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Heavy-Duty System Administration Utilities?
leandrod asks: "I am in the process of helping a small software company define the infrastructure for their major client's new system. It is a big country, and it is a medium-sized client planning on going big. We are planning to standardize on Debian GNU/Linux. I am aware I can have IBM Tivoli Maestro for GNU/Linux for production scheduling, and BEA's Tuxedo TP monitor, but they are unsupported under Debian. I am also aware of one or two free TP monitors, but they are either incipient or stagnating. I couldn't find a production scheduler. I know I can do lots with the standard tools, but keep in mind I am targeting a transaction-processing bureau for a big operation with hundreds of thousands of terminals and millions of users, something like a poor man's Wal-Mart, or even Visa. Are there vendors out there willing to support Debian or just GNU/Linux in general? If not, are there free software projects that accomplish the same thing?"
debian is a nice os, but the hardware it runs on is pure steaming shit.
if your business depends on uptime (tpm down for a day while you fix a dead HD, or replace a fan?), you need redundant hardware. most free stuff just doesn't support such niceties.
in short, prepare to grab your ankles and start talking to sun or ibm now. obviously you can use deb for various non-critical systems (web, mail, firewalls etc), but core business stuff should be on "real" iron. anything that you can't hot-swap cpus in and out of doesn't count as real. obvoiusly don't make your big iron depend on your debian systems either. that would be like putting a huge deadbolt on a styrofoam door.