Re: hardware question

Here's a bit more anecdotal info on multi-processor systems-

We've got one system with Tyan motherboard & 2 1.2 GHz Athlon processors,
SCSI Raid, 1 GB RAM. We're running Debian Linux 2.4.17 & Postgres 7.2.1.
We're happy with the performance, & both processors are being used by
postgresql. We haven't seen all of the RAM used yet, but I'm confident that
the OS is equipped to use it & just think we haven't challenged it enough.

On the downside, our backup machine with the same configuration doesn't
work. Since the other one is performing flawlessly, I'm assuming we have a
bad hardware component somewhere.

I've also run a 4 processor Xeon box with 2GB RAM at a previous job, and I
wasn't impressed, but it was running NT & Oracle so the comparison is very
approximate.

I would encourage you to strongly consider the Athlon processors if you're
trying to reduce cost. From what I've read elsewhere, it sounds like you may
get comparable performance with a dual Athlon vs a Quad Xeon. Also remember
that in a server-class Sun box, you've got a nice I/O channel by default,
but in an Intel/AMD box, you may need to think hard about I/O & make some
choices there as well.

-Nick

> -----Original Message-----
> From: pgsql-admin-owner(at)postgresql(dot)org
> [mailto:pgsql-admin-owner(at)postgresql(dot)org]On Behalf Of Andreas Schmitz
> Sent: Friday, September 27, 2002 3:43 AM
> To: pgsql-admin(at)postgresql(dot)org
> Subject: Re: [ADMIN] hardware question
>
>
>
> Hello *,
>
> thanks a lot for the quick responses. It looks like I have to
> answer a few
> questions.
>
> - I am talking about P4 Xeon
> - Getting away from SUN is the attemp to reduce costs. I think I
> don't have to
> mention the amount of money that has to be spent on service
> contracts (even
> with older machines).
>
> I don't really like to change from multi CPU SUNs to Intel boxes.
> My Problem
> is that I don't know much about the behavior of Intel Xeons and I
> fear to run
> into a performance bottleneck even with databases >5Gb. I've one
> P4 Dual Xeon
> box running with oracle 9i. The system shows 4 CPUs that seems to
> be typical
> for Xeon. Will postgres use this a a 4 CPU machine ? Is there any
> HT support
> ?
>
> regards
>
> -andreas
>
>
> --
> Andreas Schmitz - Phone +49 201 8501 318
> Cityweb-Technik-Service-Gesellschaft mbH
> Friedrichstr. 12 - Fax +49 201 8501 104
> 45128 Essen - email a(dot)schmitz(at)cityweb(dot)de
>
>
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