UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hello all,
I have been trying to find any data that states what platform would garner better overall performance in an Oracle Cluster.

The scenario:

This is a high traffic e-commerce site with IIS and Commerce server on the front end. The backend consists of a Sun Solaris hardware/software cluster running Oracle 8.

I have been charted to spec out a new infrastructure to manage the site in house. There is a possibility of moving to a SQL 2000/w2K solution in the future due to CIO. My question is, does anyone know how the following server specs would compare in performance for the Oracle cluster:

Sun Solaris configuration:
2 E3500 Servers each with
8 464-MHz w/8MB cache
4GB RAM
2 A5100 Storedge

Intel Configuration:
2 Compaq DL760 servers each with
8 900-MHz ZEON w/2MB cache
4GB RAM
2 4100 Array enclosures

Either one of these configurations would be running Solaris 8


Any insight would be greatly appreciated as I am new to Unix and the Sun Sparc platform. Thank you

If both configurations would end up running Solaris 8, I'd say that SPARC would be the way to go hands down.

Personally, I'd get rid if IIS as well, but that's just me.

Yeah, it is kind of a loaded questions in a Unix forum...

I wondered the same thing on a smaller scale, and did a couple tests. While others will say that they aren't scientific etc., the results speak for themselves. But, if the doubters want to provide another test and instructions (that won't take much time), I will be happy to run them on my PC running RedHat 7.0 and my Ultra 10 running Solaris 8 64 bit, or I can even run them on a Netra A200 (UltraSpacr II 500 Mhz/512 RAM) or E4500 (6 cpu's and 6 Gb of RAM).

http://www.1le.net/~1le/unix/unix_ws_tests.html

I just finished setting up an Oracle cluster with 2 Sun 420R's around 2 D1000 arrays using Veritas VCS & HA Oracle. It seems to work very well, but it was a lot of work!
Good luck.

But his question was assuming that both PC and Sun were going to be running Solaris.

Also, since he said he'd be running Solaris, wouldn't it make better sense to run it on SPARC where it was developed first?

I like Linux too... very cheap and very good performance. But Linux wasn't what he was asking about.

Just to stir things up a bit...

It has been my (recent) expierence that Solaris 8
on a 900-MHz Intel box will (in general) run faster than
Solaris 8 on a 464-MHz Sparc box. Having said that,
in an SMP configuration, Sparc's "tend" to perform better.
Add the server attached storage (I assuming you are not
using a SAN configuration), now you're dealing with
periferal I/O as well. The "true" way to tell is to set them
both up and run some benchmarks. You may also see some
differences due to the 8MB vs. 2MB cache. I suspect that
unless there are substantial differences between the A5100's
and trhe 4100's, you may not see much difference unless
Solaris on Intel SMP shows some big problems.

Very good point, and I agree with you.

As far as support and compatibility for hardware running Solaris though, you can't really beat running Solaris on SPARC platforms IMHO. Solaris/Intel support is getting better, but I still don't think it's quite up to where it is for SPARC. Solaris is definitely pickier on Intel platforms as far as what hardware configurations it will run with.