RE: Hardware advice please
A discussion thread, not a fault report: Rosemary asked for advice on replacing her Informix server hardware. Points raised included IDS licensing costs rising with CPU count and memory, the trade-off between staying on Solaris/SPARC versus moving to Linux (her admins know Linux better), SAS vs SATA disks, and vendor choice (IBM xSeries, HP, Dell, Sun all seen as commodity; IBM unlikely to lease such low-cost kit). Concern was voiced over the effort of ASCII unload/reload of ~30GB; Art Kagel suggested his dbcopy utility for a faster binary server-to-server copy. No final decision is recorded.
Auto-generated by DrWatson from the posts below — may be imperfect; read the full thread.
> Date: Fri, 15 Aug 2008 13:20:27 +0100 > From: obnoxio@serendipita.com > > > Preferably 8g. if you need to buy IDS licences a 4 dual-core x86 server > > would cost about £30k to licence, without HDR. Exactly the same server with > > 12g of memory would cost £140k. > > As before, I'd still look at Sun Sparc rather than Intel, due to the ease of > > upgrade. > > > > > Unless the databases are enormous, I'd contend that the effort required > to do a hardware migration will not be a significant factor: you already > have to move database version, OS version, move all the data elsewhere.... > > But then, I'm not really likely to be doing the actual work, am I? :o) > > Its interesting that the price of the IDS license depends not only on the CPU but also on the amount of memory. The biggest issue of the migration would be the hardware migration and cross training of your sys admins. Solaris != Linux and your sun hardware can run Linux if you want. As to the chip sets, 4 dual core xeon boards vs 2 quad core xeon boards? The other issue that wasn't discussed was selection of disk. Do you go SATA or SAS. 3.5" or 2.5" form factor? SAS can go as high as 15K rpm but you're limited to 73GB on the faster drives, or 143GB on the slower 10k drives. SATA drives have higher densities but are slower. And they may be good enough for most uses. So if your sys admins are really good with solaris, but don't know anything about Linux, stick with solaris. _________________________________________________________________ Get ideas on sharing photos from people like you. Find new ways to share. http://www.windowslive.com/explore/photogallery/posts?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_Photo_Gallery_082008
On Aug 15, 2:16 pm, Ian Michael Gumby <im_gu...@hotmail.com> wrote: > > Date: Fri, 15 Aug 2008 13:20:27 +0100 > > From: obno...@serendipita.com > > > > Preferably 8g. if you need to buy IDS licences a 4 dual-core x86 server > > > would cost about £30k to licence, without HDR. Exactly the same server with > > > 12g of memory would cost £140k. > > > As before, I'd still look at Sun Sparc rather than Intel, due to the ease of > > > upgrade. > > > Unless the databases are enormous, I'd contend that the effort required > > to do a hardware migration will not be a significant factor: you already > > have to move database version, OS version, move all the data elsewhere.... > > > But then, I'm not really likely to be doing the actual work, am I? :o) > > Its interesting that the price of the IDS license depends not only on the CPU but also on the amount of memory. > > The biggest issue of the migration would be the hardware migration and cross training of your sys admins. > Solaris != Linux and your sun hardware can run Linux if you want. > > As to the chip sets, 4 dual core xeon boards vs 2 quad core xeon boards? > > The other issue that wasn't discussed was selection of disk. Do you go SATA or SAS. 3.5" or 2.5" form factor? > SAS can go as high as 15K rpm but you're limited to 73GB on the faster drives, or 143GB on the slower 10k drives. > > SATA drives have higher densities but are slower. And they may be good enough for most uses. > > So if your sys admins are really good with solaris, but don't know anything about Linux, stick with solaris. > > _________________________________________________________________ > Get ideas on sharing photos from people like you. Find new ways to share.http://www.windowslive.com/explore/photogallery/posts?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_...- Hide quoted text - > > - Show quoted text - Thanks everyone for your useful comments. I shall investigate costs for both continuing on solaris and for linux. (my sysadmin can probably do linux better than solaris, as most of our other servers are linux). A supplier recommended to me that HP was a good make of server to buy, being apparently robust but reasonably priced. Is this good advice, can anyone suggest any other cheap makes to try, for comparison? Someone mentioned in a posting a while back about leasing servers from IBM ... but which series to choose ...?! Thanks again all, very grateful for the info! Rosemary
R Rhodes said: > A supplier recommended to me that HP was a good make of server to buy, > being apparently robust but reasonably priced. Is this good advice, > can anyone suggest any other cheap makes to try, for comparison? > Someone mentioned in a posting a while back about leasing servers from > IBM ... but which series to choose ...?! If it were I, I'd be going with IBM xSeries, but that's because somehow it's the only Intel-based kit I've worked on for ages, and it's been pretty damn good. -- Bye now, Obnoxio http://obotheclown.blogspot.com/
On Aug 19, 5:33 pm, "Obnoxio The Clown" <obno...@serendipita.com> wrote: > If it were I, I'd be going with IBM xSeries, but that's because somehow > it's the only Intel-based kit I've worked on for ages, and it's been > pretty damn good. > Hmmm. He said cheap. And no, IBM isn't cheap. ;-) The X Series are well built and did get good reviews from CRN (Computer Reseller News). That is their blade servers. If you want a lower cost option that also got good reviews (Actually better than IBM) look at MSI. If you don't need the latest and greatest, you can always shop for a pre-owned server.
