RE: AIX vs Linux lpar

I believe that you are correct, Pete, though my experience is that
*most* companies are uncomfortable with the "unsupported" version.
Under the GPL I believe that the right to continual use and
dissemination is allowed and that the distros can only charge for
support and upgrades.

Regards,
 
Scott Ingvaldson
iSeries System Administrator
GuideOne Insurance Group


-----Original Message-----
date: Thu, 14 Sep 2006 17:30:02 -0600
from: Pete Helgren <Pete@xxxxxxxxxx>
subject: Re: AIX vs Linux lpar

Scott,

Not sure the SLES versions *aren't*  Free.  I had downloaded the 9.0 
SLES evaluation for 90 days, the evaluation expired and it continues to 
run.  The $$$ I think are for a supported version with automatic
updates.

I didn't spend much time slogging through the fine print, so perhaps I 
"agreed" to remove it after 90 days but it is running long after 90 days

was up, unlike the 70 day "grace" period on i5/OS...

Pete Helgren


Ingvaldson, Scott wrote:

It doesn't look like anyone really answered your question Rob.

The answer is that Linux should be every bit as stable as AIX, though
you won't get as much support for it.  You probably won't need it,
though.  We've been running SuSE Linux partitions on our M/F for three
or four years now.  When we first started we bought 100 hours of

support

and I don't think we ever made a call.

On iSeries Linux is very cool, like an IXS with no hardware

components.

We had SuSE in house so I installed that from CD, but the only way to
test Red Hat Enterprise was to download the iso files.  I loaded them
into an image catalog and installed them from OPTVRT01.  The only

caveat

here was that the Linux images wouldn't autochange; I had to manually
load the next image and reply R to the message in my install job.

You can run a Linux guest partition on any box with an S-Star or above
processor.  All you have to do is allocate some memory for the
partition, everything else is virtual. The Linux instance can be IPLed
from the OS, from SST or more likely just left up all of the time.

The

only time I've ever personally witnessed a Linux instance go down was
when a programmer here was installing something and used up 100% of

the

allocated disk.

Though not free as in "Free Beer" (Darn it, Paul...) it looks like

SUSE

Linux Enterprise Server 10 now costs $349.  That's pretty close to

free,

especially since there are no real hardware costs involved. 

Regards,
 
Scott Ingvaldson
iSeries System Administrator
GuideOne Insurance Group 



-----Original Message-----
date: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 11:33:04 -0400
from: rob@xxxxxxxxx
subject: AIX vs Linux lpar

Anyone got a ring to throw into whether or not it's best to run Linux

or

AIX in an lpar on a System i to run TSM?
Linux sounds nice because of that word "free" that keeps floating
around. 
And, in theory, any script kiddie can download it and run it at home,
thus 
flooding the market with Linux talent.
Not really sure how much it would cost to add an AIX lpar to a

570-7748 

iSeries (software wise - I realize there will be considerations for

RAID

controllers, etc).

Of course the real question is:  Is AIX that much more reliable to run
TSM 
on than Linux?

Rob Berendt