me to simulate and learn all about the Sun Storage 7000 series box in a variety of virtual scenarios. Again, thank you for this free simulator!"– Robert F Tayne, computer systems analyst

Download this free virtual simulator.

Oracle Unveils Next-Generation Sun ZFS Storage Appliance Product Line

2010-10-14T14:30:00.005+01:00

Unified Storage Systems Increase Throughput By Up To 50 Percent, Accelerate Business Performance and Lower Costs

Facts

Extending its innovation leadership in the unified storage industry, Oracle today introduced its next-generation Sun ZFS Storage Appliance product line.

This line of powerful storage appliances sets a new benchmark in Unified Storage, with 50 percent more performance, two times more storage capacity, nearly three times more processing power, and storage analytics utility with DTrace Analytics.

The ZFS Storage Appliance product line includes best-in-class management software and an innovative hybrid storage pool architecture that has been integrated with Oracle Applications, Oracle Fusion Middleware, Oracle Database, Oracle Solaris, Oracle Linux and Oracle VM, to provide optimal business system performance. The products deliver the leading throughput, flexibility and ease of use demanded by organizations using storage for cloud computing, virtualization, storage consolidation and data protection.

The Sun ZFS Storage Appliance product line provides three new tightly integrated data protection solutions for Oracle Applications: Oracle RMAN backup optimizes backup with Sun ZFS Storage Appliances, Oracle Database Cloning increases database performance by integrating Sun ZFS Storage Appliances with Oracle Data Guard, and Oracle Fusion Middleware simplifies disaster recovery with ZFS Storage Appliances. These offerings extend Oracle’s list of over 70 qualified software solutions with the Sun ZFS Storage Appliance product line.

The Sun ZFS Storage Appliance product line combines an innovative Flash Hybrid Storage Pool architecture for file and block workloads with powerful and intuitive DTrace Analytics for storage and web-based management, enabling organizations to deploy new applications faster and lower administrative costs by up to 50 percent.

The Sun ZFS Storage Appliance product line delivers leadership data protection, storage efficiency costs and higher performance and scalability. For example, the Sun ZFS Storage 7720 Storage Appliance provides 1.6 times better storage density than other unified storage solutions.

The new Sun ZFS Storage Appliance product line ranges from entry-level configurations starting at 12 TB to high-end systems that support more than 1 PB of storage capacity. All systems feature high-density disks and flash acceleration.

Higher Performance, Leading Data Protection and Simplified Management

Complete Unified Storage:

Ideal for consolidating Oracle Applications, the Sun ZFS Storage Appliance product line is the only unified storage appliances that can simultaneously run all major block and file protocols (Infiniband, Fibre Channel, iSCSI, NFS and CIFS), includes a complete suite of data services (triple-parity RAID, deduplication and compression), and can scale to 50 percent more server connections then the competition.

Best-in-Class Management: The Sun ZFS Storage Appliance product line has been integrated with Oracle’s business software. Studies have shown that it reduces management complexity by 30 percent and improves storage administrator productivity by 35 percent when compared to NetApp solutions.

Maximum Storage Efficiency: The Sun ZFS Storage Appliance product line is the only unified storage solution that combines in-line deduplication and compression built into the unified storage controller to increase storage efficiency for primary storage by up to 90 percent.

Leading Data Protection: The Sun ZFS Storage Appliance product line is the only unified storage solution with end-to-end data and metadata checksums, self-healing data technology and triple-parity RAID, making ZFS Storage Appliances ideal for Oracle Database, Oracle Fusion Middleware, Oracle’s Siebel CRM, and the Oracle E-Business Suite environments. In addition, the ZFS Storage Appliance product line includes unlimited snapshots and clones, making it ideal for high performance backup, data protection and disaster recovery deployments for Oracle Applications and Oracle Software.

Reduced Costs: The Sun ZFS Storage Appliance product line lowers CAPEX and OPEX by one-third with Oracle’s unique flash hybrid storage pool technology, industry leading storage density, reduced power utilization and improved storage administrator productivity compared to competitive offerings. Every data protocol and data service, including file and block protocols, deduplication, compression, replication and clustering is included for the single price of the system.

Greater Performance and Scale: The Sun ZFS Storage Appliance product line is the ideal platform for storage consolidation and refresh, with a 50 percent increase in throughput and support for multiple concurrent data services. The industry’s fastest storage controllers with industry-leading amounts of DRAM and flash cache enable Sun ZFS Storage Appliances to support a mix of file and block level access for Windows and UNIX data, allowing customers to achieve 3:1 or greater reduction in the number of storage systems while increasing performance and lowering costs.

Cloud-Ready Storage: The ZFS Storage Appliance product line is the latest addition to Oracle’s complete portfolio of cloud-ready software and hardware products, designed to enable customers to start small and grow into next-generation cloud computing infrastructure. In cloud environments, they enable customers to deploy applications faster and at a lower cost.

Supporting Quotes
“Oracle’s Sun ZFS Storage Appliances have gained strong industry recognition with an innovative architecture that enables customers to cut their enterprise storage costs in half and speed application deployment,” said John Fowler, Oracle executive vice president, Server and Storage Systems. “The next-generation Sun ZFS Storage Appliance product line delivers more than 2x the scale of the previous generation and increase integration with Oracle’s business-critical applications.”

“When the 7000 Series first hit the market, its massively impressive capabilities - including auto-tiering, compression and deduplication, and advanced analytics - might have seemed a little incredible in an easy-to-use and economical unified storage platform,” said Mark Peters, senior analyst, the Enterprise Strategy Group. “But now that it is time-and-market-proven, and has added scale and performance with these latest upgrades, any excuses for not taking a look are getting pretty hard to come by.”

Supporting Resources
Oracle’s Sun ZFS Storage Appliance Series Family Data Sheet
Oracle’s Sun Unified Storage

Oracle Unveils SPARC T3 Processor and SPARC T3 Systems

2010-09-29T10:30:00.003+01:00

Industry’s First Servers Based on 16-Core Processor Deliver 2x Performance Increase Over Previous Generation SPARC T-Series Systems

News Facts

Demonstrating Oracle’s leadership in mission-critical computing and its commitment to the SPARC platform, Oracle today announced the industry’s first 16-core server processor and new SPARC T3 systems.

The 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, providing extreme scalability and performance with built-in security and virtualization capabilities. Many SPARC T3 server models are expected to begin shipping in the next 30 days.

The SPARC T3 systems running Oracle Solaris and Oracle VM for SPARC, and tightly integrated with Oracle Database, Oracle Fusion Middleware and Oracle Applications, deliver highly optimized system performance, efficiency and scalability for customers running mission-critical applications.

Highlighting the unrivaled performance and benefits of tightly engineered Oracle software and Oracle hardware, the SPARC T3 systems have achieved nine world-record results, including a SPECj Enterprise2010 result, announced today.(1)

The new SPARC T3 systems are integral to Oracle’s strategy to offer the most complete, open and integrated application-to-disk solutions.

Integrated Systems Deliver Extreme Scalability, Built-in Security and Virtualization

The SPARC T3 systems deliver unparalleled performance and scalability to meet explosive data growth and new datacenter requirements from Web and application-tiers to the database tier.
The new systems provide customers with a 2x increase in performance over the previous generation of SPARC T-Series systems.
Showcasing extreme scalability, the SPARC T-Series systems have achieved nine world-record results on multiple industry standard benchmarks and prominent application workloads.

These systems deliver industry’s first advanced chip-level encryption capabilities and built-in virtualization to improve security and performance at lower costs, making them ideal for cloud computing infrastructures.
The SPARC T3 systems feature integrated on-chip cryptographic accelerators that deliver wire speed encryption capabilities, providing customers with critical data and services protection.
Using the newly announced Oracle VM Server for SPARC 2.0, the SPARC T3 systems offer advanced virtualization and have multiple virtual machines ranging from one per core to 128 virtual machines on a single server, delivering greater efficiencies and lower costs through consolidation.

Application-to-disk integration provides comprehensive systems management capabilities to improve efficiency and lower costs.
The SPARC T3 servers are tightly engineered with Oracle Database, Oracle Fusion Middleware and Oracle Applications, including Oracle’s Siebel CRM and Oracle WebCenter Suite, to deliver complete, optimized solutions that are more reliable, deliver better performance and are easier to deploy and manage.
Oracle Enterprise Manager: provides integrated application-to-disk management and integrated server lifecycle management through Oracle Enterprise Manager Ops Center, helping reduce IT management costs.
Oracle Integrated Lights Out Manager features an integrated service processor with power management and power capping capabilities to help reduce energy costs.

The SPARC T3 systems are the latest addition to Oracle’s complete portfolio of cloud-ready software and hardware products designed to enable customers to start small and grow into next-generation cloud computing infrastructure.

Supporting Quote“Oracle’s SPARC product line is the cornerstone of our strategy to deliver customers a complete, open and integrated apps-to-disk solution,” said John Fowler, executive vice president, Server and Storage Systems, Oracle. “These new SPARC T3 systems deliver on our commitment to provide customers with a 2x increase in performance every two years and deliver massive scalability for high compute environments like cloud computing.”

“Fujitsu has enjoyed selling the SPARC Enterprise T-Series products since 2007. With the doubling of the throughput in the new T3 products, we are very excited about the huge benefits these products will provide to our customers,” said Noriyuki Toyoki, corporate senior vice president, Fujitsu Limited.

“Running Oracle Siebel CRM on Sun servers has delivered superior application performance and systems utilization,” said Randy Nitowski, Infrastructure Manager, Subaru. “We are excited about the new SPARC T3 servers’ ability to provide tighter software and hardware integration and expanded virtualization capabilities, with even better performance and scalability. The new servers will enable Subaru to further improve customer relationships while lowering costs.”

Oracle Solaris 10 Update

2010-09-13T11:22:00.004+01:00

WHY ORACLE SOLARIS?

