halton: Halton Huo

Honestly, it is my first time writing blog in English, I wonder I can not express very precisely my thinking, so any mistake, please be kind and tell me, thanks.

CEC has passed 2 days, today is last day, actually, last half day, that is why breakout sessions start first.

Session 1
Title: Truth or Dare Open Source at Sun
Speakers: Laura Ramsey Open Source Community Development
Her group is new group, main focus at Sun Open Source strategy. That is We Drive and Participate On the Network to Drive and Revenue. She explained how Open Source benefit for customer: Cost Saving, Happy developers mean happy users, Flexibility with Control, and Broader adaption. She also shows Sun almost touch every open source community, from Hardware(OpenSparc) to Operating System(OpenSolaris,Linux), and to APP layer(ClassFisk, JXTA). Another news is Java Open Source is on schedule. Good news for Java world and good news for sun, more open means more opportunity for Sun. Right? She announce two email alias to accept feedback related with Open Source at Sun, they are opensource@sun.com and foss.sig@sun.com. Come on Open source guys!!!

Session 2
Title: Rise of the x86 Hypervisors: VMware ESX(and Xen!)
Speakers: Tony Kay System Virtualization Manager
I was there because it may related Xen which Robert mentioned in our all hands last month, but obviously I went into a wrong room. It talked little on Xen, but main point is focus on VMware ESX. I do not too much about it, need do more homework later.

Next session is general session, in another word, the ending session, it is said that Jonathan will come, I'm waiting for his speech. Before that, there have some interaction awards. Best speaker, best SMS, best videos, the funny thing is the best SMS: Why women restroom need not line, while men's has a long line. Clearly we need more women employee. And Alfred's Mentor, Glenn Brunette win the best speaker award.

Hal Stern, who is DE also VP of Global System Engineering, his title is What's Next? Interesting, Right? His slice full of pictures, an important information I can get is More Fun, enjoy Sun technology. He recommended a book <>, if have time, I'll read it. Better for understanding Sun's idea.

Next is most existing part, that is Jonathan, there must lots of blogs talked about content in this slice, I won't touch much. It's my first time to say our new CEO. He looks younger than I thought before, he speaks quickly but very clearly. He enrage everybody to tell story outside and keep getting on the Solaris warpath. Obviously, Solaris is still in the first place in whole strategy. The most interesting part is Q&A section. There were bunch of questions, among them the most interesting one is also related with Sun stock. Q: Will you cut off your ponytail after sun stock get to $10? A: $50.

En, what good three days I spent on CEC2006, although I can only understand part of them, again I see Sun, our company is getting better and better, I'm so proud of it. Definitely, I need to do lots of home work later. After all materials available, I'll download them all, and get into my most interesting topics. En, I'm eager to do that. Also I'll tell what I heard and what I saw these days, of course, in Chinese. :)

Let's wait for CEC 2007, if still have chance, I am definitely willing to attend again.

David Yen, EVP of Storage, addressed importance of storage, he shows 37% data of world's is on Sun, what a huge number, we can see how much opportunity for us, then he explain Sun's strategy for Data: ID everything, Visualizer everything, Secure everything and Integrate everything.

Second general session is given by Rich Green, our software EVP, still he strongly expressed his idea: MAKE $. Audiences offer some quite good questions, I only remember some.
Q: When is acrobat available on X64?
A: Not know.
Q: When is Aduva available?
A: December
Q: Solaris is hard to download and most of them are not necessary.
A: Jeff Jackson's team is dealing with this issue.

Next session is most exiting one, you know what, it is employee #1, Andy give his great presentation about New x64 product including GalaxyII, Storage, Blade Servers, Cluster in HPC, also he gave lots data to show Sun leadership on this area( which is forbidden posted on blog). I can not express how I am encouraged by him. He speaks so fast that a audience ask what's his clock rate. I'm thinking Andy will definitely bring Sun another spring.

On the afternoon, again I attended five breakout sessions, I was so tired and felt exhausting at last.

Session 1
Title : The Virtualized Desktop and Application Delivery Interface
Speakers: Brad Lackey Desktop Product Lead US-Software Practice
Jeff Reilly Desktop Solution Architect US-Software Practice
The key terms are desktop and virtualization, in this presentation, Solaris JDS, Linux and Windows 2003 server can be virtulized, Sunray is just one important part of whole system. User can access through thin client(sunray client), also can access through traditional client, laptop, mobile phone. They gave lots of impressive demos, including switch virtual sessions among lots, use KIOS2 terminal-Touch Screen Enabled, credit card access. It is very useful on Education, Hospital, Supermarket, etc. But I do not know whether we can beat IBM in this field.

Session 2
Title : Knowledge-based Enterprise Patch Management using Update Connection Enterprise (Aduva)
Speakers: Juergen Fleischer
Robert Lusk
There are lots of people are interested on this topic, I only can stand beside the wall, we can see how dissatisfaction on Solaris update. Aduva seems written on Java, can do lots of things expect Solaris updating, can also supports porting from HP-UX to Solaris, Linux to Solaris. I though it is what I saw yesterday. Demo time is attractive, it is supposed to be ready on December, let's try how it resolve our problem.

Session 3
Title : Benchmarking Performance Methodology using Dtrace and Dprofile Speakers: Benoit Chaffanjon
It is tired and felt asleep during this session, no comments. :(

Session 4
Title : Enhancing Security Awareness and Control with Dtrace
Speakers: Glenn Brunette
Jonathan Haslem
This session is my second Dtrace session, do not want miss again. Washed my face during the rest time. Glenn is a security guy, also is SEED mentor of Alfred. He is trying to express how Dtrace can help enhance system security, he gave some examples and demons along with some useful D-scripts. I gave Glenn Alfred's present, he is so happy and may visit China 6-12 months later for Olympic Games.

