FreeBSD hardware solution for a database server

[Uzi Klein]

Dean Hamstead wrote:
 > you may need to look at specifically what sort of
 > queries are taxing the system

 > lots of queries or long queries

Both, but mostly long queries.

 > this will vary your final decision considerably.

 > other options you might consider are....
 > - breaking up your database across several servers
 >     - separate databases completely (good for mainly write stuff)
 >     - !!! replicate and load share (really good for ro stuff) !!!
 > - getting in and really checking that indexes are well designed
 >     (indexes can change long taxing queries into childes play)

Good points, the database does need optimization, I will to that as 
well,  but its about time for a dedicated server anyway (and it costs 
way less than normalizing a +-500 related tables db)

 > im not sure what these servers are like, im a dell man but its
 > all just hardware. obviously faster cpu, more ram, 15k scsi disks
 > and if raid 1+0 or 5 is faster may depend on the controller
 > how many channels etc. the driver and card performance might
 > even be worth looking into.

That what my original question meant to be:
What are the minimum/recommended system requirements (*hardware* wise) 
for a heavy loaded database server. If you're a Dell man, please be kind 
and point me to a Dell box...


 > if your really dying for performace, go back to the ports tree
 > and try compiling for better performance. ie mysql can compile
 > static for (what it claims) better performance, and  there is
 > one other option that eludes me. im not sure if linuxthreads
 > is faster than native threads

I have done most of the software tweaking.

 > you may also find mysql5 to be faster than 41 (assuming mysql)
You don't really advise me to use beta software for production, do you?

Thanks,
-Uzi