My Original message was:
>
>We are currently running a small SunOS site (4.1.4) with 6 SS5s, 1 Tatung
>clone SS5, and one SS4. All the workstations have 1 Gbyte internal disks and
>are setup as stand alone systems. One of the SS5s has a couple of 2.1 Gbyte
>Desktop Disk Packs and serves as an NFS server for all the others. We do
>software development and support the operator interface for a meium sized
>control system with the Sun workstations. We don't use an commercial dbms
>products and none of our applications are particularly disk I/O intensive.
>Performance has been adequate using SunOS 4.1.4 and a little tuning of the
>NFS server. All the workstations are networked using 10Base-T and an
>ethernet switch.
>
>In August-September we plan to convert to Solaris (2.5.1 or 2.6), upgrade
>the SS5s to 170 MHz, and add three Ultra Sparc 170s to the site. We will
>double the external storage for the workstation serving as an NFS server.
>
>My question is what type of Solaris should we install on the SS5-170 used as
>an NFS server? The catalog lists two distributions and licenses -- "Desktop
>Solaris" (get a license with every workstation), and "Solaris Application
>Server" (license costs about $1800). Our Sun saleperson recommends buying
>the application server license (surprise, surprise). Is this really
>necessary for a dozen workstations and 8-10 Gbytes of NFS storage? Are other
>people running NFS servers on workstations with a plain vanilla flavored
>"Desktop Solaris" distribution? What kind of experiences have other Sys
>Amins had with this type of configuration?
>
>We plan to purchase a "real" server in fiscal 98 or 99, but don't have the
>money for it this year.
>
The majority, if not universal, opinion seemed to be:
1) Solaris is Solaris. A desktop system will run fine as a server and a number
of people are using them as servers.
2) Technically however, even if they don't enforce it, Sun requires a "server"
license if:
a) You "serve" anything, including NFS.
b) You can have more than 2 users logged into the server at one time.
c) You run software that will only run on a server such as Solstice
Disksuite or Solstice Backup.
Many thanks to the following people for thier help:
Ken Owen kowen@aip.org
Russ Poffenberger poffen@San-Jose.ate.slb.com
Jens Fisher jefi@kat.ina.de
birger@Vast.Skrivervik.No
Nial o Broin nobroin@esoc.esa.de
jbendl@mtb.phil.mop.com
Charles D Groenveld groenvel@cse.psu.edu
Jim Harmon jharmon2telecnnct.com
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : Fri Sep 28 2001 - 23:11:58 CDT