Purchasing the correct hardware: dual-core intel? Big cache?

Tue Apr 25 12:43:45 UTC 2006

On Tue, 25 Apr 2006 13:28:50 +0100
"Martin Hepworth" <maxsec at gmail.com> wrote:
> Bill
> 
> if the database is CPU dependant I'd look at tuning the queries/indexes and
> that stuff...it really shouldn't be CPU bound.

That's in progress, and it's going to be an ongoing process as the
application goes through versions.

Fact is, with 4G of RAM most of the data sits in RAM, so reads incur
no or little IO.  With high-end SCSI disks in RAID-10 and a battery-
backed cache, burst writes are cached, thus lightening fast, and
we've been unable to run the application hard enough to saturate
the SCSI bus so far.

So ... the current bottleneck is CPU.

> 
> --
> martin
> 
> On 4/24/06, Bill Moran <wmoran at potentialtech.com> wrote:
> >
> > On Mon, 24 Apr 2006 23:03:59 +0100
> > "Martin Hepworth" <maxsec at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > > Bill
> > >
> > > depends on the application itself, but more RAM and the disk layout
> > (RAID)
> > > will be more important than the CPU. Also depends on how write-heavy the
> > > apps are...
> >
> > Thanks for the feedback, Martin.
> >
> > I'm fully aware of the app-dependency - what I'm looking for is a way
> > to test the application.  I've got 3 different clusters available for
> > testing, but I'm not sure how to tell if the cache is getting used
> > heavily or not.
> >
> > I've already determined that the database server is CPU-bound under
> > our test load.  With high-speed SCSI disks and battery-backed RAID,
> > there's not enough IO to stress the disk subsystem.  RAM is almost a
> > non-issue.  With the machine stressed at full load, it's only using
> > 1/8 of the available RAM.
> >
> > So, my current bottleneck is CPU power.  And the boss has asked me
> > for the best way to overcome this bottleneck.  We're looking at either
> > the same CPUs we already have, but with _huge_ caches (8m) - or going
> > with more CPUs by getting true dual-core pentiums.
> >
> > The question this all pivots on is will 8M of cache be a significant
> > improvement?  If not, then we're going with the dual-core CPUs.  What
> > I'd like is some way to take an existing system and determine how often
> > the cache is getting invalidated, so I can make some guesstemate as to
> > whether more cache will help or not.
> >
> > >
> > > --
> > > martin
> > >
> > > On 4/24/06, Bill Moran <wmoran at potentialtech.com> wrote:
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > I've been asked to make some hardware recommendations, I'm hoping some
> > > > folks on the list can make some suggestions.
> > > >
> > > > We're looking hard at getting either Intel dual-core procs, or getting
> > > > hyperthreaded procs with huge (8M) caches.
> > > >
> > > > We currently have a few dual proc Intel HT machines that we can test
> > > > out our workload on, and I'm trying to get a feel for how to determine
> > > > if a larger cache size will generate better performance than replacing
> > > > HT procs with full-blown dual-core procs.  We're looking at the 6850
> > > > from Dell, which supports both processor families:
> > > >
> > > >
> > http://www1.us.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/pedge_6850?c=us&cs=555&l=en&s=biz
> > > >
> > > > The goal for these machines is to serve out PosgreSQL databases to as
> > > > many Apache+php front ends as we can hang off each one.  So we're
> > trying
> > > > to purchase hardware that will create a DB server that can handle a
> > lot
> > > > of web server front ends.
> > > >
> > > > I have a Dell 2850 (dual HT procs) here that I can use for testing.
> > > > I'm a little fuzzy on determining how well the cache is working, so
> > I'm
> > > > stuck on whether or not the 8M cache that's available on the HT units
> > > > is worth the money or not.  Can anyone suggest a testing methodology
> > > > that will isolate this particular aspect?
> > > >
> > > > --
> > > > Bill Moran
> > > > Collaborative Fusion Inc.
> > > > _______________________________________________
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> > --
> > Bill Moran
> > Collaborative Fusion Inc.
> >
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-- 
Bill Moran
Collaborative Fusion Inc.

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