Session 5
Title : Overview of JavaCAPS
Speakers: Kevin sohmidt
Bruce Tierney
JavaCAPS is implement of SOA, facing to Enterprise, Again, so tired, not get much information. If have time, I'll go to see their demos tomorrow.

Next is party time, wo~~~~~oh. It's my first time to join western style party. I took lots of photos, everything is new for me, the game machines, the , the music DJ, the professional gamble game, just like Las Vegas. I'll never forget tonight and will tell this stories to my Chinese friends. It was said Sun have not held this kind of Party for almost 5 years, everyone is it is so great and give us a big information is Sun is getting better, the spring comes.

I'd like to share with you guys what I have heard and what I have seen in CEC(Customer Engineering 2006) held on Moscone West, San Francisco, CA, From Oct 1st to Oct 4th, 2006.

Oct 1st is registration day, Oct 2nd is really beginning. When I stepped into the main conference hall, I was shocked. It is so big and well prepared for this magnificent event. I select a seat in very front, I will share your some pictures later. According the statistics, there is 3000+ attendances, 200+ breakouts, 50+ demos, everything shows that this would be a very successful event, I'll get lots of information here.

First general session, Don Grantham, the EVP of GSS(Global Sales & Services), he delivered an important information by data that Sun goes better and will goes much better than we thought, our stock is now over $5.00, which was 3.9 three months ago. Next general session is given by Greg Papadopoulos, the EVP R&D and CTO give sun Strategy and goal of each Practice (System, Storage, Software), I'm full of confidence that Sun goes the right way. And last session is from John Fowler, EVP of system, shows lots of new server, I do not much, but really attractive.

Afternoon is breakout session, which I like best, each one will be 1 hour. You know it is not easy to choose 5 out of 200+.

Session 1
Title : Windows Kernel Crash Dump Analysis
Speakes: Dimitri de Wild EMEA Systems /TSC Kernel Technology
Feri Chua APAC Systems /TSC Kernel Technology
For me, they addresses a new area that Windows can generate Dump file and can be debug. The main reason they need do that is some customers want to run windows on our opteron servers, and windows dump mostly because driver issue. They introduced how to get start and lots of tools to achieve this goal. I was so exciting that I'm brave to offer two questions. One is Dtrace is going to be ported into Mac OS, will that happened on Windows? Answer is No plan. Second one is how does Feri think Windows dump analysis comparing with Solaris, answer is Sparc is quite good, while x86 is samiliar with Windows. I do not know how he get this result, I have no time, need to catch next session.

Session 2
Title : Solaris 10 trusted extensions
Speakes: Bruno Gillet
I choose this session because desktop team develop trusted JDS, I'm willing to hear what the status of whole trusted extension including JDS. But I do not get what I really need in this session, the speaker introduced too much about how security is important, maybe he thought his audiences are mostly sales and customers. He mentioned the key technology is Labeled systems, which I do not get the key points. I am more clear after Niall Power give the introduction about trusted JDS. Also he ran out his time, I wen to next session.

Session 3
Title : Sun's New x64 Data Server
Speakes: Trungchau Ngo
I know little on hardware, maybe this session can give me some knowledge. Sun Fire x4500 Server is very cool, which has 2 Dual opteron CPUs, totally support 40T SATA II disks. As my understanding it is kind of storage server. Then he introduced server Architecture and Storage Architecture and some more details, and I started know nothing what I am listening. :)

Session 4
Title : Packaging and Patching: What's new in Solaris 10?
Speakes: Shivani Khosa Member Tchnical Staff, India Engineering Center
Vineeth Pillai Member Tchnical Staff, India Engineering Center
This topic attracts me in my first sight, it is mainly because I was a Release Engineer, and what I'm now doing is porting some community tools into Solaris, still need to do some release works. I was late because I go around on the demo areas and forgot the time. Bad thing is I can not understand India tone English, I need focus what is written on the presentation. And good thing is Shivani first introduce SVR4 package knowledge, which I know well, I'm getting understand India english during the basic introduction. The speakers, introduce packaging and patching system in Solaris 10, but that is not their purpose. As we all know, Zone is shipped in Solaris10, that introduce complex packaging and patching requirements compared with single zone. They re-design package and patch structure, and implement new package and patch management tools(pkgadd, patchadd, etc).

Zone upgrade is tough thing, for Solaris 10 update, they have developed a project called Ashanti which support zone upgrade, it was integrated in s10u1, but only support s10 to s10ux upgrade. There is another project called Zulu, it is permanent solution for zone upgrade.

After meeting, I talked with them and showed my interest on what they are doing, they give a important information that, if our JDS packages want to support Zone upgrade, we must do some changes. I've gotten their presentation and contact info. It seems we need do some work on that.

Actually, I hope this topic will also cover online update just like apt-get in Debian, but it does not, and I forgot asking them because next session is already started. I may contact them through emails later.

Session 5
Title : The Dynamics of ZFS
Speakes: Roch Bourbonnais, Neelakanth Nadgir, PAE
PAE is Performance, Availability and Architecture. Roch introduced some basic knowledge of ZFS, and difference with UFS, the key point is huge performance enhanced. Neelakanth gave detail informations and more testing data. Here is a table I remembered.

Test TPS
S10U2 UFS Buffered 358
S10U2 ZFS 408
S10U2 ZFS Tuned 878
S11_43 ZFS Tuned 1204

Also, I spent some time on the demo area, very impressed. SotrageTec Data Center Compute Engine, lots of thing I just never heard before. There is also a tool help migarate from linux HP-UX and all kinds of Unix/Linux porting to Solaris, I forget the name, it is developed by Java in India, may get more information tomorrow.