Thread: Install on 32 or 64 bit Linux?

Install on 32 or 64 bit Linux?

From
Ralph Smith
Date:
Hello,

We're at a crossroads here and it's time to upgrade boxes and versions of PG.
This eMail query is about the first step.

Are there any recommendations on whether to install onto 32 vs 64 bit Linux?
We're going to be using virtual machines.

Our application consists mostly of near-sequential inserts into a LARGE table, accompanied by updates into much smaller tables.
I perform the occasional queries on the large table, requiring sequential scans.

Are there any indications whether 32 or 64 bit Linux would be preferable?

Thanks all,

Ralph Smith
=====================


Re: Install on 32 or 64 bit Linux?

From
Ron Johnson
Date:
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On 08/28/07 16:21, Ralph Smith wrote:
> Hello,
>
> We're at a crossroads here and it's time to upgrade boxes and versions
> of PG.
> This eMail query is about the first step.
>
> Are there any recommendations on whether to install onto 32 vs 64 bit
> Linux?
> We're going to be using virtual machines.

Which hypervisor?

> Our application consists mostly of near-sequential inserts into a LARGE
> table, accompanied by updates into much smaller tables.
> I perform the occasional queries on the large table, requiring
> sequential scans.
>
> Are there any indications whether 32 or 64 bit Linux would be preferable?

You haven't told us the important stuff yet.  Primarily:

   How *big* is the database?

   How many inserts/minute?

   What else will this box be doing besides inserting records?

   How fast are the disks?

   SCSI or SATA/IDE?

   How much RAM?

- --
Ron Johnson, Jr.
Jefferson LA  USA

Give a man a fish, and he eats for a day.
Hit him with a fish, and he goes away for good!

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Re: Install on 32 or 64 bit Linux?

From
"Andrej Ricnik-Bay"
Date:
On 8/29/07, Ralph Smith <smithrn@u.washington.edu> wrote:
> Hello,
Hi



> Are there any recommendations on whether to install onto 32 vs 64 bit Linux?
> We're going to be using virtual machines.
In addition to Ron's question I'd be curious to hear about
the hardware platform and intended use of the database.

So far my gut tells me that high-performance databases
(or Linux/Unix servers with high average work-loads) don't
really offer themselves to virtualisation that well, specially
when you throw lots of disk I/O into the equation.


Cheers,
Andrej


--
Please don't top post, and don't use HTML e-Mail :}  Make your quotes concise.

http://www.american.edu/econ/notes/htmlmail.htm

Re: Install on 32 or 64 bit Linux?

From
Hannes Dorbath
Date:
On 28.08.2007 23:21, Ralph Smith wrote:
> Are there any indications whether 32 or 64 bit Linux would be preferable?

If you have 64bit hardware, use a 64bit OS. Running IA32 on EM64T/AMD64
is pointless and requires you to use crappy hacks such as PAE.

For virtual machines, consider if OS level virtualisation is not more
what you want. OpenVZ is a good example.


--
Regards,
Hannes Dorbath