Solaris

Hi all,

Now Sun provides a large range of x86 servers and Solaris is running fine on both x86/sparc.
For new projects mainly running Oracle DB on SAN, I am wondering which architecture is best for our new projets.

As we won't go for high end servers (using around 4 or 8 Cpu's par host is fine, clustered arch) what are the advantages of using sparc servers as it's much much more expensive.

- Anybody can tell me pros/cons on both architecture running solaris.

We are thinking using Oracle RAC architecture as well taking advantage of the cheap x86 server to build a N node RAC cluster.

- Do anybody have experienced this solution ?

Thanks for your feedback.

personal experience, x86 cheaper product than sparc.
Not user friendly for clustering. Faced many issues even during recovery.

the T series servers are much slower than most of the x86 systems. but under heavy load with many tasks they won't get slower... the x86 systems will...
also the io subsystem is much faster on (most of the) sparc servers...

so:
heavy load and/or much io -> sparc
in other cases -> x86

Thanks for your feedback.
- incredible :
Can you give some details on clustering pb you may have had because of x86 arch

- DukeNuke2 :
The thing is I can buy more than twice as much cpus with x86 arch.
Even with these massive power (I use SAN disks) you think I can have bad perf issue (all IO boards are now PCI is it) ?
Actually I won't say my applications are heavily used IO, db are big (100gb) but not so heavily used.

you can only know for sure after you've tested a sparc against a x86 mashine. maybe you should go for a 60 day try&buy to do testing and after that decide which one you should/will/can buy...

... x86 may come with more CPUs, but the SPARC systems can handle much more threads.
An x86 box may have a smaller initial price tag, but when you consider capacity and the total cost of ownership through the life of the server, I don't think they are "cheaper" than SPARCs.

Thanks all for your answers.
Actually I would have had figures and numbers to speak with management :-)