PC Integration Products
| For some time, Sun Microsystems has pioneered the integration of the PC and Solaris environment, starting with the Windows Application Binary Interface (WABI), SoftWindows , and SunPC . Things have moved on significantly in recent years , with major innovations allowing a much more comprehensive integration ”in some cases, the potential exists to completely replace PC servers altogether with Solaris systems to provide the same services, but with greatly increased performance, scalability, and reliability. This section takes a look at some of the products that provide interoperability between the PC and Solaris environments. This is something the system manager should be actively implementing to provide the optimum service and range of facilities to his customers while also taking full advantage of the high availability and performance that Sun computer systems deliver as standard. Sun PCi II Coprocessor CardThe Sun PCi Coprocessor card effectively puts a powerful PC into the Sun workstation, but it also has the advantage of utilizing the Solaris workstation resources. The card currently supports a 600MHz processor and up to 512MB of memory, which is dedicated to the performance of PC applications. Using the Coprocessor card, users can run Microsoft Windows applications on the Sun workstation alongside the Solaris environment applications. An advantage of configuring the system in this way is that the PCi card takes full advantage of the reliable and robust Sun workstation. It can also share the Sun workstation's network interface if network ports are at a premium. Or it can use its own network port ”the card comes with a separate network connector, if required. The PCi Coprocessor card will run Microsoft Windows NT, 98SE, and 2000 applications while using the same monitor, keyboard, and mouse as the workstation. It also shares files and data with the workstation, permitting copy and paste facilities between the Solaris environment and the PC environment. In addition, the card shares the removable media devices, such as the floppy disk and CD-ROM drive. The Sun PCi Coprocessor card is a serious option for offices that have standardized on the PC environment yet still require the use of dedicated Sun workstations on the desktop. In these cases, the user can save valuable desktop space, receive seamless integration between the two environments, and still run complex, resource- intensive PC applications. PC LauncherPC Launcher is used in conjunction with the Sun PCi Coprocessor card discussed in the previous section and is supplied on the Solaris Supplement CD-ROM from Solaris 7 onward. The software delivers Sun PCi users the additional functionality to view, edit, and print numerous types of PC files and attachments by automatically launching the Windows application associated with the file, similar to the current practice on the native Windows platform. PC Launcher provides users with the following facilities:
Coupled with the Sun PCi Coprocessor card, the PC Launcher software delivers a comprehensive PC environment, but without the need for a separate PC system. PC File ViewerPC File Viewer is delivered as part of Solaris 7 and later releases (and Solaris 2.6 Hardware 5/98). It can be downloaded free from the Sun Microsystems Web site (http://www.sun.com) for users of early Solaris 2.6 releases. The software is available only for SPARC-based Solaris environments. PC File Viewer provides the user with the facility to view a large number of popular types of PC files or attachments, similar to the PC Launcher software described in the previous section. In this case, however, there is no need to have the original application installed on the Sun workstation. Using PC File Viewer, email attachments can be read easily, even though they might have been created using a PC application such as Microsoft Word , Excel , PowerPoint , Lotus 1-2-3 , Corel , or AutoCAD . Text from PC files viewed using PC File Viewer can be copied and pasted into Solaris applications such as Text Editor , Mail , or FrameMaker . A file viewed with this software is displayed in exactly the same way as when it was originally created. The software also displays WYSIWYG format and color . The real use for this software is to enable Solaris users on Sun workstations to receive files and email attachments, for example, in a PC application format and instantly open them ”without needing the original PC application to be installed. Previously, these files were not readable and often needed to be manually transferred to a PC to be opened, which was highly inefficient and wasted resources. Solaris PC NetlinkThe PC Netlink software for Solaris is probably the biggest interoperability innovation to be delivered. This software enables Solaris SPARC-based systems to behave like Windows NT4 servers and to replace them as domain controllers. Formerly known as Project Cascade, PC Netlink brings reliability and scalability to Windows NT networks, something sorely missing from the PC environment. Companies that have standardized on the Windows NT platform for the office network have faced problems accommodating exponential growth and still providing a reliable, available platform on which to deliver the services required by the customer. PC Netlink solves both of these problems by running the Windows NT network services on SPARC-based Solaris systems, which deliver high availability and are fully scalable. PC Netlink runs on the full range of Enterprise servers, from the Ultra 5 to the Enterprise 10000. System managers fighting to control the proliferation of Windows NT servers can replace large numbers of PC-based servers with a single Solaris-based SPARC server. This reduces the maintenance and administration costs significantly because PC Netlink servers can be administered using standard Windows NT tools, just like the PC server; thus, no change to the current operating procedures is required. PC Netlink software provides the following native services:
