Thread: Hardware

Hardware

From
Walter Vaughan
Date:
I need to purchase a new server to put posgresql on that will be acting as the
DBMS server for Apache ofBiz soon. While googling around for performance tweaks
I saw this at http://revsys.com/writings/postgresql-performance.html

<quote>
CPUs — The more CPUs the better, however if your database does not use many
complex functions your money is best spent on a better disk subsystem. Also,
avoid Intel Xeon processors with PostgreSQL as there is a problem with the
context switching in these processors that gives sub-par performance. Opterons
are generally accepted as being a superior CPU for PostgreSQL databases.
</quote>

Is this still true in regards to Xeon's? I was looking at a server with Quad
Core Xeon 2 5335 @ 2.0GHz.

And at http://www.powerpostgresql.com/PerfList

<quote>
focus on RAID 1 or 1+0 or 0+1 for any set of 2, 4 or 6 disks.
</quote>

Are RAID 1 or 1+0 or 0+1 equal in speed, performance, downtime in regards to
postgresql. Is it a coin toss?

Re: Hardware

From
Andrew Sullivan
Date:
On Tue, Feb 06, 2007 at 10:59:21AM -0500, Walter Vaughan wrote:
>
> Is this still true in regards to Xeon's? I was looking at a server with
> Quad Core Xeon 2 5335 @ 2.0GHz.

Multi-core Xeons are not as affected, and are somewhat different
"under the hood".  So no, you're probably ok there.

> Are RAID 1 or 1+0 or 0+1 equal in speed, performance, downtime in regards
> to postgresql. Is it a coin toss?

Well, 1 isn't equivalent to 1+0 or 0+1 in terms of capacity, because
it's a straight mirror of two drives.  I hate 0+1, because you lose
half the array in the event any disk in the side fails.  So I always
use 1+0 if I can.

A

--
Andrew Sullivan  | ajs@crankycanuck.ca
The plural of anecdote is not data.
        --Roger Brinner

Re: Hardware

From
Guido Neitzer
Date:
On 06.02.2007, at 08:59, Walter Vaughan wrote:

> Is this still true in regards to Xeon's? I was looking at a server
> with Quad Core Xeon 2 5335 @ 2.0GHz.

No, it's not true anymore. See

http://tweakers.net/reviews/657/1

for an interesting comparison.

cug

Re: Hardware

From
Lars Heidieker
Date:
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Hash: SHA1


On 6 Feb 2007, at 15:59, Walter Vaughan wrote:

> I need to purchase a new server to put posgresql on that will be
> acting as the DBMS server for Apache ofBiz soon. While googling
> around for performance tweaks I saw this at http://revsys.com/
> writings/postgresql-performance.html
>
> <quote>
> CPUs — The more CPUs the better, however if your database does not
> use many complex functions your money is best spent on a better
> disk subsystem. Also, avoid Intel Xeon processors with PostgreSQL
> as there is a problem with the context switching in these
> processors that gives sub-par performance. Opterons are generally
> accepted as being a superior CPU for PostgreSQL databases.
> </quote>
>
> Is this still true in regards to Xeon's? I was looking at a server
> with Quad Core Xeon 2 5335 @ 2.0GHz.
>
> And at http://www.powerpostgresql.com/PerfList
>

It seems to be outdated. As far as I know it was supposed to warn for
the HyperThreading things.

- --

Viele Grüße,
Lars Heidieker

lars@heidieker.de
http://paradoxon.info

- ------------------------------------

Mystische Erklärungen.
Die mystischen Erklärungen gelten für tief;
die Wahrheit ist, dass sie noch nicht einmal oberflächlich sind.
      -- Friedrich Nietzsche



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Re: Hardware

From
Scott Marlowe
Date:
On Tue, 2007-02-06 at 10:33, Lars Heidieker wrote:
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
>
>
> On 6 Feb 2007, at 15:59, Walter Vaughan wrote:
>
> > I need to purchase a new server to put posgresql on that will be
> > acting as the DBMS server for Apache ofBiz soon. While googling
> > around for performance tweaks I saw this at http://revsys.com/
> > writings/postgresql-performance.html
> >
> > <quote>
> > CPUs — The more CPUs the better, however if your database does not
> > use many complex functions your money is best spent on a better
> > disk subsystem. Also, avoid Intel Xeon processors with PostgreSQL
> > as there is a problem with the context switching in these
> > processors that gives sub-par performance. Opterons are generally
> > accepted as being a superior CPU for PostgreSQL databases.
> > </quote>
> >
> > Is this still true in regards to Xeon's? I was looking at a server
> > with Quad Core Xeon 2 5335 @ 2.0GHz.
> >
> > And at http://www.powerpostgresql.com/PerfList
> >
>
> It seems to be outdated. As far as I know it was supposed to warn for
> the HyperThreading things.

It wasn't just hyperthreading.  The older xeons tended to have more CPU
horsepower than cache bandwidth, and this resulted in them going into
swap storms whether hyperthreading was on or not.  It was just easier to
trigger with hyperthreading.

Re: Hardware

From
Ben
Date:
On Tue, 6 Feb 2007, Walter Vaughan wrote:

> <quote>
> CPUs ? The more CPUs the better, however if your database does not use many
> complex functions your money is best spent on a better disk subsystem. Also,
> avoid Intel Xeon processors with PostgreSQL as there is a problem with the
> context switching in these processors that gives sub-par performance.
> Opterons are generally accepted as being a superior CPU for PostgreSQL
> databases.
> </quote>
>
> Is this still true in regards to Xeon's? I was looking at a server with Quad
> Core Xeon 2 5335 @ 2.0GHz.

My understanding is that this is no longer true with the newer xeons, but
then, I haven't tested them myself, so I can't say.