Date: Fri, 19 Mar 2004 00:15:33 -0500 From: Lanny Baron <lnb@FreeBSDsystems.COM> To: Erich Dollansky <oceanare@pacific.net.sg> Cc: Olaf Hoyer <ohoyer@ohoyer.de> Subject: Re: Multiprocessor system VS one processor system Message-ID: <1079673332.33813.79.camel@panda> In-Reply-To: <405A7B25.8040306@pacific.net.sg> References: <20040318232348.BE86443D2D@mx1.FreeBSD.org> <20040319013145.P44321@gaff.hhhr.ision.net> <405A6537.2070607@pacific.net.sg> <1079670664.33813.72.camel@panda> <405A7B25.8040306@pacific.net.sg>
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Hi Erich, Yes you are right. A Server Board cannot be changed with the expectation that the system to still run. But as I said, with real redundancy, as some of our customers do have, such that if Server 1 died, Server 2 picks up immediately. The cost of which, is substantially less than that of systems such as you imply. Lanny On Thu, 2004-03-18 at 23:46, Erich Dollansky wrote: > Hi, > > Lanny Baron wrote: > > > On Thu, 2004-03-18 at 22:12, Erich Dollansky wrote: > > > >> > >>People tend to forget that the CPU clock rate of all Sun boxes is > >>pretty low but the I/O bandwith is much higher than the memory > >>bandwith of Xeon machine. > >> > >>Little things like changing a CPU while the machine is up and > >>running is not known to PC based servers at all. > >> > >>A PC based server is good when you have to consider the money but > >>will increase the risk of down-time. > >> > > > > > > That very strongly depends on what kind of pc Server you buy. > > > > A high quality Server with fully redundant power, dual or quad CPU's, > > dual NICs, IPMI compliant, you will have one hell of a time showing me > > downtime due to hardware. Yes, if the Server Board blows, it matters not > > if it is a Sun<tm> or PC based. But then when it comes to mission > > critical, a second lower cost or entry level Server as a backup or > > failover will keep the 'lights on'. > > > No. I have seen no PC based hardware yet which keeps the lights on > like the big machines. Even if a server board blows, the lights > stay on. Everything is at least double. You can also have it four > times in the box. It is just a matter of money. > > You will read it in the newspapers when people think that they can > use PC based server in real mission critical applications. > > > The thing here is, how well does a company stand behind its product and > > how quickly (or slowly) will you get looked after is very important. > > > The big machines just become slower because the failed hardware is > not there anymore but they are still up and running. A good > response time of the company behind brings only the performance > faster up to normal level. > > As I said, it is the price you have to pay to get this. Those > machines cost much much more than PC based servers but they also > deliver what you need for real mission critical applications. > > You just can't change a motherboard on a PC based machine while > the machine is running. You can change any component on the big > machines without any problems while the machine is up and running. > > Erich -- =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= Lanny Baron Proud to be 100% FreeBSD http://www.FreeBSDsystems.COM =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=
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