Oracle Solaris is the #1 Enterprise OS and the best platform to run your mission-critical applications.

Oracle Solaris provides industry-leading performance and scalability

The proven reliability of Oracle Solaris gives customers built-in fault tolerance through features such as ZFS, DTrace and Predictive Self Healing

Highest levels of enterprise-class security with Common Criteria Certification

Oracle Solaris is supported by more than 11,000 third-party applications and over a thousand systems—more than any other enterprise operating system

See Oracle Solaris News and Announcements

More

Oracle Delivers Oracle Solaris Enhancements

2010-09-13T10:35:00.004+01:00

Latest Update of the #1 Enterprise Operating System Provides Mission-Critical Security, Reliability and Performance on SPARC and x86 Systems
News Facts

Building on its leadership in the enterprise operating system market, Oracle today announced Oracle Solaris 10 9/10, Oracle Solaris Cluster 3.3 and Oracle Solaris Studio12.2.

10 of the top 10 Telecommunications Companies, Utilities and Banks use Oracle Solaris.

Oracle Solaris is now developed, tested and supported as an integrated component of Oracle's "applications-to-disk" technology stack, which includes continuous major platform testing, in addition to the Oracle Certification Environment, representing over 50,000 test use cases for every Oracle Solaris patch and platform released.

Oracle Solaris 10 9/10 provides networking and performance enhancements, virtualization capabilities, updates to Oracle Solaris ZFS and advancements to leverage systems based on the latest SPARC and x86 processors.

The Oracle Solaris 10 9/10 update includes new features, fixes and hardware support in an easy-to-install manner, preserving full compatibility with over 11,000 third-party products and customer applications.

Oracle Solaris is designed to take advantage of large memory and multi-core/processor/thread systems and enable industry-leading performance, security and scalability for both existing and new systems.

Oracle Solaris Cluster 3.3 builds on Oracle Solaris to offer the most extensive, enterprise high availability and disaster recovery solutions.
Enables virtual application clusters via Oracle Solaris Containers in Oracle Solaris Cluster Geographic Edition and integrates with Oracle WebLogic Server, Oracle’s Siebel CRM, MySQL Cluster and Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition 11g for consolidation in virtualized environments.
Provides the highest level of security with Oracle Solaris Trusted Extensions for mission-critical applications and services.
Supports InfiniBand on public networks and as storage connectivity and is tightly integrated and thoroughly tested with Oracle’s Sun Server and Storage Systems.

Oracle Solaris Studio 12.2 provides an advanced suite of tools designed to work together for the development of single, multithreaded, and distributed applications. With its integrated development environment (IDE), including a code-aware editor, workflow, and project functionality, Oracle Solaris Studio helps increase developer productivity.

Oracle Solaris 10 9/10 features include:

Networking and database optimizations for Oracle Real Application Clusters (Oracle RAC).

Oracle Solaris Containers now provide enhanced “P2V” (Physical to Virtual) capabilities to allow customers to seamlessly move from existing Oracle Solaris 10 physical systems to virtual containers quickly and easily.

Increased reliability for virtualized Solaris instances when deployed using Oracle VM for SPARC, also known as Logical Domains.

Oracle Solaris ZFS online device management, which allows customers to make changes to filesystem configurations, without taking data offline.

New Oracle Solaris ZFS tools to aid in recovering from problems related to unplanned system downtime.

Operating system, database and other Oracle Solaris patches are now verified and coordinated to provide the highest levels of quality, confidence and administrative streamlining.

Resources
Oracle Solaris
Oracle’s Sun Server & Storage Systems
Oracle Solaris Podcasts
OTN - Oracle Technology Network

Exadata Offload - The Secret Sauce

2010-07-14T14:04:00.004+01:00

The 'Secret Sauce' for Exadata is its ability to offload processing to the storage tier. Offloading means that the storage servers can apply predicate filters at the storage layer, instead of shipping every possible block back to the database server(s).

Read more

Sun Ray Thin Client Desktop Free Half-Day Training

2010-06-28T11:33:00.003+01:00

Free training from Avnet Technology Solutions, Dublin: Sun Ray Thin Client Desktop Open Day, July 14th & 15th

Join us in July for a FREE "hands-on, how-to" session with this technology. This half-day session will introduce you to the features of the Sun Ray platform and the possibilities that desktop virtualisation can offer your organisation.

Oracle's Sun Ray Thin Clients are simple, low-cost devices that are ideal for displaying server-hosted virtual desktops. With no moving parts and no local operating system to manage, Sun Ray Clients provide a cost-effective, highly functional thin client alternative to desktop and laptop computers and reduce many of the problems associated with traditional desktop deployments.

Held at our state-of-the-art training centre, this hands-on session will allow you to embrace the technology by 'practicing' rather than just listening.

Full details here: http://www.ts.avnet.com/ie/events/events_more/4097/sun_ray_thin_client_desktop_open_day_july_14th_15th.html

More info on Sun Ray technology: http://www.oracle.com/us/technologies/virtualization/061984.html

Oracle #Solaris #Virtualization on TechCast Live (25th May @ 5pm GMT)

2010-05-25T09:21:00.004+01:00

Join the live, interactive TechCast about Oracle Solaris Virtualization later today. Guest Joost Pronk Van Hoogeveen, CTO at Oracle, will be discussing Solaris Virtualization offerings, benefits and much more!

TechCast Live - Oracle Solaris Virtualization: 25th May @ 5pm GMT (10am PDT):
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/techcastlive/index.html

(If you miss this event, the webcast will be available on demand later this week)

Video: How Oracle Solaris 10 helps manage file systems effectively with ZFS

2010-05-19T09:16:00.004+01:00

Very interesting video about how Oracle Solaris 10 helps manage file systems effectively with ZFS. It's presented by Brian Leonard at Oracle. After a short introduction to ZFS, Brian shows you how to use snapshots and clones.

OpenGrok 0.9 has just been released...

2010-05-11T16:22:00.003+01:00

OpenGrok 0.9 has just been released!

I fyou're wondering about OpenGrok... Well, it's a fast and easy-to-use source code search and cross reference engine. It helps you search, cross-reference and navigate your source tree. It can understand various program file formats and version control histories like Mercurial, Git, SCCS, RCS, CVS, Subversion, Teamware, ClearCase, Perforce, Monotone and Bazaar.

In other words it lets you grok (profoundly understand) the open source, hence the name OpenGrok. It is written in Java.

To find out more about OpenGrok, go to:
http://hub.opensolaris.org/bin/view/Project+opengrok/

Source and binary distributions for v0.9 can be found here:
http://hub.opensolaris.org/bin/view/Project+opengrok/files

Alligator meets Terminator: Caiman and AI for #OpenSolaris

2010-05-06T09:06:00.003+01:00

We're all familiar with the traditional interactive installation methods, but there are other installation techniques for OpenSolaris, such as Caiman and AI (Automated Installer).

Volker A. Brandt, an IT consultant specialising in Solaris system and infrastructure development based in Germany, goes through the pros and cons of both techniques, their key benefits and differences in his presentation on oracle.com.

In a nutshell, Caiman is an interactive, simple-to-use, streamlined graphical installer for OpenSolaris on x86 systems. The installer is actually a Gnome/GTK application running from a live CD-ROM. One of the good things about Caiman is that it integrates a live CD experience, i.e you can run the desktop off the CD and get the rest from an IPS repository. It's a nice "try before you install" capability.

Automated Installer, or AI, essentially performs “hands-free” network installations of OpenSolaris. AI lets you install OpenSolaris onto x86 systems or SPARC systems in a network. The installations can differ in architecture, packages installed, disk capacity and other parameters. The minimal configuration necessary to use the automated installer is to have one system as the install server and one client on which to install.

If you're interested to learn more about Caiman and AI for OpenSolaris, watch Volker A. Brandt's excellent presentation on oracle.com:

http://blogs.sun.com/video/entry/alligator_meets_terminator_caiman_and

There's still time to register for the Oracle + Intel #Virtualisation Road Show coming to Dublin next week...

2010-05-06T08:27:00.002+01:00

There's still time to register for next week's Oracle + Intel Road Show in Dublin. The event has been a big success across Europe so far - the recent London date was sold out with 150 attendees.

The Dublin event though, as it's hosted at Intel, will be ending with a tour of their chip manufacturing plant, unless you prefer to chill out with a drink and do some networking instead.

One last thing if you're in planning to attend, don't forget you can still submit discussion topics to the existing agenda.

Here are the details of the show again:

From Virtualisation To Cloud Computing: Beyond The Buzzwords

Time: 12noon - 6pm
Date: Thursday 13th May, 2010
Venue: Intel Ireland, Collinstown Industrial Park, Leixlip, Co. Kildare

Description:

Virtualisation and Cloud Computing are the hottest topics in IT for a good reason: they can deliver increased business potential and large cost savings. Although the promise of success is huge, so is the chance of failure. The main reason: with so many variables it is very hard to find the optimal model for your specific business situation.

Oracle and Intel invite you to see how you can eliminate the risk and guesswork and remove the challenges of getting it all to work properly for your organisation.

12.00 − 13.00 Arrival & Lunch

13.00 − 13.15 Welcome
Sun/Oracle Strategy and Vision

13.15 − 13.45 Oracle Virtualization
Virtualization as the enabler for Cloud Computing. How your virtualization choices determine your future Cloud Strategy.

13.45 − 14.15 Cloud Computing Strategy
Virtualization impact on PaaS (Platform as a Service).

14.15 − 15.15 Intel Cloud Computing vision
Xeon Design advantages for virtualization. Enabling next generation performance, scaling, security for Virtualization projects

15.15 − 15.45 Break

15.45 − 16.05 Integrated Management environment
Reduce cost & complexity by managing from one unified interface

16.05 − 16.25 Operating System Virtualization
Take maximum advantage of Oracle Solaris built-in virtualization technologies.

