IBM has been talking about it for over a year, and been beta testing it for over six months. Now it's here: OS/2 Warp Server for e-Business, or more simply Aurora. IBM released Aurora on May 14, 1999, and has endowed this new server with enough power, stability, and speed to manage the huge rush of business onto the Web for many years to come.

On this site we have looked at Aurora briefly from time to time, and it seems appropriate to summarize that material, as well as look at some of the new material released by IBM.

The easiest way to do this is to simply ask one question:

What's new in Aurora?

1. Network-Oriented

   Supports from less than a dozen to many hundreds of users; well suited to multi-network environments.

2. File-System Support

   Aurora contains three new related file support systems:

   1. Journaled File System

      The first completely new file system for OS/2 since HPFS, which by now is several generations old and is beginning to limit modern applications, JFS is well-suited to take on these applications since, among other things, its maximum partition size (2 terabytes) is several orders of magnitude larger than any current physical disk drive.

   2. Logical Volume Manager

      Your 13.8 GB hard drive not big enough? Then add two or three of them using the LVM and make one partition out of them! Combining JFS and LVM there is effectively no limit to the size of a partition.

   3. Recovery

      Under JFS, every action performed by the disk is recorded in a transaction log. In case of a problem, this log can be replayed, reducing the amount of time required to restore the hard drive to minutes--a feature necessary for reliable support of a large commercial web site.

3. TCP/IP
   1. Capacity

      Socket support (simultaneous sessions) has been increased from 2000 to 64000; this demonstrates IBM's commitment to network support in this new server. In particular this allows installation of larger application servers.

4. Base OS/2 Function
   1. Applications have an additional 32 MB additional memory available.

   2. Pure 32-bit applications can access up to 4 GB of virtual RAM.

   3. Supports up to 64 microprocessors in one package.

   4. Additional fine-tuning to enhance scalability.

5. Java

   Java 1.1.7 has been integrated into Aurora.

Please note that the above is only a brief summary of the new features in OS/2 Warp Server for e-Business. For more complete information, see For Further Reading below:

Next time: We shall complete our series on Installing and Setting up OS/2 for the New User.

For Further Reading:

Aurora File System Services White Paper Copyright 1998 IBM

OS/2 Warp Server for e-business: Summary of Functions Copyright 1999 IBM. (Much of this article of was taken from this document.)

The Dawn of the Next OS/2 Warp Server Copyright 1999 IBM. General overview of Aurora.

Aurora - The Next Warped Generation. From VOICE Newsletter by Mark Dodel
Good, balanced review of Aurora. Shows product's strengths plus weaknesses. (Note: product was reviewed as a beta, so some details may have changed in GA version.)