Solaris to Linux

[dandan123]

I've been primarily working on Solaris. I'm now thinking of learning Linux as most Solaris jobs need some linux too. How different/difficult would Linux be and what flavor of Linux would you recommend ?

 

[dandan123]

I've loaded CentOS on an old IBM PII and it seems to work ok.

My PC has two drives and I have CentOS loaded on the second drive. But it uses GRUB on the MBR which is ofcourse on drive 1.

Is there any way to boot Linux without using drive 1 (Primary drive) at all ?

 

[BocaBurger]

I bought some removable hard drive bays from ComputerGate. I turn off, slip in the OS drive required and boot. 2nd drive is FAT formated, so almost any OS can read it.
I bought a bunch of 20 gig pulls a while back real cheap ($18.00 each US)..



BocaBurger
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The pen is mightier than the sword, but the sword hurts more!

 

[dandan123]

So how does this work ? You install an enclosure in one of the drive bays accessible from the front and then slide in a tray containing a bootable drive that's configured as the primary drive ?

 

[robbieguy2003]

Depending on what you do and what you need to learn is the main question here.

Certain companies use different distributions of Linux and although there all pretty similar installing someone on one version can be completely different to doing it on another.

I think CentOS is a great step as that is extremely similar (more of less step for step) to Redhat, Fedora Core and other Redhat Clones.

If you want to get into really knowing Linux then try running Slackware (the original Linux Distro) which shoves you in at the deep and dirty end.

Another good Distro to look at is Gentoo, just installing it and going through the documentation would probrably learn you a lot about the system.

In a lot of ways though Solaris isnt miles apart.

Good Luck learning

I wish someone would just call me Sir, without adding 'Your making a scene'.

Rob

 

[BocaBurger]

Yes, you get a tray for each drive. I started with this idea years ago when I needed to have a number of different servers to trouble shoot Novell and NT issues. Couldn't afford the server hardware so I had an open full tower case with a number of drives in it. I would move the power & SCSI cable to the drive with the OS needed.

Then drives got smaller and cheaper and I found those drive trays. Don't spend the extra $ for the hot swap drive bays, I found you can't hot swap OS's



BocaBurger
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The pen is mightier than the sword, but the sword hurts more!

 

[dandan123]

Robbie and Boca,

Thanks for your responses.

Boca I think your suggestion is great, I think I'll buy a a bay and a couple of trays off e-bay.

Robbie, I'm a Solaris Sys admin.

 

[BocaBurger]

Check out Computergate.com They seem to have very good pricing and I have done business with them for years. Check out pricewatch.com for deals on HD refurbs and pulls. I have no other relationship with these cos except as a satisfied customer.



BocaBurger
<===========================||////////////////|0
The pen is mightier than the sword, but the sword hurts more!