16.25 − 17.00 Best-Of-Breed Virtualization Components
x86 Servers, Intel Xeon Architecture, Virtual Desktop Infrastructure, Open Storage

17.00 − 18.00 Optional: Intel Fab Tour
Take the tour and see the chip manufacturng plant
OR
17.00 − 18.00 Drinks & Networking

(This event is free)

TO REGISTER, VISIT: http://www.beyond-the-buzzwords.com/dublin.html

For more European dates, check out http://www.beyond-the-buzzwords.com

See you there perhaps?

Motion effects in JavaFX and JQuery... How difficult is it?

2010-04-29T09:10:00.006+01:00

Just stumbled across Peter Karich's blog entry about motion effects in JavaFX. The result is very impressive and you can have a look at the code to replicate and adapt it to your needs:

"Shadow Motion" effect in JavaFX by Peter Karich:
http://bit.ly/bYm5hi

But Peter's description was actually a reply to Lam Nguyen's own blog entry about creating motion effects with simply 5 lines of JQuery. Again, the code is explained and available for you to play with.

"Shadow Motion" effect in JQuery by Lam Nguyen:
http://bit.ly/bv2lHe

Have a look - my guess is that both blog entries will get your creative juices flowing! :-)

Did you know you could monitor OpenSolaris from your iPod Touch?

2010-04-27T13:19:00.004+01:00

Did you know you could perform some basic monitoring of OpenSolaris from your iPod Touch? Pretty cool...

Check out Karim Berrah's blog entry for the full details:
http://blogs.sun.com/karim/entry/monitoring_opensolaris_from_an_itouch

Watch the slidecast for #GlassFish Roadmap in English, French or Spanish...

2010-04-20T10:56:00.005+01:00

Last month, Oracle unveiled the roadmap for GlassFish to the community. From community changes to upcoming releases such as support for clustering and more in GlassFish 3.1 in 2010, find out more with the recently-released slidecast with synchronized audio, available in English, French and Spanish.

English:
http://www.slideshare.net/pelegri/community-update-25-mar2010-english

French:
http://www.slideshare.net/alexismp/feuille-de-route-roadmap-glassfish

Spanish:
http://www.slideshare.net/pelegri/glassfish-community-update-25-mar2010

For an overview of the GlassFish Roadmap, go to:
https://glassfish.dev.java.net/roadmap

Free #Solaris training available from the Oracle Open Learning Center

2010-04-13T22:59:00.004+01:00

The Oracle Open Learning Center is offering free Solaris 10 training ranging from beginner to intermediate. The lessons are well-presented and interactive (Flash animations), and there's a short quizz at the end of each lesson to check out your newly-acquired skills.

Overall, it's a good complement to any training you might attend in parallel and it's also a good refresher course if you're considering Sun certification.

Topics for the intermediate training include:

Booting SPARC and x86 Based Systems
Controlling System Processes
Create and Manage Users
Installing Solaris 10
Manage Local Devices
Manage UFS File Systems
Managing Software Packages Using Package Commands
Managing Solaris Patches Using Patch Commands
Managing User Access
Performing File System Backups
Performing Mounts and Unmounts
Printer Services
Safely Shutting Down a Solaris System
System Restores
Working with UFS and ZFS Snapshots

Visit the Solaris Online Learning Center: https://learning.sun.com/olc/smartstart

Learn to add a second mobile phone emulator in #NetBeans

2010-04-08T17:04:00.002+01:00

When you're trying to add a second emulator in Netbeans, you usually get an error saying “Midlet suite already running”. In his blog, Kyle Goslin shows you how you can bypass this problem and add a second mobile phone emulator to the NetBeans IDE.

Check out Kyle Goslin's blog to find out more : http://bit.ly/b9BO3g

Learn to build a #Twitter client using #Java and #NetBeans

2010-04-08T09:17:00.000+01:00

If you'd like to find out how you can build a Twitter client using Java and the NetBeans IDE, check out the excellent tutorial series from Alfonso Romero at Packt Publishing. It's a comprehensive, step-by-step, three-part tutorial (with loads of screenshots to guide you through it) that will teach you to create a custom Twitter client, from which you will be able to log into Twitter and see the last tweet posted by you.

A must-have for all Twitter technology afficionados!

Part 1: http://bit.ly/5dxiUo
Part 2: http://bit.ly/bGiAe9
Part 3: http://bit.ly/d7lV3b

Tell us which #virtualisation topics you 'd like to see covered at the Oracle + Intel show in Dublin on 13/05

2010-04-07T10:27:00.004+01:00

The Oracle + Intel virtualisation show is coming to Dublin on 13th May...

To view the agenda and to register, go to: http://www.beyond-the-buzzwords.com/dublin.html

If there are any vitualisation/cloud computing topics you'd like to see covered on the day, simply email us at askdrroot@avnet.com or use the comment box below.

We'll do the rest and liaise with the team at Oracle UK.

Looking forward to seeing you there!

Two new #training courses if you're a #sysadmin in charge of Sun enterprise systems and based in Dublin, Ireland

2010-04-01T14:46:00.008+01:00

Quick post to let you know we're running two new training courses in Dublin, Ireland:

ES-260: Sun StorEdge Enterprise Backup 7.x Administration
This course replaces "ES-210: Storage Management with Backup". If you're a sysadmin in charge of Sun StorEdge EBS, you will find the content of this course useful.

Topics covered over this 4-day course:

Sun StorEdge EBS Overview
Installing Sun StorEdge EBS
Understanding Sun StorEdge EBS Resources and Administrative Interfaces
Performing Backups
Customising Backups
Configuring and Managing Standalone Devices
Configuring and Managing Autochangers
Managing Sun StorEdge EBS Databases, Save Sets, and Volumes
Administering the Sun StorEdge EBS Server
Recovering Client Data
Recovering a Sun StorEdge EBS Server

Find out more at www.ts.avnet.com/ie/training_centre/enterprise/es260.html

ES-345: Sun Cluster 3.2 Administration
This course is actually an update to "ES-338: Sun Cluster 3.1 Administration". You will gain the skills needed to install and administer Sun Cluster 3.2 hardware and software systems. You will be introduced to Sun Cluster hardware and software product features, hardware configuration and software installation along with cluster configuration, data service configuration and system operation.

Topics covered over this 5-day course:

Introducing Sun Cluster Hardware and Software
Exploring Node Console Connectivity and the Cluster Console Software
Preparing for Installation and Understanding Quorum Devices
Installing and Configuring the Sun Cluster Software Framework
Performing Basic Cluster Administration
Using VERITAS Volume Manager for Volume Management
Managing Volumes With Solaris Volume Manager (Solstice DiskSuite Software)
Using ZFS with Sun Cluster software
Managing the Public Network With IPMP
Introducing Data Services, Resource Groups, and HA-NFS
Configuring Scalable Services and Advanced Resource Group Relationships
Performing Supplemental Exercises for Sun Cluster 3.2 Software

Find out more at www.ts.avnet.com/ie/training_centre/enterprise/es345.html

For more information on Avnet Education Services, go to www.ts.avnet.com/ie

New to ZFS? Download step-by-step guide to working with ZFS Snapshots...

2010-03-30T09:08:00.003+01:00

If you're new to ZFS and if you're looking for a step-by-step guide to better understand how snapshots can be integrated into system administration procedures, there's one available on the Oracle website.

It describes the steps necessary to set up a ZFS filesystem and the use of snapshots including how to create them, use them for backup and restore purposes, and how to migrate them between systems.

You can download it from http://bit.ly/5hui37

Avnet will be running another series of ZFS how-to sessions in the coming months. Watch this space.

NetBeans Platform Development in JavaFX

2010-03-26T08:48:00.004Z

NetBeans Platform developers will soon be able to integrate JavaFX components into their applications. There is currently no official way of accessing JavaFX from Swing, but the NetBeans team is busy working to provide open-sourced API equivalents of JavaFX components.

For the full article and for a sneak preview of the Open API JavaFX library, go to DZone:
http://bit.ly/9Jg40x

From Virtualisation To Cloud Computing - Beyond The Buzzwords (coming to a city near you)

2010-03-25T09:32:00.003Z

Oracle + Intel are currently running a virtualisation roadshow across Europe. They're vitisting 30 European cities and they'll be in Dublin on 13th May.

This half-day seminar will tell you everything you need to know about the benefits of virtualisation. You will learn to recognise the key differences between leading virtualisation solutions and discover how today's decisions on virtualisation may affect long term cloud computing strategies.

Oracle + Intel will be showing and explaining practical, real-life examples and will demonstrate the difference and impact virtualisation can make. From your desktop, all the way to your server, network and storage environment...

You can expect to learn more about:

Oracle VM
Management Tools
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure
ZFS Open Storage Virtualisation
Deployment & Security

This event is free.

To see if it's coming to a city near you, check out:
http://www.beyond-the-buzzwords.com

And to find out more about the Dublin event (and to secure your seat), go to:
http://www.beyond-the-buzzwords.com/dublin.html

Looking forward to seeing some of you there!

How to Avoid Patch Problems When Moving a Local Zone

2010-03-24T16:18:00.001Z

Victor Feng has posted an article on BigAdmin, which should help you if you need to deal with package and patch-level issues when moving a local zone from one host to another on the Oracle Solaris 10 OS.

Find out more: http://bit.ly/9mg6qY

Follow Ask Dr Root on Twitter and Facebook!

Q. How do I reset the root password when it's a ZFS filesystem?

2010-03-03T10:07:00.003Z

Thanks, Shanker. I'm glad you found some of our previous tips helpful! :-)

About resetting the root password for a ZFS filesystem...

There's actually a comprehensive step-by-step guide on BigAdmin that should help you out. I haven't had the chance to test it myself yet. But the second example should do the trick in your situation, since you have another Solaris 10 installed on a second disk with a ZFS root file system. Drop me a line if you have any problems with this.

