Re: Are most DBA jobs on UNIX or Mainframe, not NT?

Erik Nielsen wrote:
>
> rogersmith_at_my-deja.com wrote:
> >
> > In article <374A16B3.8AF1E054@_.agd.nsw.gov.au>,
> > Anthony Mandic <am@_.agd.nsw.gov.au> wrote:
> > > Bas Scheffers wrote:
> > >
> > I went through this thread and loved it. I'm a DB2
> > for OS/390 DBA. I know very little UNIX and wanted
> > to enhance it. My question is "Is Solaris 7 x86 a
> > UNIX style on PC, like Linux ?" If 'yes' which is
> > really best LINUX or SOLARIS 7 x86 ?.
>
> I would advocate linux over solaris. I don't have much experience with
> solarisx86, but linux is likely to be better documented, and there's a
> lot of software being written for it that you'd have to port to
> solaris. If you don't want to build all of your programs youself, I'd
> recommend Linux (probably RedHat). Linux might also support more
> hardware, but I'm not sure of that. Solaris and Linux are both Unix
> environments. Linux has also been around longer than solaris for the
> x86 platform. My guess would be that linux performs better (on an x86),
> but that's another unbacked up comment.
>

Either Linux or Solaris x86 are fine. They're both Unix style systems that run on PCs. Other options include FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD. Though I've not used them myself, I understand that they are closer in function to BSD and include Linux compatibility libraries so that you can run native Linux software.

Linux performs better than Solaris x86 (no flames, I ran them on the same test machine) on less hardware for those firing up an old 486 for testing. Solaris likely performs better under a heavier load, but I have no evidence to back up that claim.

If you're comfortable with man files, Linux is not better documented than Solaris. In fact, the reverse may be true. Newsgroup archives also help out for Solaris problems, but I'll admit that there's likely more active discussion about Linux and more active work on better documentation for Linux than Solaris.

The main difference to watch out for is what you get in the base installation. If you need a compiler, expect to head out to the FTP sites and find the GNU software for Solaris. Linux distributions typically come with this. In terms of DBA work, this may or may not impact you at all, and it's really not that big an issue other than how long it takes to get up and running. But, every time I've setup a Linux/x86-Unix system, I have eventually had to have a compiler.

I would tend to partially disagree about building software. In one instance, I ran into an open source piece of software that wouldn't compile on Linux due to some minor platform differences. It compiled perfectly on Solaris. I later found, without digging through the makefiles myself, where another group had picked up the project and fixed the Linux compile problems.

It's been too long since I tested them to remember much else about the differences. Since then, OS/2 decided that it wanted the drive space back, so I no longer have access to them.

Best Regards,

Jason Koeninger Received on Tue Jun 08 1999 - 13:06:41 CDT