Sun Microsystems Sun Fire X2270 review

The secure web interface is easy to use and opens with a status report on all critical components and their condition. You don't get any nice graphs but a table is provided showing the values for all voltages, temperatures and fan speeds. Predefined thresholds are applied to each one and if breached you can have the ILOM issue an email alert or SNMP trap.

The ILOM puts Sun on a par with HP as most of its ProLiant servers come with an embedded iLO2 chip which offers a similar set of features. However, Sun also provides full remote control and virtual media services as standard whereas HP expects you to pay extra for the privilege. What you don't get is any of the sophisticated power capping, metering and regulation features offered by HP.

Although we were mightily impressed with the Sun Fire X4140 we can't say the same for the X2270. It does offer a good hardware specification for the price with some unique storage options but it's noisy and we were disappointed with its appetite for power as it flies in the face of Intel's claims for its 5500 processors.

Sun's sudden acquisition agreement with Oracle is also cause for contemplation although this move would give the latter the ability to provide an end-to-end solution for all its products. The X2270 may not be the best example of the Sun Fire server family but Oracle is nevertheless getting its hands on a very impressive range of products.

Author: Dave Mitchell