Hi professionals,
Has anyone heard about any successful virtualisation of Sun Enterprise 450 (E450) hardware?
We are running a software package on Solaris 2.6 & Oracle 7 DIMM and mirror disk failures are becoming more frequent. So just wondering if there's anything out there?
Thanks for your help.
Enterprise 450 is a too old system; either you can buy another one and migrate the data, or use the path to go to the new hardware would be that you need to migrate your App/DB to the O/S compatible with newer hardware.
The nearest SPARC-based system to E450 is the Ultra 80 workstation. You need to first install and configure O/S(Solaris-8 or 9) then migrate data/app. For SPARC kernel-based virtualization(Solaris Zones) you need to be at least on Solaris9 or 10. For hardware-based virtualization, you need SPARC-M series or SPARC T-Series.
It all depends on the application/DB you are using, that how complicated would be to do migration or vitalization for that old SPARC hardware.
However, it is also possible to install Solaris 8 or 9 virtual machines using Branded zones of Solaris 8 or Solaris 9 (old name containers) on even newer SPARC hardware like SPARC v240.
It would be much better to talk with the companies doing migration services to advise you on the right and safe way forward.
The first problem you'll encounter, is that this system is SPARC and runs in big-endian mode, so if you have Oracle DB, you can't simply copy the databases - it will need to be exported and imported into the new system - the Oracle native RMAN backup / restore tool is capable of importing a database and converting it, but there are complexities.
Then you have the application which is interfacing with the database.
If the application is Java based, and it requires specific versions, then you'll have some complexities setting the new system up to host the data and the application.
This hardware is pretty cheap when you can find it. I would suggest you find replacement hardware and keep it handy - and in the meantime, build a whole new system to take over the job and just keep the old system available for as long as needed.
If you're still running this old kit, then you're company probably doesn't place enough importance on their IT infrastructure, so I doubt you'll get what you need to be able to transition the functions to another system - cloud or not.
Sun is offering server virtualization capabilities across all its hardware platforms; it offers virtualization technologies for x86-based, SPARC and UltraSPARC hardware, as well as for hardware from other vendors such as Dell and IBM.
BUT
Sun is not a potential major competitor in the virtualization space.
@Syed Abid Hussain Thankyou. I did find another virtualization supplier called https://www.stromasys.com/ that purport to specialise in virtualization of equipment that should have been retired decades ago. I will report back outcome of discussions with them.
I would look at Proxmox for that task.
Debian-based. I find it reliable and fast!
Hi @Chris Childerhose and @SathishKumar. Maybe you're able to assist @Timothy Dollimore?
Thank you!