DM server hardware question

• To: ldm-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
• Subject: DM server hardware question
• From: David Fitzgerald [mailto:dfitz@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
• Date: Mon, 21 Oct 2002 11:02:29 -0500

Everyone probably rolls their eyes at me talking about hardware/OS
issues..but here is what I have experienced with 5 years (1997 to
current) of the LDM at NSBF and 2 years here at Universal.

I have gone back and forth on this, but over the past 2 years
I have definitely come to the conclusion that for LDM/GEMPAK/McIDAS
there is absolutely no benefit in getting Sun equipment,
unless you have some SPARC only third-party or in-house
app..or if you need the ease on installing Solaris on SPARC
equipment.  I have run numerous tests over the past two years comparing
400/450MHz USII (Ultra 60, E420R, E6500), 750Mhz USIII (SB 1000, 280R,
SF4800) with GEMPAK and McIDAS scripts and that big expensive 4 or 8MB
CPU cache on Suns is pretty much of no use.  Our $1200 Dell 1 and 1.26GHz
servers blow all the Suns away on every GEMPAK script I have ever
tried..including when I recompile GEMPAK to accept up to 5,250,000
grid points and use a grid size of 3,000,000 (default is 400,000).
It's also worth noting that our E6500 and 280R's have been troubleprone
as well.  I think pretty much whatever reliability edge Sun had
is gone now as high-end PC's have gotten much better and Sun has slipped.
Of course if you have to have some 4 or 8 CPU box for some reason
the Sun is your best choice there.

Also, from a disk I/O standpoint the Ultra 160 SCSI disks in the
Dells do just as well and are far less complicated than the FCAL
interfaces in the newer Suns.

In the past I would have recommended that you use Solaris Intel
as we have had good luck with it..but with Linux getting
more stable and Sun's shenanigans with Solaris Intel
(I am not going to be suckered in on this latest promise
from them to bring it back and support it), I would not do that.

So get the fastest dual CPU AMD or Xeon box you can find, with a
RAID (or at least U320 15k RPM disks) and have at it, with Linux,
or for your servers I have heard good things about FreeBSD.



-----Original Message-----
Sent: Monday, October 21, 2002 10:13 AM
Cc: david.fitzgerald@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx; richard.clark@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


Hi all,

My LDM server is a SUN Ultra-5 with 128Mb RAM and a 333 Mhz
UltraSPARC IIi processor.  It's pretty maxed out with the data
flow we have and I am looking to get a newer, more powerful
server.

I am just wondering what types of machines are in use by other
institutions for their LDM servers.  I could easily configure a
server on my own but would rapidly run into high costs,
especially with the SUN servers.  If I had some input as to what
other schools are using I can get a better idea on what we would
need here to stay up with the data flow yet be cost effective.

Thanks in advance!!

Dave 

++++++++++++++++++++++++++
David Fitzgerald   
System Administrator             
Millersville University  
Millersville, PA 17551  
Phone: (717) 871-2394
Fax:   (717) 872-4725   
E-mail: dfitz@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx