Re: Large DB questions

> I am working on the initial design for a project that will be > building a very large (at least, in my opinion) database. We hope to > store between 4.5 and 5 billion records. The records will be added at > a rate of 1 to 2.5 million records per day. The data stored will be > under 1K in size, but will involve a couple of 1 to many detail tables. > We will have a couple hundred users accessing the data during the day. > > Does anyone have any experience with databases of this size? Afraid not in a production environment. > Is this something that can be handled with a relational database such > as Informix? Yes. > What kind of response times could we expect? Depends on the whole environment. It probably wouldn't run too well on a SCO 486 box. :-) Sub-second response is quite possible using the correct hardware platform. Be wary of RAID 5 - it can slow down data writes. > We have not picked any hardware either so any input on what has worked > or not worked for others would be greatly appreciated. Make it big - HP K420, IBM SP2, Sequent n-processor (where n >= 10) or possibly even a loosely coupled environment. Lots of disk spindles. As much memory as will fit in the box (>=512MB) Do a benchmark before you buy. Don't trust anything at face value - even this! :-) Good luck. -- Ciao, Billy +------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Billy Wheeler Chief Cook and Bottlewasher The West Solutions Group | +------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | (E) billy@west.co.za (U) http://www.west.co.za/billy.html | +------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Microsoft Word 6.0a to your mother .... | +------------------------------------------------------------------------------+