Step-by-step guide to resetting the root password for a ZFS filesystem:
http://bit.ly/8mgG32

Follow Ask Dr Root on Twitter and Facebook!

Learn to code a Comic Book Reader in Java

2010-02-25T08:16:00.002Z

Comic books are ever so popular and many of them are being digitized for access via desktop computers and mobile devices. I've a good a number of them on my iPod Touch - my favorite being "Death Dealer - Shadows of Mirahan". Issue 1 is free on iTunes. Inspired by Fank Frazetta's Death Dealer, this graphic novel is simply beautiful and a great tribute to the iconic artist whose work has inspired generations of fantasy and sci-fi artists. I'm a fan.

Back to Java through...

Jeff Friesen, a regular on java.net, has written an article on how to create a simple comic book reader in Java. In a digitized comic book, image files are most commonly packaged into CBR (RAR archive format) and CBZ (ZIP archive format) files.

Jeff's source code is divided into three classes: CBReader, CBZ and FSWindow. CBReader defines the application, CBZ processes CBZ files, and FSWindow enables a fullscreen window that can display and scroll images.

The source code for Jeff's comic book reader can be downloaded and easily amended to include additional features.

To view Jeff's article and download the source code for his comic book reader, go to:
http://bit.ly/daVhlb

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Sun Certification FAQ

2010-02-24T13:47:00.002Z

The latest Sun Certification FAQ was posted earlier this week on the Oracle Certification blog site at http://bit.ly/caqRc1

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Free Cheat Sheets for Developers by DZone

2010-02-23T08:53:00.004Z

If you're looking for ref cards / cheat sheets about Java EE, NetBeans, GlassFish or even Virtualization and Cloud Computing, check out the DZone website. They've published over 85 of them and they include tips and source code examples. The ref cards can be downloaded or viewed online. Very handy!

DZone Refcardz:
http://refcardz.dzone.com/home?oid=ban00020-0

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Free half-day Solaris 8 Containers "Hands-On How-To" Session

2010-02-17T16:04:00.007Z

Avnet Open Day: Solaris 8 Containers "Hands-On How-To"
Free Session: Tuesday 2nd March (9.30am - 1pm)

Solaris 8 Containers provide the framework on the Solaris 10 operating system to run separate and protected non-native operating environments. Join us for a free half-day technical session on 2nd March. We will show you how to migrate SPARC systems running the Solaris 8 operating environments through the virtualisation of Solaris 8 Containers.

The session will be held at our training centre and we will introduce you to Solaris 8 Containers and the possibilities that they bring to the management of your datacentre.

This half-day hands-on session is aimed at technology professionals and systems administrators who may be new to Solaris 8 Containers or those who wish to find out more about the implementation of Solaris 8 Containers. Each attendee will have the use of a dedicated workstation to follow technical exercises under the guidance of our instructor.

THIS EVENT IS COMPLETELY FREE OF CHARGE

On the Agenda:

Introduction to Solaris 8 Containers
Benefits of Migration
Solaris 9 Containers
Solaris 8 Containers and the ZFS file system
Hands-on:
- Archive creation
- Zone Creation
- Installation of Solaris 8 Containers
- File systems and Solaris 8 Containers

To secure your seat, register now at: www.ts.avnet.com/ie/events/openday

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Java Developers: Free "Getting Started with Groovy, Grails, and MySQL" webinar

2010-02-10T14:58:00.002Z

Save the date! Thursday 18th February @ 10am (PST) / 6pm (GMT)

Getting Started with Groovy, Grails, and MySQL
(live webcast with Scott Davis, two-time JavaOne RockStar award winner)

http://ow.ly/15Gyk

Groovy is an agile dynamic language that dramatically speeds up Java development. Grails is a Java- and Groovy-based web framework that brings modern practices like scaffolding and convention over configuration to the Java platform.

If you want to "skin" your exiting MySQL database with a web front-end, Grails is the perfect solution. Or, you can let GORM (Grails Object/Relational Mapping API) manage the database for you in your greenfield development. You can define one-to-one, one-to-many, and many-to-many relationships in your Grails domain classes. Grails 1.2 offers new support for named queries, JPA annotations, and finer-grained control of both your data source and cache.

There will be live coding demos of the following:

Creating a new Grails application
Mapping a Grails application to an existing database schema
Creating relationships between domain classes
Working with GORM methods

To register for this event, go to http://ow.ly/15Gyk

Compiling for performance - Sun Studio compilers for beginners

2010-02-10T14:09:00.003Z

Thierry Manfe at Sun explains in his blog how you can squeeze out a 10%-20% performance gain from your C, C++ and Fortran code by using the Sun Studio compilers (works best on Solaris and SPARC). The commands and options are clearly explained. If you're compiling for performance, check out: http://tinyurl.com/ybezdsk

FAQ for Sun developer community post-acquisition

2010-02-03T13:50:00.005Z

Oracle has published an FAQ for the Sun developer community on their website - check out:
http://www.oracle.com/technology/community/sun-oracle-community-continuity.html

Equally interesting is the webcast about the Oracle + Sun Java developer tool available at:
http://tinyurl.com/yfppulc

Live Oracle + Sun update tomorrow (9am PST / 5pm GMT)

2010-01-26T10:56:00.002Z

Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, along with other executives from Oracle and Sun, will be participating in a live webcast tomorrow at 9am (PST) or 5pm (GMT). It will be interesting to find out more about the strategy for the two companies post close and they may also talk about product roadmaps for SPARC technology, Solaris and the Java platform. Definitely worth watching, if you get the chance.

For all the details, go to: http://tinyurl.com/yessgmh

Free ZFS "Hands-On How-To" Technical Sessions

2010-01-20T08:44:00.002Z

First post of the year... Happy New Year, everyone, and best wishes for all of 2010!

If you're in Dublin, Ireland, we're organising a number of half-day ZFS "hands-on how-to" technical sessions this month. If you're a sysadmin who's new to ZFS or if you wish to find out more about the features and capabilities of ZFS, these sessions are for you. The agenda also includes "ZFS vs Other Filesystems and Volume Managers" to help you better understand your options.

As it's all about learning ZFS by actually putting it into practice, each attendee will have use of a dedicated Sun Solaris x86 workstation to follow the technical exercises we've prepared. We'll be covering Zpools, Filesystems, Snapshots and Clones.

The sessions will be held at our 'state-of-the-art' training centre, so you need to register in order to attend.

Available sessions:

Thursday 28th January (9.30am - 1pm)
Thursday 28th January (2pm - 5.30pm)
Friday 29th January (9.30am - 1pm)

To find out more about these technical sessions and to register, go to:
www.ts.avnet.com/ie/events/zfs

Java EE 6 + GlassFish v3 Virtual Conference on 15/12/09

2009-12-10T12:42:00.003Z

Sun is organising an all-day virtual conference on Java EE 6 and GlassFish v3, scheduled for 15th December.

Check out the detailed agenda for a list of topics covered on the day (very comprehensive agenda): http://tinyurl.com/yf3hapr

You can pre-register at: http://tinyurl.com/yhr42mp

Top 10 NetBeans API - Screencast for Newbies

2009-09-30T15:13:00.004+01:00

If you're a complete newbie to NetBeans with absolutely no prior knowledge of the NetBeans platform, check out the screencasts series on NetBeans.org to quickly learn about the Top 10 NetBeans APIs, why you would use them and how to get started doing so.

Big thanks to Geertjan Wielenga for creating this series!

Watch them at:
http://platform.netbeans.org/tutorials/nbm-10-top-apis.html

Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/askdrroot

Why is fedora-ds on linux machine taking 100% of cpu utilization when I am running any search query on ldap server?

2009-09-29T09:03:00.003+01:00

Many thanks, Shankar for your question. The answer is:

Un-indexed Searches on Directory Server cause performance degradation unfortunately.

Whenever you see the ‘notes=U’ message on a ‘RESULT’ line in an LDAP query, it means one or more of your search filters are on un-indexed attributes.

To solve this problem, find the ‘SRCH’ line that corresponds to the ‘RESULT’ line (by matching the ‘conn=’ and ‘op=’ numbers on each), and find the attributes mentioned as part of the search ‘filter’ (the part after the ‘filter=’ on the SRCH line).

If any of these attributes are not indexed in the Directory Server, create an index for them.

Searches will be much faster then, and will not take up 100% of CPU.

Log:

[25/Sep/2009:14:21:21 -0400] conn=672 op=14 SORT uid (1)
[25/Sep/2009:14:21:22 -0400] conn=672 op=14 RESULT err=0 tag=101 nentries=1 etime=1
[25/Sep/2009:14:21:24 -0400] conn=647 op=50 RESULT err=0 tag=101 nentries=1 etime=7 notes=U
[25/Sep/2009:14:21:24 -0400] conn=650 op=37 RESULT err=0 tag=101 nentries=1 etime=7 notes=U
[25/Sep/2009:14:21:25 -0400] conn=647 op=51 SRCH base="dc=answerthink,dc=com" scope=2 filter="(&(objectClass=portalInetOrgPerson)(&(uid=something@somewhere.com)(domain=ou=myclients)))" attrs="portalCreatedDate objectClass mobile c dn givenName address2 employer portalUID homePhone gender ou employeeNumber telephoneNumber businessCategory street uid postalCode mail l preferredLanguage sn cn facsimileTelephoneNumber domain middleName timeZone uniqueId dob st"

Good luck!

Dr. Root

Ask Dr. Root on Twitter: http://twitter.com/askdrroot

"Ask Dr Root" -- runner-up for Sun's SysAdmin of The Year!

2009-09-16T14:22:00.005+01:00

I recently received great news from the team at systemheroes.co.uk announcing that Dr Root was one of the nine runners-up for Sun's SysAdmin of The Year.

Wow! Thank you very much everyone for voting for Dr Root. I'm glad you're finding this blog helpful. Keep your Sun/Solaris questions coming! :-)

I'd like to congratulate Dan Wright, this year's SysAdmin of The Year, the other runners-up for the title, as well as everybody who entered the competition.

