Re: Hardware recommendations sought

Alexander,

Hi there.

I'm a consultant doing work as DBA and software designer/programmer, skipping back and forth on projects from Oracle to SQL Server. Often my job requires that I help companies choose the right hardware AND database for their needs. So, I'll try to give you the best answer I can. *S*

As usual, I agree with MotoX, in his response above.

However, I am accustumed to working on the SUN Solaris (UNIX) platform with Oracle 7.x.x and 8.0.x and have found it to be a very good integration. As Mr. Moto said, it's very likely that in the UNIX world, HP or DEC or AIX would all work just fine for you. Although, if you're wanting to remain as mainstream as possible, I'd question the use of AIX.

I usually choose SUN for a few reasons: 1) SUN and Oracle have an "integration partnership" that is very strong. There's always a cadre of SUN techies who live at Oracle, and a cadre of Oracle techs at SUN, both making sure that their systems work well together, for every layer of version compatability.
2) I've done alot of work in the Telecommunications / Telephony industry, and there seems to be a preponderance of SUN hardware in that industry, so it's just what I'm most accustomed to.
3) On a number of contracts in the last 3 years, the performance-per-dollar figures always favored SUN.
4) I like the configurability options that I have with SUN, or in other words, all the different ways that I can add to, expand upon, or modify a base configuration.
5) SUN has begun to redesign their hardware backplanes such that they can gaurantee that, as newer and faster processors come out, you'll still be able to use them in your exising machines.
6) Until recently, I felt that SUN had a more robust XWindows implementation. I don't think that's a fair distinction between SUN, HP, or DEC any longer.

So, if you're wanting to move on to a UNIX platform, that is widely supported throughout the world, and is guaranteed to be like Oracle's best friend, and that should offer you a few models within your price range, then I'd suggest you take a good look at SUN's product line. I think you'll find some good options there.

And I hear that SUN is very big over in Europe, so you'll most likely have a few VAR's to choose from between Scotland, Ireland, and England.

Go to http://www.sun.com/servers/enterprise , and check out their E-250, E-450, and maybe even the E-2000 to E-3500 line. These are some very powerful machines with small footprints. And as you move up the product line, they allow for small initial purchase price, but with multiple steps of expandability later on down the line (in terms of processors and drives and various interfacing devices).

One machine in particular that I think you might find fits your budget and power needs, and which works very well with Oracle installations supporting a small to medium size network of clients, is the SUN E-450.

You can start out with 2 x 300 Mhz processors, and expand to 4. It allows for up to 4 Gig of RAM (1 Gig per processor), which is a huge boon over the Windows system you're accustomed to, when it comes to how much Oracle love to use up all available memory for caching and crunching. It also holds 20 hot-swappable drives internally, which at 4.2 Gig per drive is 84 Gig total, and at 9.1 Gig per drive is, um... uh... um... (tap, tap, tap...) 180 Gig!
*Laughing* Those drives are split up over 4 or 5 controllers, so you've got
some good RAID and cross-controller fail-safe options there. And there's 3 bays for self-monitoring, redundant, hot-swappable, intelligent power supplies. Also, it can support 6 Terabytes of external drives.

I think you can start out with 2 processors, 8 hard drives, 1 Gig of RAM, 2 redundant power supplies, EtherNet interface card, a 20-40 Gig DLT Tape Backup, and a 19" SVGA monitor for between $40,000 and $50,000, which is what... oh, about 30 to 40 pounds? *Grin*

Currently, as a test project, while I'm waiting for funding approval on some larger Data Warehousing hardware from SUN, I am using Oracle 8.0.4 Enterprise Server on an E-450 with the same configuration I outlined above, and I've ALSO got Netscape's Enterprise Web Server running on it as well. It's supporting dozens of Windows NT workstations who are making queries against numerous databases on the machines, via an Intranet run by the Web Server, and it flies. Even though the database is hardly well-tuned with regard to the hard-drives, and the Web Server is always in contention with Oracle for processor time... it's still does a great job. A couple ISP's I know say they run their whole business off just one of these little guys.

It's a very cool little machine.

But, my friend... best of all. It's PURPLE! Yep... the damn thing is purple and 2-tone shades of grey, with cool little triangular honey-combs down the front. You gotta love that.

(I can hear Moto wincing at my evolved sense of priorities, here... )

Anyway... best of luck to you. IF you think you're going to need more expandability than that over the next 3 years, then I'd suggest you look at the 2000 and 3000 line, which, minimally configured actually start out at $40,000 to $75,000 and can expand to more processors and storage space.

As a last note, as his esteemed Mr. MotoX said above... be sure to find yourself a good consultant to help you get the UNIX and Oracle setup properly. The added 3 months expense will save thousands in headache and problems later on down the line, not to mention, like Moto said, cutting through many layers of BS even before the purchase right up front. It's easy to get saddled with the wrong configuration/installation options.

If, I can be of any further (but hopefully less verbose) help... don't hesitate to ask.

Regards...

--
James Arvigo

• SQL Server & Oracle DBA
• Software & Intranet Developer
• Thrifty Call, Inc. via The Maxim Group
• Austin, Texas
  *----------------------------------------------------------
  
• EMAILS:
• Work: JamesA -AT- ThriftyCall.com
• Home: JArvigo -AT- Hotmail.com
  *
  
• ( Sorry I had obfuscate the emails... *sigh* )

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Alexander Bisset wrote:

> We are looking to replace our existing test environment Oracle server
> v7.3.2.3, which currently runs on a dual pentium P166 Novell 4.11 Server,
> total storage is approx 10Gb which is more than adequate for our current and
> next couple of years needs.
>
> I would like to switch to Oracle 8 and also to a better supported platform
> (ie:Unix or NT) I hear that the NT option is good if I want a DBMS that runs
> like wading uphill through thick treacle on a cold winters morning. So that
> suggests Unix an operating system of which I have no experience.
>
> We have a budget of approx 30-40,000 pounds sterling, for the hardware and
> an extra few tens of thousands on software/installation/configuration. I am
> looking for suggestions as to which hardware platform runs Oracle well at
> this price range. And whilst I am aware that this may deluge me with junk
> mail offers I am ideally looking for a company with expertise in dealing
> with such a conversion, provision of hardware (preferably tailored to our
> needs rather than off the shelf), installation and data migration.
>
> To date all I have had is offers from vendors of specific hardware and as
> such I find it very difficult with my lack of knowledge of the Oracle on
> Unix environment to judge if we are being offered value for money.
>
> Thanks in advance.