N Class Server Specs

[Tracey]

We are in the processing of planning to purchase an additional HP for our new Oracle 8i database. 100 heavy users in a warehousing/order entry capacity for a large company and then the misc. periphial users. We have been proped a "N4000" machine that is as follows:

2 550 Mhz Processers
1 Gig Memory (I want more)
1 DDS 3 Drive
1 DLT 8000 Drive
Model 12 H Autoraid
Redunt Power Supply
8 9.1 GB Disk (I want more of this too!)
Mirror Disc UX

Any comments or additional you can think to this will be appreciated!

[Sandor Horvath_2]

Hi !

My comments:

1,
We change our AutoRaid12H to SC10.
The SC10 is faster, but a little bit more expensive because You need mirroring disks.
You can use LVD disks 15000 rpm.

2, For AutoRaid12H why need mirrordisk/UX. You can use it only root vg mirroring, and for alternate path.

3, For AutoRaid12H You need FWSCSI card for N server.

So:
I suppose other I/O Solution for You >
FC or SC10.

regards, Saa

[Rita C Workman]

Well.....I can't speak for others, but we run a variety of Oracle versions here. And I can say from experience, 8i is a bit of a 'hog'. So (at least for me...) I would double those processors, triple the memory and you know your data volume to make a better determination on disk space.

One last thing,- - I've learned that all the hardware in the world can't improve processing as much as code written efficiently.

Happy new hardware !!
/rcw

[paul courry]

I would max out the RAM, 1st bank HP RAM, the rest from a 3rd party, it's lots cheaper and HP will still support at long as the first bank is HP.

Forget the 9.1 Gb drives, go with 18's or 36's because you will max out the 12H cabinet too fast otherwise (you are planning on expansion?)

Put the DLT on it's own separate card, otherwise you will saturate the bandwidth and get SCSI errors. This is HP's standard recommendation.

Why buy Mirror Disc UX?

[Dave Wherry]

I agree with most all of the other comments. A lot of it depends on how easy or hard it is for you to get upgrades. Most of us have to play games with the budget.
2 procs. may be enough. It really depends on what the application is doing. It's easy to add procs. and you can go up to 8.
Add more memory than that 1GB. You will be running 64 bit Oracle and 64 bit HP-UX. Take advantage of the shared memory you can use with 64 bit apps. I don't know if I would max it. I would start with at least 4GB, you can go up to 32GB.
Forget the AutoRaid. It is way too slow. Go with one of the FC products and larger disks. Don't position yourself to outgrow it too quickly.
The DDS and the DLT could go on 1 controller. Just do not run them at the same time.

The most important thing is that you are positioning yourself on a platform you can grow, if you can get the money later. You could buy an L3000 that would outperform a 2 proc. N and be much cheaper to start with. However it can't grow as far. The N is a good choice. It's easier to add procs. than to swap out a whole system.