Solaris application profiling / migration tool?

[anna]

I recalled a few years ago when our Sun sales rep tried to talk us
into upgrading our servers from 2.5.1 to 2.6, he mentioned a tool
freely available in Sun site that can help to test whether the
applications are ready for upgrade, does anyone aware of such a tool?

I forgot the name and cannot do a search in sun site.

In addition, does anyone aware of any tools either from Sun or other
vendors that will help (or automatically) migrate a solaris server,
say from 2.5.1 to 2.8. I thought I have worked long enough that such a
tool is unlikely to exist, but my boss, who comes from a NT
environment, insist that the tool may exist. I will just see whether
anyone aware of such a tool.

Thank you.

anna

[Rich Teer]

On Tue, 22 Jun 2004, anna wrote:

> I recalled a few years ago when our Sun sales rep tried to talk us
> into upgrading our servers from 2.5.1 to 2.6, he mentioned a tool
> freely available in Sun site that can help to test whether the
> applications are ready for upgrade, does anyone aware of such a tool?

I think appcert is the tool you're after.

> In addition, does anyone aware of any tools either from Sun or other
> vendors that will help (or automatically) migrate a solaris server,
> say from 2.5.1 to 2.8. I thought I have worked long enough that such a
> tool is unlikely to exist, but my boss, who comes from a NT
> environment, insist that the tool may exist. I will just see whether
> anyone aware of such a tool.

The tool required is a good systems administrator; there's only
so much that can be automated.

--
Rich Teer, SCNA, SCSA

President,
Rite Online Inc.

Voice: +1 (250) 979-1638
URL: [url]http://www.rite-online.net[/url]

[Casper H.S. Dik]

Rich Teer <rich.teer@rite-group.com> writes:

>> In addition, does anyone aware of any tools either from Sun or other
>> vendors that will help (or automatically) migrate a solaris server,
>> say from 2.5.1 to 2.8. I thought I have worked long enough that such a
>> tool is unlikely to exist, but my boss, who comes from a NT
>> environment, insist that the tool may exist. I will just see whether
>> anyone aware of such a tool.

>The tool required is a good systems administrator; there's only
>so much that can be automated.

Well, he could start with the "upgrade" option of Solaris install;
that usually gets you a long way.

Casper
--
Expressed in this posting are my opinions. They are in no way related
to opinions held by my employer, Sun Microsystems.
Statements on Sun products included here are not gospel and may
be fiction rather than truth.

[anna]

Thanks.
most of the places I have been in do not use "upgrade" for Solaris
install.
We jumpstart the machines and migrate the applications. I think one
reason is that most people inherit the environment and it is quite
difficult to know 100% on what might have changed.

I went through SunOS to Solaris upgrade myself, the first rule was to
identify applications, see whether they are certified, look into
in-house applications to see whether there is any dependency on
uncertified products. This is basically a time consuming process and
involved a number of teams. Experience also plays a major role, as an
experienced SA can identify potential problems.

Sigh!! It is quite difficult to explain to someone (my boss) whose
world is taking a Windows server to VMWare, in particular there is a
tool to accomplish the work. Hence, he would not a methodology that
includes testing and testing.
While I have my opinion on how he approaches the problem, but for all
fairness,
I am checking to see whether other people aware of any tools that I
might have missed.




Casper H.S. Dik <Casper.Dik@Sun.COM> wrote in message news:<40d9328f$0$6966$e4fe514c@news.xs4all.nl>...

> Rich Teer <rich.teer@rite-group.com> writes:
>

> >> In addition, does anyone aware of any tools either from Sun or other
> >> vendors that will help (or automatically) migrate a solaris server,
> >> say from 2.5.1 to 2.8. I thought I have worked long enough that such a
> >> tool is unlikely to exist, but my boss, who comes from a NT
> >> environment, insist that the tool may exist. I will just see whether
> >> anyone aware of such a tool.

>

> >The tool required is a good systems administrator; there's only
> >so much that can be automated.

>
> Well, he could start with the "upgrade" option of Solaris install;
> that usually gets you a long way.
>
> Casper

[Casper H.S. Dik]

[email]anna_cheng11@yahoo.com[/email] (anna) writes:

>We jumpstart the machines and migrate the applications. I think one
>reason is that most people inherit the environment and it is quite
>difficult to know 100% on what might have changed.

Ok, so there's a tool and you chose not to use it; a second tool
which allows you to clone a system and migrate it to another piece
of hardware is "flarcreate" (flash archive creator).
Then there's "appcert" which certifies applications.

What exact tools are you looking for; what in particular is not
covered by the above three?

>I went through SunOS to Solaris upgrade myself, the first rule was to
>identify applications, see whether they are certified, look into
>in-house applications to see whether there is any dependency on
>uncertified products. This is basically a time consuming process and
>involved a number of teams. Experience also plays a major role, as an
>experienced SA can identify potential problems.

The SunOS 4.x to Solaris 2+ upgrade is something completely different;
Solaris 2+ releases are binary compatible and unless the vendor
did something bad (by accident or design), it should be just
"move and run".

>Sigh!! It is quite difficult to explain to someone (my boss) whose
>world is taking a Windows server to VMWare, in particular there is a
>tool to accomplish the work. Hence, he would not a methodology that
>includes testing and testing.
>While I have my opinion on how he approaches the problem, but for all
>fairness,
>I am checking to see whether other people aware of any tools that I
>might have missed.

So what migration tools are there for MS Windows which allow seemless
upgrades?

Casper
--
Expressed in this posting are my opinions. They are in no way related
to opinions held by my employer, Sun Microsystems.
Statements on Sun products included here are not gospel and may
be fiction rather than truth.

