RHEL/Oracle Implementations on BL

[sgunelius]

We currently support most of our Oracle applications on Windows and database on Solaris, but now some interest is being show to support Oracle apps on RHEL using the BL series server. The developer who has asked me to research a configuration swears that a dual-processor multi-core (BL4xx series) won't provide satisfactory performance with RHEL & the Oracle application(s) he'll be supporting which may see up to 100-150 concurrent users and that he'll most likely need a quad-processor BL68x to achieve the performance he's seeking. Can anyone dispute that claim or is a four-socket BL68x the best approach to support Oracle applications on RHEL? I know that regarding multi-core you're realizing a small performance gain (30-60%) per core; at least for Windows-based apps that's proven to be the case, so maybe a quad-processor blade is necessary. Thank you in advance for your response. Scott