Re: Oracle on NT versus UNIX???

One of the key questions you have to ask yourself is what your real demand is. You say that you run at 100% for long periods of time. That means you have some level of latent demand, but it's difficult to figure out how much. You are going to have to come up with some kind of capacity requirement per user before you can really get a handle on this. But, assuming you can do that, and assuming also that a 4-way Intel machine will handle your total workload, then your considerations include the following:

1. Oracle will probably achieve more available hours per week on Unix than on NT. That's because NT seems to (still) be plagued by memory leaks and other idiosyncracies that mean you should re-boot it every day. This may or may not be a problem for you.
2. You will likely have more I/O flexibility on a Unix machine than an Intel machine. Once again, this may not really mean much to you, because there's plenty of good I/O available in the Intel space. But, if you anticipate rapid growth in users or dataspace requirements, you might want to consider the additional flexibility.
3. Unix is harder to use and administer. I like it better myself, but not because it's easy to use.
4. Unix systems can get much larger than NT systems today, and in the forseeable future. In terms of database servers, there is probably a 3 -> 10 X difference between the largest feasible NT database and the largest feasible Unix database. The key term here is 'feasible', which is somewhat different than vendor claims.

In summary, if you think you're going to get a LOT bigger, look hard at Unix. If not, then you can probably stick with NT.

John Martin Kvalsund wrote:

> I have an appliction (IFS applications, any experience with that??) running
> on Oracle 7.3.3 on NT server 4.0 SP3. The hardware is a Compaq Proliant
> 2500 containing 2 CPU's (Pentium Pro 200) and 1 GB of RAM. With approx. 30
> users of the application this server meets the limit. All available memory
> is consumed by Oracle and the CPU usage hits 100 % in long periods, (end of
> months etc.). I have two choices:
>
> 1: By a new 4 processor NT box.
>
> 2: By a suitable Unix box (i.e. Sun Enterprise server 450) and convert the
> Oracle database.
>
> I've heard that Unix systems are more "CPU-efficient, more efficient code"
> etc. The ordinary Unix-excuses for being much more expensive... But how big
> is the difference? Is Oracle that much better on Unix than NT, or could a
> more powerful NT-box manage the same performance as a Unix-box?
>
> Appreciate any advice on this matter, has anyone done a NT-to-Unix
> convertion, what was the result, the costs etc.
>
> Regards,
>
> John Martin
Received on Thu Jan 14 1999 - 09:03:46 CST