Re: Oracle 9i for x86-32 vs x86-64

Vladimir Mosgalin wrote:
> Hi All!
>
> I need to upgrade an oracle server. For a new server, I picked dual Xeon Intel
> board and 2G of memory (a lot of people would say "too low", but the
> person who manages db says that it would be enough for 2-3 years.
>
> Now the question is - board and CPUs support EM64T, should I pick up
> x86-64 version of Oracle? Maxumim amount of supported memory is really
> out of question, it's all about performance. I can't find any benchmarks
> or comparsions of 32-bit and 64-bit versions on the same hardware, so I
> can't even guess the benefit of using 64 bits here. 10% faster math
> operations? 5% more transactions per second? 1% lower performance in our
> tasks? I don't know.
>
> The problem is, however, that we don't have x86-64 version of RHEL, and
> will probably have to order a fresh RHEL4 for that. And then maybe I
> will experience a lot of wonderful problems with it. It's not very hard,
> but I don't want to spend time, money and nerves if it won't pay back
> later at all.
>
> The best thing would be some detailed benchmark, but if there isn't,
> something general like transactions increase will do.
>
> NB: I don't really know a lot about Oracle, I'm a sysadmin who will
> install and manage the system, and I'll just forward the info to our
> developers, and they will decide whether they really need it.

If it is all about performance then your hardware choice is a poor one.

For 64 bit Oracle an Apple G5 with dual IBM P5s will outperform the Intel chips for 1/2 the cost. If you want to stay with RHEL then go with AMD chips as they do not have the added burden of having Windows optimizations burned into the silicon.

-- 
Daniel A. Morgan
http://www.psoug.org
damorgan_at_x.washington.edu
(replace x with u to respond)