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Comments on: IBM's new server targets the 'i' in SMB

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Windows Server capable? #

By Mike Henderson Posted Wednesday 11th April 2007 00:06 GMT

"Both boxes are Linux, Windows Server, AIX and i5/OS capable."

Windows Server on a Power 5+ system?

Really?

Windows Clarification #

By Ashlee Vance Posted Wednesday 11th April 2007 00:22 GMT

It may be a tad loose, but IBM does claim Windows support via a BladeCenter or System x box and iSCSI.

http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/i/bladecenter/windows/

I've edited the story to clarify that. Thanks for the comment.

AV

With added hardware #

By Anonymous Coward Posted Wednesday 11th April 2007 00:28 GMT

The main bus from the System i can be extended to a PCI card in an IBM system x. The disk is provided by the system i and there are some hooks from i5/OS into Windows to ease management, power on/off, etc.

Old news #

By Simon Casey Posted Wednesday 11th April 2007 07:53 GMT

An iSeries Windows capable? What's new about that at all? Come on you could attach an x-Series years ago when the i5 originally came out and use the disk assigned to the i-Series, be it internal or san-attached. What's at all new about that? The only way IBM could really push the i5 line is to drop the ridiculous licensing costs of i5/OS and actively promote the OS more.

God knows why you'd want to also run an x-series off an i5 with only 2-8 drives - due to the nature of i5/OS single level storage I would dread to see the i/o performance on anything bigger than 73Gb drives. Yes it's capable but you'd really have to ask yourself... is it worth it?

Ever heard of LPAR's? #

By Duncan Robertson Posted Wednesday 11th April 2007 09:28 GMT

AS/400 or iSeries has had the capability of running almost any OS on a Logical Partition (LPAR) for years! The main controlling LPAR is run under OS/400 - giving all the benefits and security of the true 64-bit and truly wonderful OS.

Our shop has an i520 with OS/400, AiX, Linux and a Windows server running on it. The LPAR's dynamically adjust according to the load on the machine and, if properly managed, hardly require any administration.

Having been involved with the AS/400 for a number of years, I am amazed that it is taking this long for the rest of the world to catch up. I know that the iSeries is IBM's fastest selling machine and that they have been pushing development for it for a while, however, once you have a taste of what a real high performance machine can do, you'll never turn back. The only reason that I can see to non-adoption of the iSeries is the price and the need to have some niche personnel in your IT Dept. However, it is well worth it in the long run...