tek@penzance.cs.ucla.edu (09/11/90)
My university research group is is considering getting some RS6000s.
My question to the net is how well do they integrate into the
hodge-podge university environment? In particular, they would have to
cooperate with/tolerate our SUN machines.
1. BSD support
How easy is it to run in the BSD command environment?
Does putting /usr/ucb before /usr/bin really do the trick?
Can one get away with using only BSD system administration tools?
Or is use of System V administration tools necessary?
We grab a lot of stuff off the net requiring the BSD C environment.
How easy is it to port BSD C-language applications?
Does the BSD environment variable really do the trick?
2. Network Services
Any problems with the provided versions of:
sendmail, named (Hopefully, these are modern versions with MX records?)
NFS, YP
net daemons: inetd, lpd, rshd, etc.
Can you network boot and run run diskless (and swap via NFS)?
Does an X11 R4 server exist for all the displays?
Dose the IBM X11 software come with Motif?
3. General Impression
Bugginess of the OS?
(eg like the spectacular security holes in vanilla SUNOS 4.0)
Reliability of the Hardware?
(eg like the high failure rate of SUN's 19" monochrome monitors on 3/60s)
Any other comments?
-ted
Ted Kim Internet: tek@penzance.cs.ucla.edu
UCLA Computer Science Department UUCP: ...!{uunet|ucbvax}!cs.ucla.edu!tek
3804C Boelter Hall Phone: (213)206-8696
Los Angeles, CA 90024 FAX: (213)825-2273 peter@dbaccess.com (Peter A. Castro) (09/12/90)
in article <38848@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU>, tek@penzance.cs.ucla.edu says: > > My university research group is is considering getting some RS6000s. > My question to the net is how well do they integrate into the > hodge-podge university environment? In particular, they would have to > cooperate with/tolerate our SUN machines. > > 1. BSD support > > How easy is it to run in the BSD command environment? > Does putting /usr/ucb before /usr/bin really do the trick? for the most part, yes. However, there will be a few things that are boarder-line as to wether they are SysV or BSD. > > Can one get away with using only BSD system administration tools? Only with the greatest of pain. > Or is use of System V administration tools necessary? Actually IBM (as always) has their own flavor of administration tools called SMIT (System Management Integrated Tool). To be perfectly honest, we have had to use ALL three flavors of Admin tools to get the job done... > > We grab a lot of stuff off the net requiring the BSD C environment. > How easy is it to port BSD C-language applications? > Does the BSD environment variable really do the trick? Again, for the most part, yes. Some of our developers have found a few of the BSD library subroutine missing, though. Actually this AIX tents to be more SysV-ish than BSD-ish. > > 2. Network Services > > Any problems with the provided versions of: > sendmail, named (Hopefully, these are modern versions with MX records?) > NFS, YP > net daemons: inetd, lpd, rshd, etc. These all work fine, however, there is an annoying management tool for system daemons called the SRC (System Resource Controller) master, which is supposed to proved a common control mechanise for deamons. But it is inconsistent in that certain daemons will not respond to it, and (worse of all) it looses track of them and can't communicate with them again! (note: this is a bug for which there is an update comming any day now...so they tell me). > > Can you network boot and run run diskless (and swap via NFS)? Don't know about that...don't have any diskless stations, only 320s and a 530...oh and a bunch of X-stations (120s) > > Does an X11 R4 server exist for all the displays? Haven't seen one, bit there is one for X11R3. One thing to note: their implementation of X11 on their 320s and the X11 that runs on their X-stations do *not* act the same way. Example: We just had a demo of FramMaker2.1 for the RS/6000. The demo (called demomaker) would talk to the X-station without any problems at all (nice graphics too), however, when talking to the X11 server running on the 320, it kills X!! I mean the X process dies! (Interesting, you say?...) > Dose the IBM X11 software come with Motif? Yes, it's their prefered flavor. > > 3. General Impression > > Bugginess of the OS? > (eg like the spectacular security holes in vanilla SUNOS 4.0) Haven't found any holes yet (yes, I've looked for them). IBM tried to close up as many holes as possible with this version of AIX (after all, they planned to sell these things to the likes of the Government). However, their "golden" copy of the OS that is being shipped, even as we type, has bugs in it. We come across