SUN computers and my working experience to collecting
2024-07-27 23:17:17
When I started working in IT, I joined a company that was a reseller of SUN Microsystems hardware and software. They had a software development department to make software that ran on those machines. I went to work in that department. They had developed a scripting language and an application server that ran scripts of that scripting language. It was implemented over Java and a JVM and exposed JDBC and implemented an HTML rendering API to generate webpages. The idea was to facilitate the development of database backed web apps.
But before I went into that company, I already had contact with SUN machines. In the summer before I got accepted into my first full time job, I did three months of sys admin work in a small geology analysis company. They had a room with several desktop workstations where the analysts did their work, and then there was a mid-range server that held the geological data of several oil fields in several parts of the world.
My first task was to put to work an automated tape backup system on a robot that switched tapes from a magazine. I got the manuals of all the gear and the operating system, and implemented an incremental backup scheme.
I had a curious episode while I was there. A fremale co-worker needed to parse a large text file and asked me to do it. I was a newbie in unix and its tools, since I was starting to get into Linux. I set out to see how could I do it. I resorted to implementing the parsing in a C program. That was my software developer instinct. After a while she came to me really pissed off, telling me that there was a tool named awk that with a regular expression would solve the problem. I was unaware of awk at the time and I was rather shamed by the fact that I was unaware of that tool. But on the other hand, the co-worker should know better as she was a user of the system.
When I got out of that summer job, I was still finishing my degree and went into the job market, because the work needed to finish the final university project was not on our side. So after sending some CVs, I talked with the manager of the company that accepted my at my first job, and he like the fact that we were using java and databases in out final project. So I got accepted in to that.
After some training in their technology, I got assigned to one of their clients, the only Internet Service Provider in my country. I was to work on the management system that was implemented on the technology that I was trained on before going there. My assigned workstation was a SUN Lunchbox workstation, I don't recall exactly what model. It was like the one in the picture next to this text.
The one on the picture I acquired on ebay from a trusted reseller. It came with a seal that guaranteed that the power supply was checked ok, but after some time of running it, it doesn't power on anymore. I have to probably recap the power supply. It has Solaris 2.6 installed on it. The network interface is AUI, so I had to get a transceiver in order to connect it to my home network.
Then I got a SUN Enterprise 450 just like the one I fiddled with in the Geology company. The CDROM drive was shot, so I removed it and investigated how to install Solaris 9 through the network. With the CDROM drive on the Sparc Station 20, I managed to create an install server on it, and boot the installation through the serial console with a null modem cable. I even tried building a null modem cable but it didn't work so I bought one. Now I am using the big E450 beast as a development machine, and access it through the Sparc Station 20 as an X terminal. But the monitors that work on these framebuffers have a samll resolution for today's ultra wide monitors, so I tried to run a X server locally on my work laptop through the -query option and had a problem running CDE because of a Xinerama bug.
So I tried to compile my favorite window manager on the machine : Window Maker. I had to leave a few options out of the build, but managed to get it working. So now I can use the X session with a really big screen.
Then I went ahead and got a SUN Fire V880. This is a more recent machine, and came very well populated with all four processors, and all drive bays populated. As it came with a DVD drive I am also using it a jump start server to install several versions of Solaris. I have been using it mostly for that, still didn't find another use for it. It takes almost 10 minutes to come up because of all the hardware checks it does before getting to the ok pronpt.
I installed Oracle Solaris 10 on it, and most of the disks are still to be partitioned and formatted. When I got it, a lot of network and other cards that I don't know what they are, was installed on it. I removed them, but one of them is a NSC card : a small microcomputer that has a battery to make the possibility to remote manage the machine. I will be re-installing that and reset its credentials so I can boot the machine from my house to my garage where the machine is at the moment. It weighs 80 Kg and I can't move it because it does not fit the elevator.
Recently, my latest purchases were a Sparc Station 2, 5, and 10. I intend to make a stand with shelfs to put each machine in its own shelf, and use a kvm switch to operate them in a single monitor and keyboard.