Does size really matter?

[A.K.]

Hi guys,
This is hypothetical question,
Let say I have three servers A500, N4000 and L3000
Each server has
2 X CPU 550 MHz
4 X 1GB
2 X 36GB HD
All running the same version of HPUX 11.00
All will be used as database servers and will use SAN for the database devices etc...

Will they have any difference in performance?
If so why?

I know that the N4000 & L3000 has the capabilities to extend the number of CPU, memory, PCI card, additional HD etc…..
Also, they have redundant power supplies and redundant fans etc…….

However, is there any advantage of using an N4000 or L3000 over A500 when I know for sure that I am not going to extend anything in the future nor going to use additional PCI SLOTS?

Thanks,
A.k.

[A. Clay Stephenson · Accepted solution]

As long as you don't need the expansion or redundancy then the A-box will be fine. In the vast majority of cases, database servers are i/o bound rather than cpu bound so the differences in cpu speeds -- or even the number of cpu's --- will be minimal. If 90% of your bottleneck is i/o related and 10% is cpu related then what effect does increasing the cpu throughput by a factor of 10 have? What you do give up is the potential number of independent io paths to your SAN. In general, the more paths from each host to your SAN the better although that too depends upon how well the box is able to push the data through the i/o channels.

[Steven E. Protter]

Shalom,

Well the servers have different I/O buses, perhaps different firmware and amount of cache on the system board.

So, I'd expect different performance, even if they all have the exact same speed chips.

I'd check the rates on I/O transfer at http://docs.hp.com to see.

Further, your choice should be driven by other factors. The A500 is out of support and past end of life. The other two systems are near end of life, but its still at least possible to get contracts for hardware replacement on them. The older the server design, the higher the cost there.

SEP