Pierre Reynes's Old Weblog

New URL

I am going to use blogs.sun.com/PierreReynes instead of blogs.sun.com/joebar from now on

and this is why: http://blogs.sun.com/PierreReynes/entry/usernames

What is in the new Sun BluePrint "Running Oracle Real Application Clusters on Sun Logical Domains"

The recently published BluePrint titled "Running Oracle Real Application Clusters on Sun Logical Domains" provides all necessary instructions to install and run Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC) on servers configured with Sun Logical Domains (LDoms). LDoms is a virtualization and partitioning technology supported on Sun CoolThreads-based servers (i.e. Sun SPARC Enterprise T5140, T5240 or T5440) using UltraSPARC T1, T2, and T2 Plus processors with chip multithreading (CMT) architecture. These servers support up to 256 virtual CPUs and 512 GB of physical memory in a very dense form factor.

The Blueprint provides detailed step-by-step instructions and is full of recommendations.
For example, did you know:

• It is possible to dynamically add or remove CPUs from an active domain as long as each domain running Oracle RAC has a minimum of 8 virtual CPUs (1 CPU core)?
• Running Oracle RAC on Logical Domains requires the use of Logical Domains Manager 1.0.3 or later, of at least Solaris 10 05/08 (Update 5) and of Oracle 10g R2 (Oracle 10.2.0.4)?
• Virtual disks shared by Oracle RAC guest domains should be backed by full physical SCSI disks or SCSI LUNs?
• You should make sure that shared LUNs appear with the same name in each guest domain? (the BluePrint explains why and how)

Before installing Oracle RAC on Sun LDoms, make sure that you download a copy this BluePrint it will surely save you a lot of time and avoid headaches!

How to run Windows for FREE using VirtualBox

By CNET TV, how to use VirtualBox to run Windows for free in a Virtual machine.

 Link to CNET Video

 Link to VirtualBox

OpenSolaris Launch at CommunityOne

On June 1st 2009, I was at CommunityOne as OpenSolaris 2009.06 was launched during John Fowler's talk show, joined by guests Greg Lavender, Director of Open Networking for OpenSolaris, Stephen Hahn, Technical Lead for OpenSolaris and Mike Shapiro, Technical Lead for OpenStorage.

OpenSolaris 2009.06 was positioned by John Fowler as the  preview release for the next generation of Solaris. It can be used from the data center to a laptop in a Virtual machine using VirtualBox.

Some of the OpenSolaris 2009.06 new features and demos caught my eye, here are some of my notes:

Stephen Hahn demoed SourceJuicer showing a one-click installation process. SourceJuicer offers a simple way for community members to contribute new packages in the OpenSolaris repository.

Greg Lavender demoed Crossbow. The Crossbow framework is a complete rearchitecture of the OpenSolaris networking stack that virtualizes the entire operating system network stack. During the Crossbow demo, Greg showed Dynamic pulling by dynamically adjusting the bandwidth control on a Web server at the VNIC level.

Stephen Hahn ran the demo of ZFS and Time Slider, a graphical Snapshot Management tool. Time Slider offers a graphical front-end to ZFS' revision and snapshot features.
ZFS takes snapshots every 15 minutes (using command zfs snapshot). During the demo, a picture of a frog turns into a picture of a tadpole as Stephen goes back to a previous snapshot and going back further, turns into a picture of frog eggs. John Fowler asked Stephen to go all the way back to the big bang but unfortunately it appears that ZFS snapshots were not enabled at the time.

Then Mike Shapiro talked about Flash Technologies and how ZFS can leverage different kinds of Flash for different types of usage. ZFS manages DRAM, Flash and disk drives automatically deciding what storage media to use and creates hybrid storage pools.

Also mentioned was the integration of Microsoft CIFS as a native protocol in kernel to allow better Microsoft server compatibility.