Developing 3-D Games with the NetBeans IDE and jME 2.0

2009-09-15T16:34:00.002+01:00

If you're interested in the development of Java 3D games, check out netbeans.org for an interesting tutorial on how to set up the NetBeans IDE to start creating Java 3D games with the jMonkeyEngine framework (jME 2.0).

http://wiki.netbeans.org/Java3DGamingWithNetBeans

Everything has to be coded by hand with jME. There's no drag n' drop, but if you watch the enclosed video, you'll see you can do some pretty cool stuff with it. Definitely worth a look!

Check out the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rxq_4brX_0

Epicenter 2009: Complimentary tickets for grabs!

2009-08-26T16:13:00.002+01:00

We've got some complimentary tickets for epicenter 2009 - the technology show for all things Java, Open Source, Web, Microsoft, in Trinity College Dublin (Dublin, Ireland) until Friday 28th August, 2009 (included)!

To make sure you get yours, email us your contact details at askdrroot@hos.horizon.ie with "EPICENTER Ticket" in the subject line!

It's on a first come, first served basis!

We're demo-ing Sun's Virtual Desktop Solutions at epicenter 2009

2009-08-21T14:41:00.003+01:00

Join us next week at the epicenter software show next week in Trinity College Dublin (26-27-28 August). We'll be demo-ing Sun's virtual desktop solution and show you how it's easy to deliver secure applications for virtually any operating system through one client device, at the same time.

Our sessions on Wednesday 26th and Thursday 27th August @ 1.30pm are FREE to all conference delegates and exhibition visitors.

Don't hesitate to drop by and have a chat with us!

For more information on epicenter 2009, go to http://epicenter.ie

Interoperability resources for sysadmins

2009-08-06T16:08:00.002+01:00

Sun has recently updated and rebuilt its interoperability resources for system administrators. Sun's interoperability website provides details on vendor alliances and interoperability for Sun x64 systems, for the client and desktop, in the data centre, for developers and in storage.

In short, it's handy to have it bookmarked :-)

http://www.sun.com/bigadmin/topics/interop/

SysAdmin of the Year Awards 2009 - Win up to £250 worth of Amazon vouchers

2009-07-30T10:18:00.002+01:00

To coincide with the 10th Annual SysAdmin Day on 31st July 2009, Sun is launching the SysAdmin of the Year Awards. It's just for System Heroes and Sun has got ten prizes to give away – a first prize of £250 of Amazon vouchers and nine runners-up prizes of vouchers worth £100.

It's really simple. To enter the Awards, simply register as a System Hero first and Sun will send you a link to forward to your users. They click on the link and follow the instructions to send you a virtual present (doughnuts, pizza, a day off etc). At the end of August, Sun counts the number of presents you've got and whoever has the most wins!

If you like this blog, why not give us a virtual doughnut, a slice of pizza or a cup of coffee? ;-)

http://www.systemheroes.co.uk/sysadminAwards.php?heroid=326

http://www.systemheroes.co.uk/sysadminAwards.php?heroid=326

Anthony Swart confirmed for epicenter event in Dublin next 26-27-28th August

2009-07-29T09:36:00.002+01:00

Anthony Swart will be at the epicenter 2009 technology conference next August to talk about Sun's Identity Management products and their relevance to developer communities.

Anthony is a Pre-Sales Consultant at Sun Microsystems, currently working in the Identity space working -- Sun's current portfolio of products include OpenSSO, Identity Manager and OpenDS to mention a few. His current role includes presenting Sun's product portfolio to a range of customers and creating product demonstrations utilising Java and associated product API's to integrate a variety of Sun and third party products.

Anthony's tech session at epicenter 2009 will give you an overview of Sun's Identity Management portfolio, including single sign-on with OpenSSO, directory repositories in the way of OpenDS and provisioning with Identity Manager.

Anthony will also cover Sun's packaging streams, notably the Open Source and Enterprise versions. A technical demonstration will be given on a number of the Identity products to show you the features and potential uses of the products.

Along with the benefits of using Open Source software, the session will cover other potential areas where developers can benefit from Sun's portfolio of products, including utilising the products as a base for other end-user products and the potential for developers to contribute to add-ons to some of the products.

Save the dates! The epicenter conference is taking place in Trinity College Dublin on 26-27-28th August. For more information on the upcoming epicenter software and technology event, go to:

Website: http://irishdev.com/Home/Events/Article.html?id=216
Twitter: http://twitter.com/epicenter2009

Simon Cook confirmed for epicenter event in Dublin on 26-27-28th August

2009-07-29T08:33:00.002+01:00

If you're in Dublin, Ireland, between 26th and 28th August 2009, don't miss epicenter 2009 -- the all-inclusive software and technology event organised by our friends at IrishDev.com.

epicenter is a culmination of the Irish Web, Open Sources, Database, Microsoft and Java Technologies conferences that have taken place since 2006.

IrishDev.com has a lot in store for us for this very first epicenter show. So save the dates!

We can confirm that Simon Cook, Lead Finance Software Architect at Sun Microsystems UK, will be at the event to talk about the current releases of Java and JavaFX, as well as some the features arriving in the next versions of these platforms. Simon will also cover Glassfish and related projects.

For more information on the upcoming epicenter software and technology event, go to:

Website: http://irishdev.com/Home/Events/Article.html?id=216
Twitter: http://twitter.com/epicenter2009

12 New Solaris Training Modules at the Sun Open Learning Center

2009-07-28T14:10:00.001+01:00

Check out the 12 new advanced level Solaris training modules now available at the Sun Open Learning Center - they're free!

www.sun.com/training/solc/

The new modules cover backups, restores, UFS and the ZFS file system.

how do you force a crash dump in a LDOM, like Stop-A/sync but for an LDOM?

2009-07-28T13:53:00.005+01:00

Many thanks for your question, Pete.

To force a crash dump in a LDOM, try the following command:

/opt/SUNWldm/bin/ldm panic ldom-name

Deploying Oracle Databases using NFS on the S7000 series

2009-06-24T13:04:00.002+01:00

Sun has published an in-depth, step-by-step guide to deploying Oracle Databases using NFS on the Sun Storage 7000 Unified Storage Systems. The S7000s offer an easy interface to deploy user applications on NFS share. Users can monitor their I/O and network activities using the analytics function on the S7000s to identify bottlenecks. This new resource from Sun will guide you through the process of configuring your S7000 system, configuring your Oracle Database Server on both Solaris and Red Hat and configuring the Oracle 11g using NFS.

You can download it from sun.com at:
http://www.sun.com/bigadmin/features/articles/7000_oracle_deploy.pdf

Resources for Solaris on IBM, HP and Dell servers

2009-06-24T12:41:00.006+01:00

Are you running Solaris or OpenSolaris on IBM, HP or Dell systems?

Sun has pooled the available resources for your platform into a series of microsites - check them out:

Resources for the Solaris OS on IBM servers
http://www.sun.com/bigadmin/topics/ibm

Resources for the Solaris OS on HP servers
http://www.sun.com/bigadmin/topics/hp

Resources for the Solaris OS on Dell servers
http://www.sun.com/bigadmin/topics/dell

Jumpstart Solaris 10 with ZFS boot disk

2009-04-21T10:03:00.003+01:00

I received a great question this week from Pradeep:

I have jumpstart server for instaling Solaris 8, 9 and 10 and I need to boot solaris 10 with ZFS. Please help me to create zfs jumpstart profile for booting with ZFS.

Great question and one which I'm coming across a lot - the good news is that this is indeed possible and in fact very easily achieved.

You can create a JumpStart profile to install a ZFS root file system or a UFS root file system. If the profile is set up to install a UFS root file system, all existing profile keywords work as in previous Solaris releases.

A ZFS specific profile must contain the new pool keyword. The pool keyword installs a new root pool and a new boot environment is created by default. You can provide the name of the boot environment and can create a separate /var dataset with the bootenv installbe keywords and bename and dataset options.

To read more about the steps involved visit Sun's online documentation for Solaris ZFS Administration.

Thanks for Pradeep for asking this great question - keep them coming!

Dr. Root.

Java@Cork 2008 next Tuesday 9th September

2008-09-04T10:44:00.000+01:00

Java@Cork is now a regular event on the developers' calendar and this year the conference has been extended to a full-day event. The line up features a mix of local it@cork members and international speakers, including Sun Microsystems' UK based Technology Evangelist Simon Ritter whose session will look at JavaFX, what the technology really is, the new compiler and tools available in the SDK and how to get started building applications. Simon will also talk about the forthcoming Java SE 6 update 10 release of the JDK and JRE which includes some exciting new developments for simplifying the deployment of the Java environment to large numbers of desktops.

The conference is next Tuesday 9th September at the Radisson SAS hotel in Cork.

For details and to register, go to www.itcork.ie/index.cfm?page=events&eventId=122

Java Training - 11th August - Dublin, Ireland

2008-07-23T14:47:00.000+01:00

17th Irish OpenSolaris User Group meeting

2008-01-17T15:13:00.000Z

If you're in Dublin and if you're interested to attend the next Irish OpenSolaris User Group meeting, it 's scheduled for the end of January:

Topic:		News from December/January, Lightning talks & generally being social!
Date:		Thursday 31st January 2008
Time:		7:00pm onwards
Location:		DIT, Kevin St. Room KE: 1-008 (unless I hear otherwise from the nice folks at DIT)

For more info, visit their website:
http://www.opensolaris.org/os/project/ie-osug/meetings/17/

New Year Resolution...

2008-01-08T10:15:00.000Z

Happy New Year 2008 To You All! :-)

Do you have new year resolutions? Is it a long list and would there be space for one more -- Like checking out your local Solaris/OpenSolaris/Java User Groups?

