Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
Date:      Thu, 2 May 1996 14:35:58 -0700 (PDT)
From:      Jim Dennis <jimd@mistery.mcafee.com>
To:        Ekrem_Gashi@ccmail.nybc.org (Ekrem Gashi)
Cc:        questions@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: Dual Processer Support
Message-ID:  <199605022135.OAA02448@mistery.mcafee.com>
In-Reply-To: <9604028310.AA831077745@ccmail.nybc.org> from "Ekrem Gashi" at May 2, 96 03:53:02 pm

next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
> 
>      
>      I am interested installing unix operating system, which I like to use 
>      as a server and like to load Oracle DB.

		I don't know of a FreeBSD port for Oracle.  
		A quick search of their webpages reveals no hits for 'bsd' or 
		'linux'.  So I suspect you'd have to run the SCO binaries under
		iBCS (and I don't know if that would work -- some binaries
		are linked against libraries that are proprietary to SCO).

		Another quick search -- this time of the Sybase pages reveals
		a Linux client and server package but nothing under 'bsd'.

		Granted these weren't exhaustive searchines (I didn't try
		wildards or verify that they can find substrings -- I just
		tried 'linux' 'freebsd' and 'bsd' in separate searches and 
		glanced at the product lists).

>      
>      I have dual processor 120MHz 2.00GB disk, 24MB RAM.


		I suspect that any serious processing will use up all of that
		RAM long before you'll benefit from the addtion processor -- 
		particularly in db applications (which are usually much more
		disk and memory intensive then processor bound).


		Consider tripling the RAM (at least).


>      I am debating which operating system I shall use. Now I have NT, but I 
>      won to install unix. 

		We want to recommend Unix (at least I do).  However I can't
		always do so with a clear conscience -- sometimes it simply
		isn't the answer.  What's your applications.

>      
>      I was tolled that Linux does not support dual processing.

		It might not be nearly as important as you think.  However 
		there are groups working on SMP (symmetrical multi-processor)
		support for Linux.  I'm not sure about the Free/Net/OpenBSD 
		camps.

		If you find that you application really is this processor 
		and/or I/O intensive -- and it's worth any money to keep
		it running (i.e. you'll be paying dozens or hundreds of 
		employees to "work with" or "wait for" it) then you may want
		to perform a cost-benefit analysis for buying a Sparc station,
		or an RS/6000 (much as I like SGI's I don't see them with a 
		big share of the db server market any time in the near term).

>      
>      Pleas let me know any infos you mid have on FreeBSD.

		Have you checked out the web pages? (http://www.freebsd.org).
>      
>      Thanks
>      Gashi

		In conclusion I would say that you should look at this
		with a couple of thoughts in mind:

			What are you really trying to do and why?

			What resources do you have (or can you get)?

			Do you think you are qualified to make the 
			purchasing and implementation decisions, and/or do
			the requisite research yourself or should you hire 
			a consultant?

	If this is just a home system and your just playing around with
	this to build up your experience and put a few extra bullets on
	the resume -- then most of what I've said is irrelevant.

	If you have any business at stake then I suspect (given the
	nature of your questions) that you'll want to bring in someone
	who's far more qualified than me to recommend a solution.

Jim Dennis,
System Administrator,
McAfee Associates
 



Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?199605022135.OAA02448>