Sun ultra 10 creator 3D replacement 1

[mikus225]

Hello guys/ladies!
I have to clarify that have rather weak knowledge about SUN servers. Right now I have SUN Ultra 10 Creator 3D one:

-bash-3.00# uname -a
SunOS unknown 5.10 Generic sun4u sparc SUNW,Ultra-5_10
-bash-3.00# cat /etc/release
                         Solaris 10 3/05 s10_74L2a SPARC
           Copyright 2005 Sun Microsystems, Inc.  All Rights Reserved.
                        Use is subject to license terms.
                            Assembled 22 January 2005
-bash-3.00# psrinfo -pv
The physical processor has 1 virtual processor (0)
  UltraSPARC-IIi (portid 0 impl 0x12 ver 0x13 clock 300 MHz)

with two ATA hard drives:

-bash-3.00# iostat -E
dad0      Soft Errors: 0 Hard Errors: 0 Transport Errors: 0
Model: IC35L060AVVA07-0 Revision: VA3OA52A Serial No:       VNC4R0A4GV
Size: 61.49GB <61488537600 bytes>
Media Error: 0 Device Not Ready: 0  No Device: 0 Recoverable: 0
Illegal Request: 0
dad1      Soft Errors: 0 Hard Errors: 0 Transport Errors: 0
Model: Maxtor 5T060H6   Revision: TAH71DP0 Serial No: T6H5YN9C
Size: 60.00GB <59997020160 bytes>
Media Error: 0 Device Not Ready: 0  No Device: 0 Recoverable: 0
Illegal Request: 0

There is only one purpose of such server - students are remotely connecting to it via ssh and running one old application written for this hardware. Problem is that server is a little bit old and is not always working. I am thinking about cheap replacement to it, but there is a huge number of different servers. Could you please tell me if following server will be ok as a replacement: SUN SUNFIRE E2900 4X IV+ 1.95GHZ 32GB DVD? What keywords I have to look for to be sure that my application will be working correctly?

 

[SamBones]

That's more a question about the application than the server.

Was the application developed in-house? Do you have source code? Is it a third party application that was purchased? If it's your app and you have source, you might be able to compile it to run on something simpler. Maybe Linux on Intel, or something like that. If it's an app that was purchased, you should be talking to the vendor about platform support. They might be able to direct you to the best path forward.

It does look like you require a SPARC processor, so that's what you need to make sure you get. You mention the E2900. That was end-of-lifed in 2009, so I'm assuming you're looking used market. Also, going from an Ultra 10 to an E2900 is going from a desktop workstation, to an enterprise class server. The E2900 should be in an air conditioned climate controlled room, with multiple power sources. Also spares and replacement parts are going to be much more expensive. If you have the current Ultra 10 in an office environment, you will NOT want an E2900 in the same environment. It will be noisy and pump out a lot of heat. The E2900 is a data center class Enterprise type server. It just sounds like an E2900 might be too much server. Possibly a bit of overkill.

Personally I would look at something newer and bigger in the Ultra line. Maybe an Ultra 60 or 80. Either of those should be able to sit where the Ultra 10 is now and should be a simple port for your app. Those both have processors similar to the Ultra 10. Staying the the Ultra line, an Ultra 25 or 45 is the best you can get. If you wanted to move up to a better/faster/newer processor, look for a Sun Blade workstation. Something like a Blade 1000, 1500, 2000, or 2500. These are bigger than the Ultra 10, but can still live where an Ultra 10 lived. They don't require a raised floor data center. The Sun Blade servers were also made much later than the Ultra servers, so being newer they can be more reliable. Plus all of these will run Solaris 10, which will simplify porting your application.

Sun Ultra info...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Ultra_series

Sun Blade info...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Blade_(workstation)

One last thing, put a big UPS on whatever you do get. This will go a long way toward keeping it reliable.

Hope this helps.

 

[mikus225]

Thank you for such quick and detailed answer.

Unfortunately it is a third party application to simulate physical phenomena in semiconductor devices and I do not have any source files. For personal use I have the contemporary version of it, Windows based, but its license do not allows running more instances. So in case of running many instances in the same time I need my old app and just working SPARC hardware to use it.

The case is that I need SPARC machine right now and have got zero budget for it... So I went to the most popular auction site in my country and found three SPARC computers below 250 euros. Mentioned SUNFIRE E2900 with 1 year warranty, Enterprise T5120 and Enterprise T5220 - last two with only 3 months warranty. Rack is not a problem, I can just threw it to one of the server rooms. I assumed that during this 1 year warranty server will work and give me a time to apply for any budget for more solid computer. That is why I was thinking about this E2900 - its just cheap and hopefully will work for 1 year. What do you think? Are my assumptions correct? Can we somehow predict if my app will work correctly if I install the same as on old machine Solaris 10 3/05 on it?

 

[SamBones]

It's very hard to predict if an app will run without knowing anything about the app.

Generally, if you keep the same exact version of Solaris (including patches), any version of SPARC processor "should" work. No guarantees, but the best chance.

Personally I would stay away from the E2900. It sounds like the Ultra 10 has been quietly doing it's job without a lot of headaches, maybe until recently. A big enterprise server will require much more care and feeding. When you start going with bigger servers, there are a lot of hidden costs. It eats a lot more power (power equals money), generates more heat (AC equals money), and being an old machine, I would recommend buying at least two of them so you have spares available (boards, power supplies, etc). Even things as simple as just adding an internal drive, you could end up spending as much as the server itself for a bracket and wiring. They aren't off-the-shelf parts and often those simple parts are badly marked up on the auction sites.

If you have available rack space, any of the Txxxx servers are great choices. I like this suggestion. They are very small (1U or 2U) and have a lot of CPU power. Also power consumption is pretty low. It sounds like more than enough for the app. I've got a lot of experience with the T2000, which was one of the first ones in that line and it's a very solid server. The T5120 (1 CPU) or the T5140 (2 CPUs) are both excellent choices. They are enterprise grade, which means they should be very reliable, and they are both 1U servers with low power consumption. Plus, a healthy adult can carry a T5120 by themselves under one arm. An E2900 requires equipment and a lot of friends.

This page has information on them:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SPARC_Enterprise

Problem is that server is a little bit old and is not always working.

Have you determined why the Ultra 10 went down? You might want to spend a little time to diagnose what problems it's having. If you put a new server into the same environment, it could end up having the same problems. Things like flaky power or mischievous/incompetent students could plague the new server too.

But, back to the compatibility question, there is no guarantee that it will work on a different machine. That gets back to the question of how the app was written. Staying with the same OS version will help a lot since that's what the software should be interfacing with. I've found SPARC to be pretty compatible across generations. The only possible hardware dependency comes up is a possible graphics card dependency. You mention that the Ultra 10 is a "Creator 3d" model. That refers to a proprietary Sun graphics card that's in that machine. Some graphics apps written for Sun workstations do have a dependency for that card to be in the machine. Even is people are just using ssh to get in, the app could still be using the card to generate graphics, or even just using it as a processor card (like some PC apps can use a GPU for faster numeric processing). If that warranty will allow you to return it if your app doesn't run, or if you can just get that agreement with the seller, that might be the safest way to go.

Good luck.

 

[mikus225]

Hey, now E2900 scares me a lot... So I decided to buy T5120 and check if app is working correctly. I am looking at its rear panel picture and wonder where is the hdmi port?

Thank you a lot for your help, it greatly clarified my situation!