Linux server recommendation needed

[Elena Leontieva]

Hi,

Could you recommend a server HW configuration to run Linux (RedHat) that could replace K460 box (4CPUs, 2GB RAM ) running HP-UX 11.00 and Oracle.

Regards,
Elena.

[Steven E. Protter · Accepted solution]

I would reccomend A midrange rx2600 or rx5600 HP-9000 Itanium Server.

I'd go with two powerful CPU's the most you can afford. Having less CPU's will have you $40,000 per CPU on unlimited oracle licensing. The $80,000 pays for the hardware quite nicely.

The data migration will be easier.

You can install the HP-UX or Red Hat Linux on your box, depending on what your needs are. The Itanium series gives you flexibility.

If you must go regular Intel, I'd go with two to four CPU boxes from Dell or HP, as much CPU as you can afford. HP has the DL380 series IU servers that are pretty nice. Dell'
s Poweredge series will also do the job. I'd go 4 cpu with Intel 32 bit processors. They don't scale as well as Itanium.

Get more memory, not less, say 8-16 GB because Oracle doesn't charge license fees for memory.

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[Mark Grant]

It depends what you want.

All the reviews and benchmarks I have read regarding these kind of machines say that Opteron is the way to go. It give far more bang for the buck than anything Intel can offer. They are much, much faster and much much cheaper.

Get one of these (dual CPU would be nice), have plenty of RAM, get some more RAM, make sure you have SCSI all over the machine, get some more RAM and you should be set. Then get some more RAM

[Don_89]

When Sun decided to start selling Opteron boxes, it marked a shift in the industry. Why spend $10k on a Sun server when I can go out get 4 Intel/AMD boxes and cluster them together? The cluster will scale much easier and I'm only supporting one platform instead of two.

I would take a step back and looking into clustering the Oracle app on Opterons.

[Elena Leontieva]

More opinions are welcome!

Thanks much for your responses.
Elena.

[Steven E. Protter]

I'll give you a reason to spend more money on the Sun or HP box.

Oracle licensing fees.

Oracles unlimited database license costs $40,000 per CPU.

A more expensive HP-9000 Itanium Server with 64 bit processors can do the work of twice as many Intel 32 bit processors. My sources at HP says that Itanium scales better than Opteron also.

Oracle license policy is per CPU. If it takes 4 CPU's in a cluster to run the database the license fee is $160,000.

If you can use proprietary hardware and say HP-UX to do the same job with two CPU's you just saved $80,000 in licensing fees. That $80,000 buys a lot of hardware and if you go HP-UX a lot of toys to run on top of HP-UX.

Oracle's current license policy does not take into account the capability of the CPU. A PA-RISC or Itanium 64 CPU is going to do a lot more work than a 32 bit Intel CPU. I think thats been proven in the trade publications.

A lot of Penguin heads wonder why ANYONE would by a proprietary box, like PA-RISC. Licensing fees are a very big factor.

If this is redundant, please feel free to zero point it.

Regards,

The opinions above are mine. Justified by experience and a fact or two.

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