On Mar 16, 11:19 am, kaspluft1...@gmail.com wrote:
>
> I've been asked to spec a couple of Sun servers up for database usage
> for the company I work for, however I'm not as experienced with Sun
> hardware as I could be, and I seem to be getting more and more
> confused.
> At present we have one database running on a fully spec'd V890 with 8
> ultrasparc IV+ 1.5Ghz processors and 32gbs of RAM. I've been asked to
> spec out two new databases, one which will be handling 25% more load
> than the existing one, and one that will be handling 50% less.

Um how did you know these metrics in advance??
Seems like you have a pretty skookum box already to me.
Maybe it just needs a little "help".

> For the machine handling 25% more, it seems that within the price
> range I can either look at a reasonably well spec'd E2900 (which
> should give me the added "umphh" and a little room for upgrade or opt
> for a M4000 or lowend M5000 box. I have no experience with the SPARC64
> processors, and have none at this site to compare against. I wonder if
> anyone has any experience with this family of servers and how they
> compare to the UltraSparc IV+ boxes that we've been running
> previously?

Not yet : > I have a client with a V490 and a mere 8 GB's of RAM and
only
2 CPUs. A fair number of database SIDs as well. Some performance
issues
yes but tuning has helped considerably. But its time to move on.
There is an M4000 waiting in the wings and a new 4 GB SAN RAID,
tests so far suggest its going to be an "upgrade" in every sense.

> For the machine handling 50% less than the existing machine there are
> some budget constraints, meaning we might be able to stretch to a
> V440 fully spec'd (the budget would mean we couldn't afford room for
> upgrade), or more realistically a T5220 with an 8 core processor and
> 32gbs or memory. We do have a couple of the coolthreads boxes here,
> but these are T2000's which we generally use for apache httpd and
> tomcat servers. It's my understanding that the T1 and T2 processors
> are aimed more at this sort of activity than database usage due to
> each core sharing an FPU?

The T2's have more FPU dies ... Many more than one anyway.
And twice as many threads over the T1.
Is floating point an issue?
Licensing cost is a consideration yes??

> Does anyone have any experience of running
> oracle on these machines? How do they rate against the UltrasparcIV+
> servers in comparison? Is it worth getting one of these in on a try
> before you buy deal or am I wasting my time?

Another client I have uses T2000's with otherwise similar hardware (S/
W disks etc).
The whole installation is smaller and the T2000 is holding its own but
not in the
same class as the V(8/4)90. The V440 is EOL. So soon is the V445. An 8
core 5220
would be QUITE expensive even minimally spec'd. One of my clients has
ordered a pair
I think to replace their V440's but I suggested they Try and Buy for
60 days before shelling
out due to the fact that we have NO info on what the new S/W package
they are running will
use the threading effectively. You should do the same no matter what
you decide!

> If anyone can offer any insight, advice or real world experience that
> would be massively appreciated.

Go to sun.com and look under Products and do some price comparision..?
Theres enough CPU factoids there as well to get a good idea of whats
up.
It should not be all that confusing. In a nut shell Sun is phasing out
single core
SPARC products, but there is a gap, as I perceive it anyway,
right now between the T2's and the next step up which is the Fujisu/
Seimens SPARC line..