SCO And Open Source

I strongly disagree with SCO's attack on the Open Source community. While I still work with SCO products, I now strongly encourage my clients to adopt Open Source alternatives. My conscience will not allow me to sell products from a company who would then use the profits to attack the Open Source world.

SCO UNIXWare 2 & 7

Background

I started working with UNIXWare at the request of a new client in 1996. The had just suffered a complete system failure and asked me to recover it. It just so happened that the system ran UNIXWare 1.1 from Novell!.

My official involvement with UNIXWare came after Santa Cruz Operation (SCO) took over the product and released it as - SCO UNIXWare 2.

SCO UNIXWare 7 Experience

I earned UNIXWare authorization in 1997 with UNIXWare 2 and my Master Advanced Certified Engineer in UW 2 in 1998. However, I only worked on one system (that has since been retired).

As a condition of maintaining my SCO UNIXWare Reseller Status, I earned my Certified UNIX Systems Administrator or CUSA certificate, my Advanced Certified Engineer or ACE certificate and finally my Master Advanced Certified Engineer or MACE certificate in UNIXWare 7.x in 2000.

It turns out that I scored highly enough (and met other criteria) so that I could actually deliver SCO UNIXWare classes. My two UNIXWare Instructor certificates were issued shortly after I earned my UNIXWare MACE designation. I have taught classes in both UNIXWare Administration and UNIXWare Network Administration.

My UNIXWare experience includes:

• Recommending Suitable Platforms. UNIXWare hardware compatibility has always been an issue. Up to approximately 2001, major vendors made significant efforts to provide some measure of UNIXWare compatibility. However, that is no longer the case. Finding UNIXWare compatible hardware is a challenge that is exacerbated by the lack of detail on SCO's own Hardware Compatibility Lists (I have found the lists to be both incomplete and inaccurate).

  I am encouraged by news that SCO is starting to take hardware compatibility more seriously. I hope that they will make the device driver investments needed to keep UNIXWare current.

  In the mean time, I can offer assistance on selecting and qualifying hardware platforms for UNIXWare 7 compatibility.

• Performing Bare-Metal Recoveries. I've done a number of recoveries of systems that have had catastrophic hardware failures. Factors effecting recovery efforts include:
  • Back up quality. A simple tar back up is better than nothing but still requires a complete re-install of the operating system from CDs before a recovery can be attempted. Third party back up solutions help take the time and drudgery out of bare metal restores.
  • Replacement Hardware. If the replacement hardware you install to recover your system is not the same as the original hardware, you may significantly increase the amount of work needed to recover your server. Make sure that UNIXWare 7 device drivers are available for the replacement Network Card, Disk Controller or Video Card you install
  • Access to Installation Media & Licenses. Many people misplace their install media and licenses. If you rely on tar back ups, access to media and licesnes is critical. If you use a third party back up tool, it usually isn't necessary

  Please call me if your system has crashed. I will help you get your system back up and running.

• SCO Upgrades. SCO UNIXWare has undergone significant revisions since UNIXWare 7.0 was first released. This includes a failed major release upgrade to the now-abandoned OpenUNIX 8.0. SCO has since steped back to UNIXWare 7.x for it's release numbers..

  I have completed of Year 2000 upgrades, point level operating system upgrades as well as installing service patches and patch bundles.

• Security Audits. Most of the SCO machines I encounter have security issues that could easily be exploited. In many cases these flaws can be easily corrected. I can help secure your system and also develop the policies and procedures that will ensure your machine stays secure.

• Back Ups. Most of the machines I encounter do not perform complete, trustworthy back ups. This places the machine (and the company that owns it) at significant risk.

  To assess your current back up strategy, ask yourself these questions:

  1. Can you perform a bare metal recovery with 100% confidence?
  2. Can you recover any file from your back up media at any time?
  3. Can you reproduce your machines current configuration with the documentation you have on hand right now?
  4. How old are your tapes? Have they exceeded their rated life?
  5. Are your back ups verified after they are performed?
  6. Are databases or other applications put into a back-up safe state? If not, your database may be worse than useless.

• Performance. When your server is slow, everybody is effected. Stop appologizing to your clients about your your slow server. Often simple upgrades can add years of life to a server (and prevent costly upgrades).

• Database Administration. We have experience with both the Progress and Oracle databases. I often see systems where the application vendor has not done a good job of installing a database product or has not properly configured SCO to provide the resources the database needs to function properly.

  If your staff are getting errors like semaphore error or out of shared memory, SCO isn't configured properly.

SCO UNIXWare Certificates & Authorizations

	SCO CUSA or Certified UNIX System Administrator is an entry level certificate earned by passing a single system administration exam. The exam is not easy, and is the first of two exams necessary to earn Advanced Certified Engineer status. My score was 93%.
	To upgrade from CUSA to Advanced Certified Engineer (ACE), you must pass a second test on network administration. This includes basic IP networking along with service management such as mail, web, security, multi-homing and more. My score on this exam was also over 90%.
	UNIXWare 7 Master Advanced Certified Engineer Master Advanced Certified Engineer status is earned by testing out on a shell scripting exam in addition to the requirements for SCO Advanced Certified Engineer for UNIXWare 7.
	UNIXWare 2.1 Advanced Certified Engineer I'm showing this certificate as evidence of the number of years I've been working with UNIXWare. UNIXWare 2 dates back to the days when Novell transferred ownership of the technology to SCO. I earned this certificate by testing out on both the System and Network Administration tests. These tests were different from the tests taken to earn UNIXWare 7 certification. I haven't worked with UNIXWare 2 for a few years as all of my clients have migrated from this platform to UNIXWare 7 (or some other flavor of UNIX).
	This certificate provides authorization for me (and my company) to resell the entire UNIXWare product line. UNIXWare 7 Authorization is still required before an organization can purchase SCO UNIXWare products through distribution. SCO OpenServer reseller authorization is only granted to companies who have a UNIXware Advanced Certified Engineer on staff.

SCO Instructor Designation

Not only am I certified to work on UNIXWare 7 systems but I am also certified to teach UNIXWare 7 System Administration. To obtain instructor level status, you must first be a certified Master Advanced Certified Engineer. Then, you must prove you have the credentials and experience to conduct classes for SCO or their authorized training partners. Not only must you be an SCO Master ACE to teach their classes, you must also score 90% or higher on the tests.

This certificate allows me to teach UNIXWare 7 Network Administration. The criteria for earning this certificate is similar to the UNIXWare 7 System Administration teaching certificate. I had to score over 90% in the UNIXWare 7 Network Administration exam plus demonstrate a high level of competence in conducting high-tech short format classes.