them almost daily. But, fear not, for IBM has an Update in the works that is supposed to fix them Real Soon. > Reliability of the Hardware? > (eg like the high failure rate of SUN's 19" monochrome monitors on 3/60s) Of the hardware we have (530,320s,120s,13" color, 19" mono) only one of the 19" monos' had to be replaced. In the beginning of the installation process we turned all of the machinery on/off several times a day, and haven't had any problems. Oh, I jsut remembered, we also have a 4019 LaserPrinter, which had to be "rebuilt"...IBM prefered to rebuild it instead of replacing it, because the paper work was less (do they claim). The One thing I like about IBM is that their hardware is very stable. > > Any other comments? Software, on the other hand.....well, there's a lot to be desired. I know they meant well, but IBM did what IBM always does when they enter into a market, they imposed their own standards on Unix. Looking back at my comments, it occurs to me that I was a bit cynical in my responses. AIX v3.0 is an addequate implementation of Unix, however, integrating their system into a network of other systems will not be trivial. While I'm not trying to turn you off to the RS/6000 (really, I'm not), You should ask VERY detailed questions of IBM before you buy. > > > -ted > > Ted Kim Internet: tek@penzance.cs.ucla.edu > UCLA Computer Science Department UUCP: ...!{uunet|ucbvax}!cs.ucla.edu!tek > 3804C Boelter Hall Phone: (213)206-8696 > Los Angeles, CA 90024 FAX: (213)825-2273 For what it's worth, those are my comments. Feel free to ask questions if you wish more information. -- Peter A. Castro INTERNET: peter@dbaccess.com // //| c/o DB/Access Inc. UUCP: {uunet,mips}!troi!peter // //|| 2900 Gordon Avenue, Suite 101 FAX: (408) 735-0328 \\ // //-||- Santa Clara, CA 95051 TEL: (408) 735-7545 \// // ||
drake@drake.almaden.ibm.com (09/12/90)
In article <38848@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU> tek@CS.UCLA.EDU (Ted Kim (Random Dude)) writes: >1. BSD support > > We grab a lot of stuff off the net requiring the BSD C environment. > How easy is it to port BSD C-language applications? > Does the BSD environment variable really do the trick? I'll let others with more BSD experience answer many of your questions; I'll stick with ones with more straight-forward answers. In general, porting things from the net (say from comp.sources.unix) is pretty straightforward. A good number of things port in an hour or less...my personal time limit for most mildly-interesting things. BUT ... the trick described in some documentation with the BSD environment variable doesn't seem to work at this point. There's an excellent writeup on porting code from BSD to AIX 3 that's supplied in /usr/lpp/bos on the distributed system. >2. Network Services > > Any problems with the provided versions of: > sendmail, named (Hopefully, these are modern versions with MX records?) These have MX, MB, MR and MG support. > NFS, YP > net daemons: inetd, lpd, rshd, etc. We've had good luck with these (I haven't used YP (sorry, NIS) extensively). > Can you network boot and run run diskless (and swap via NFS)? No. > Does an X11 R4 server exist for all the displays? Not at this time. > Dose the IBM X11 software come with Motif? Yes. Sam Drake / IBM Almaden Research Center Internet: drake@ibm.com BITNET: DRAKE at ALMADEN Usenet: ...!uunet!ibmarc!drake Phone: (408) 927-1861
jeffe@sandino.austin.ibm.com (Peter Jeffe 512.823.4091) (09/13/90)
In article <38848@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU> tek@CS.UCLA.EDU (Ted Kim (Random Dude)) writes: > Any problems with the provided versions of: > sendmail, named (Hopefully, these are modern versions with MX records?) > NFS, YP > net daemons: inetd, lpd, rshd, etc. named is BIND 4.8.1, sendmail is essentially 5.61 with a few enhancements like National Language Support. It supports MX *and* MB, MG, and MR records (as far as I know, it's the first commercial sendmail to do so). All of AIX tcp/ip, from the kernel to the applications, is pretty much straight BSD-tahoe (NFS and YP are straight Sun). There's been support added to the daemons to use the System Resource Controller, which lets you start, stop, and refresh daemons remotely, etc., but you can use them the normal way (start from the command line, use kill to refresh/stop). If you choose not to use SRC, just comment-out its /etc/inittab entry, and the /etc/rc.tcpip script will start the daemons normally--no muss, no fuss. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Peter Jeffe ...uunet!cs.utexas.edu!ibmaus!auschs!sandino.austin.ibm.com!jeffe first they want a disclaimer, then they make you pee in a jar, then they come for you in the night