The reason I'm mentioning this is that most of my interactions are online. But last year I got to talk to Tim Foster (Irish OpenSolaris Users Group) and to Luann O'Carroll (Dublin Java User Group), I also went to a number of community events and I have to say there's really nothing like meeting and talking to your peers in a friendly and relaxed atmosphere. You can learn a lot from attending these events and it's an excellent opportunity to expand your social IT network.

So if there's still space on your list of new year resolutions, why not go check your local user groups? :-)

In Ireland:
» Irish OpenSolaris Users Group (check their podcast section!)
» Dublin Java User Group

Locate a user group:
» OpenSolaris User Groups
» Java User Groups

Q. Running Solaris programs on a Linux Box?

2007-12-14T16:20:00.000Z

Well, I would actually recommend that you do the opposite, if possible. That is, install Solaris 10 on a server and run your Linux applications on Solaris 10. With Solaris Containers for Linux Applications, your Linux applications will run unmodified on the rock-solid, secure Solaris 10. Plus, you can use the powerful DTrace to help monitor and debug your Linux applications.

Learn more at http://www.sun.com/software/solaris/scla.jsp

NetBeans and Mobile Complete: Building Java-based Mobile Applications on Real Devices

2007-12-14T16:10:00.000Z

In this on-demand webinar, NetBeans and Mobile Complete technology experts discuss the development and deployment of Java-based applications on mobile handsets and the process is faster and more efficient than ever before.

You'll understand how MobileComplete’s DeviceAnywhere™ solution and NetBeans can enable you to build quality Java-based application; learn about the new DeviceAnywhere and NetBeans 6.0 integration developer benefits – including real-time interaction with hundreds of handsets. And last but not least, you'll see a demo of how this solution provides a much simpler, efficient, high-performance framework for building, testing and transferring Java technology-based mobile applications.

» Play Back Webinar

NetBeans IDE 6.0 Now Available

2007-12-04T16:02:00.000Z

Version 6.0 is out!

NetBeans IDE 6.0 features Ruby/JRuby/Ruby on Rails support, enhancements for improved Swing development, a new Visual Game Designer, updated Data Binding support, integrated Profiling and more...

» Download NetBeans IDE 6.0
» Documentation. Support & Training

SOA / IDM & Desktop Virtualisation - Morning Seminars, 4-5-6 December, Dublin

2007-11-27T17:14:00.000Z

Sun is holding a number of half-day (morning) seminars in Dublin on 4-5-6 December.

4th December: SOA Simplified (Live Demo)
This half-day seminar aims to demonstrate why SOA has quickly made the move from novel concept to priority at enterprises of all types and sizes, worldwide. There will be a live demonstration of simplified SOA solutions and the presentation will help you understand the critical steps in planning your SOA deployment and the core technologies that will deliver true business integration.

5th December: Identity Management Provision (Live Demo)
Attend this morning session if you'd like to see a live demonstration of Sun Identity Management Suite and learn how to deliver secure, identity and access management solutions to transform your organisation.

6th December: Desktop Virtualisation (Live Demo)
At this morning session, you'll see a live demonstration of the Sun Ray and Secure Global Desktop technologies. In addition, through real world examples, you will see how your existing IT desktop and applications can be delivered through a standards based infrastructure, that supports the needs of your organisation in a cost effective way.

If you'd like to register, go to www.hos.horizon.ie/events

16th Irish OpenSolaris User Group Meeting

2007-11-23T12:36:00.000Z

Mark the date - 16th Irish OpenSolaris User Group meeting:

Topic           Image Packaging System (IPS)
Date            Tuesday November 27th
Time            7:00pm onwards
Location        DIT, Kevin Street, Dublin 2 (room KE: 1-008)

This month, Michal Pryc has kindly offered to give a talk on the Image Packaging System[1] - a new package management system for OpenSolaris that will ease the pain of package installation and upgrade.

The project is still in it's early stages, but you can try it out now by downloading and experimenting with Indiana[2]. Come along to the meeting to find out more!

Michal plans to give a quick outline of:

  * IPS structure
  * client/server side tools
  * limitations
  * portability

As well as a GUI tool he's been working on. 

For more information on this event, simply go to:
http://www.opensolaris.org/os/project/ie-osug/meetings/16/

[1] http://opensolaris.org/os/project/pkg
[2] http://opensolaris.org/os/project/indiana/resources/getit

Open Source resources for System Administrators

2007-11-19T12:09:00.000Z

Sun has created an sys admin-related Open Source resource section on its website, for all the the open-source projects Sun is contributing to -- e.g. OpenSolaris, OpenSPARC, Netbeans, OpenOffice.

[ Open Source Resources for System Administrators ]

How to install multiple versions of the Solaris OS on the same disk...

2007-11-19T10:58:00.000Z

If you're interested in learning to install multiple versions of Solaris on the same disk (x86 and SPARC), check out William Xue's comprehensive step-by-step tutorial on sun.com. In his tutorial, he describes the steps to install Solaris 9, Solaris 10 and Solaris Developer Express Edition on the same disk. The document covers SPARC and x86 systems.

[ View Tutorial ]

Prizes to win at the Irish Java Technology Conference

2007-11-02T09:42:00.000Z

If you've registered for the first Irish Java Technology Conference next week, you can win a private, champagne audience with Blogger Joel Spolsky at 30,000 feet above the Irish sea. Intrigued? Well, I've just learnt that Joel is presenting the IJTC keynote before heading to the UK. The organisers have chartered a flight for him and are now running a competition for IJTC delegates that register online. I'm not sure where the plane will let you off -- hopefully where you took off originally -- but I have to say it's quite an original prize. :-)

If you'd like to register for the conference, go to http://ijtc.firstport.ie/

Irish Java Technology Conference, Dublin, 7-8-9 November

2007-10-24T09:53:00.000+01:00

IrishDev.com is organising the first Irish Java Technology Conference in Dublin on 7-8-9 November. Sun is sponsoring the event. For details, visit: http://ijtc.firstport.ie/

How to get brand new Sun systems free for 60 Days

2007-10-17T10:04:00.000+01:00

If you often visit sun.com, you may already be aware of Sun's Try & Buy programme.

If not, Sun's Try & Buy programme lets you evaluate brand new hardware free for 60 days. We're talking about the most innovative Sun servers, storage and workstations -- including the newly announced UltraSPARC T2-based servers which will soon be available for a 60-day test drive. In essence, simply choose a system, choose a configuration and test it for 60 days.

The offer is absolutely free. Participants pay nothing - not even shipping - and they're entitled to free technical support for the entire duration of the 60-day trial.

You can only test one Sun system at a time. After 60 days, you can either keep it and buy it, or if you think it doesn't perform well enough in your environment, Sun just takes it back. No catch.

When you're not sure whether a product will work in your environment, the Try & Buy programme is a great way to make an informed decision.

If you are based in Ireland and would like to learn more, visit www.hos.horizon.ie/tryandbu y.

Outside Ireland, simply visit sun.com/tryandbuy to see if Sun is running the Try & Buy programme in your country.

Diskless Setup for the Solaris OS for x86 Platforms

2007-10-17T09:41:00.000+01:00

Sun has published a comprehensive document that will guide you through the steps for setting up a diskless installation for Solaris in an x86 environment. In addition, the document helps you set up a separate a TFTP/DHCP and NFS/root server for a similar environment. It also describes problems that could occur during setup and how to resolve them.

» View PDF

Download Glassfish V2

2007-09-27T10:20:00.000+01:00

Just a reminder that Glassfish V2 is now available for download - the latest release includes features, such as clustering, high availability, a new GUI administration console and Metro (an enterprise Web services stack). If you need an app server for highly scalable enterprise deployments, check out Glassfish V2...

https://glassfish.dev.java.net//

Installing and Configuring Ruby Support in the NetBeans IDE

2007-09-27T10:12:00.000+01:00

There's a new tutorial on the NetBeans website which provides information about downloading, installing and configuring Ruby support in the NetBeans IDE. It also describes how to use database servers with JRuby and how to deploy a JRuby application to Glassfish.

[ View Tutorial ]

Switch Between JRuby and CRuby Interpreter in NetBeans 6

2007-09-27T09:49:00.000+01:00

The NetBeans 6.0 IDE comes pre-configured with JRuby interpreter. Arun Gupta, Technology Evangelist at Sun, explains in his blog how you can swap the JRuby interpreter with a C-based Ruby interpreter and vice versa:

http://blogs.sun.com/arungupta/entry/totd_7_switch_between_jruby

NetBeans IDE 6.0 Beta Available For Download

2007-09-21T11:00:00.000+01:00

If you can't wait for the November release, the beta version of NetBeans IDE 6.0 is now available for download! The new version of NetBeans IDE has many new features, including Ruby/JRuby/Ruby on Rails support.

» Download NetBeans IDE 6.0 Beta

» Learn more about NetBeans IDE 6.0

What is 'NetBeans IDE'?

The NetBeans IDE is a free open-source Integrated Development Environment for software developers. The IDE runs on Windows, Linux, MacOS, as well as Solaris, and is easy to install and use straight out of the box. The NetBeans IDE provides developers with all the tools they need to create professional cross-platform desktop, web and mobile applications.

Interoperability Resources for System Administrators

2007-09-21T10:45:00.000+01:00

If you ever need to know what products are compatible with Solaris or how Java technology interoperates with the Microsoft .NET 3.0 framework, check out this new site: www.sun.com/bigadmin/topics/interop

Solaris Containers for Linux

2007-09-17T11:06:00.000+01:00

Quick reminder that Solaris 10 8/07 is now available for download and that some of the new features include:

Solaris Containers for Linux Applications to let you run Linux applications unmodified on Solaris 10.
Networking enhancements to run multiple independent network stacks on a single system.
High performance networking features to help you leverage hardware acceleration for large packet network traffic.
Enhancements in Multiple Page Size Support (MPSS) for greater scalability, especially for applications with large memory footprints.

