> Subject: [PERFORM] which dual-CPU hardware/OS is fastest for
PostgreSQL?
>
> I'm sorry if there's a URL out there answering this, but I couldn't
find
> it.
>
> For those of us that need the best performance possible out of a
> dedicated dual-CPU PostgreSQL server, what is recommended?
>
> AMD64/Opteron or i386/Xeon?
>
> Linux or FreeBSD or _?_
>
> I'm assuming hardware RAID 10 on 15k SCSI drives is fastest disk
> performance.
>
> Any hardware-comparison benchmarks out there showing the results for
> different PostgreSQL setups?

My recommendation would be:
2 way or 4 way Opteron depending on needs (looking on a price for 4-way?
Go here: http://www.swt.com/qo3.html). Go no less than Opteron 246.
Tyan motherboard
Serial ATA controller by 3ware (their latest escalade series size for
your needs) (if money is no object, go scsi). Make sure you pick up the
bbu.
Redhat Linux FC3 x86-64
Good memory (DDR400 registered, at least)...lots of it.

You can get a two way rackmount for under 4000$. You can get a 4-way
for under 10k$. Make sure you pick up a rackmount case that has a
serial ATA backplane that supports led status light for disk drives, and
make sure you get the right riser, heh.

Merlin

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Rosser Schwarz <rosser.schwarz@gmail.com> writes:

> Try also the Appro 1U 4-way Opteron server, at:
> http://www.appro.com/product/server_1142h.asp

Back in the day, we used to have problems with our 1U dual pentiums. We
attributed it to heat accelerating failure. I would fear four opterons in 1U
would be damned hard to cool effectively, no?

--
greg


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while you weren't looking, Greg Stark wrote:

> Back in the day, we used to have problems with our 1U dual pentiums. We
> attributed it to heat accelerating failure. I would fear four opterons in 1U
> would be damned hard to cool effectively, no?

Opterons actually run pretty coolly, comparatively. If it's a big
concern, you can always drop a few more clams for the low-voltage
versions -- available in 1.4 and 2.0 GHz flavors, and of which I've
heard several accounts of their being run successfully /without/
active cooling -- or punt until later this year, when they ship
Winchester core Opterons (90nm SOI -- the current, uniprocessor
silicon fabbed with that process has some 3W heat dissipation idle,
~30W under full load; as a point of contrast, current 90nm P4s have
34W idle dissipation, and some 100W peak).

We have a number of 1U machines (P4s, I believe), and a Dell blade
server (six or seven P3 machines in a 3U cabinet) as our webservers,
and none of them seem to have any trouble with heat. That's actually
a bigger deal than it might first seem, given how frighteningly
crammed with crap our machine room is.

/rls

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$4000 is not going to get you much disk - If you buy components from
the cheapest source I know (newegg.com) you end up around $5k with
14x36gig Raptor SATA drives and a 4U chasis with a 14xSATA built in
back plane packing 2x9500S AMCC Escalade RAID cards, which are
supported in Linux, 4Gig RAM and 2xOpteron 242. If you are not CPU
bound, there isn't much point going to 246. If you want SCSI, then
you will be paying more. Check out rackmountmart.com for Chasises,
they have a nice 5U that has a 24xSATA backplane (We will be acquiring
this in the next few weeks). If you really want to go nuts, they have
an 8U with 40xSATA backplane.

Alex Turner
NetEconomist


On Tue, 11 Jan 2005 08:33:09 -0500, Merlin Moncure
<merlin.moncure@rcsonline.com> wrote:
> > Subject: [PERFORM] which dual-CPU hardware/OS is fastest for
> PostgreSQL?
> >
> > I'm sorry if there's a URL out there answering this, but I couldn't
> find
> > it.
> >
> > For those of us that need the best performance possible out of a
> > dedicated dual-CPU PostgreSQL server, what is recommended?
> >
> > AMD64/Opteron or i386/Xeon?
> >
> > Linux or FreeBSD or _?_
> >
> > I'm assuming hardware RAID 10 on 15k SCSI drives is fastest disk
> > performance.
> >
> > Any hardware-comparison benchmarks out there showing the results for
> > different PostgreSQL setups?
>
> My recommendation would be:
> 2 way or 4 way Opteron depending on needs (looking on a price for 4-way?
> Go here: http://www.swt.com/qo3.html). Go no less than Opteron 246.
> Tyan motherboard
> Serial ATA controller by 3ware (their latest escalade series size for
> your needs) (if money is no object, go scsi). Make sure you pick up the
> bbu.
> Redhat Linux FC3 x86-64
> Good memory (DDR400 registered, at least)...lots of it.
>
> You can get a two way rackmount for under 4000$. You can get a 4-way
> for under 10k$. Make sure you pick up a rackmount case that has a
> serial ATA backplane that supports led status light for disk drives, and
> make sure you get the right riser, heh.
>
> Merlin
>
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>

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while you weren't looking, Merlin Moncure wrote:

> 2 way or 4 way Opteron depending on needs (looking on a price for 4-way?
> Go here: http://www.swt.com/qo3.html).

Try also the Appro 1U 4-way Opteron server, at:
http://www.appro.com/product/server_1142h.asp

I specced a 4-way 842 (1.6 GHz: little to none of our db work is CPU
bound; there's just a lot of it going on at once) with 32G core for
within delta of what SWT wants /just/ for the 32G -- the price of the
box itself and anything else atop that. Stepping up to a faster CPU
should increase the cost directly in line with the retail price for
the silicon.

We haven't yet ordered the machine (and the quote was from early last
month, so their prices will have fluctuated) and consequently, I can't
comment on their quality. Their default warranty is three years,
"rapid exchange", though, and they offer on-site service for only
nominally more, IIRC. Some slightly more than cursory googling hasn't
turned up anything overly negative, either.

As a 1U, the box has no appreciable storage of its own but we're
shopping for a competent, non bank-breaking fibre setup right now, so
that's not an issue for our situation. While on the subject, anyone
here have anything to say about JMR fibre raid cabinets?
(Fibre-to-fibre, not fibre-to-SATA or the like.)

/rls

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