RE: Linux for Big(ish) Databases

Bill,

In general terms, I would say that it is certainly suitable. That answer is based upon the information you provide below. The real answer could only be ascertained by evaluating other requirements:

A) Availability
B) Scalability
C) 'Cost' of each user - what do the transactions look like

Don't fall into the trap of treating the machine as a PC - many implementations of Linux/Oracle apply the cost-reduced approach all the way across the system. You save money on the server and OS, but you should still make sure your I/O requirements are well catered for.
>From a CPU standpoint, you are probably more than OK. A quad Xeon
machine has more power than you need in all likelihood (again, APPLICATION DEPENDENT - a single user can suck down 4 Xeons if they want to...). Memory, no problem - 4GB should be more than enough, and Linux is pretty well proven up to this level. The big downsides are thus:
A) PCI bus bandwidth. Unless you go for a system with multiple PCI buses (they are available, but I've not personally run Linux on one of these), you are limited to a maximum theoretical bandwidth of width*clock: 33MHz * 32-bit= ~132MB/s, 66MHz*64-bit= 528MB/s. B) Crash Dumps. If you hit an OS problem, who do you go to, and what do you give them?
C) Memory bandwidth. RDRAM or at least DDR memory solutions should be used where possible. This is where the P4 is actually worth considering. Forget all the 'extensions' stuff, though - Oracle is pretty much a pure INTEGER compute load. The thing you get that's worth having with the P4 is 400MHz front side bus - Memory Bandwidth!

I would recommend, in the complete absence of any real workload knowledge ( ;-) ) to go for a 2-way P4 system based upon the ServerWorks GC-HE chipset. Something like the Dell PowerEdge 4600. This will give you a) memory bandwidth more balanced against the CPU power, b) lots of PCI bandwidth.
Hope that is of use.

Regards

James

--
James Morle
Scale Abilities, Ltd
http://www.scaleabilities.co.uk
Author of "Scaling Oracle8i - Building Highly Scalable OLTP System
Architectures"



> -----Original Message-----

> From: root_at_fatcity.com [mailto:root_at_fatcity.com] On Behalf Of 

> Bill Buchan

> Sent: 04 March 2002 10:18

> To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L


> Subject: Linux for Big(ish) Databases

> 

> 

> 

> 

> 

> We've got a new database to put together.  OLTP, 100-200 

> users, ~250Gb 

> data.  We haven't decided on a platform for this yet.  Is 

> Intel/Linux worth 

> considering for this size of thing?

> 

> Thanks

> - Bill.

> 

> -- 

> Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com

> -- 

> Author: Bill Buchan

>   INET: wbuchan_at_uk.intasys.com

> 

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-- 
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-- 
Author: James Morle
  INET: James.Morle_at_scaleabilities.co.uk

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