For an overview of the new features, check out the following Sun video:
» Video: Solaris 10 8/07 New Features

[Get Solaris 10 8/07]

Screencast: Calling C Code with the Java Native Interface (JNI)

2007-09-13T11:49:00.000+01:00

An interesting screencast by Roman Strobl that shows you how to call native C code from a Java class using the Java Native Interface -- This demo was created using NetBeans IDE 5.5.1 with the NetBeans C/C++ Pack.

[ Watch Screencast ]

NetBeans module for the Google Checkout Java SDK

2007-09-12T10:13:00.000+01:00

Google has published a NetBeans module that lets you integrate Checkout SDK through a simple wizard and manage your Checkout handlers through a simple UI. This project is available as a distributable NetBeans Module and works with NetBeans 5.5.1 and greater.

For more information, go to:
http://code.google.com/p/google-checkout-java-sdk/wiki/NetBeansModule

Get started with OpenLogic

2007-09-07T11:28:00.000+01:00

OpenLogic Discovery is a free software tool that can help you identify and manage the open source software installed on Solaris, Linux, and Windows workstations and servers.

Using OpenLogic Discovery you can quickly scan a system for installed open source packages, including packages that were not explicitly installed but were bundled with other software. The software then provides a detailed inventory of the open source software identified on the system, including version numbers for each package found and files that have been partially installed, moved, or renamed.

OpenLogic Discovery identifies software by digital fingerprints, checking the fingerprints against a library of more than 5000 versions across 900 of the most commonly used open source packages. This library is expected to grow to encompass additional packages.

If you'd like to try OpenLogic, simply go to:

www2.sun.de/dct/forms/reg_us_2808_614_0.jsp?
intcmp=hp2007sep04_openlogic_start

Free Training: Sun Java System Identity Manager with Sun Expert Sang Shin

2007-09-07T11:05:00.000+01:00

This is another goodie from Sun Technology Expert Sang Shin. To start your free training, go to:

http://www.javapassion.com/idm/

"Elephants Dream" - a movie produced with open source software

2007-09-07T10:05:00.000+01:00

I found the following version of the animated movie, "Elephants Dream" on YouTube and I thought I'd pay tribute to the Orange Project team who produced this movie - back in 2005/2006 - by embedding it here and promoting their good work. I mentioned them in a previous post about 3D modeling and video editing software.

What's so special about this movie? Well, it was produced using open source software, such as Blender 3D and The Gimp. The Orange Project team was made of artists and developers from around the world and they even contributed new features to the current version of Blender.

Enjoy!

For more information - including high-quality downloads - check out:
http://www.elephantsdream.org

And to see what other open source based movies are under development, check out:
http://www.blender.org

SDN Share Rewards Program

2007-08-31T10:03:00.000+01:00

SDN Share is an online community where developers can share technical content related to Sun's technologies and products. The objective of this program is to give developers an opportunity to interact with their peers and share their expertise. At the moment, there's also time-limited SDN Share Rewards Program, which allows you to receive SDN Share Points for your contribution(s) to the community. In turn, these points can be redeemed for rewards on Amazon.com.

If you'd like to know more about SDN Share, go to:
http://www.sdnshare.com/

Web Services and SOA Programming

2007-08-24T13:43:00.000+01:00

It's Friday and the last day working day of the week - for many of us... Let's have more free online training with Sun Technology Expert Sang Shin, and this time it's all about web services and SOA programming.

In this online training course, Sang Shin covers:

New Java APIs for Web Services (JAX-WS, JAXB 2.x)
REST
WSIT (Project Tango)
SOA Technologies (BPEL, JBI, Open ESB)
GlassFish (Java EE 5, JBI runtime, Service Engines, etc.)

And for the Hands-on labs, the "out of the box" support of above technologies by NetBeans 6.0 (both in terms of designer tool and runtime) will be heavily leveraged.

XML Schema editor
XSLT designer
WSDL editor
BPEL designer
CASA (Composte Application Service Assembly) editor

Enjoy!

Free: Learn Java EE Programming with Sun Expert Sang Shin

2007-08-23T16:08:00.001+01:00

Another excellent freebie today... Get free online J2EE training from Sun Technology Architect and Java Evangelist Sang Shin.

This is a very comprehensive, self-paced, online course, packed with presentations, tutorials and hands-on exercises.

Enjoy!

[START LEARNING J2EE PROGRAMMING]

Free Online AJAX Training with Sun Expert Sang Shin

2007-08-22T09:48:00.000+01:00

I stumbled across this today and I think those of you who are learning AJAX and planning to develop AJAX applications using the NetBeans IDE will find it very useful...

Sun Technology Architect and Evangelist Sang Shin, who's a well-known name and respected figure by Java developers worldwide, is offering free online AJAX training. Yes! And the full name of the course is "18-week Free AJAX Programming (with Passion!) Online Course". If you visit Sang Shin's website and look at all the goodies there, you will understand why it says "with Passion!" - You have to admire such dedication. And personally, I do! :-)

Sang Shin's website includes presentations, flash videos, hands-on labs and homework! And because AJAX is a quickly evolving technology, the content of the course is constantly being updated and improved. Topics include Ajax, JavaScript, Advanced Dojo toolkit, ZK framework, DynaFaces, Phobos and Portlet.

What more can I say... Open Sesame!

[START LEARNING AJAX PROGRAMMING]

NOTE: Each module will list any additional software you need to download prior to starting the tutorials. But before you begin, you will need to install the following software on your computer - if it's not there already:

Java Standard Development Kit (JDK™) version 5.0 (download)

If you already have installed JDK 5.0, you can skip this.
The name of the installation file is as following (for JDK 5.0 update x)

jdk-1_5_0_xx-windows-i586-p.exe (Windows)
jdk-1_5_0_xx-linux-i586.bin (Linux)
jdk-1_5_0_xx-solaris-i586.sh (Solaris x86)

NetBeans IDE 5.5.1 with Sun Java System Application Server 9 Update x bundle (download)

When you install NetBeans IDE 5.0, it will ask you which JDK you want to use.
You can download and install NetBeans IDE 5.5.1 (download) and Sun Java System App Server 9 Update 1 (download) individually. In this case, you will have to add Sun Java System App Server as additional runtime platform manually as described here.

Mozilla Firefox Browser (download)

We are going to use Firebug debugger which is designed for the Mozilla Firefox browser.

4257_ajaxbasics2.zip (download)

It contains this document and the lab contents including sample applications
It also contains Firebug debugger (in case you have not have internet access)
Download it and unzip in a directory of your choice

How to Get Sun Software Patches Without Anonymous FTP Server

2007-08-21T09:27:00.000+01:00

Sun canceled access to the anonymous FTP server to download patches since September last year.

So what are your options?

Well, you can either use the Sun Update Connection or make use of the free scripting service provided by wget.

If you have a Sun Service plan, the wget process will require that you supply a Sun Online Account and password combination to access non-restricted patches.

If you do not have an account with Sun, simply register and accept a click thru Software License Agreement. To access non-restricted patches, you will need to have a Sun Service plan in place.

Where can you find the wget software?

You can download it from the following sources:

GNU Download Site (Source)
Sunfreeware (Compiled for Solaris SPARC)
Sunfreeware (Compiled for Solaris x86)

JDS systems should come with wget pre-installed, so simply set up your wget script. Sun has supplied a free test script for you to use: http://sunsolve.sun.com/getsolpatch.sh

» If you need more details on accessing software patches, go to http://sunsolve.sun.com/search/document.do?assetkey=1-9-82023-1

12 on 12 Questions Submitted by Developers

2007-08-20T10:13:00.000+01:00

Does Sun Studio 12 software have both the Sun compiler and the integrated development environment (IDE) for Linux, as it has for the Solaris Operating System?

I'd like to set up an x86 server farm for in-house developer builds with the resulting build deployed on SPARC III-IV+ platforms. Can I do this with Sun Studio 12 software?

If you'd like answers to these questions, then check out the top 12 questions on Sun Studio 12 that developers asked and how Sun's experts answered them in this Q and A...

http://developers.sun.com/sunstudio/community/ondemand/ss12_qa.jsp

64 Domains booting and running on a UltraSPARC 2

2007-08-16T13:53:00.000+01:00

Sun's new UltraSPARC 2 processor can run up to 64 logical domains -- each with its own operating system. Sceptical? Check out this demo posted by Ashley Saulsbury at Sun Microsystems.

» Watch Flash Video (1600px x 1200px)
» Watch Flash Video (800px x 600px)

[Visit Ashley Saulsbury's Blog]

Frequently Asked Questions about Patching for the Solaris OS

2007-08-13T09:40:00.000+01:00

If you'd like to learn more about patching for the Solaris Operating System, check out the recently posted FAQ on sun.com at:

www.sun.com/bigadmin/sundocs/articles/patch-faq.jsp

The world's fastest microprocessor is here...

2007-08-08T16:42:00.000+01:00

The new UltraSPARC T2 processor, with its 8 cores capable of handling 8 concurrent threads each, for a total of 64 threads, is a massively threaded server on a chip. Not only that, but it's faster and has more ports, more cache, more features than the T1 processor.

Watch Jonathan Schwartz and David Yen describe it here.

How to move Solaris Containers from one system to another...

2007-07-16T11:37:00.000+01:00

One of the new features in Solaris 10 now allows Solaris Containers to be moved from one system to another -- this new feature is currently available in Solaris Express, but will soon be available in a Solaris update.

Sun has published an excellent step-by-step guide on the process of moving Solaris Containers. You can view it at:

www.sun.com/software/solaris/howtoguides/moving_containers.jsp

or alternatively download the PDF:

www.sun.com/software/solaris/howtoguides/moving_containers.pdf

Enjoy!