Finally, my favorite demo, Mike Shapiro demoed real-time usage of analytics in the user interface of a Sun Storage 7310 enterprise storage appliance. Because the Web administration interface leverages DTrace, it can provide complete, very granular and real-time usage Analytics. Mike first showed NFS ops/sec, querying live what files were being accessed over NFS. Then he entered a DTrace query, using the UI, to compare percentages of read and write workloads. Finally he showed a "heat map" of latencies for read operations as the 7310 was serving the requests backstage. I had the opportunity to go backstage just after the show and it was a true live demo. No smoke, no mirrors. I even helped the guys packing the 7310 unit (and the backup unit).

More on OpenSolaris
More on VirtualBox
More on Sun Storage 7310

Video on Sun/Microsoft Interoperability Center

Here is a Video on the Sun/Microsoft Interoperability Center:

Sun/Microsoft Interoperability Center Open For Business

Yesterday, Friday March 7, 2008 was a big day for the Sun/Microsoft Interoperability Center: It was the Grand Opening by Bob Kelly, Microsoft Corporate Vice President and Lisa Sieker, Sun Microsystems Systems Marketing Vice President.

The Interoperability Center extends the Sun presence on the Microsoft campus in Redmond. It will allow Sun and Microsoft to make sure that their respective products work well together in many critical areas for customers of both companies, such as Virtualization, Java, Systems Management, Identity,... Another of the lab's mission is proof-of-concept testing which will leverage both Microsoft's EEC and Sun's Solutions Centers.

The Center is now open for business!

 It was a great day for both companies. After the ribbon cutting ceremony we had a demonstration of the Sun Ray thin client in the Windows environment. Many Microsoft engineers were very enthusiastic about the Sun Ray technology. We then had a number of meetings and product presentations.

 Here is Trevor showing the internals of the Sun Fire X4450 (See Can your 2U Server do that?)

Finally Bob Kelly mentioned needing his haircut refreshed. Lisa Sieker, women of many talents, quickly fixed that little issue. ;-)

Can your 2U Servers do that?

On Wednesday February 27th 2008, Microsoft launched Windows Server 2008 in Los Angeles. Sun was part of the launch as a Gold Partner. I was part of the team demoing the Sun Ray server running in a VM on top of Windows Server 2008 and Hyper-V. That demo was running on a small 2U server, the Sun Fire X4450. It is a very small server, only 2 rack units high. I mean it's just 2U, how big can it be? Right?

Well, try 4-sockets with 16 processing cores clocked at 2.4 GHz, 128 GB of RAM, 8 internal SAS disk drives with RAID 0/1/5/6/10/50/60 and 6 PCIe slots! And yes, all that fits in 2 rack units if you have Sun engineers design it. Sure, we could have just slapped the 4-socket caneland motherboard in one of our 4U chassis just like the other guys... But where would have been the value of that design?

 Can your 2U servers do that?

When do you know that you travel too much?

When you rent a regular cheap car and Avis tells you to go to J32 and there is a Cadillac CTS sitting there... Sweet! :-)

Sun/Microsoft Interoperability Center Build Out Phase II

This is our second trip to Redmond to work on the Sun/Microsoft Interoperability center. A number of additional systems have been delivered since the holiday break. We are going to spend the next two days assembling, racking and cabling these puppies. These new systems create a lot of excitement around us because of their unique and innovative designs.  For example one of the stars is the Sun Fire X4500 data server that packs 48 disk drives and a 2-socket x64 server in a 4U form factor.

Here is a couple of Sun Fire X4500's sitting next to part of the ST6140 storage array.

As we go in the storage room downstairs, we find some Sun Fire X4450 (2U, 4 sockets) and Sun Fire X4600 (4U, 8 sockets) x64 servers. Here is Bill moving a 50+ Kg X4600 with just two fingers...

Also waiting for us are some Sun Blade 6000 chassis and blades. The 6000 chassis can host up to 10 blades (a. k. a. Server Modules) with either Sun UltraSPARC T2, AMD Opteron or Intel Xeon processors.

Some of the systems require assembly. For those that thought that a 2U high rackmount server is a small server, think again. The Sun Fire X4450 server packs 4 Quad-Core Xeon 7300 processors (that is 16 computing cores) with 32 DIMM slots (that is up to 128 GB of RAM using 4 GB DIMMs), 6 PCIe expansion slots and 8 internal SAS disk drives! Need to see it to believe it? Here is Trevor loading memory in a X4450. The 4 CPUs are located under the memory tray.

