Montag Jun 28, 2004
Wow, browsing through the blogs these days makes you think it's Java everywhere. Since even my mobile phone I got last month now carries Java (always reminding me "You promised to write your own small little Java program for me, don't you") that statement is absolutely true. But I gave up to code for a living the very same year Java took the world by storm (ironically the year I joined Sun), so I want to share some non-Java goodies with you here:
If you ever had to install or reset dozens of servers and have no time to waste, Webstart Flash is the tool you will love. It's been part of Solaris for some years now (since Solaris 8 07/01). What it does is to take a snapshot of one master machine which was installed, patched and configured before and then installing many more hosts using this snapshot as a blueprint. The installed hosts do not need to have the exact same hardware configuration, they get their own IP address and hostname, but otherwise their are identical clones of the original master host.
Why did this feature made my day? We were doing a Hands-On Sun Java System Portal Workshop for Sun partners last months, touring through Germany and Austria, one city a day, with a B1600 Blade-Shelf and ten little SPARC blades in it. Every group of participants had their own little blade to install Java Enterprise System on it during the workshop, play with it etc. At the end of the day, all blades had to be resetted to a state that the next participants the other day could start over again from scratch. Using Flash and one Blade as an Install Server, this task took just 20 minutes. Reinstalling ten hosts in just 20 minutes - it did not only made my day, but also gave me some healthy dose of sleep.
An eight-step guide to setting up a Webstart Flash server will be part of the next "Solaris 80:20" revision to be available on bigadmin soon.
Montag Jun 21, 2004
When I joined Sun more than six years ago, I could choose between a SPARC workstation for my desk (that was before the golden SunRay age we now live in) and an Intel based laptop on the road or a SPARC laptop for both tasks. I immediately opted for the Tadpole 3000XT and did not regret my choice a single minute. Running Solaris 2.6! Having a portable Javastation server (that were my first sales calls)! Preparing presentations on the train (some german trains have power outlets next to the seats) and much more.
Well, the years went by, and StarOffice ressource requirements began to take its toll on the valiant 170MHz MicroSPARC CPU, Solaris 7 and 8 appeared on the market with no drivers for the Tadpole. Fortunately at CeBIT trade show in the year 2000, we spotted a small taiwanese company called Naturetech. They managed to squeeze almost an entire then brand-new Sun Blade 100 workstation into a nice laptop enclosure. No extra drivers needed, ready for Solaris 8, and an UltraSPARC CPU! Still no more than one hour of battery life - but hey, I already told you about the power outlets in the trains.
This is the machine I'm still using today. That is, until temptation grows too big to get an Opteron laptop running Solaris 10 64-bit with all bells and whistles...
Tadpole is still around: Today they sell a wide range of SPARC based laptops (one review here), including a (hold your breath) wireless SunRay laptop!
Sonntag Jun 20, 2004
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My first run After one year of running through cities and
forests alone (most often early in the morning) after a "no
sports" life until then, today I finally made it: I
completed my first running contest with hundrets of other hobby
runners like me.
It was raining and I was daunted by the determination on my
co-runners faces, but I had my family and some friends with me
who motivated me to show a brave face by taking lots of pictures.
So there I went, 10km in (drum roll, please) 50 minutes.
Next week I will run the Stadtlauf (21km city run) in Munich,
together with a bunch of Sun colleagues trying to outpace the
Motorola team (which usually scores well) but most of all having
a lot of fun. For those who know Munich, we start in the center
and run through the "Englischer Garten" with the
world-famous "Chinese Tower" Beer Garden in the middle.
Should be no temptation after 5km, but after 15km on the way
back?
If you do not know Munich and happen to visit this city
someday, bring your running shoes. It's always great to explore a
city while running. Almost everywhere Sun did send me to during
the last year I found a scenic running trail I will keep in
memory for a long time.
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Freitag Jun 18, 2004
Look at this short weblog entry from Jon Udell at Infoworld: Google's supercomputer. It initially caught my attention because Jon states that Google does searches with their 100k small server cluster, but runs their business applications on Sun Servers.
Be sure to follow all links in that article an you'll find this great discussion or a white paper on Google's distributed filesystem. Very interesting read on a friday afternoon!
Donnerstag Jun 17, 2004
So today is the day I'm starting my weblog. What can I tell you about me? Well, I'm not a kernel engineer, so don't expect many technical details in this blog. I'm from Germany, working in a group called "Partner Development". We are helping partners of every kind (resellers, software developers, system integrators...) making their life easier with Sun. Basically that means drinking from the firehose of the gazillions of great technologies and solutions built inside Sun every day and translating them into business value for our partners.
So whenever I find some information I consider useful for people interested in or working with Sun technology, I'll post it here.
Googling my name in combination with Sun will reveal one example: A short paper I wrote to make life easier for people working with Sun machine only every now and then (for example a partner software engineer setting up a loaner machine at 9pm the evening before a tradeshow :-). It's available on BigAdmin, a site I highly recommend when you are looking for stuff like this:
Solaris OE Guide for New System Administrators
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