[geeks] Disturbing Sun articles

[Jonathan C. Patschke]

On Thu, 4 Sep 2008, Joshua Boyd wrote:

> Is AIX at all able to use non-IBM storage controllers or networking like
> Solaris is?

AIX actually can[0], but VIO server[1] cannot.  I were running a 520, I'd run
external storage, and use an IBM FC card (which is pricey, but not totally
insane).  I have a 16-disk SATA shelf I could use for that.

>> The Sun option quickly invalidated itself.  Sun doesn't ship the t1 in
>> a reasonably-priced system that runs below 60dB
>
> What configuration would run below 60dB?  I would have thought that in
> this case more expensive and louder would have gone together.

The t2000 is marginally quieter than the t1000.  However, they now both
claim to be over 60dB (I'd misremembered it being 55 or so).  I'd guess
the PC I built is around 25dB.


[0] With many of the same caveats as Solaris.  You need a driver,
     obviously, but the storage controller also needs to present itself to
     OpenFirmware in the way OFW wants.  This is complicated with POWER5
     because of the virtualization architecture.
[1] Technically, VIO server is AIX with some realtime tweaks and a very
     specific software set.  For the purposes of this particular argument,
     it's a separate OS--IBM does not support any third-party software
     running on VIO server, including drivers.  More to the point, the APV
     hypervisor needs some level of visibility into the storage to hand it
     over to the VIO server.  At the very least, it needs to be able to see
     the controller and its attached storage, which means the firmware on
     the controller needs to be APV-aware.  I don't know of any third-party
     storage controllers that are.
-- 
Jonathan Patschke | "There is more to life than increasing its speed."
Elgin, TX         |                                   --Mahatma Gandhi
USA               |