Configuration and Capacity Planning for Solaris Servers [Paperback]

Brian L. Wong (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0133499529 | ISBN-13: 978-0133499520 | Publication Date: January 15, 1997 | Edition: 1st

For end-users of Sun systems, as well as Sun technicians, sales personnel, and resellers. A complete reference for planning and configuring Solaris servers for NFS, DBMS, and timesharing environments, this book addresses a range of products from Sun Microsystems Computer Corporation, including the SPARCstation 10, the SPARCcenter 2000, the SPARCserver 1000, and Solaris 2.3.

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From the Inside Flap

Preface

Configuration and Capacity Planning for Solaris Servers provides information about how to configure aSolaris-based system for use as a server in NFS, database management, Internet/intranet orgeneral-purpose environments. In modern computing, systems are nearly always used in a networkedcontext, so this book considers the impact of a server on its clients and networking infrastructure -and in turn how those components affect the server. This document concentrates on the loadcharacteristics of each type of usage and how this usage interacts with the architecture of variousSolaris-based servers to affect end-user performance.

Although the title might lead one to believe that this book is about Solaris, it is really aboutcomputer architecture - specifically, applied computer architecture. Solaris is certainly a topic, butmore fundamentally the reader should take from this material an understanding of how to apply theprinciples of computer architecture to the solution of everyday configuration and usage problems.

One of the peculiarities of this book is its emphasis on understanding, configuring, and using I/Osubsystems. Virtually every "server" system in the open computing era has an enormous interest inmanaging I/O. Modern server systems certainly have their share of central processing functions, butthis topic is exhaustively covered in the literature and is relatively familiar to many readers. Muchless well understood is the nature of I/O functions, and how to tailor usage, applications, software,and hardware to accommodate the realities of I/O.Audience

This book aims to aid the reader in configuring a server for a given end-user requirement, whetherthat requirement is current or future. As such, it is oriented toward people who typically make thiskind of recommendation or who are responsible for managing it once a system is installed: typically,these would be MIS, data processing, or other technical staff. An understanding of the basic conceptsof computer architecture is assumed, as well as intuitive understanding of the requirements ofapplications. The first section of the book, which deals with application profiles, is somewhat lesstechnical, and is suitable for a wider audience. For this reason, the first part of the book makesrecommendations with little or no technical justification. The second part of the book provides thebasis for these recommendations in considerable depth.How to Use This Book

This document consists of two very different sections. After introductory comments about methodology,the first four chapters - dealing with NFS servers, DBMS servers, Internet/intranet servers, andtimesharing or general-purpose servers - are tutorial in nature. The categories are dealt with inorder of increasing complexity. As a rule, DBMS servers are considerably more complex than NFSservers, and timesharing or general-purpose servers, especially ones with diverse user communities,are the most complex of all. These chapters are intended to be read in their entirety, rather thanbeing used primarily as reference material. Because the topics are quite diverse and may not apply toevery reader, each chapter is written to be independent of the others. Each chapter includes a numberof case studies as well as explicit rules of thumb, along with questions to consider when analyzingreal problems. As noted, in-depth technical explanations are often deferred. The case studies providedirect illustrations of the guidelines at work. Although the examples are designed to berepresentative, they are all completely fictional and do not represent an real site. Any resemblancebetween these case studies and actual sites is purely coincidental and unintentional.

The second section provides detailed technical material on a variety of subjects related toconfiguration planning. Technical bookstores carry a wide variety of excellent books on computerarchitecture, but most of them treat the subject in an abstract manner. The discussion provided inthis text reflects the real-world concerns that are relevant in daily use. This section provides thetechnical justifications for the recommendations and rules of thumb provided in the first section. Itis intended to serve primarily as reference material. There are chapters on each other primarycomponents of architecture: the basic system core (processors, memory hierarchy, and bus structures),storage systems (primarily disk), the backup and recovery process, and the Solaris 2 operating system.For the most part, this section is not specific to Sun products, since much of the architecture is adirect implementation or derivation from well-known industry standards such as SCSI.

Throughout the book, many sections conclude with a group of configuration recommendations thatsummarize the preceding text. These recommendations are marked with the (arrow) symbol.

Scope

This book addresses products announced by Sun Microsystems through December 1996. Specificallyincluded are various models of the Ultra-1, Ultra-2, SPARCstation 4, SPARCstation 5, SPARCstation 20,the SPARCserver 1000E, SPARCcenter 2000E and the Ultra Enterprise family, as well as Solaris 2releases up to and including Solaris 2.5.1. Background information is provided about many earlierproducts such as the SPARCstation 2, the SPARCserver 600MP series, and previous releases of Solaris 1,including running in Intel x86 and PowerPC systems is also covered, although the diversity of hardwareplatforms makes this task somewhat difficult.

