vxva vs. ODS (was Re: RSM 2000 list)

[Joe Harman]

I only want to make a couple of points here.

1.) Sun has not released a "Lite" version of Vxvm yet.  The present
version distributed with the SSA is the same as distributed by
Veritas.

A "Lite" version will be bundled with Solaris in some future release
(it hasn't been announced yet, as the feature set provided have not
been decided yet).

2.) The version of Vxvm that Sun distributes with the SSA today, has
had part of the licensing fees pre-paid by Sun so that it will work
with the SSA, and provide some functions for other sub-system (as long
as an SSA is present).

 
3.) Sun now carries most of the Veritas products if not all on it price
list now.  So if you want to run Veritas on other sub-systems, you can
purchase the license at the same time you purchase an SSA.


Doug,  I will look into your suggestion of placing a statement in the
doc to further clarify the policy.


		Joe



<jh> From Doug.Hughes@Eng.Auburn.EDU Sun Jun  1 08:55:35 1997
<jh> From: Doug Hughes <Doug.Hughes@Eng.Auburn.EDU>
<jh> Date: Sun, 1 Jun 1997 10:52:53 -0500
<jh> Subject: Re: vxva vs. ODS (was Re: RSM 2000 list) 
<jh> To: ssa-managers@Eng.Auburn.EDU
<jh> X-Info: To unsubscribe, send 'unsubscribe ssa-managers' to majordom@Eng.Auburn.EDU in message body
<jh> 
<jh> On May 31 at 3:19 Marc Philip Alexander wrote:
<jh> 
<jh> >Hmmmm, where's that soapbox...  rant on
<jh> >
<jh> >I agree it's not simple.  To further your anology, "I don't mind going
<jh> >dutch treat for lunch, but I do mind being offered lunch and then being
<jh> >stuck with the full tab after we've both eaten."  What hacks me off is
<jh> >that _nowhere_ in the documentation that comes with either the SSA or the
<jh> >"VxVM lite" does it say "this version of VxVM _only_ works with the SSA
<jh> >you bought and if you _ever_ plan on adding another non-SSA array, you'd
<jh> >better just use SDS or plan on upgrading to "full VxVM"."  i.e. if Sun's
<jh> >going to bundle a "lite" version, the should at least put a warning label
<jh> >on it somewhere.  There's nothing to indicate that it's a "lite" version
<jh> >on the sales brochures or www pages either.  Line 75 of Paragraph 14
<jh> >subsection Q of the license agreement doesn't count.  I wouldn't have
<jh> >minded being told to "buy Veritas" so much if it had just been done up
<jh> >front instead of months down the line and after several frustrating days
<jh> >of phone support dodgeball.  Instead, I was annoyed and then led to a
<jh> >further poor decision (to dump VxVM altogether and use SDS) by the support
<jh> >and sales people and now Sun's apparently dumping SDS and I get ^!%$!#ed
<jh> >again.
<jh> >
<jh> 
<jh> I'm sorry, but it doesn't look like you read the documentation thoroughly.
<jh> Page 1-23 (chapter 1, section 1.2.2.4 on RAID-5) it clearly states:
<jh> 
<jh> "You cannot include a non-SPARCstorage Array disk within a RAID-5
<jh> configuration"
<jh> 
<jh> It's under the guidelines for using RAID-5, so it's not as if it's in
<jh> an inconspicuous location. It talks about random and sequential performance
<jh> characteristics of RAID-5 volumes, and when to use them, and when not to
<jh> use them.
<jh> 
<jh> 
<jh> Page 1-15: "You cannot include a non-SPARCstorage Array disk within a
<jh> striped configuration."
<jh> (same scenario as above)
<jh> 
<jh> 
<jh> There is no similar warning about mirroring, so one would expect that you
<jh> can mirror to a non SSA disk (and in fact, this is true).
<jh> 
<jh> 
<jh> Rants are occassionally very useful, but please, make sure your have your
<jh> facts straight before posting a rant of this scope.
<jh> 
<jh> I will allow for the possibility that your version of the VxVM documentation
<jh> is different than ours and that maybe these important sections didn't
<jh> make it into yours..
<jh> 
<jh> Here's my documentation rev:
<jh> 
<jh> SPARCstorage Array User's Guide
<jh> 825-2821-03
<jh> Revision A, September 1996
<jh> 
<jh> 
<jh> Note for Sun people: It would probably be a good idea to make a note
<jh> about not supporting non SSA disks for RAID-5 and RAID-0 to the web page
<jh> without a purchase of the full VxVM release.  He does have a legitimate
<jh> complaint about not being warned before hand (until the product was
<jh> in hand - which then he could have found out in Chapter1)
<jh> 
<jh> 
<jh> --
<jh> ____________________________________________________________________________
<jh> Doug Hughes					Engineering Network Services
<jh> System/Net Admin  				Auburn University
<jh> 			doug@eng.auburn.edu
<jh> 
<jh> 
<jh>