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How Hard is it to Manage Different Unices?

Posted by Cliff on from the it's-all-about-the-flava dept.

vrmlguy asks: "Where I work has several Unix-based servers, all running the same vendor's OS. We are getting ready to buy another big server, and management wants to get bids from other vendors. However, our staff is only familar with our current vendor's OS. Yes, I know that any two flavors of Unix are more alike than not, and yes, I know about the Rosetta Stone for Unix that makes it easy to transfer skills. I want to know about the down-side: What's the difference in the cost of operations between a mono-culture and a shop running two or more vendors' OSs?"

1 of 372 comments (clear)

  1. UNIX geeks perspective by jregel · · Score: 4, Interesting
    I've no idea about the cost issue, but as a UNIX geek, the more versions of UNIX the better. I like the subtle differences and would hate it if there were only a single version.

    Knowing that (as an example) AIX has a pretty self tuning kernel, that Solaris has a modular kernel, and that UnixWare needs a recompile (relink) for any minor changes forces the admin to think about the operating system instead of just drooling on the keyboard.

    The biggest differences are still SysV vs BSD. Understanding those is vital in a mixed OS environment. Beyond that, there are usually differences in disk layout (and filesystems), but they just add to the rich diversity that is my favourite OS.

    At my work, we are big users of Solaris, but because we develop software for multiple platforms, I've also had exposure to AIX, UnixWare, Sequent Dynix/PTS, HP-UX and DRS/NX. These days we've dropped Dynix/PTS (EOL anyway I think), HP-UX (too expensive for our customers), and DRS/NX (dead?) but we're looking to port to OpenUnix 8 and Red Hat Linux, so things are still pretty mixed. I just think it's a shame that I don't get to work with HP-UX and that Unixware is dying (yes - I like it!).

    We also port to NT/2000, which is good to compare - it's a nightmare to work with when used to UNIX.