From: ANTHONY DELSORBO (delsorbo@ASC.HPC.MIL)
Date: Wed Jul 24 2002 - 09:12:25 EDT
If you have applications that are platform independent (or even better --
open source), then you'll probably get a better price/performance from linux.
We run a batch high performance computing shop and found that, for the
majority, our users would prefer faster turnaround time than state of the
bleeding edge performance. You can do that with a linux cluster and most of
our software effectively does the job for our users.
I think the critical consideration is support -- hardware and/or software.
IBM offers you a whole package deal with either series (x or p). On the
other hand if you're considering going with commodity hardware (i.e. dell
workstations, or some other brand), then you could conceivably save money on
hardware -- in the short term. So how do you handle HW costs during a
failure? Certainly it's cheaper to buy a new motherboard (say $150) vs. HW
support from IBM. But, can you afford the down-time and the on-site hardware
engineer you'll need to install that motherboard?
The software is another issue altogether. Linux software is "free." That
is, until you start considering the time the SA or some other engineer will
need to fix a kernel bug representing a security vulnerability. Since we
installed our cluster, we had to upgrade our linux kernel, due to security
vulnerabilities, three times. Each time, we had to consider the impact on
the other SW. For example, one piece of SW was IBM proprietary -- no source
code. Since it was kernel dependent, it would not work with the new kernel.
Also, since security was more important than the product, we had to forego
that piece of SW. Is the SW available as open source or will it run on a
linux machine? In general, you'll need highly qualified Sys Admins and/or SW
engineers on site if you choose a non-vendor support solution for Linux.
IMO Linux can do all things that AIX can do with the exception of High
Availability.
Tony DelSorbo
Senior Systems Administrator (SP and Linux)
On Wednesday 24 July 2002 08:20 am, Bruce Harvey wrote:
> It all depends on what you want to do. What applications (commercial and
> proprietary) are you running, what resources do they use (software and
> hardware) and so forth.
>
> --------------------
> Bruce T. Harvey, Special Projects Developer
> Insight Distribution Systems, Hunt Valley, MD
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Vesna Vranesic [mailto:vesna.vranesic@RZB.AT]
> Sent: Wednesday, July 24, 2002 8:11 AM
> To: aix-l@Princeton.EDU
> Subject: [aix-l] AIX vs. Linux
>
>
> Hi everyone,
>
> I am doing a kind of list AIX vs. Linux running on both pSeries and
> (especially) xSeries. It's about
> possibilities for business usage of Linux in our company. Our management
> would like to
> achieve some cost savings through migrating some applications from AIX to
> Linux, or/and ...
>
> After looking a round I still haven't got a clear picture. (Except that the
> IBM does great advertising
> in this field. But that's another story.) I guess many of you have been
> confronted with the same
> question. Any experience with this theme to share, opinions or suggestions
> would be greatly appreciated.
>
> Ciao
> Vesna
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