Tunables for the Sun StorEdge SAN Foundation Suite: Optimizing for Performance and Failover

2007-07-06T11:32:00.000+01:00

Sun has published an article which describes various tunables for Sun StorEdge SAN Foundation Suite -- also known as Leadville -- software. There are several areas of performance -- failover times, SCSI queue depth management, etc --
that can be optimised by judicious and careful use of certain user-tunable kernel-level variables.

This new document on sun.com presents three general matrices describing the various types of tunables and/or default values related to performance, failover times and error recovery and logging:

Type one (1) : variables may be adjusted to fit specific customer configuration requirements.

Type two (2) : variables are adjustable, but in general no adjustment is recommended. These variables need to be tuned only in very rare cases.

Type three (3) : variables are hard-coded and are not adjustable; they are presented herein for completeness only.

If you'd like to better understand the discovery, path failover and general performance tunables and values incorporated in the Leadville driver stack, simply download the PDF.

Installation Guide for Solaris Cluster 3.2 Software and Oracle 10g Release 2 Real Application Clusters

2007-06-29T15:42:00.000+01:00

Sun has published a very nice, detailed, step-by-step guide for installing the Solaris 10 11/06 Operating System, Solaris Cluster 3.2 software, the QFS 4.5 cluster file system and Oracle 10g Release 2 RAC.

This document also provides detailed instructions on how to configure QFS and Solaris Volume Manager so they can be used with Oracle 10g R2 RAC.

The installation procedures can be used for SPARC or x64 platforms, for installations with up to eight nodes using IP over InfiniBand (IPoIB) or Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) for the private interconnect and with any level of I/O redundancy.

After you complete the procedures, you can use any combination of raw devices, Solaris Volume Manager, Automatic Storage Manager (ASM), or QFS cluster file systems to store data files.

A must-have!

» Download PDF

Podcast: Open Sourced Solaris Cluster

2007-06-27T15:44:00.000+01:00

You may be aware that Sun has released the Solaris Cluster source code through the HA Clusters community on the OpenSolaris site. Solaris Cluster is a multi-system, multi-site disaster recovery solution that manages the availability of applications services and data across local, regional and vastly dispersed datacentres.

Sun has recorded a podcast on the the open sourcing of Solaris Cluster and how multiple parties within the ecosystem will benefit. Highlights include:

The seeding of open source from the Solaris Cluster product, namely Open High-Availability Cluster, and binary distribution of Solaris Cluster that runs on open Solaris.
A three-phased approach starting with agents, followed by the geographic edition (disaster recovery), and then finally, the core infrastructure.
How open sourcing of Solaris Cluster addresses a need in the system administrator development community.
How an open-source set of tools can stimulate better conversations between application developers and deployers about making products do what they should, when they should.
The release of the testing infrastructure to ensure that what has been developed actually works.
Details of the open license.

[Source: Innovating@Sun]

» Listen to Podcast (MP3)

Sun Net Talk: Sun Fire X4500 - The First and Only Hybrid Data Server

2007-06-22T13:36:00.000+01:00

If you're interested to learn how the Sun Fire X4500's high storage density and high throughput can solve the challenges associated with data warehousing, HPC storage cluster and media streaming -- and more -- you should definitely check the following and very informative Sun Net Talk:

[Watch] Sun Fire X4500: The First and Only Hybrid Data Server

InfoWorld: Sun ZFS breaks all the rules

2007-06-21T10:41:00.000+01:00

In a recent article and accompanying screencast, InfoWorld explains why ZFS is so powerful and easy to use, and why ZFS and the Sun Fire X4500 server, codenamed Thumper, are a perfect match...

"Soon after I started working with ZFS (Zettabyte File System), one thing became clear: the file system of the next 10 years will either be ZFS or something extremely similar. The fluidity, the malleability, and the scalability of ZFS far surpass anything available now on any platform. We're talking about a file system that can address 256 quadrillion zettabytes of storage, and that can handle a maximum file size of 16 exabytes."

(Paul Venezia is senior contributing editor of the InfoWorld Test Center)

» InfoWorld Article: Sun ZFS breaks all the rules
» InfoWorld Screencast: Sun's ZFS on Thumper

JavaOne 2007 Technical Sessions - Now Online

2007-06-20T13:55:00.000+01:00

If you missed this year's JavaOne event, the conference PDFs and multimedia sessions are now available on sun.com. Sun will add more content over the coming weeks, so check the site on a regular basis.

Enjoy!

http://developers.sun.com/learning/javaoneonline/j1online.jsp?track=1&yr=2007

White Paper: Solaris ZFS and VERITAS Storage Foundation File System Performance

2007-06-18T11:37:00.000+01:00

This new white paper on sun.com explores the performance characteristics and differences of Solaris ZFS and the Veritas File System through a series of tests using the Filebench benchmarking framework which reproduces the I/O patterns of applications, as well as the popular IOzone benchmark which tests specific I/O patterns. In many instances, Solaris ZFS outperforms the combination of the Veritas Volume Manager and Veritas File System.

Find out more...

» Download PDF: Solaris ZFS and VERITAS Storage Foundation File System Performance

White Paper: Solaris ZFS and Red Hat Enterprise Linux ext3 File System Performance

2007-06-18T11:19:00.000+01:00

This newly-published white paper on sun.com explores the performance characteristics of Solaris ZFS and the ext3 file system through IOzone, BenchW and Postmark benchmark testing.

For the conditions tested, Solaris ZFS outperforms the Red Hat Enterprise Linux ext3 file system for many workloads, especially Postmark and relational database indexed queries. In other cases, Solaris ZFS exhibits comparable performance but does not require the performance or data integrity trade-offs that are inherent in the ext3 file systems, when running in ordered and writeback modes.

Conclusions drawn suggest that Solaris ZFS provides the same or greater data protection as the Red Hat Enterprise Linux ext3 file system running in journalled mode. However, the ext3 file system often delivers the lowest performance, while Solaris ZFS can provide equal or greater performance than the ext3 file system operating in the ordered or writeback mode.

Read more...

» Download PDF: Solaris ZFS and Red Hat Enterprise Linux ext3 File System Performance

White Paper: Solaris ZFS and Microsoft Windows Server 2003 NTFS File System Performance

2007-06-18T11:03:00.000+01:00

Sun has published a new white paper that details and reviews the performance characteristics and differences of Solaris ZFS and the Microsoft Windows Server 2003 NTFS file system through a series of publicly available benchmarks, including BenchW and Postmark.

Depending on the test, Solaris ZFS can significantly outperform the Microsoft Windows Server 2003 NTFS file system for many workloads. Find out more...

» Download PDF: Solaris ZFS and Microsoft Windows 2003 Server NTFS File System Performance

Back up your laptop data with ZFS...

2007-06-15T14:56:00.000+01:00

What's the alternative to a backup of your data onto DVD or onto an external drive?

Well, according to Eric Kustarz at Sun, the alternative is a ZFS snapshot. Check Eric's blog to learn more and to find out why ZFS and laptops are a perfect fit!

Go to: blogs.sun.com/erickustarz/entry/zfs_on_a_laptop

Q. Coolthreads, AMD Opteron, UltraSPARC and now SPARC. How would you categorize Sun's server lines?

2007-06-15T14:37:00.000+01:00

You're right to ask. Sun has three server families and each is designed for particular workloads.

In short...

SUN FIRE COOLTHREADS SERVERS:
Sun Fire CoolThreads servers are powered by the UltraSPARC T1 Chip Multi-Threading processor and are ideally suited for massive transactional throughput. If you need a server that can manage large numbers of web-based transactions, they're your perfect fit.

SUN FIRE X64 SERVERS:
In areas that require an x86 chip and demand both multithreaded and high floating point performance, AMD Opteron (and now also Intel Xeon with the new Sun Blade 6000) processor-based Sun Fire x64 servers would prove a better choice.

SUN ENTERPRISE SERVERS:
For heavy-duty database applications where single-threaded performance trumps throughput, Sun Enterprise servers -- powered by an UltraSPARC IV+ or SPARC processor -- will give you the necessary horsepower.

Beginners Guide to LDoms: Understanding and Deploying Logical Domains

2007-06-14T12:16:00.000+01:00

In essence, Sun's Logical Domains (LDoms) technology allows you to allocate a system's various resources, such as memory, CPUs and devices, into logical groupings and create multiple, discrete systems, each with their own operating system, resources, and identity within a single computer system. By careful architecture, a logical domains environment can help you achieve greater resource usage, better scaling and increased security and isolation.

Sun has published a blueprint which will help you gain a better understanding of how you can easily and effectively deploy Sun's Logical Domains technology.

It will help you determine how and where to use logical domains to the greatest effect using best practices. The document discusses strategies for deploying logical domains on the Sun Fire T1000 and T2000 systems -- the first systems to offer Logical Domain support -- and the various best practices for these platforms.

The guide works through step-by-step examples that include the commands to set up, deploy and manage logical domains and looks at commonly asked questions and advanced techniques.

The good thing about this guide is that it has been designed for several different levels of user and intended to be used as both an introduction to concepts and technologies, and as a handy reference for more complex approaches.

» Download PDF

SSH Frequently Asked Questions

2007-06-14T12:06:00.000+01:00

Q. I upgraded from SSH1 to OpenSSH. It generated a new SSH-1 RSA host key, instead of noticing and preserving my existing host key. Also, it appears to be ignoring my sshd_config file!

A. SSH1 and OpenSSH have different default directories in which they look for configuration files: SSH1 uses /etc, whereas OpenSSH uses /usr/local/etc. You can either move your existing hostkey and other SSH configuration files to the new location, or build OpenSSH with configure --sysconfdir=/etc.

Interested to learn more? Check out the SSH Frequently Asked Questions at: www.snailbook.com/faq

Web Launch: New Sun Blade Servers

2007-06-06T10:49:00.000+01:00

Sun is introducing today new Blade servers where you can mix and match SPARC, AMD Opteron and Intel Xeon architectures. Interested? Check out the web launch today at 4.00pm G.M.T.: www.sun.com/launch