Re: Slightly-OT: Throw HW at a SW/DB problem

• Original Message ----- From: "Dunbar, Norman (Capgemini)" <norman.dunbar.capgemini_at_environment-agency.gov.uk> To: <rjoralist2_at_society.servebeer.com>; <oracle-l_at_freelists.org> Sent: Tuesday, June 28, 2011 8:26 AM Subject: RE: Slightly-OT: Throw HW at a SW/DB problem

So, hardware tuning, not in my shop - unless the problem actually requires it.

And I hate to disagree with Niall on "it's always the app", but it is, in my experience, "always the app". Or the vendor! ;-)

Tuning by hardware is almost always wrong. But sometimes you can say things like: "adding this much hardware will improve response time by this percentage for this long." If that's the case then it tell people how much time they have to fix the app.

The other aspect of "tuning" by throwing hardware at it is that there is (obviously, I hope) a correct amount of hardware for any given application (even when it's perfectly designed and coded). So if the hardware supplied is less than the correct amount then adding hardware IS the correct solution. I've only seen this error a couple of times in 25 years, though.

Finally, "it's always the app" is a statement that needs a little refinement. There are applications which literally CANNOT scale unless you change the requirements. Is it then "the app" that is at fault, or the lack of thought that went into the business specification ? I've been involved with a few cases where this non-scalability of requirement was the critical issue. The logical fix is sometimes simple, the necessary code change tends to be harder - unless you catch it very early.

Regards

Jonathan Lewis
http://jonathanlewis.wordpress.com

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