On Fri, 23 May 2003, Guillaume Houssay wrote:
> My client has some SUN server type SUN Server Enterprise4500 (64bits).
>
> He proposes me to install Postgresql on his server instead of buying a
> Dell Server Poweredge 4600 (32bits)
Depending on the how many CPUs it has and what not, the E4500 may not be
much faster, or may even be slower. but it should be rock solid reliable,
the E seris are nearly bulletproof hardware.
> What is the difference in terms of installation, running and
> maintenance of installing postgresql on a 64bit server than on a 32bit
> server.
None really. You may as well set --enable-integer-datetimes when
compiling since there should be no great performance penalty for running
64 bit values for datetime.
Other than that, no great difference. note that being on 64 bit hardware
means you can likely have much more shared buffer memory than on X86
hardware, where you're limited to ~2 gig.
> Is the difference only at the OS level which is redhat or are there
> impacts on the database ?
Mostly the OS. I know RedHat had dropped their Sparc line, but there is a
project out there (can't recall the name, but you can google for it) that
'ports' RedHat's releases to Sparc hardware.
Debian maintains a Sparc port if you want to use debian.
