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The X2000 series are 1 year warranty by default. Upgrading them to 3 is not too much. There are currently no X2000 series servers under MGP List is here

Bigger Disk version is coming as I understand.

Ah ok. Not gonna get any Sun kit for that kind of money then. Shame as it rocks.

The Sun kit is very good. The reason it is more expensive is that it can do a whole heap more. Here is a link to the Unified Storage stuff Sun Storage 7000 Unified Storage Systems - Amber Road Resources Download the simulator and have a play. The are a number of Amber Road users on Edugeek. Ric at Baines is one. The server requirment will depend on what you are going to virtualise. The ones quoted look at little under powered if you are going to do a few servers per node. Matching Grant runs until 20 May (last application Date via us), with a last order date of the 20th June Any questions, drop me a PM

@pete, the NFS has not been done by us or Sun on Xen, but has on VMWare. NFS is very very quick using the 7000 series, it also has another advantage that the analytics provided by NFS mounts is more in depth than under iSCSi (which is still good) Andy

VMware or Solaris 10 running modified Virtualbox at the moment. The second option looks very very good. Will keep the costs down. Note though, we reckon the cost of VDI is around 60% more than TS if you do it properly.

Guys, just a post to let you know if you have missed it. There is another VDI player on the market. Sun have released VDI3 for Sun Ray and SGD. It can be configured to use VMWare or Sun's own Virtualbox to provide the VDI images The full product page can be found here It is seriously cool kit. Guest systems include: * Windows XP SP2 and higher * Windows Vista Enterprise * Windows 2000 (only on Sun xVM VirtualBox) * Ubuntu 8.10 (only on Sun xVM VirtualBox) * OpenSolaris 2008.11 (only on Sun xVM VirtualBox) It is also designed to use the new Open Storage Kit AKA Amber Road.

Do not mind at all. Rather you guys get a real picture before we all waste time chasing pipe dreams etc. Always happy to help.

Wish I had bought a load when they were £2.50 and a pickled egg.

@pete, this should make you very happy

Guys, does this make me an Oracle partner now ? Seriously though, it is too early to speculate on what will happen. The best place to get the info from is Oracle and Sun or www.sun.com/oracle I think that in the long term this is going to be good for the Sun portfolio and all of the cool and funky stuff will prosper under new management. However, we shall have to wait and see. Anyone for Oracle Rays ?

We are 2x Partners so can get it at Edu pricing for you if needed Andy

I will get the costing across. Sun Ray are NOT thin client as we know it, so the Solaris servers are there to run them. They have no inbuilt flash OS or anything like it. The are platform agnostic picture painters (very clever ones). They have the ability to present, XP, Vista, WTS, Solaris, Linux and MAC OSX. One solaris server would be a SPOF, so never deploy one. They are deployed in groups and load balance between themselves. It will run on most good quality server hardware. Sun servers are very very good and not too expensive. Especially as some of their range is currently on buy 1 get 1 free. OpenSolaris is currently not supported, so it is Solaris 10 or SLES/RHES Linux.

David, drop me a PM. I do not think Sun Ray would be the best option for a small deployment like this. However you never know

Sun Ray and SGD are a very very good option. They are currently on Matching Grant at the moment, which is buy 1 get 1 free. You can use them to talk to WTS or VMware View. This is expensive. SUN VDI3 is now out and looks v cool. All VDI has the same issue of the cost and complexity is way above using WTS. The whole art to thin client is workout where they will and where they will not work. Drop me a PM if you need to chat further

Sun Ray is a very good option here also. Well worth a look at

Yeah, I am. It is not currently but will be in the next software release due shortly. As I understand it will be up to 3 JBODs (not fully sure on this)

The edu promo buy 1 get 1 free is running at the moment. Last application date is the 20th May (done through us), with the last order date 20th March. I know I am a Sun reseller, but I have to agree with Ric. Sun x86 servers rock. The lights out management kit on them is stunning. They are built like the proverbial brick outhouse and go like stabbed rats.

Once you have your base image you can also clone the system with VBoxManage clonehd VM1.vdi VM2.vdi that way you can test all kinds of stuff from 1 base image

Guys, they have just been released under Matching Grant. £8600 for a pair, or £4300 for 1 if you buy 2 X86 servers in the same order. Feedback we are getting from units already supplied is very very good indeed.

Rob, drop me a PM and I can fill you in on the details of how to use is. There is a load of good kit on there, however it is first come first served and the pot is not bottomless. Andy

Guys, saw this about Amber Rd

They are an Open storage platform. You can chuck them into anything. No other Sun kit required. They will fit in a standard Windows network.

It is so easy you could give it to your Mum, and she would have it in production in about 20 mins. Drop me a PM and we can talk about the units. They are on Edu special until 31st March.

The 7110 is on special to edu at the moment at £,4500 + VAT. I think it runs to end of March. The other good bit is that you will be able to bolt a J4200 JBOD unit underneath as you need to expand the capacity. If you need anymore info drop me a PM.