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Lucky me. I am a long time Sun user, I've owned (personally) a number
of workstations over the years, Admin'd a number of servers (e450s,
E35Ks). Adminning is just a small part of my roles as I'm part owner
of a small company, so I can't pretend to be as up on as many topics as
I'd like... but that's why I'm here.

I recently acquired an E10K with the following specs:
Sun Starfire E10000
28x400Mhz CPU
28GB Memory
291GB Storage

Included Parts:
Server Cabinet
7x 501-5693 CPU/Memory System Boards, each with 4x 501-5762 400Mhz
CPUs, and 4GB of Memory (32x 501-2654 - 128MB Modules)
2x 501-5494 Controller Board
2x 501-4346 Controller Board
2x Sun D1000 Storage Arrays w/8x 18.2GB Hard Drives
5x 370-2443 SCSI Interface SBus Module
5x 501-5443 Quad Fast Ethernet SBus Module
1x Pacific Access 16509 VCS Host Interface
2x 540-3441 Power Supply Unit
8x 300-1430 Fan Unit
16x 540-3409 Fan Unit
1x EMS 300-1403-01 Power Distrubution Unit
2x 3Com SuperStack 3 3C16440A Baseline Hub
1x 3Com SuperStack 2 3C16440 Baseline Hub

When the machine arrives, I'd like to be able to start configuring the
machine. As the machine will be used in a relatively small company,
say roughly 10 people hitting the machine for heavy analytic work, I'm
thinking about configuring just one domain and letting it fly on that.

So, all that said, does anyone out there have a good place for
reference materials for someone to bring one of these things up on
line.

I'll likely be attaching a bunch of T3s to the back in time, but want
to get the box up and running first.

I also noticed that in the list of included items that there does not
seem to be a ssp included. Any thoughts there?

I'm also thinking that I'd like to go with Solaris 10. Does anyone
have any thoughts regarding OS? I've got Solaris 8 running now on my
E3500 and a fresh copy of Solaris 10 on an ultra10 that I use to play
with.

Any help that anyone could provide would be greatly appreciated. I
know that I'm looking at a fairly tall learning curve, but it should be
a fun ride.

Oh, and as far as the enviornmental issues... I'm working on getting
power and cooling set now... so, I'll be covered on that. Man, this
thing is a monster.

Best,

sparcbox

sparcbox wrote:

>
> I recently acquired an E10K with the following specs:
> Sun Starfire E10000
> 28x400Mhz CPU
> 28GB Memory
> 291GB Storage

[snip]

You cannot bring up an E10k without the domain keys.
The key file resides on the SSP, which is usually an Ultra5 workstation.
Go back to your supplier and get the SSP and a backup tape of its files,
without this you will need to buy a Sun support contract which is _VERY_
expensive for these systems to get a new key.
Effectively your machine is only good to be stripped for spares without
the key file.

If you are in the UK I may be able to help you get this set up.
Remove the news and the nospam for email.

On 2006-07-15, sparcbox <sparcbox@gmail.com> wrote:
>

>
> I also noticed that in the list of included items that there does not
> seem to be a ssp included. Any thoughts there?
>

Sorry I can't help, but do please let us know how you get on. Given
the cost of these things on eBay (there was one on eBay.co.uk a few
weeks ago of a similar spec for GBP3K!) I suspect some are going to
be making their way into private hands soon.

--
"Other people are not your property."
[email me at huge [at] huge [dot] org [dot] uk]

On 15 Jul 2006 12:58:43 GMT Huge <Huge@nowhere.much.invalid> wrote:
> Sorry I can't help, but do please let us know how you get on. Given
> the cost of these things on eBay (there was one on eBay.co.uk a few
> weeks ago of a similar spec for GBP3K!) I suspect some are going to
> be making their way into private hands soon.

They've been "cheap" for awhile now (but GBP3K sounds insane), but
space and power is a large concern. Now with S10 containers (zones)
and pretty fast x64 HW available, I'd be cautious about getting an E10K
unless you specifically need it.

-frank

On 15 Jul 2006 04:42:03 -0700 "sparcbox" <sparcbox@gmail.com> wrote:
> E35Ks). Adminning is just a small part of my roles as I'm part owner
> of a small company,
^^^^^

....
> I'm also thinking that I'd like to go with Solaris 10. Does anyone
> have any thoughts regarding OS? I've got Solaris 8 running now on my
> E3500 and a fresh copy of Solaris 10 on an ultra10 that I use to play
> with.

