Upgrade K260 or Buy L# Series

[Steven Chen_1]

Hi,

I would like gurus of different areas to give me comment of whether to upgrade the old box or to buy a new box.

We are using K260 now, but while we need to upgrade to higher version of Oracle database like 8i,9i..., we need 64 bit OS (we are using hpux 10.20 on K box).

Some management think it can be done overnight. While current db works as a cow generating milk for folks, I don't think we can afford much downtime.

So help with reasoning to upgrade including hpux OS --> Oracle Software --> Oracle database, ro to buy a new box, in term of money, time, effort, trouble and joys (perhapes) etc..

Very appreciated for any debate.

Steven

[Bill Hassell · Accepted solution]

It should be pretty easy to decide. There won't be much advantage to upgrading to anything except a 64-bit version of the K and the high end is the K-580. You'll need to add RAM so you'll have a minimum of 4Gb, perhaps 8Gb or more as the users and applications grow.

So find out the best price for a K-580 upgrade package and compare that price to a new L-class with the same processor count. Oh, be sure to notice the significant jump in transactions per sec for the L-class, and that the K-series is going out of production this year.

[James R. Ferguson]

Steven:

Given a choice, I would definitely buy a new server for the following reasons:

> The K260 is a older architecture although it does support the 64-bit environment.

> On the Kxxx, the cost of support (maintenance contracts) and the cost of any additional hardware (e.g. memory) will be far more than on the new L- or N-class servers.

> By bringing in a new server, you have the luxery of configuring it liesurely. You can tune and model your environment properly, and then at the point of actual conversion, 'vgexport' and 'vgimport' external data disks. Depending on your existing and your proposed configurations, this could make the actual transition from one server to the other, a matter of just a few hours time.

...JRF...

[Jim Turner]

Steven,

No brainer: Replace with new L box for the excellent reasons listed by Bill and James. I have been through in-place upgrades (hardware, OS, and App) as well as replacement upgrades. There is no comparison -- a replacement upgrade is the way to go.

Cheers,
Jim

[John Poff]

Steven,

We have both K and L boxes here. If it were my choice I'd opt for the new L box over upgrading the K box. The L boxes here have been extremely reliable and they are fast. It sounds like your database application is an important production database, so I'd opt to put it on the faster, newer box. I've never had anybody come to me and say, "Gee, that system is way too fast for this database." But you can be sure they will let you know if it is too slow. :)

If money is an issue it might cost less to upgrade the K, but I'd lean towards getting an L box.

JP

[Patrick Wallek]

I also agree with everyone else in that getting a new L box would be the way to go. This will make your transition much easier. You can get the L with 11.0 or 11i installed, get Oracle 8i or 9i installed, create your database and import some data from your production system and test like crazy, be sure and get your users to test too, to make sure everything still plays nice together before you put the new box, OS, Oracle version, etc. into production.

If money is an issue look into some of the remarketers as they have some L machines that they are getting and you can pick one up for a reasonable price.

[A. Clay Stephenson]

Hi Steven,

I agree with everything that's been said, but let me give you a selling point for your boss.
Get the L-box but keep the K-box for your test/development environment. In my case, I actually have three sets of equipment: 1) Production - fastest & best equipment; 2)Test/Development - K580's (for testing/developing applications) and 3) Sandbox
K260 for testing New OS's, patches, new database releases.

You at least need a test environment so that you can safely apply patchsets and test them before you do this in production. You can also reduce the maintenance level on the test box to lower costs. This should be an easy sell to your box.

BTW - You might look at the used market for your L or even an N box; I had a vendor beg me last week to take an L or an N at 60% off retail. In most cases, you have to have HP come out and inspect the equipment before putting it on maintenance and there is a small charge for this.

My 2 cents worth, Clay

[Tony Bacon]

Hello Steven,


I might be able to offer some useful insight to this upgrade or Purchase of an L.

Feel free to contact me at 713-590-6673 or email me at tbacon@epicsyscorp.com

Have a great day!

Tony Bacon