Windows Support Support for the Windows family of products includes clients only ”not, for example, native Windows 2000 environments. Therefore, facilities such as Active Directory, which were introduced as part of Windows 2000 server, are not supported. Figure 10.1 shows how a Solaris SPARC-based server can be integrated into the office network. Figure 10.1. Consolidation of Windows NT servers onto the Solaris platform reduces the total cost of ownership, simplifies management, and provides a fully scalable and reliable NT network. Even though PC Netlink supports all major clients, it does not actually run any Windows NT applications, although it can store and serve them to the clients. This is because the actual application runs on the client itself, not on the server. With consolidation and total cost of ownership being very popular goals in the IT business arena, this product offers a realistic opportunity to achieve both of these objectives in one go. In addition, it offers increased reliability and the capability to accommodate the demanding growth factors that companies everywhere are experiencing. Totalnet Advanced ServerTotalnet Advanced Server (TAS) is an interoperability product available from Syntax, Inc. (http://www.syntax.com), that enables diverse operating systems to successfully share file, print, and application resources across both local and wide area networks. The software runs on a UNIX operating environment, such as Solaris, and creates a common file system, enabling it to act as a file, print, and application server for Windows 2000/NT/95/98, NetWare, Macintosh, and other UNIX variants. It enables users to create and store files in their native environment, and also to take full advantage of the power and reliability of a Solaris Enterprise system, for example. TAS enables interoperability among these diverse environments through three realms, each defining the combination of specific operating systems and transport protocols:
The TAS file system that is created is common to all realms, enabling seamless integration regardless of the originating platform. A user (with correct permissions) can access files from anywhere on the network. Another feature supplied with the TAS software is that the TAS server can be configured as a Windows NT logon server, eliminating the need for Windows 2000 and Windows NT servers acting as authentication servers. One of the goals of the TAS environment is to provide single signon facilities on a network containing multiple file system types and authentication mechanisms, as well as a simple account management function. SambaSamba is freely available in the public domain and can be downloaded from the Samba Web site (http://www.samba.org) or from other sites offering public domain software for Solaris systems (such as http://www.sunfreeware.com). Samba is free and comes with the source code. Samba runs on a UNIX platform, such as Solaris, but it communicates with Windows clients as if it were a native. The Solaris system running Samba is integrated into the Windows network neighborhood, providing file and print services to Windows clients that do not know that they are being delivered by a Solaris system ”that is, the services are transparent to the client. Samba is based on the SMB protocol and Common Internet File System (CIFS). In many ways, Samba is similar in functionality to Solaris PC Netlink, but Samba cannot (yet) completely imitate (and even replace) a Windows NT domain controller ”PC Netlink can already accomplish this. Briefly, Samba provides the following facilities:
Samba is used to integrate and merge with existing Windows networks and resources. This is different from the Solaris PC Netlink, which can also replace Windows NT domain controllers, although it is an eventual objective of the Samba team. Citrix Metaframe for SolarisThe recently announced version of Citrix Metaframe for UNIX enables Solaris applications to be delivered to virtually any device. The software supports Solaris 2.6 for SPARC and Solaris 7 and 8 on both SPARC and Intel platforms. The product provides seamless integration of applications onto the local desktop, enabling the user to resize the windows and also to switch easily between local and remote applications, as if they were all running on the local system. When used in conjunction with Citrix Metaframe for Windows, this version of Citrix Metaframe can deliver virtually any application to virtually any device, including Windows 2000 , 9x , 3.x , and NT , as well as DOS , OS/2 , Macintosh, wireless devices and handhelds, terminals, and network computers, to name a few. One added piece of functionality that is extremely useful for users of UNIX and PC-based applications is that Metaframe grants the user full access to local resources, such as the Clipboard . This makes it easy to copy and paste graphics and text between both local applications and remote applications deployed using Citrix's Independent Computing Architecture (ICA). Using this, the entire application processing is carried out on the server, reducing the bandwidth requirement and eliminating the problems found in other terminal emulation products. For organizations using multi-platform environments and a wide variety of devices, Citrix Metaframe not only provides much greater seamless access to the UNIX applications running on powerful and reliable Solaris systems, but it also provides simplified administration. All this enables the system manager to take full advantage of the scalability, processing power, and reliability of Solaris while also increasing his potential customer base. |
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EAN: 2147483647
Pages: 101