Re: [OT/For Sale] Sun SPARC hardware collection in Germany

[Dennis Clarke <dclarke%blastwave.org@localhost>]

On 9/14/26 08:03, Jens Hamisch wrote:
> Hello to all enthusiasts of Spare hardware and Sun fans in this community,
>
> My name is Jens Hamisch, and I have been closely involved with Sun Microsystems systems and Solaris for more than 35 years. Even today, I still run my own virtual servers on Solaris — not because I dislike Linux, but because Solaris has provided me with an exceptional level of operational stability over the years that I find difficult to give up. ;-)

I can relate to that, however sadly Larry and his Oracle folks have had
such a terrible effect that running Solaris is a moral sin. I also had
a similar stack of hardware and none of it would run much of anything
of use anymore. I tossed all of it out for recycle. Disposal. All of it
with the exception of a single "new" SPARC S7-2 server. It is a 128-core
wonder beast with 256G of memory. Sadly it can only run Solaris 11.4 and
my attempts with NetBSD have all failed.

> My servers have since been virtualized, and instead of running Solaris 10 on SPARC hardware, I now operate Solaris systems on x86. As a result, I have accumulated a rather nice collection of former Sun servers, storage systems, and components in my basement over the years.
>
> During the past few weeks, I brought the equipment out again, inventoried it, and tested it as far as technically possible. A large proportion of the systems are still functional: ILOM, ALOM, or LOM starts, the hosts boot, and login to the installed operating system is possible. Many of the servers still have Solaris 10 installed, and some also have Sun Cluster 3.1 at an older patch level.

That hardware was built to run and last and stay running for decades.


> I am now looking for a new home for this collection — preferably with people who appreciate this technology, want to preserve it, and may even put it back into operation. I definitely do not want the equipment to end up with a scrap dealer or at a recycling yard. I would also be reluctant to sell it purely for commercial use as a source of spare parts.

Sadly I went through the same stage of denial. For a few years.
Sooner or later we hit the hard reality that SPARC is a dead platform.
The body is cold and there is no way that will ever return to life.
Sure you can run something on that hardware and the old Netra T1-105
is a hilarious little flapjack. If you can get the bizarre memory
modules for it. I tossed out three of them a few months ago. Scrap.

> I have listed the servers, storage systems, components, and some Cisco equipment on Kleinanzeigen, a German classified advertising platform. Some devices have documented limitations or could not be tested completely. I have described these points as accurately and transparently as possible in the individual listings.

It is a nice collection of goodness. You *may* find someone somewhere
that will pay for shipping on the Netra X1 unit. However I will place
a bet that no one will pay for shipping on anything else. That has been
the factual truth that I discovered myself.

My advice, based on my own metric tonn of hardware, is to just scrap
all of it with the exception of a single Netra X1 and a T1-105.


--
--
Dennis Clarke
RISC-V/SPARC/PPC/ARM/CISC
UNIX and Linux spoken