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Ask HN: Does anyone use Solaris in production?

16 points by phendrenad2 5y ago

I was surprised to see that Oracle is still doing things with Solaris, and now I'm curious: Is anyone here using it in production? What made you choose it over Linux?

h2odragon 5y ago
Pretty sure NASA still has some SunOS running on old SPARCs as part of some older missions data chains. Some Mbus serial hardware was the sticking point IIRC.
Spooky23 5y ago
The main reason to use it is that if you’re stuck with an Oracle stack, you can manipulate the bonkers Oracle system to drive a better deal. Oracle people compete brutally internally. They cross-sell many product lines. The hardware guys will gleefully screw over the software or cloud people.
1MachineElf 5y ago
It's hard to find a public source to substantiate what I've been told about many US gov systems, so here: >Looking back, she recalls: “I spent a lot of time learning that system, which ran on Sun Solaris boxes. I became an expert on it, and I left for Westinghouse because they had bought the same system and they wanted me to implement it there. [I then] got a call from the US International Trade Commission saying, ‘hey, we hear you’re an expert in this system. Would you be interested in coming into the work into the [federal] government?’ https://thestack.technology/pamela-chase-dyson-cio-federal-reserve-bank-of-new-york/?amp=1 https://thestack.technology/pamela-chase-dyson-cio-federal-r...
linksnapzz 5y ago
If I was willing to deal with Oracle, I would use it. My experience was that on the correct sparc hw, Solaris was always more reliable under heavy IO load than Linux, in that it would degrade gradually in performance as the limits of the hw were reached. I also much preferred Solaris RBAC to sudo; and SMF to systemd. And, the old Sun support that you got at the platinum level was tremendous, and as they owned the whole system (userland to hw), they could have all the ppl. that designed the parts you were having trouble with in the same room, or on the same call, to help you fix it. Of course, this was not cheap.... TL;DR: I miss SUNW.
justsomehnguy 5y ago
Don't have a meaningful answer, but I know what my IaaS provider has some deployed for a client who is an ISV and runs Oracle on them to have an environment close to the client/s.
cpach 5y ago
I think Oxide will use illumos for their product. https://oxide.computer/ https://oxide.computer/

16 points by phendrenad2 5y ago

I was surprised to see that Oracle is still doing things with Solaris, and now I'm curious: Is anyone here using it in production? What made you choose it over Linux?

h2odragon 5y ago

Pretty sure NASA still has some SunOS running on old SPARCs as part of some older missions data chains. Some Mbus serial hardware was the sticking point IIRC.

Spooky23 5y ago

The main reason to use it is that if you’re stuck with an Oracle stack, you can manipulate the bonkers Oracle system to drive a better deal. Oracle people compete brutally internally. They cross-sell many product lines. The hardware guys will gleefully screw over the software or cloud people.

1MachineElf 5y ago

It's hard to find a public source to substantiate what I've been told about many US gov systems, so here: >Looking back, she recalls: “I spent a lot of time learning that system, which ran on Sun Solaris boxes. I became an expert on it, and I left for Westinghouse because they had bought the same system and they wanted me to implement it there. [I then] got a call from the US International Trade Commission saying, ‘hey, we hear you’re an expert in this system. Would you be interested in coming into the work into the [federal] government?’ https://thestack.technology/pamela-chase-dyson-cio-federal-reserve-bank-of-new-york/?amp=1 https://thestack.technology/pamela-chase-dyson-cio-federal-r...

linksnapzz 5y ago

If I was willing to deal with Oracle, I would use it. My experience was that on the correct sparc hw, Solaris was always more reliable under heavy IO load than Linux, in that it would degrade gradually in performance as the limits of the hw were reached. I also much preferred Solaris RBAC to sudo; and SMF to systemd. And, the old Sun support that you got at the platinum level was tremendous, and as they owned the whole system (userland to hw), they could have all the ppl. that designed the parts you were having trouble with in the same room, or on the same call, to help you fix it. Of course, this was not cheap.... TL;DR: I miss SUNW.

justsomehnguy 5y ago

Don't have a meaningful answer, but I know what my IaaS provider has some deployed for a client who is an ISV and runs Oracle on them to have an environment close to the client/s.

cpach 5y ago

I think Oxide will use illumos for their product. https://oxide.computer/ https://oxide.computer/