Question about Solaris 10 and a sun server

[Okasa]

So we are still running solaris 9 at work and i have been really pushing to upgrade to 10, we even have the discs, just need to isntall it. the thing is its a very old server and i have heard things about certian pieces of hardware(maybe software?) that would not be compatable with solaris 10. our server is an Ultra Enterprise 450 from way back when (prob late 90's).

Also, i have only installed solaris 10 on my personal computer, how much downtime should we expect to have before its usable again. such as setting up accounts, updates, reinstalling software etc? i know this isnt an easy question, just any input would be appreciated

 

[Nothinman]

Doesn't Sun have any pages on their site listing what hardware Solaris 10 supports? I would assume that any hardware that they'll still support would also get software support, is your Ultra450 still supported by them?

 

[Okasa]

yea i checked that, should have mentioned that. I went under solaris 10 install docs and they mentioned the ultra450 so that leads me to believe that the other things that i read around the web were incorrect, i just wanted some other thoughts on the matter. I cant see any reason why it would not install fine on the system, but for something as large as this, i would much rather triple check than realize mid-install that something wont work.

 

[Nothinman]

Sorry, I don't have any experiences with Ultra450s, all of my Sun hardware is older and smaller models.

 

[n0cmonkey]

I think (not positive, I don't get much sun fun these days ) the only processors they really dropped support for were the 32bit ones. And maybe the early ultras. Enterprise stuff should probably still work.

 

[AStar617]

I know this is an old topic, but it was never definitively answered for you. An Ultra Enterprise 450 absolutely, positively can and will run Solaris 10 as a Sun-supported configuration. The only possible gotcha depending on the age of your box will be that the memory may need to be upgraded, though as it's a server I'm assuming it's not RAM-starved. Just remember to leave headroom for whatever app is running on the box.

As far as downtime is concerned, there's no way to tell without knowing your exact software build. Again, you didn't mention what this server was used for either. My rule of thumb for a full reinstall from scratch with no dry run is to earmark a day's (at least--preferably an entire weekend's) worth of downtime, business need permitting. Another option may be the Live Upgrade route, which allows you to essentially copy the Solaris 9 build onto another disk (should be plenty of room in the UE450 disk cage), upgrade that to Solaris 10, then cut over to the new root build at your leisure via reboot. A final option may be to obtain another UE450 and simply build it in parallel, then cut over to the completely separate hardware (they are getting much cheaper, can be had for three figures if you get lucky / look hard enough).

Hope that helps... good luck. :beer:

 

[Sunner]

Yay, a Solaris topic!

Anyways, yes an E450 will work just fine, Solaris 10 doesn't take much more to run than 9, given similar service configurations.
As for downtime, the first obvious change you'll run into(I guess you have figured this out beforehand if you've installed it at home already) is the change from SysV init to SMF.
Software compatibility is good in my experience, though some more obscure and older software might depend on older libraries and headers for installation/compilation, that might bring some nasty headaches.
Of course, as always, your mileage may vary, and trying it out on some other system before taking the plunge is a very good idea.
Maybe get hold of some Ultra5 or something, S10 will install fine on those too.

Overall, an admin familiar with Solaris 9 should have no problem finding himself at home with 10, basic user management and such is the same, most configuration, etc is the same, the big thing to get used to is SMF in my opinion.
Patchadd, pkgadd, and friends are all there and behave as expected.

Just make sure you get update 3(11/06 release), it has some pretty major updates in some areas, including some driver replacements and such, though I guess the latter wouldn't affect such old hardware

Meh, didn't see how old it was...and I was so happy for a short while
Damn ninja bumping...

 

[AStar617]

Originally posted by: Sunner
Yay, a Solaris topic!

Anyways, yes an E450 will work just fine, Solaris 10 doesn't take much more to run than 9, given similar service configurations.
As for downtime, the first obvious change you'll run into(I guess you have figured this out beforehand if you've installed it at home already) is the change from SysV init to SMF.
Software compatibility is good in my experience, though some more obscure and older software might depend on older libraries and headers for installation/compilation, that might bring some nasty headaches.
Of course, as always, your mileage may vary, and trying it out on some other system before taking the plunge is a very good idea.
Maybe get hold of some Ultra5 or something, S10 will install fine on those too.

Overall, an admin familiar with Solaris 9 should have no problem finding himself at home with 10, basic user management and such is the same, most configuration, etc is the same, the big thing to get used to is SMF in my opinion.
Patchadd, pkgadd, and friends are all there and behave as expected.

Just make sure you get update 3(11/06 release), it has some pretty major updates in some areas, including some driver replacements and such, though I guess the latter wouldn't affect such old hardware

Meh, didn't see how old it was...and I was so happy for a short while
Damn ninja bumping...

Sorry to get your hopes up

Now that I know there are a couple more of my kind here, maybe in the future I'll toss up a few more Sun-related topics, half-court from the hip

 

[Sunner]

Originally posted by: AStar617

Originally posted by: Sunner
Yay, a Solaris topic!

Anyways, yes an E450 will work just fine, Solaris 10 doesn't take much more to run than 9, given similar service configurations.
As for downtime, the first obvious change you'll run into(I guess you have figured this out beforehand if you've installed it at home already) is the change from SysV init to SMF.
Software compatibility is good in my experience, though some more obscure and older software might depend on older libraries and headers for installation/compilation, that might bring some nasty headaches.
Of course, as always, your mileage may vary, and trying it out on some other system before taking the plunge is a very good idea.
Maybe get hold of some Ultra5 or something, S10 will install fine on those too.

Overall, an admin familiar with Solaris 9 should have no problem finding himself at home with 10, basic user management and such is the same, most configuration, etc is the same, the big thing to get used to is SMF in my opinion.
Patchadd, pkgadd, and friends are all there and behave as expected.

Just make sure you get update 3(11/06 release), it has some pretty major updates in some areas, including some driver replacements and such, though I guess the latter wouldn't affect such old hardware

Meh, didn't see how old it was...and I was so happy for a short while
Damn ninja bumping...

Sorry to get your hopes up

Now that I know there are a couple more of my kind here, maybe in the future I'll toss up a few more Sun-related topics, half-court from the hip

Actually I think "a couple" is a bit of an overstatement, more like you and me
Hrm, which could, I guess, in a sense, make us...a couple...