Re: What is the best platform for Informix 7.x?

David Williams <djw@smooth1.demon.co.uk> wrote: :In article <33bbe71d.24655512@gate.idg.no>, Nils Myklebust :<Nils.Myklebust@idg.no> writes : I main problem with SCO we found was that it was not stable. : We had 5 SCO boxes and used to have crashes at least once every 2 : weeks. Try doing something simle like filling up the root partition : and see how long it stays up for. We never managed > 2 hours..., : we'd come back in in the morning and Yes XXX rebooted again last : night.. You mean the root partition of Unix or the database? I have had no problem with either, but very seldom do fill it up. Diskspace is too cheap on PC type hardware to do things like that except if something goes wildly wrong. I can hardly remember any machine stopping or rebooting. One or two times over many years and many machines perhaps. And the database allways came up again without a hitch. Then of course we did make sure to use only stable versions of the OS and all required patches as is so necessary with all Unix's these days it seems. : Also it is much harder to add new hardware to a PC than to a Sun : box due to the poor machine architecture (640K limit, no standard : bus, no standard way for the OS to indentify new hardware). Well, it may be harder, but it isn't hard. 640k limit? What's that on Unix? Have never heard of it. Standard bus? The PCI bus is ok, or what is wrong? Correct of course that SCO Unix doesn't identify new hardware, and you have to know too much about it to install it. This could easily have been fixed, but SCO isn't the best guys in the world on such things. One small reason for wanting a port to Linux which is better it's said. : It's less SCO as the hardware arhitecture.... The architecture has evolved significantly the latest years though. Have you looked at a Compaq lately or other top PC type hardware? :>There is one advantage to the Sun machine that it can be expanded :>more, and you can get larger machines. :>If that is not an issue is there any reason at all to buy a Sun? :>If there is, is it good enough to warant the price difference? :> :>From what I know the HP and IBM solutions aren't any better pricewise, :>and have no other significant advantages. :>An additional advantage with PC servers is that the low price have :>made all my customers update the hardware and database engine at the :>same time. That makes for a simple update senario. :> :>Compaq have also announced 8 processor machines and the prices are :>still falling. Are the Unix server market in for some significant :>changes? :> : : Probably not, have you tried a Sun Ultrasparc 2 1 170Mhz processor : (or 2 170Mhz) processors? We found this to be much faster than : any PC we came across, inluding 200 Mhz Pentiums. That means the TPC/C results are bad and this is very interesting. Can you give some hard numbers? Real speed in real situations is the major differentiatior for us as long as stability and reliability is there. Nils.Myklebust@idg.no NM Data AS, P.O.Box 9090 Gronland, N-0133 Oslo, Norway My opinions are those of my company The Informix FAQ is at http://www.iiug.org