SGAS: Stefan’s got a Sun – Preface

As I have already hinted at, I participated in Sun’s Try&Buy program (German readers look here). Which, by the way, in my opinion is a bit mislabeled for you don’t have to buy the machine if you return it within 60 days.
While others had some mixed experiences with the program, I haven’t encountered anything comparable so far. To the contrary. Actually, it started as some kind of crazy joke when Volker asked me whether I’d like to get my hands on a “real” server and told me about the program (shame on me, must have missed the press release entirely). Initially, I didn’t bite. But then I thought about it and found it to be a nice opportunity to not only play with the machine but to also see how the whole process would look like from the user’s end. So I applied for an eval unit. I picked the standard configuration, entered my personal data (I wasn’t asked for my credit card data) into the application form. This was on March 12.
On March 14, I got an email from Sun telling me that my application was accepted and the system would arrive within the next two weeks. So I didn’t expect it to be here before next week. Yesterday in the morning, however, two guys with two boxes stood in front of my door and delivered “my” T2000. Normally, I’d have literally jumped into the boxes but I was overwhelmed with work so the Sun had to wait.

First Contact
Later that day I came around to unpack the machine and take some pictures. Expect this gallery to expand over time, mostly with screen shots from now on. The first thing I noticed was the quality of the body. Every x86-based server I handled so far looks and feels cheap in comparison. I suppressed the urge to hook it up immediately but instead consulted the manual. I better did because that’s when I found out that I had to configure the machine using a serial connection and a terminal. That wouldn’t have been a problem hadn’t it been for the RJ45 connector Sun uses for the serial management port. The needed converters to connect the port to a standard DB9 oder DB25 port on my PCs weren’t included.

Sidenote: I’m very well aware that normally machines like the T2000 are deployed into data centers where they are connected to terminal servers which do have an RJ45 serial port. For a Try&Buy program, however, you can almost guarantee that there will be users who want to evaluate the machine but don’t have a terminal server at hand. Considering that the price for the connector is below 0,1 percent of the T2000′s tag, it would have been nice of Sun to at least include an option to order it in the application form.
Update: As I was told by Sun today, I was one of the last to receive a box without the connector. So chances are your box will have all the parts necessary to start testing right away.

A quick search in my toolbox revealed that I actually own such a converter. As it turned out, it unfortunately had the wrong pin layout. Time for plan B: search the web. I found that I had to either order a connector from Sun (part no 530-2889 for DB25 and 530-3100-xx for DB9, just in case) or build my own. For it was late in the evening and I wanted to give the Coolfire a first run I opted for doing both.
Using my trusting old soldering gear and a spare DB9 connector from the days when modems were owned by few, I managed to patch up a cable. I found the information provided here and there very helpful in the task. Unfortunately I was already tired enough to use a male DB9 connector instead of a female one, so the initial cable I built was essentially useless. I called it a day and promised to get a DB9 gender changer asap. I did but that didn’t work out as planned for various reasons I’m going to write about tomorrow.

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