Re: Netra T5220

[Sad Clouds <cryintothebluesky%gmail.com@localhost>]

On Wed, 14 Nov 2018 17:00:06 -0700
Don NetBSD <netbsd-embedded%gmx.com@localhost> wrote:

> I've rescued a Netra T5220 (haven't attached a console, yet).
> 
> I'm soliciting comments as to whether I should leave/install
> Slowaris on it or NetBSD.  I think the Slowaris option gives
> me more "out-of-the-box" functionality (without having to
> build/install the apps I might want)

It would be helpful if you could tell what you're going to use this
machine for. I have Sun Enterprise T5220 and here are some of my
opinions:

1. Currently NetBSD does not have good support for this CPU
architecture, so it probably won't run. I think OpenBSD supports it
much better and also has support for LDOMs. So if you want BSD then
OpenBSD is the only option (I think FreeBSD dropped sun4v a long time
ago due to lack of interest/resources?).

2. Solaris 11.3 is pretty good and has many features not available
in NetBSD, such as LDOMs, Zones, ZFS, good multithreading in kernel. It
also has its native pkg, so you can install additional software, or you
can use pkgsrc. I've not tried it yet, but I think you could run
Solaris as a primary LDOM and then a number of Solaris/OpenBSD
instances in guest LDOMs.

3. Not sure how Solaris is licensed these days, but if you're going to
use it for commercial purpose, you will probably need to pay. It may
also need latest firmware upgrades, which you cannot get without Oracle
support contract.

4. Future versions of Solaris have a tendency of removing support for
older hardware, so your upgrade path is rather limited. However if
you're not using hardware in a production environment, then you may not
need all the latest features and bug fixes.