As we go back to the EEC data center to rack the new systems, I try to keep up with Trevor "Flash" McGill as he racks and cables everything in no time. Here he is racking a ST6140 Storage Array in .037 sec. I had to set my camera to a special action sport setting to capture this shot.

At the end of day 2 we have all the new gear racked and cabled. Part of the storage will be directly attached to the servers. Here are some Sun Fire X4450 servers with Sun StorageTek 2530 arrays directly connected. At the bottom are the rack power distribution units with the power switches ready to be turned ON.

At the bottom of the next rack is a Sun Blade 6000 chassis and blades ready to go. Bill and Trevor looking at a job well done.

The racks in the MPSC also received several additional systems, including a Sun Blade 6000 chassis.

The next and final steps will be to configure the networks and systems for remote management (all Sun x64 systems include a fully featured Service Processor with KVM over IP) and OS provisioning, then test the storage and we will be ready to go. Some of the systems are actually already running as I am typing this...

To be continued...

Sun/Microsoft Interoperability Center Build Out

The last few days were pretty exciting as I was in Redmond on Microsoft's main campus where we are building the Sun/Microsoft Interoperability Center. You might recall Sun and Microsoft announcing the Interoperability Center on September 12, 2007 as part of the announcement "Microsoft and Sun Expand Strategic Alliance".

The campus in Redmond, and particularly building 25, is nothing new to me as I already had the pleasure to work with John Cressey's team to install several racks of Sun gear in the Microsoft EEC in March 2005. The main focus at the time was to allow customers to run proof of concepts using Microsoft software and Sun x64 systems and storage, thanks to the EEC infrastructure. The new Interop center is a lot more ambitious and leverages both the Enterprise Engineering Center (EEC) and the Microsoft Partner Solution Center (MPSC).

So here I am again in the lobby of building 25, looking at the same gigantic EEC and MPSC signs hanging in front of the tall glass wall.

First I had to go and say "hello" to old friends in the EEC data center... They will soon be upgraded with Sun's greatest and latest but will continue being used by the EEC.

This view is from the inside of the EEC training room. Here is a wider shot. They look pretty good I have to say.

Inside the EEC, we were greeted with a nice Sun logo. This screen actually plays a presentation looping through the logos of all the EEC partnering vendors.

As we enter the EEC setup lab, we find all the Sun systems and racks recently delivered.
For the next two days, we will be upgrading and installing Sun Fire X2200 M2 servers, Sun Fire X4150 servers, Sun StorageTek 2530 Arrays, Sun Ultra 40 M2 workstations and Sun Fire X4500 data servers in several Sun Rack 1000-42 cabinets. This is only the beginning. During our next visit we will be installing many additional systems, including, and not limited to, the extremely dense 2U 4-socket Sun Fire X4450 servers, the powerful  8-socket Sun Fire X4600 server and the high price/performance Sun StorageTek 6140 Array.

Here is a pile of Sun Fire X4150 servers, memory DIMMs, tool-less rackmount kits and a Sun Rack 1000-42 waiting to be put together.

On the left are some Sun StorageTek 2530 arrays and on the right some Sun Fire X2200 M2 servers, all waiting to be racked.

 The team is working fast and the servers are quickly upgraded with additional memory and drives and then installed in the racks. Here are Bill Channell, Alan McFarland, Wayne Brady and Brian McBride unpacking the X4150's.

The Sun Fire X4150 servers are loaded with memory. These 1U 2-socket servers support 16 DIMMs, 8 disk drives and 3 PCIe cards! Notice the nice clean design with virtually no cables except for the SAS cables going to the RAID HBA.

Trevor "Flash" McGill was working at the speed of light! I couldn't get a clear shot of him, this is the best I could do. ;-)

Alicia Kreshock gave us a hand and even paid for lunch, thanks again Alicia! Things were moving along pretty quickly.

And here is the end result (for now). Sun Rack 1000-42 cabinets installed in the EEC Data Center.

 And more Sun racks installed in the MPSC.

 This is just the beginning, there is a lot more to come...