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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?"
Perhaps this major client could fund development/maintenance on a missing piece of infrastructure.
Agreed.
Debian packages are too old, unless you want to jump into the "unstable" tree - and what business can accept unstable server software? Back-porting bugfixes just don't cut it in the business world. Debian lacks a powerful entity that governs development priorities - but it doesn't lack zealots who will die for their cause.
For example... Debian hasn't got XFree86 4.3.0 in their stable tree (and they wont for years to come as they still have 4.1.0 stable) - whereas RedHat has had a stable XFree86 4.3.0 for over a year. RedHat isn't perfect - but more often than not it's more suitable for business useage.
Rick Moen can't grasp this.
Debian is a great choice. Everyone complains about the old software, but the advantage for enterprise is the long release cycles. This is exactly what RH is shooting for with RH AS/ES. At my company we have a mix of RH and Debian. The Debian servers don't crash for no apparent reason(seems to be a kernel oops related to swapping, dumb on a www server with way more ram than it uses).
.. They could even setup thier own apt repository with Oracle specific software/patches.
Using debian for commercial stuff isn't as easy as it should be. Many companies don't support debian and seemingly have no desire to. One of those is Oracle. Oracle can be installed on Debian, and there are tons of docs out there to do it. In the end, if you really want debian, stick to your guns until you run out of bullets.
Another option, tell these companies you're gonna buy X dollars of thier stuff, but only if they make it run on debian on your hardware. If you're willing to spend a few million on Oracle, I'm sure oracle will make it work. The same goes for IBM. I know IBM does tons of software sales, and says they support RH/Suse, but theres no reason they can't make it run on debian.
I really dont understand why companies dont support debian(please no RPM vs. DEB), in spite of the long release cycles. IMO, it makes it the perfect candidate. Once something is released as stable, it will generally stay that release for at least a year, sometimes two. Oracle could begin to certify Debian/sarge now, and when its released they would have a deployment platform for quite a while. Hell
You're missing the point. X is an obvious example, there are plenty of others.
Conformity is the jailer of freedom and enemy of growth. -JFK
> You're missing the point. X is an obvious example, there are plenty of others.
He's hardly missing the point, you are.
New-featured software is NOT what a production business server needs. Such servers need stable, well-tested software that is patched for security and serious functional problems - but NOT constantly enhanced with new features that contain their own set of new bugs. The idea of business server software is to gradually approach a bugfree state - and you don't get that by constantly adding new features, you get that by patching the existing software.
It's called Debian stable for a good reason.