From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Feb 11 17:30:40 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0221B16A4D1 for ; Fri, 11 Feb 2005 17:30:39 +0000 (GMT) Received: from prosporo.hedron.org (hedron.org [66.11.182.60]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7D1C443D5F for ; Fri, 11 Feb 2005 17:30:17 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from ean@hedron.org) Received: from www.hedron.org (localhost.hedron.org [127.0.0.1]) by prosporo.hedron.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 87DD8C0D4; Fri, 11 Feb 2005 12:30:27 -0500 (EST) Received: from 216.220.59.169 (SquirrelMail authenticated user ean); by www.hedron.org with HTTP; Fri, 11 Feb 2005 12:30:27 -0500 (EST) Message-ID: <1060.216.220.59.169.1108143027.squirrel@216.220.59.169> In-Reply-To: <20050211164603.43213.qmail@web50310.mail.yahoo.com> References: <20050211164603.43213.qmail@web50310.mail.yahoo.com> Date: Fri, 11 Feb 2005 12:30:27 -0500 (EST) From: "Ean Kingston" To: "Jorge Mario G." User-Agent: SquirrelMail/1.4.3a X-Mailer: SquirrelMail/1.4.3a MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain;charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Priority: 3 (Normal) Importance: Normal cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: (mySQL) benchmarks strike back X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 11 Feb 2005 17:30:40 -0000 > Hi there > > I just read > http://software.newsforge.com/software/04/12/27/1243207.shtml?tid=72&tid=29%20result > and as in any onther benchmark there is a lot stuff > that > can be arguable. I would like to know why is that > happening? > the problem is that "we" are pushing > FreeBSD/postgreSQL as a database solution, and I am > the guy to blame to, because I was the one who did > advocacy for FreeBSD, so I'm sure my boss is going to > ask me. And you told us to use FreeBSD instead of > Linux? > and I do not want to answer him "beastie is way more > cool" > > I'm doing my own research but some help from here > would be nice!!! Others will provide plenty of reasoning for you. Here are some points for consideration. That particulary example used a very small database that was cached entirely in memory. It has no resemblance to a production environment where databases are always going to be disk-io bound, not cpu-bound (as was the benchmark). Linux mounts its filesystems in async mode by default. This is extremely unsafe and will almost guarantee data loss on a buisy filesystem if the computer loses power unexpectedly. FreeBSD with softupdate will give much better performance than Linux with the filsystems mounted syncronously and you don't risk the data loss if the power fails. That was a performance test for MySQL. You are using Postgres. These are different databases. Postgres is a much better choice. It is a much more complete database server. For example, last time I checked, there was absolutely no integrity checking in MySQL whereas Postgres does have very good integrity checking. The performance metrics from that article were more a test of the current state of threading than any realistic database system. At the moment, the newest Linux kernels have much faster threading than FreeBSD. This will probably change (many times) in the future. The BSDs and Linux go through cycles of beating eachother in different areas depending on where the projects are focused at the time. I, and many others, have found that Linux tends to focus on getting the next new feature into their systems as quickly as possible. This, I find, makes for a much less stable system. I have found that the BSDs are much better at controlling this featurism. The project teams consider the value of something before they implement it in the production release. The result is, to me, that you get a much more reliable OS out of FreeBSD than you do out of Linux. Your choices of Postgres and FreeBSD indicate that you are looking for reliability in your database system. For that goal, I think you made the right choice. > Jorge Mario Mazo -- Ean Kingston E-Mail: ean_AT_hedron_DOT_org URL: http://www.hedron.org/