Re: Oracle Application Server - hardware config concepts

>> We are looking at the following config for a small intranet
>>
>> Oracle Application Server
>> Oracle 9i database
>> 2 Compaq Intel servers running Red Hat Linux
>> Raid 5 storage (5 x 18GB)
>> There will be a number of intranet apps which will generate a light
>> load on the servers - though will require the ability to scale as more
>> and more apps get loaded.
>> The database will provide permanet storage however I envision that
>> the Java Servlets will provide most of the caching. Take for instance
>> a phonebook - it is quicker to search a database structure than to
>> execute the equivalent SQL.
>> So my big question is how to split up the components. By default I
>> would expect OAS + HTTP server on one server, Database on second
>> server. But I suspect that the database server would hardly be used.
>> Is there any other component of OAS that I can move over to the
>> database server to spread the load? The apps will be exclusively Java
>> Servlets - no CGI allowed so I assume keeping the HTTP server where
>> the servlets are simplifies things.

...and Daniel Morgan wrote.

> Not enough hard disks if performance is important: I'd at least double > the number not for capacity but to spread I/O.

> And go RAID 0+1 if you can.

I've only recently started really experimenting with 9iAS, but your first bottleneck is probably always going to be RAM. If you're using the database to store everything (which you should if you have one) that needs to be persisted, then you're going to want to make sure the J2EE server almost never touches the disk. So I have to disagree a little with Mr. Morgan...what you have for disk is probably enough for 9iAS, but for the DB box...go with more disk and better RAID.

This assumes that you're not going to be using the Oracle Infrastructure. It's a different situation if you're running OID (Oracle's LDAP) on the box, although depending on the updates...you might not be writing very much. I'd still go with 0+1 if you have and RDBMS in any form, though. Really, though, if you're going with 9iAS infrastructure, you're probably looking at a third machine.

Java is a RAM-hog, and if you turn on web cache or keep a lot of datasets in RAM, it's even more so. The Compaq you're getting probably maxes out at like 4G of ram...maybe more. Either way, my advice is to max the box out in RAM...or if you don't, at least get the size of chips you'll need to do so in the future (e.g. If you have four slots--go with 1G chips instead of the 512s that might be cheaper for a 2G ram configuration.)

You might want to avoid running the Web Enterprise Manager on the 9iAS box; it takes up some resources and it's not really neccessary. You also have to do a stupid Xvfb or VNC trick to keep it up in this version (it crashes unless you have a display to point to because of Java 1.3 png rendering).

Otherwise, keep the database box and 9iAS boxes pristine...if you want to run some other services, get a cheap desktop if they're not critical.

Jer Received on Mon Jan 13 2003 - 00:50:57 CST