From owner-freebsd-isp Mon Dec 9 7:30:13 2002 Delivered-To: freebsd-isp@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5653937B401 for ; Mon, 9 Dec 2002 07:30:12 -0800 (PST) Received: from glow.dt1.slik.org (glow.binity.net [213.84.201.224]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 438A143EBE for ; Mon, 9 Dec 2002 07:30:10 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from freebsd+20021209@walter.slik.org) Received: from silver.dt1.slik.org (silver.dt1.slik.org [172.24.7.10]) by glow.dt1.slik.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id DF8E7AAF1 for ; Mon, 9 Dec 2002 16:30:43 +0100 (CET) Date: Mon, 9 Dec 2002 16:30:11 +0100 From: Walter Hop X-Mailer: The Bat! (v1.61) Educational X-Priority: 3 (Normal) Message-ID: <3487689390.20021209163011@slik.org> To: FreeBSD ISP Subject: Loaded mysql box: best hardware? MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-15 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Sender: owner-freebsd-isp@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Hi all, I currently maintain a fairly loaded FreeBSD box (dual P3/866), running a busy MySQL 3.23 database with its Apache/PHP web interface. It has SCSI disks and enough RAM to keep the whole MySQL database paged in, and the bottleneck is now really the CPU's. The scripts are fairly optimized (use their own caching) so I am now looking at hardware. The machine itself is keeping up nicely for now (loads from 1 to 4), but system usage will probably double, so I have to make a plan now for the increased load next year. My question is: given that I now have a dual 866MHz box, is there any performance to be gained from upgrading to, for instance, a faster dual system? What setup is generally preferred for loaded database boxes? Last month I read a doc that argues that MySQL is not able to profit from an SMP setup using the FreeBSD 4.x userland threads - saved it here: http://www.skydancer.nl/dl/etc/20021119.freebsd.mysql.problems.mht - Considering this, would an expensive dual box still be worth the money, or would it be more effective to switch to a single-CPU system with the fastest clock instead? I want to prepare for when the machine REALLY gets abused, and I'd like input from people who have experience in this field, anything will help. :) What choice did you make for your high-end database servers? (If absolutely necessary I would consider installing another OS on the server if it would use the hardware more effectively, but seeing that FreeBSD 5.x is at the horizon, I'd rather throw money at the problem than spend the time on switching to L*n*x or S*l*r*s/x86...) Thanks in advance for your input 8) walter -- Walter Hop | +31 6 2445 2020 | http://www.skydancer.nl/ To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-isp" in the body of the message