[anna]

Casper H.S. Dik <Casper.Dik@Sun.COM> wrote in message news:<40d9abbc$0$36169$e4fe514c@news.xs4all.nl>...

> [email]anna_cheng11@yahoo.com[/email] (anna) writes:
>

> >We jumpstart the machines and migrate the applications. I think one
> >reason is that most people inherit the environment and it is quite
> >difficult to know 100% on what might have changed.

>
> Ok, so there's a tool and you chose not to use it; a second tool
> which allows you to clone a system and migrate it to another piece
> of hardware is "flarcreate" (flash archive creator).
> Then there's "appcert" which certifies applications.
>
> What exact tools are you looking for; what in particular is not
> covered by the above three?
>

flarcreate does not really apply in this case, as I am looking to
upgrade. We do look into the option of moving to another hardware but
in the sense of moving to a virtual machine (see below on VMWare).

I do think appcert is what I am looking for. Note that even the
application is certified, the actual migration is still quite time
consuming.

Just a thought, do you mean that if I have some applications running
on a 2.5.1 machine, then I can
a. run appcert on all the applications
b. assuming all the applications are certified, then run the upgrade
option to upgrade the machine.

Does anyone use this in an installation with over 200 servers?

> >I went through SunOS to Solaris upgrade myself, the first rule was to
> >identify applications, see whether they are certified, look into
> >in-house applications to see whether there is any dependency on
> >uncertified products. This is basically a time consuming process and
> >involved a number of teams. Experience also plays a major role, as an
> >experienced SA can identify potential problems.

>
> The SunOS 4.x to Solaris 2+ upgrade is something completely different;
> Solaris 2+ releases are binary compatible and unless the vendor
> did something bad (by accident or design), it should be just
> "move and run".
>

I recalled a few years ago, one of my users is not willing to upgrade
their servers from 2.5.1 to 2.6, the reason being that the in-house
application use a product (forgot the name) and the libraries can only
run on 2.5.1.

> >Sigh!! It is quite difficult to explain to someone (my boss) whose
> >world is taking a Windows server to VMWare, in particular there is a
> >tool to accomplish the work. Hence, he would not a methodology that
> >includes testing and testing.
> >While I have my opinion on how he approaches the problem, but for all
> >fairness,
> >I am checking to see whether other people aware of any tools that I
> >might have missed.

>
> So what migration tools are there for MS Windows which allow seemless
> upgrades?
>

In his world, the setting is slightly different, there are commerical
tools that allow him to take a windows server and create it as an
instance of a ESX server in VMWare. Note that if VMware were to
support solaris, then flacreate will be an answer in this case (and we
won't be talking upgrade :-)).
I am not a big fan of VMware, but it can be quite useful in migrating
windows print servers to a "virtual" instance.

I forgot the name of the tool, but while researching the tools for
solaris yesterday, I came across a company called platspin and they
have this kind of tools as well.

> Casper

[Juhan Leemet]

On Wed, 23 Jun 2004 15:25:51 -0700, anna wrote:
[snippage]

>> So what migration tools are there for MS Windows which allow seemless
>> upgrades?

[seemless, as only seems to be newer/faster/better? 8^) couldn't resist]

> In his world, the setting is slightly different, there are commerical
> tools that allow him to take a windows server and create it as an
> instance of a ESX server in VMWare. Note that if VMware were to support
> solaris, then flacreate will be an answer in this case (and we won't be
> talking upgrade :-)).
> I am not a big fan of VMware, but it can be quite useful in migrating
> windows print servers to a "virtual" instance.

This reminds me of cases (fairly recently?) where sites were still running
an application for an IBM 704 (50 years ago) on a 704 emulation on some
other emulation under OS-360 (or OS-390?), and I wonder what now? If one
really, really cannot upgrade, then maybe emulators are the only way to
go. However, if that is the first (expediant) choice, I'd be afraid that
soon no one will know what that software really does, what are its
dependencies, or how to maintain it. Could end up painted into a corner!?

--
Juhan Leemet
Logicognosis, Inc.

[Casper H.S. Dik]

[email]anna_cheng11@yahoo.com[/email] (anna) writes:

>Just a thought, do you mean that if I have some applications running
>on a 2.5.1 machine, then I can
>a. run appcert on all the applications
>b. assuming all the applications are certified, then run the upgrade
>option to upgrade the machine.

>Does anyone use this in an installation with over 200 servers?

Well, you can upgrade systems using "jumpstart"; if you applications
are the same across the systems you only need to certify once.

But you also need to check that the applications actually run;
appcert is no guarantee against checks like "if this is not release
5.5.1 I won't run"; or bugs in programs which have more severe
effects in newer releases.

>I recalled a few years ago, one of my users is not willing to upgrade
>their servers from 2.5.1 to 2.6, the reason being that the in-house
>application use a product (forgot the name) and the libraries can only
>run on 2.5.1.

Unless they broke some rules, that shouldn't be a problem; then
there's "won't run" vs "can't run".

>In his world, the setting is slightly different, there are commerical
>tools that allow him to take a windows server and create it as an
>instance of a ESX server in VMWare. Note that if VMware were to
>support solaris, then flacreate will be an answer in this case (and we
>won't be talking upgrade :-)).

You can run Solaris/Intel on VMware; but I suppose you're talking SPARC
here?

Casper
--
Expressed in this posting are my opinions. They are in no way related
to opinions held by my employer, Sun Microsystems.
Statements on Sun products included here are not gospel and may
be fiction rather than truth.