From the Back Cover

No matter what application or SPARC architecture you're working with, Configuration and Capacity Planning for Solaris Servers can help you maximize the performance of your Solaris-based server. This is the most comprehensive guide to configuring and sizing Solaris servers for virtually any task, including:

• World Wide Web, Internet E-mail, ftp, and Usenet news servers
• NFS servers
• Database management
• Client/server computing
• Timesharing
• General purpose application servers
• Internet firewalls

Sun Microsystems engineer Brian Wong reviews the load characteristics of each type of usage, in detail. He then demonstrates how each application interacts with Solaris server architecture to impact each aspect of system performance, including throughput, latency, utilization, and efficiency. Ten detailed case studies make it easy for system administrators to take advantage of the book's concepts and methodology.

Configuration and Capacity Planning for Solaris Servers focuses extensively on critical I/O issues, showing how to tailor usage, applications, software, and hardware to accommodate the realities of I/O. It presents detailed coverage of memory and virtual memory; SBus and VME configuration; disk access, SCSI and RAID subsystems; and file systems and backup issues. Wong also presents important considerations in configuring systems based on each major SPARC architecture.

Whether you're optimizing an existing Solaris system or planning a new one, Configurations and Capacity Planning for Solaris Servers gives you the practical advice and detailed technical information you need to deliver maximum performance at the lowest possible cost.

Product Details

• Paperback: 468 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall PTR; 1st edition (January 15, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0133499529
• ISBN-13: 978-0133499520
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,897,859 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #57 in Books > Computers & Technology > Operating Systems > Solaris

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars General concepts useful even with outdated examples., November 28, 1999

By 

a - See all my reviews

This review is from: Configuration and Capacity Planning for Solaris Servers (Paperback)

Every system administrator or reseller consultant configuring systems should read this book to get an understand of the fundamentals of good system design. Much of the theory behind this is common sense, but never seems to occur to people. Brian Wong opens many eyes with this book. I highly recommend it.

The coverage of RAID techniques and their performance characteristics applies as well to HP-UX and WindowsNT as it does to Solaris. The hardware and bus technology gives some insight on how system architecture affects system performance. NFS information applies to any other filesharing service (eg., Coda, IPX, SMB, FTAM, etc.).

The layout is intuitive but limiting. Dividing the types of servers into NFS, Timeshare, DBMS and Internet is helpful. The configuration guidelines under each of these spreads a great deal of useful information throughout the book. This isn't always logical as you are talking about backup policy under DBMS configuration guidelines before covering the backup configuration. Some technologies like PrestoServe are only discussed with NFS when they can be beneficial to other servers (eg., OLTP). The general layout can be improved. A stronger layout would cover all the technologies separately (as done with Storage, RAID and Backup) with details of their configuration benefits. Under each of the server types the technologies that benefit the utilization characteristics could then be mentioned.

An up-to-date edition would be nice, as much of the Hardware used today, isn't even mentioned. PCI is overtaking Sbus, as Sbus overtook VME. FC/AL at 100MB/s is standard. The Cray CS6400 is now Sun's flagship E10k. There are new software features in Solaris, Veritas and Oracle that allow system designers to look at their job from a different perspective. Storage is become more and more centralized with the A7000, IBM ESS, Symetrix and SANS. Solid-state drives are common again. In all, enough technology has changed that a 2nd edition would be well timed.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Outdated book, doesnt cover new Sun Enterprise Servers!!!, July 2, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Configuration and Capacity Planning for Solaris Servers (Paperback)

This book is ok for the older Sun Sparc hardware but its outdated by at least 4 years! There is no coverage of Sun Enterprise servers like the E10000, E3500 or E4000!!!! That makes the book a total waste of money!!! better off, go to docs.sun.com at least its free

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Still the Alpha reference for Solaris systems, June 27, 2000

By 

Michael Ernest "JavaRanch Sheriff" (Corte Madera, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Configuration and Capacity Planning for Solaris Servers (Paperback)

The references to the Solaris OS and SPARC machines are of course out of date. Even so, Wong's methodology, analysis of performance factors, and depth of treatment are outstanding. As an Sun-certified educator, consultant, and field engineer, I use this book all the time. I have read it through six or seven times by now, and I still find (or recover) valuable information packed away in the corners. It's indispensable as a methodology reference for scoping systems, although it really should be read cover to cover at least once. Wong's breadth of coverage is absolutely impressive. When I want to show other techs a strategic way to approach system planning, I hand them a copy of this book, first thing. Read this book if you have anything to do with installing or maintaining Sun systems; then ask Brian Wong to please write the update!