"R Rhodes" <rosie@bullysoft.co.uk> wrote in message news:c789c228-a57e-4c11-90da-1996d6986d56@l42g2000hsc.googlegroups.com... >> Thanks everyone for your useful comments. I shall investigate costs for both continuing on solaris and for linux. (my sysadmin can probably do linux better than solaris, as most of our other servers are linux). Understandable, but I stillm think that you may be underestimating the effort of ASCII-converting 30g of data on smallish servers ... >> A supplier recommended to me that HP was a good make of server to buy, being apparently robust but reasonably priced. HP, Sun and IBM Intel servers, if you want Intel, are pretty much "commodity". Ditto Dell. If it was my money I'd go for IBM, but I'm sure HP and Dell have their supporters too. I can give you prices for HP, Sun or IBM. You have to buy Dell directly. >> Someone mentioned in a posting a while back about leasing servers from >> IBM ... but which series to choose ...?! There is not a hope in hell that IBM would be interested in leasing you a server which is unlikely to cost '10,000 anyway.
On Tue, Aug 19, 2008 at 8:48 PM, Neil Truby <neil.truby@ardenta.com> wrote: > "R Rhodes" <rosie@bullysoft.co.uk> wrote in message > news:c789c228-a57e-4c11-90da-1996d6986d56@l42g2000hsc.googlegroups.com... > > > >> Thanks everyone for your useful comments. > I shall investigate costs for both continuing on solaris and for > linux. (my sysadmin can probably do linux better than solaris, as most > of our other servers are linux). > > Understandable, but I stillm think that you may be underestimating the > effort of ASCII-converting 30g of data on smallish servers ... > <SNIP> What about a binary copy from the old server directly into the new one? You can do that with my dbcopy utility rather quickly. Faster than unload ascii data, copy ascii data, load ascii data for certain. Art -- Art S. Kagel Oninit (www.oninit.com) IIUG Board of Directors (art@iiug.org) Disclaimer: Please keep in mind that my own opinions are my own opinions and do not reflect on my employer, Oninit, the IIUG, nor any other organization with which I am associated either explicitly or implicitly. Neither do those opinions reflect those of other individuals affiliated with any entity with which I am affiliated nor those of the entities themselves.
Neil Truby wrote: > "R Rhodes" <rosie@bullysoft.co.uk> wrote in message > news:c789c228-a57e-4c11-90da-1996d6986d56@l42g2000hsc.googlegroups.com... > > > >>> Thanks everyone for your useful comments. >>> > I shall investigate costs for both continuing on solaris and for > linux. (my sysadmin can probably do linux better than solaris, as most > of our other servers are linux). > > Understandable, but I stillm think that you may be underestimating the > effort of ASCII-converting 30g of data on smallish servers ... > > >>> A supplier recommended to me that HP was a good make of server to buy, >>> > being apparently robust but reasonably priced. > > HP, Sun and IBM Intel servers, if you want Intel, are pretty much > "commodity". Ditto Dell. If it was my money I'd go for IBM, but I'm sure > HP and Dell have their supporters too. I can give you prices for HP, Sun > or IBM. You have to buy Dell directly. > > >>> Someone mentioned in a posting a while back about leasing servers from >>> IBM ... but which series to choose ...?! >>> > > There is not a hope in hell that IBM would be interested in leasing you a > server which is unlikely to cost £10,000 anyway. > But if there's software that needs bundling ...? :o) -- Cheers, Obnoxio the Clown http://obotheclown.blogspot.com