From owner-freebsd-sparc64@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Jan 12 08:04:06 2010 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-sparc64@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C505B1065672 for ; Tue, 12 Jan 2010 08:04:06 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from samankaya@netscape.net) Received: from imr-ma01.mx.aol.com (imr-ma01.mx.aol.com [64.12.206.39]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 849D58FC1A for ; Tue, 12 Jan 2010 08:04:06 +0000 (UTC) Received: from imo-da01.mx.aol.com (imo-da01.mx.aol.com [205.188.169.199]) by imr-ma01.mx.aol.com (8.14.1/8.14.1) with ESMTP id o0C83o7L004831; Tue, 12 Jan 2010 03:03:50 -0500 Received: from samankaya@netscape.net by imo-da01.mx.aol.com (mail_out_v42.5.) id r.cae.59c8185a (34964); Tue, 12 Jan 2010 03:03:47 -0500 (EST) Received: from [172.16.1.52] (mail.reformkurumsal.com [212.156.209.87]) by cia-da07.mx.aol.com (v127.7) with ESMTP id MAILCIADA071-88944b4c2cd72a2; Tue, 12 Jan 2010 03:03:47 -0500 Message-ID: <4B4C2CD3.9090407@netscape.net> Date: Tue, 12 Jan 2010 10:03:31 +0200 From: Kaya Saman User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.21 (X11/20090323) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Gavin Atkinson References: <4B4A6FA5.1010002@netscape.net> <4B4B6E37.3050005@netscape.net> <9dd082311001111056j1ca3afb4le14ba84270fb730@mail.gmail.com> <4B4B7D86.6000502@netscape.net> In-Reply-To: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-AOL-IP: 212.156.209.87 X-Mailer: Unknown (No Version) X-Spam-Flag: NO X-AOL-SENDER: samankaya@netscape.net Cc: freebsd-sparc64@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Newbie to FreeBSD on SPARC - questions about Sun hardware X-BeenThere: freebsd-sparc64@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Porting FreeBSD to the Sparc List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 12 Jan 2010 08:04:06 -0000 Many thanks guys, I will respond with a prominent reply hopefully within a few hours if not then at around ~17:00 EET time as I have some work to do in the office allocated to me right now. :-) Best regards, Kaya Gavin Atkinson wrote: > On Mon, 11 Jan 2010, Kaya Saman wrote: > >> Actually I am not that much interested in the performance benefits between x86 >> and SPARC; but more between OpenSolaris and FreeBSD on SPARC as I will be >> running either one on a Sun V480 server. >> > > It's quite hard to say with any certainty. I'd personally say that on my > old Ultra 5, Solaris is a little faster, especially for IDE disk access. > On my V480, I can't tell any difference in speed between FreeBSD and > Solaris. However, it's probably very dependent on the exact workload: > something entirely CPU bound or I/O bound probably won't be any faster or > slower whatever the OS is. > > >> The issue I am facing is purely down to software and administration. I mean >> the best example I can provide is that BSD has the packages I want at least >> for x86 which I've seen: that are Cacti, Munin, and awstats (should also be >> there for SPARC too) but then Solaris has zones which allow me to allocate a >> separate virtualized OS contained within the master OS or global zone. BSD on >> the other hand has jails and as from going onto the jails list apparently I >> can actually assign interfaces to various jails which is what I was going to >> do if I used Solaris Zones. >> > > Briefly (and again, personal opinion): > > Solaris Zones win over FreeBSD Jails (but if you're not using the extra > features like resource limiting then there's probably no real difference). > > Solaris hardware monitoring (failed PSU, etc) wins over FreeBSD (I'm not > sure if FreeBSD supports any "fan failed" type stuff) > > FreeBSD ports win over OpenCSW or Blastwave, by a *long* way. > > FreeBSD community wins over Solaris community (I've had a lot of > experience with both!). > > At the end of the day, Solaris is always going to win on the level of > hardware support, but from a day to day management point of view I'd say > FreeBSD and it's ports win hands down. > > Gavin >