Re: AIX or W2k3 to run Cluster?

psrmc IWNLCSNTAAWD wrote:

> Am I correct in assuming that if I use RAC on W2K3 I wouldn't need
> Windows Cluster Service?

Not needed and irrelevant.

> $$ are not the primary issue in the solution although ease of management
> and HA are.

Ease of management, if one is competent, clearly favours UNIX.

HA and Windows are wholly incompatible concepts. Something AT&T Wireless discovered the hard way. Something Bank of America discovered the hard way. And others too who I am precluded to discuss due to NDA. And please don't try to pretend the fine people at AT&T or BofA don't know about firewalls and network security. They had the best that money could buy.

> The windows engineers in the shop want W2k3 and the Unix
> engineers want unix (AIX is our only choice because of a contract we have
> with IBM).

Then AIX 5L it should be.

> I'm ready to do extra research to come to a decision.
>
> So far I'm evaluating:
>
> SAN vs NAS

Probably NAS as the additional cost for SAN rarely is justified by the additional performance but maybe not in your situation. So basically "it depends."

> Fibre Channel vs iSCSI

This is not an either-or choice. You are confusing technologies. This is something your storage vendor, EMC, LSI, NetApp, Apple should recommend. One thing for sure ... do not buy an IBM Shark.

> 9i vs 10g

10g.

> Ability to support multi-location clustering

Depends on the distance and the transactions. Far more information is required.

> CPU Overhead per user and query (RAM is just to cheap to concider)

Requires metrics to respond.

> Anyone point me in the the direction of a whitepaper? I'm off to go
> google myself.
>
> PSRMC
I don't think a whitepaper is going to do anything more than give you a superficial sense that you read someone's opinon. I'd suggest your firm engage someone with the expertise to help make the decision. And someone accountable for the success of the project.

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