Re: Linux betas NT in TPC testing, running Oracle8

cbbrowne_at_news.hex.net (Christopher Browne) writes:

> On Wed, 12 May 1999 13:52:10 -0500, nik <ndsimpso_at_ingr.com> wrote:

> > I'd like to see you run a full feed (35K+groups, 2GB & 1.5-2million
> > articles inbound/day) on a 486 with any OS. If you seriously think
> > that's possible then you've obviously never tried to run a full
> > newsfeed.

> I suggest that you bounce an email to <sdenny_at_hex.net>. He used to do
> something less dissimilar to this than you'd think.

What kills you with newsfeeds isn't the feed itself. It is the history file, downstream feeds, and readers. If you have short retention times, keep limited history, don't feed anyone else, and have a moderate number of readers, you can get by with a surprisingly small box as long as it has a decent disk system.

We ran about 14K groups on a Pentium 120 with 64 MB for quite a while. Of course we had ultra-scsi disks with articles stored on a stripe set, the OS, history, and news files were on different spindles, and we rarely had more than 10 readers at once. That last, coupled with the bandwidth consumption, are the main reasons we gave up on doing our own News and outsourced. Too much trouble for too few users.

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