Hardware & Servers

I began this section thinking I would list and show all the various servers I've worked on in the past. But, the list is growing rather large, so I've decided to only list my favorites.

1. Sun V880 servers. These are workhorses, configurable up to 64GB RAM, 8 CPUs, Fibre Channel built-in, and 1.7TB of storage in the chassis. They cost as much as a house, but they were great to administer and, like other Sun hardware I used, they were bullet-proof.

2. Sun e450. These boxes were workhorses too. Little tanks.

3. Sun 220R servers were decent replacements for the Sun e250, another of my favorite servers because they were non-stop.

4. Want bulletproof? Try the Sun Netra 1400. Hardened for Telecom use, they were built like tanks for critical infrastructure use.

5. On the X86 side of things, I loved working with Compaq servers. They were well designed and sturdy. The DL380 was a fine machine.

6. Much as I dislike Dell hardware, I have found that the 6500 is a solid workgroup server.

I've worked with a number of storage units, such as the Sun StorEdge 3310, which is a SCSI array handling up to 12 U320 drives. This little fella could provide you with up to 3.6TB of ultra-320 goodness in a measly two rack units!

I cut my storage array teeth on the venerable Sun StorEdge D1000, a 4U array with a maximum capacity of 876GB. This unit could be stacked 9 in a rack for a total of 7.8TB (using the 12 disk version)!

I've worked on a number of tape backup devices, from small tape autoloaders to larger tape robots.

One of my favorite was StorageTek's L80, with LTO drives. It was fast, reliable, and easy to maintain.

Of course, the software used to manage those backups played an important part. I've used Veritas NetBackup extensively.

I am fully functional on an administrative and end-user basis on the following operating systems:

• Solaris
• Linux
• Windows XP
• Windows 2000
• Mac OS X

I've worked extensively in many other operating systems no longer used on the marketplace.

The sign of the ultimate geek: A computer collection. Here's what I have:

1. Sinclair ZX-81, introduced in 1981 by Sinclair Research. It has 1K of RAM. Black and white output is to television. The CPU (a NEC Zilog Z80A) ran at a clock rate of 3.25 MHz. This model is of historical significance because it was the first commercially available computer for under $100. The US version was marketed as the TS1000.

2. Timex-Sinclair TS1000. This was my first computer, a diminutive unit with a whopping 2K of RAM. And if you wanted to store the software you wrote in Basic, you needed to hook up your tape recorder and grab a T60 cassette tape, and pray that no tape dropouts would result in a total loss of your code. A 16K Memopak upgrade, which I could never afford as a kid, cost a whopping $250. I have several in my collection now!

2. Apple Macintosh 128. This great little machine was my first glance into the power of the GUI. And, it changed my (and everyone else's) world. Signed by Steve Wozniak, Steve Jobs, and others inside the case. Booting this machine today, off of its 400k 3.5 inch floppy, is a reminder of what is wrong with today's bloat-ware. It's 1-bit monochrome screen remains as easy to read today as it did back in 1984, when it was released with much fanfare (see Apple's famous 1984 commercial is considered by many to be the best ad of all time).

3. Named after its video chip, Commodore's VIC-20 sported 5K of RAM and color video output, and was the first computer to sell over 1 million units (800,000 the year of its launch). This was my upgrade from the TS1000!

4. Commodore 64

Perhaps someday I'll add other computers I've owned:

• 80286-AT 12 MHz
• Power Computing Power 100: A Macintosh clone around which I built my first web design business, in 1995
• Commodore Amiga 1000: My first computer for video editing!
• Tandy TRS-80: The first computer I lusted after. Dual floppy. Built-in monochrome display. Sexy.
• Commodore 128: I put myself through college typing papers on this machine for other students. Coupled with a dot-matrix printer and 5.25" floppy drive, you've got everything you need to keep the fridge stocked with Black Label. And two CPUs and dual operating systems; Waaaaay ahead of its time!