[rescue] Why .* sucks (was Re: FDDI card)

[Robert Novak]

[mmm, appropriate subject lines]

On Mon, 25 Feb 2002, James Sharp wrote:

> You mean I have to explain myself instead of just mindlessly bashing
> things?  Darn it.  Okay...here goes.

There's a difference? :)

> 1) There's always going to be a bottleneck in network IO as every byte
> that comes into the system has to be flipped around.  PC byteorder !=
> network byte order.

Most servers probably don't run at 100% of network bandwidth utilized. 

> 2) They don't handle loads very gracefully.  Sure, you can sort of make up
> for this by getting the latest & greatest 340982304983Thz processor...they
> can do 1 thing REALLY fast, but when you start making them task swap &
> context switch, they fall on their face.

I guess it depends on what kind of server you're using it for. How much
better is an E10k than a 486/25 as a NIS/DNS server, for example? 

I know, those nifty new Sun-labeled brooms are good for sweeping
generalizations.

> 3) That whole keyboard & monitor thing.  Sun/Alpha/SGI/etc machines all
> have BUILT-IN serial consoles.  The closest thing you can get to a true
> serial console on a PeeCee is the PC Weasel, but all that really does is
> emulate the monitor & keyboard...turns it into a serial stream.

A lot of modern boards seem to have serial console redirect options, and
some boards I've seen (Netapp in particular) have some form of openboot
that's ONLY accessible from serial console. Ever seen a video card on a
Netapp as it shipped from the factory?

> 4) You can't standardize on anything for more than 2-3 months.  If you
> order a Sun E450 today and one 9 months from now, they're going to be
> almost identical...maybe a few board revision changes.  

And you may find that the one you bought 9 months ago won't take the same
CPUs. I've run into resellers who don't know an E450 AA (300mhz top) from
BA (400mhz I think) from CA (480mhz), and when your favorite vendor
pitches a CA against another vendor who offers an AA and your micromanager
wants an explanation of why you'd waste $1k when they're both E450s, it's
a fun one. "We'll never upgrade this server, why bother?" Been there, done
that. Got the CA anyway.

> 5) Nothing pisses me off more than having a server fall off the network
> because it was "idle" for more than 15 minutes and went to sleep because
> of EnergyStar or whatever power conservation stuff there is because I
> forgot to disable it (okay, so my Ultra 1 did the same thing...but that I
> could change with Solaris...didn't have to go into the freakin BIOS
> (which I couldn't have gotten to anyway...see serial console above))

Yeah, we had this happen with Ultra 1s at Sun even, coupla years ago, and
the SAs didn't know why. It was a change in the OS on the install servers
that we weren't warned about apparently. 

What's really fun is when your Ultra 1 power supply blows up the serial
ports on your headless Ultra 1. Twice. Had a very nice terminal server
connected but it didn't do much good. And yes, we tried several cables and
console devices and it didn't work at all.

> I'm sure theres more reasons...

Best reason is "I don't want to run a PC as a server." I can make an Intel
architecture box into a reliable server for just about any functionality I
want. Heck, I can probably order Sun stickers and put them all over the
box so I can say I have a Sun box. 

No, the cheapest XXXXX brand PC from Fry's isn't going to compete with a
Sun 6800, but an ALR Revolution 7200 could probably put up a good fight
with an E220 or E250. And you can get a reliable internal hardware RAID
card for Intel architectures. 

PCs ain't perfect, but nothing is. Wake up, people, please. Use what works
for you and does what you want, don't belittle other people for doing the
same, and if your nose is too high in the air, may a camel fart into it.
:)

In closing, check out
http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20020224&mode=classic if you
like. I personally won't miss Chuck Jones as much as I miss Douglas Adams,
but he will be missed.

--Rob

Robert Novak, Indyramp Consulting * rnovak at indyramp.com * indyramp.com/~rnovak
	"I don't want to doubt you, Know everything about you
      I don't want to sit Across the table from you Wishing I could run."