Chapter 19. Sun Microsystems Servers

Sun is one of the most important server manufacturers in the industry. The company has been a major player in Internet deployments and has been instrumental in developing some of the most important software used in websites, such as the Java language and portable applications based on Java. This chapter provides an overview of Sun's server offerings, Sun's role in enterprise storage, and the most important management applications that Sun offers.

The Solaris operating system runs on all Sun computers, from the smallest desktop up to the largest enterprise server (Sun's equivalent of a mainframe). Solaris 10 has a number of server management tools that are described in this chapter. These management tools aren't simply for local system management. In fact, many of these tools are aimed at making a Solaris system your management console of choice.

In addition to playing a central role in Internet deployments, Sun plays a central role in the storage industry, as a hardware vendor, as a software vendor, and with its systems as a strategic management console for system area networks (SAN) and other large storage deployments. For several years now, Sun has been able to claim a number of industry performance standards, such as the TPC-C benchmarks, running large system databases such as Oracle, DB2, SQL Server, and others on their enterprise-class servers.

While financial setbacks have slowed Sun's advance in some areas, such as blade servers and server appliances, recently the company has begun to broaden its product line into Linux and to improve its systems' interoperability with other platforms. Sun will remain an important player in the server market for the foreseeable future.