Experiences with Sun Qube

[Gantt Edmiston]

For just playing around with it, you got a pretty good description.

I own one and have for about 1.5 years.  It's worked flawlessly
since I first powered it up.  I must agree with ALL of Mike's comments,
both positive and negative.  One additional negative, over the last 8
months,
the fans in the unit have gotten quite noisy.  I fixed some of this by
shutting
it down and going in it with a bottle of compressed air.  But it's not for a

desktop, open office environment, unless the aggregate noise level of the
office would make the fan hum not be noticeable.  I put mine on a shelf in
a closet and it's happy  in there and I don't hear it as much.

The included webserver *is* Apache and I did download, build and install
SSH just fine.   One initial negative that turned out to be not as
problematic
as I first assumed:  The power to the cube is via a transformer block and a
large DIN type plug that reminds me more of an old style keyboard connector.

There's no way to "lock" this plug into the back of the Qube and I had first

assumed I would have problems keeping it plugged in.  But this hasn't been
an issue.

I bought the top of the line model (at that time there were 3 models, not
sure
what's available now).  Mine came with 2 hard drives that were pre-mirrored.

ALL the administration is done via Web interface, and this custom front-end
does make it very trivial to maintain everything from a remote location.
Any
unix sysadmin should have no trouble at all getting this up and running.

There's lots of thought put into this product.  I use it as my personal/home

webserver, home-based network storage and backup device for my other
home systems.

I give it a high recommendation.  Especially since Sun seems to have
continued the
support and development, since they acquired Cobalt almost 18 months ago.

Helen, if you have any specific questions, feel free to contact me and I'll
answer
them as best I can.

Regards --> Gantt

Mike Gerdts wrote:

> I have not used one in a production environment, but have played with a
> demo unit for a bit.  From what I recall:
>
> The good:
>
>         * The web-based management interface was intuitive and did not
>           seem to have any bugs that prevented me from adding/deleting
>           users, giving them access to what they needed, etc.
>         * Good ability to allow some users access to some things while
>           denying them access to others.
>         * LCD display and four buttons allow you to do basic
>           configuration to get to a web-based configuration tool.  No
>           serial console required.
>         * Its hard drives are mirrored.  I am not sure what
>           do-it-yourself replacement methods are supported.
>         * It seemed to have an on-line software update capability.
>         * Wide SCSI connection off the back for tape, CD, or more disk.
>         * One available PCI slot.
>         * Full shell access.  You can install software on your own.
>         * Dual ethernet-- one to go to the DSL router, one for the
>           trusted internal network.  The Qube can be your firewall/DHCP
>           server.
>         * VPN capable.
>
> The bad (may be fixed in more recent software revs)
>
>         * No X libraries, and as such running X programs to a remote
>           display was not possible.
>         * No ssh.
>         * File system is not journalling and the power button is not a
>           soft-power.  Clean shutdowns cannot be done from the browser
>           and the clean shutdown method from the 4 buttons and LCD
>           requires too much navigation.  As such fsck on startup is
>           commonplace.
>
> Unknowns:
>
>         * What backup software is available to back up to a local tape?
>         * I think the official support method for a failed hard drive is
>           "return the qube, we'll fix it".  What kind of turnaround time
>           and/or guarantee about saving data will there be?
>
> I think that the Qube can probably do everything that it advertises
> fairly well.  Then again, if there is a sysadmin that is willing to do
> some hand-holding from time to time, a PC running much of the same
> software (linux, apache, etc.) would work as well.  If the goal is to
> reduce the amount of handholding as much as possible, the Qube augmented
> with a tape drive (or at least daily rsync to another machine) would
> probably be a good choice.
>
> Mike
>
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