S10 is so much better than the previous generation, if your app isn't
tied to an earlier version you really must upgrade. I get the
impression you're value conscious as well, so you should realize
that anything before S10 is very expensive. IIRC on the order of $100k
(you need the max license regardless of how many CPUs you actually use),
which is probably 5-10x what you paid for the hardware.

If you're only using a single domain, why the E10K over newer (Opteron)
hardware. Power costs are likely to be quite expensive for the E10K.

-frank

sparcbox <sparcbox@gmail.com> wrote:
> Lucky me. I am a long time Sun user, I've owned (personally) a number
> of workstations over the years, Admin'd a number of servers (e450s,
> E35Ks). Adminning is just a small part of my roles as I'm part owner
> of a small company, so I can't pretend to be as up on as many topics as
> I'd like... but that's why I'm here.
>
> I recently acquired an E10K with the following specs:

Umm.. why?

Given the power an E10K will chew up, you'll find that something like a
V440 will work out cheaper within at most a few months - and give roughly
the same performance as the E10K.

Scott

: Umm.. why?

: Given the power an E10K will chew up, you'll find that something like a
: V440 will work out cheaper within at most a few months - and give roughly
: the same performance as the E10K.


I do sympathize with him though.

Within the last month one similar to what he bought was on ebay, I think for
2 grand. After I stopped drooling and reality set in thinking about the
power consumption and shipping costs on a one-ton peice of iron, I quickly
got my finger off the "buy it now" button.

I didn't know about the domain keys and the special workstation needed to
make those things run. Like him (probably) I thought they were like any
other peice of Sun hardware, turn it on and go (more or less).

If anything, one attraction to them is the simple fact that just 4 to 5
years ago you couldn't touch one used for under half a million USD. That and
the notion it probably would be more computer than 99.9% of the worlds
businesses would need, I still wouldn't call the cops for littering if
someone dropped one off outside my front door.

Sort of feel sorry for the guy, sounds like he made one too many plans
before looking under the hood.

-bruce
bje@ripco.com

Bruce Esquibel wrote:

> : Umm.. why?
>
> : Given the power an E10K will chew up, you'll find that something like a
> : V440 will work out cheaper within at most a few months - and give roughly
> : the same performance as the E10K.
>
>
> I do sympathize with him though.
>
> Within the last month one similar to what he bought was on ebay, I think for
> 2 grand. After I stopped drooling and reality set in thinking about the
> power consumption and shipping costs on a one-ton peice of iron, I quickly
> got my finger off the "buy it now" button.
>
> I didn't know about the domain keys and the special workstation needed to
> make those things run. Like him (probably) I thought they were like any
> other peice of Sun hardware, turn it on and go (more or less).
>
> If anything, one attraction to them is the simple fact that just 4 to 5
> years ago you couldn't touch one used for under half a million USD. That and
> the notion it probably would be more computer than 99.9% of the worlds
> businesses would need, I still wouldn't call the cops for littering if
> someone dropped one off outside my front door.
>
> Sort of feel sorry for the guy, sounds like he made one too many plans
> before looking under the hood.
>
> -bruce
> bje@ripco.com

That reminds me of Cray machines a few years back -- they went from
being the world's fastest machines to scrap in a remarkably short
time.

--
The e-mail address in our reply-to line is reversed in an attempt to
minimize spam. Our true address is of the form che...@prodigy.net.

Le Sun, 16 Jul 2006 20:29:36 +0000, CJT a écrit*:

>
> That reminds me of Cray machines a few years back -- they went from being
> the world's fastest machines to scrap in a remarkably short time.

That's how big iron ends... A couple of months ago, the CEA in France sold
for 5000 euros the NEC supercomputer that was n°4 in 1999 (192 vector
CPUs, 384 GB RAM, not that puny .

--
Sutor ne ultra Crepidam.

On 2006-07-15, Frank Cusack <fcusack@fcusack.com> wrote:
> On 15 Jul 2006 12:58:43 GMT Huge <Huge@nowhere.much.invalid> wrote:
>> Sorry I can't help, but do please let us know how you get on. Given
>> the cost of these things on eBay (there was one on eBay.co.uk a few
>> weeks ago of a similar spec for GBP3K!) I suspect some are going to
>> be making their way into private hands soon.
>
> They've been "cheap" for awhile now (but GBP3K sounds insane), but
> space and power is a large concern. Now with S10 containers (zones)
> and pretty fast x64 HW available, I'd be cautious about getting an E10K
> unless you specifically need it.

Mmmm. Shiney things.

Actually, my wife would kill me.


--
"Other people are not your property."
[email me at huge [at] huge [dot] org [dot] uk]