Brantley, Wow, that's really impressive. Thanks for sharing. Would you say that Supermicro hardware supports Plan 9 well, or did it take a lot of hacking and driver development? I have a Supermicro 1U sitting in my uncles basement — I might go grab it and set it up as a fileserver.
Nick On Wednesday, August 24, 2016, Brantley Coile <brantleyco...@me.com> wrote: > Nick, > > Coraid, Inc sold network storage systems that consisted of our software > running on more or less stock Supermicro hardware. We invented the > ATA-over-Ethernet block storage network protocol. We sold almost > $100,000,000 worth of stuff, somewhere north of 10,000 units, all running > Plan 9. > > I left Coraid the company in 2014 over disagreements with management on > the direction of the company, and started SouthSuite Software. Coraid, Inc. > was foreclosed on by the bank in 2015 and I was subsequently able to > purchase the good parts of the old Coraid, including the brand name > “Coraid.” Now, Coraid the brand lives on as a product of SouthSuite > Software. > > Now, we license that same software, or our continuing evolution of it, to > run on Supermicro hardware our customer buys themselves at a big savings. > We also support the existing Coraid equipment that is in the field. > > You can check us out at http://www.coraid.com > > Thanks for asking. > > P. S. I still code exclusively in C and see no reason for me to change. > > Brantley > > > On Aug 24, 2016, at 9:00 AM, Nickolas Peter <nickpeteromal...@gmail.com > <javascript:;>> wrote: > > > > Hi Brantley, > > > > I am by no means an experienced developer or Plan 9 user, so I can > hardly speak from the same experience level as most (I assume) of the > posters on this list. I only recently found myself very interested in Plan > 9, C, and embedded systems. As of now, I only run 9front as a learning > environment on series of virtual machines. > > > > It's really intriguing to hear that there's commercial hardware running > Plan 9, and very motivating to see that there are still people utilizing > Plan 9 in some way as a primary system. > > > > When you mentioned using Plan 9 in your shipping software, were you > referring to some internal software that you use to handle shipping > hardware to customers, or software that you sell to customers (say, to run > on your hardware)? I'm interested to hear more about it, if you're at > liberty to share. > > > > > > Nick > > > > > > On Wednesday, August 24, 2016, Brantley Coile <brantleyco...@me.com > <javascript:;>> wrote: > > Some general comments. > > > > It’s good to see it used in at least a few places. It’s too good a > system to be the only one using it. But I will until providence completely > forces me to do otherwise, which I don’t anticipate. > > > > I’m really lucky to be able to use the system, especially in the way it > was envisioned in the 1980’s. My first knowledge of it was when I asked > Dennis Ritchie what was new. He said that Ken was playing around with the > concept of union directories. Later, during one of my visits to the Labs, > in 1988 I think, Dennis gave me a demonstration of the system. > > > > One problem with most people who haven’t been as fortunate as I have, is > they really just need a single system, not a distributed system. While Plan > 9 makes a better single system for some things than most OSes, it’s really > not supposed to have local disks at all. It really is designed to be a > larger distributed timesharing system. At Coraid, we had two setups, one in > Athens and one in Redwood City, that supported over 100 users in total. And > without a single dedicated system admin. It was a very part time job, > mostly for Erik, but Ian Ennis did some as well. It was very easy to manage > because it was a single machine. > > > > As far as I know, SouthSuite is now the only company both using it as a > development system or shipping software based on Plan 9. Does anyone know > of any others? > > > > Different people choose tools for different reasons and to satisfy > different requirements the world places on them. I chose to work in > embedded appliances so I could pick the software I use. The PIX Firewall > was a bit too early for Plan 9—it was not yet released when I wrote the > PIX—but it was very much of the spirit, as was the Cisco LocalDirector. > Soon, we began using the 1995 Plan 9 release and I have been using it > almost exclusively ever since. I use it as the sole development environment > and as the base of the products we ship. > > > > In spite of our early success at Coraid with the SR, after the VC > investment the use of Plan 9 became controversial. It’s not what others > use, and in Sand Land (what else can one call Silicon Valley) that makes > people nervous. Over my objections, the company attempted to move to Open > Solaris. It’s a truism that a company that changes operating system goes > out of business, and Coraid, Inc. again proved that to be true. The reason? > A small company can’t afford the retooling costs to switch to another > operating system. > > > > But things have turned out well anyway, at least for me and the > traditional Coraid users. Now I have everything from the trademark to the > source code and now offer the Coraid product as a software product and can > support existing Coraid users, both with software updates and with help > getting their hardware fixed or replaced. We are helping all those folks > who bought Coraid gear continue to get value of their purchase. One fellow > sent me a note showing that he’s been up over 2,000 days without rebooting. > There’s never a reason to fork-lift an SR. > > > > I like to think we do a good job, but our performance, efficiency and > low cost is all made possible by the superior system that was developed by > the folks at the Labs from 1987 thru 2002. > > > > Brantley > > >
