more of less or less of more?

I am lead dba for a project to implement 10G RAC at our company. We currently have several small applications running on independant Oracle databases and are looking to consolidatethose to a single RAC deployment.

I am having an ongoing argument with my boss regarding the architecture of said RAC. My understanding is that Oracle recommends more, smaller, boxes (2 CPU with 8 GB RAM) as opposed to fewer larger boxes (4 CPU and up). His argument is that 2 - 4 CPU boxes will give you better performance than 4 - 2 CPU boxes. I know that I have seen white papers that discuss this very point and any Oracle instructor that I have posed the question to has said the same thing, but I cannot put my hands on said white paper(s) and my boss does not take much creedance in 'hear say'. He is also from the old school, pre 10G world of OPS where 'pinging' was a major factor.

Can someone please point me in a direction where I might find some written documentation supporting my argument.

Any help in fighting this battle would be greatly appreciated Received on Wed Apr 26 2006 - 13:54:51 CDT