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[IDD #FFC-953121]: Main system memory v. LDM queue size

Hi Justin,

re: questions

> Both up and downstream servers should have plenty of bandwidth.

Very good.

re: what kind of machine are we talking about and what OS will it be running

> That inherently is the problem.  The machine we are using now is a 4
> processor Dell PowerEdge 6600 with 5GB of memory (32bit Xeon MP chips)
> (Debian Linux 2.4 kernel). Because we feel safer with a 6-8GB queue, we
> are trying to figure out what to do.

We have found the Sun SunFire V20Z machines to be _stellar_ performers
at a reasonable cost.  The fully configured units we are using in our
IDD cluster cost approx. $5500 fully loaded with 16 GB of RAM.

> Since we appear to be limited to 4GB
> queue for 32bit machines, we could, I suppose, buy some more memory and
> run 2 LDM servers off the same machine but I kind of gathered that wasn't
> a real great idea.

It isn't a very good idea.

> So we've been toying with the idea of getting a new
> 64-bit machine soley to run our LDM server.

In addition to the SunFire V20Zs, we have experience with Dell dual Xeon EM64Ts.
If I had to choose which box to use for LDM/IDD activities, I would choose
the V20Zs especially since they support up to 16 GB of RAM on the motherboard.

> However, while it is
> relatively easy (and cheapily) possible to get a 64bit machine, its more
> difficult and more expensive to a get 64-bit machine which also supports
> 16GB of memory (based on someone telling us we need 2x[queue size] for
> memory)

$5500 for a loaded V20Z (university discount) is not a bad deal.  I recommend
you check out what kind of deal you can get through your local Sun rep.

Cheers,

Tom
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Ticket Details
===================
Ticket ID: FFC-953121
Department: Support IDD
Priority: Normal
Status: Closed