Re: Help specifying new web server/database machine

On 6/8/05, Rory Campbell-Lange <rory(at)campbell-lange(dot)net> wrote:
> I'm tasked with specifying a new machine to run a web application
> prototype. The machine will be serving web pages with a Postgresql
> backend; we will be making extensive use of plpgsql functions. No
> database tables are likely to go over a million rows during the
> prototype period.
...
> 2GB (2x 1024MB) DDR-400 (PC3200) ECC Registered SDRAM (single rank)
> 4 Port AMCC/3Ware 9500-4LP PCI SATA RAID Controller
> 80GB SATA-150 7200RPM Hard Disk / 8MB Cache
> 80GB SATA-150 7200RPM Hard Disk / 8MB Cache
> 250GB SATA-150 7200RPM Hard Disk / 8MB Cache
> 250GB SATA-150 7200RPM Hard Disk / 8MB Cache

If your app is select heavy, especially the types of things that do
sequential scans, you will enjoy having enough ram to easily load all
of your tables and indexes in ram. If your database will exceed 1GB on
disk consider more ram than 2GB.

If your database will be write heavy choosing good controllers and
disks is essential. Reading through the archives you will see that
there are some important disk configurations you can choose for
optimizing disk writes such as using the outer portions of the disks
exclusively. If data integrity is not an issue, choose a controller
that allows caching of writes (usually IDE and cheaper SATA systems
cache writes regardless of what you want).

If it were my application, and if I had room in the budget, I'd double
the RAM. I don't know anything about your application though so use
the guidlines above.

--
Matthew Nuzum
www.bearfruit.org