Re: Oracle on a laptop - how to support large-scale sales demos

From: Ed Prochak <ed.prochak_at_magicinterface.com>
Date: Tue, 26 Oct 2004 23:54:25 -0400
Message-ID: <_XEfd.198$Qy.145@fe39.usenetserver.com>

Runs with Scissors wrote:
> "DA Morgan" <damorgan_at_x.washington.edu> wrote in message
> news:1098421450.448466_at_yasure...

[]

>>The Boeing division I consult for does something similar ... single
>>laptop with 10g, Orion App Server, 30GB database, Windows because sales
>>people couldn't handle any real operating system. Why on earth would you
>>want RAID anything? Who gives a rip if a transaction is lost. Works just
>>fine.
>>
>>Beyond that you are getting into asking the questions for which people
>>that perform consulting expect to be paid.
>>
>>-- 
>>Daniel A. Morgan
>>University of Washington
>>damorgan_at_x.washington.edu
>>(replace 'x' with 'u' to respond)

>
>
> Thanks for the response.
>
> I wasn't concerned about integrity of the system as a reason for the RAID.
> I was thinking along the lines of spreading IO across more than one spindle.
> As far as I know, the large number of reads expected from a data warehouse
> would be better performing if striped.
>
> I wouldn't consider this to be a question a consultant could contemplate
> answering in a newsgroup. I think it more academic or historical (i.e. Does
> anyone have similar experiences they would care to share?) in nature. Maybe
> I wasn't clear enough that I was asking for peoples experiences, while
> leaving the discussion open for things in the nature of "have you considered
> [insert facet here]?"
>
> Tom
>
>

consider the scaling:

DEMO
Sample data (1-5% of production)
limited memory
single disc
single processor
singer USER (There isn't any network so the system load can be controlled)

PRODUCTION
Lots of data (Terabytes worth?)
essentially unlimited memory
multiple drives and RAID
distributed multi-processor servers
multiple networked (even WAN and WEB) users

I'd say load it up and try it.

Annecdote: years ago my business partner was working on a conversion. He had to go to England to do some development on-site and was on a very tight schedule. He had installed on his laptop ORACLE (DB and the development tools he needed like Pro-C). During his development, the production server crashed. The manager there is yelling and chewing people folks out because of the schedule. But my partner calmed him down by saying something along the line of: "oh, that's okay, I just finished downloaded the database to my machine so I can keep working. You fellas go on with doing your own stuff"

The lap tops now have significant compute power (what might once have been called super computer power). You may be surprised at the result. Besides, a little slowness maybe acceptable. It is after all a demo database. The goal is to show the idea.

-- 
Ed Prochak
running    http://www.faqs.org/faqs/running-faq/
netiquette http://www.psg.com/emily.html
--
"Two roads diverged in a wood and I
I took the one less travelled by
and that has made all the difference."
robert frost

Received on Tue Oct 26 2004 - 22:54:25 CDT