Hi, Three things...
1. You need to let us know what the DB server will be doing. Many CPU cores are only important of you have many CPU intensive MySQL connections in parallel. Will you have a read-intensive or write-intensive database load? Those 2950III you're considering can take up to 8 disks. If you're doing very read-intensive operations, you may want to consider a RAID1 pair for your OS, apps and MySQL tmp tables and a RAID 5 array for the MySQL data (to get the most disk space for your money without sacrificing redundancy). However; if you're doing a heavy work with lots of reads and writes at the same time then you should consider RAID1+0 for your data. RAM will always help for both MySQL caches and buffers and don't underestimate the great effect that lots of RAM for your filesystem cache will have (talking about unix/linux here, can't speak for windows). 2. All the hardware vendors have promotions running all the time which they change every month. One month it will be cheaper disk, the next month will be cut-price RAM etc... The end result will be about the same... 3. It's very easy to upgrade memory and processors as long as you don't mind 15 minutes or so of downtime for that server, linux will just see the new h/w when it comes back up. With hardware like HP and Dell you won't even need a screwdriver, it's all easy to use clips. Cheers, Andrew -----Original Message----- From: Rene Fournier [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Sun, 27 April 2008 22:57 To: mysql@lists.mysql.com Subject: Optimal MySQL server -- opinions? Okay, the previous subject was too narrow, what I am really looking for are opinions on general disk/memory/cpu configurations, manufacturer notwithstanding... As stated previously, I'm configuring a PowerEdge 2950III, and trying to decide what will provide the best bang-for-buck. The server will be used strictly as a MySQL database server running atop Red Hat Linux. Two large databases, each about 2GB, heavy on both Inserts and Selects. Up until recently, I had spec'd: 2 x Quad-Core Xeon 5430 @ 2.66 GHz (6 MB cache) , 1333 MHz FSB 8 GB Ram (4x2GB) 4 x 146 GB 15K SAS drives (RAID 1/1 -- first set for OS, apps, second set for MySQL data) ...worked out to around $5,500. Now however there is a processor promotion, such that: 1 x Quad-Core Xeon 5450 @ 3.0 GHz (6 MB cache) , 1333 MHz FSB 8 GB Ram (4x2GB) 4 x 146 GB 15K SAS drives (RAID 1/1 -- first set for OS, apps, second set for MySQL data) ...works out to around $4,500. So what I'm wondering is, do I really need an eight-core box, since my experience tells me that MySQL's greatest bottleneck is disk I/O. I'm wondering if I would be better off with just one processor to start with (are they easy to add later, btw?), maybe add more RAM, and just save some cash. Any thoughts or suggestions are much appreciated. I have to pull the trigger on this soon. I was hoping they would bump the specs or drop the prices significantly... I've been watching these for months and there's been promo after promo... I anticipate a major update, has anyone heard anything? (Should I wait a little longer maybe?) Thanks. ...Rene LOVEFiLM International Limited is a company registered in England and Wales. Registered Number: 04392195. Registered Office: No.9, 6 Portal Way, London W3 6RU, United Kingdom. This e-mail is confidential to the ordinary user of the e-mail address to which it was addressed. If you have received it in error, please delete it from your system and notify the sender immediately. This message has been scanned for viruses by BlackSpider MailControl - www.blackspider.com -- MySQL General Mailing List For list archives: http://lists.mysql.com/mysql To unsubscribe: http://lists.mysql.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]
