Re: [SQL] linux vs freebsd as postgres server - Mailing list pgsql-sql
From | David Kelly |
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Subject | Re: [SQL] linux vs freebsd as postgres server |
Date | |
Msg-id | 199909170114.UAA33891@nospam.hiwaay.net Whole thread Raw |
In response to | linux vs freebsd as postgres server (Clayton Cottingham <drfrog@smartt.com>) |
List | pgsql-sql |
Clayton Cottingham writes: > a while back > > tom lane, i think , > mentioned something about > freebsd being the best in terms of file system performance > > based on the fact linux 's ext2 has some sort of paging /memory handling > issues? > > i was wondering if anyone has any numbers on this sort of thing? FreeBSD has always supported files larger than 2G. Last I saw with Linux it was still a matter of "pick your favorite patch set, each has its strengths and weaknesses." I used to deal with a lot of files larger than 2G. > and what about scsi/eide/raid? If performance (other than $/GB) is an issue, xIDE is eliminated. Altho FreeBSD does handle IDE HD's, and UDMA IDE. And offers at least two ways to combine multiple drives into a larger filesystem. RAID5 was recently added to the CVS archive (not sure if it made its way into this week's FreeBSD 3.3 release.) FreeBSD's Adaptec driver is probably the premier example of what Adaptec's hardware can do. Last I heard FreeBSD's Adaptec driver is ported to Linux and is the default Adaptec driver in most (or all?) Linux distributions. This may be diverging as FreeBSD has changed its storage device paradigm to CAM, and the FreeBSD SCSI drivers were the first to be changed/re-written. The FreeBSD NCR/Symbios SCSI driver appears to be developed elsewhere (Linux? NetBSD? OpenBSD) and ported back into FreeBSD. I have found FreeBSD to be a superior alternative to Linux. FreeBSD lacks the hype and political agenda of Linux. FreeBSD is slower to support every oddball Windows gee-gaw than Linux. FreeBSD's "ports" system is simple, elegant, works, and is stable, unlike RPM. Having a mirror of the FreeBSD CVS archive has been quite useful too. It makes monitoring the changes to FreeBSD (including ports and documentation) possible. The specific question was about PostgreSQL under FreeBSD. I've never stressed PostgreSQL under FreeBSD so I can't specifically answer that question. But I have stressed FreeBSD in other ways where it held its head up high with Sun and SGI machines, and Linux didn't. YMMV. Speaking of ports, in my previous employment, I found FreeBSD's /usr/ports/ collection of 2000+ utilities to be the best source to search for utilities and applications for the Sun and SGI systems. I could find something that looks useful, painlessly download and try it, and if it passed muster I already had the source code to move to the other systems. And already had a working version under FreeBSD to compare the ported Sun and SGI versions. This is where I discovered PostgreSQL. -- David Kelly N4HHE, dkelly@nospam.hiwaay.net ===================================================================== The human mind ordinarily operates at only ten percent of its capacity -- the rest is overhead for the operating system.