In article <37C004E0.24C40572_at_metatel.com>,
Alla Gribov <alla.gribov_at_metatel.com> wrote:
> Hello all;
>
> First of all I am apologizing to all of you if you see this questions
> posted twice - I am having troubles with sending it.
>
> I need an advice from gurus of database design and development
>
> I am building a database that will have around 1 million users. At any
> given moment about 5,000 of them are connected to the database.
> The chosen database should be able to perform around 500 reads/writes
> per second.
>
> Is there a database that can support such a task and if yes, which one
> is the best in your opinion?
>
> My first thought was Oracle, but after doing some research on Web, it
> seems like that a lot of people prefer Informix over Oracle.
>
> Which would you choose (or may be there are some other databases that
I
> am not aware of that would suit better for this project) - no Sybase
or
> MS Sql-Server,
> sorry to people who like them???
>
> Your help is greatly appreciated.
>
> Thanks in advance
>
>
/***********************************************************************
*****/
> Alla Gribov
> alla.gribov_at_metatel.com
> The greatest programming project of all took six days. On the seventh
> day the programmer rested. We've been trying to debug the thing ever
> since. Moral: design before you implement.
>
/***********************************************************************
*****/
>
Alla,
Wow! Bet you never thought you hear so many emotional responses to a
simple question. Since I work for Oracle and am a stock holder, don't
expect that I'll use the company as an emotional doormat. However, I'm
technical specialist on the UNIX install team so I can't even comprehend
the marketing side of things. My recommendations to you are this:
- Choose a solid operating system. For what you want to do, almost
any PC based OS (Linux Beowolf cluster aside) won't be powerful enough
to act as a server. If the underlying OS is solid, your database will
just work. If your underlying network is solid, your sqlnet connections
will just be there. Cheap PCs running Linux do make for fantasic
desktops. I really enjoy the Mandrake 6.0 interface and you can get a
global license and the media from www.cheapbytes.com for $6.99 --
shipped.
- I heard others bash Oracle on features. My comment here is that I
was always taught that it is a poor craftsman who complains about his
tools. After you pick your database, just make sure you keep your
tools(skills) sharp. Most of the folks that have posted highly
emotional responses to this issue have made a ton of money providing
solutions to Oracle's, Sybase's, Informix's, DB2's oversights.
- You asked about Informix and postgres databases. In comparasion of
the major UNIX database vendors, I had heard in the past that Oracle did
well managing large databases and provided alot of tools; Sybase did a
great job of managing a large number of small databases; Informix
managed shared memory well and was the easiest to learn. Postgres as
near as I can tell is a freely available database, because it is on my
Linux system. Bottom line: I don't care what you use, just get good at
it.
- Focus on your database design and OS/Network architecture. I've been
at dozens of customer sites before I joined Oracle and I'm real tired of
socially challenged propellerheads blaming the operating system or the
application (in this case the rdbms) for their lack of foresight. A
good os and a solid rdbms can't save a bad application. By the same
token, a great application won't preform well with a bad database design
or a poor OS install. It's an end-to-end solution.
- If you decide to go to an Oracle solution, I have some ideas. First,
I won't tell you what platform to buy, but Solaris is our development
platform and HP-UX is our secondary port. Yes, we do have some weaker
ports .... someone mentioned SGI. SGI is a wonderful graphics platform
... the Oracle installation on this platform is a character builder.
Some of the lesser used Intel platforms can be tough also --
Siemens-Nixdorf, Unixware, SCO. While you can install Oracle on
these platforms, plan extra time to get it done. Buy plenty of disk for
swap space ... all high performance databases load their internal data
structures into memory. They don't swap --- user processes do. For what
you want to do, I wouldn't go with less than 1GB of RAM. I support
customers running 700 - 800 GB databases with only 1 GB of RAM.
Terabyte databases will require more of everything. In an Oracle
environment, the DEC UNIX port supports VLDBs better than another other
platform we support.
These are just my opinions. I'm sorry if I only focused on technical
issues, but many others seem be able to handle the "flame" category
better I care too. For the rest of you, Oracle support people do read
your opinions. We really do care what you think. I will become more
concerned when highly technical people quit posting to this news group
... it means you quit caring.
Alla, I know this is more than a bit long winded, but I hope it helps!
:-)Jack
Jack Connolly
Technical Specialist - Oracle Corp
UNIX Product Line Support Team
Rocky Mountain Support Center
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Received on Sun Sep 05 1999 - 08:38:16 CDT
