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RE: NOAAPort data server x86 configuration (fwd)


===============================================================================
Robb Kambic                                Unidata Program Center
Software Engineer III                      Univ. Corp for Atmospheric Research
address@hidden             WWW: http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/
===============================================================================

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 10 Oct 2000 20:33:51 -0400
From: James D. Marco <address@hidden>
To: Gilbert Sebenste <address@hidden>
Subject: RE: NOAAPort data server x86 configuration

Jessica,
        A lot of good stuff mentioned here. The choice is yours.  
Solaris & BSD used to have the better of Linux under heavy use.  Linux
performed better under light loads.  This is what I call a "tuning" 
difference...how the software and hardware is optimized. (I haven't used 
Solaris since 2.5, so I can't say about the newer stuff.) 
        For Intel machines, this is about it.  SCO is poor, Don't even 
know if it is available today. (Last version I used was three years ago.)   
        WindowsNT is the new kid on the block, it is having some growing 
pains. But the distributed environment of NT offers more for the future.
It is still not a good performer, NT2000 not much better; Un*x has had 30
years... Overlaying a Un*x shell over the NT kernel does not improve it
much.     
        I've run the LDM effectivly on P200, 64M Ram and 9g UltraSCSI 
drives. More is always better, but don't waste your money. A distribution 
of loads and tasks is easily possible today. A 100mBit net and well 
partitioned LAN will give you better overall performance than running all 
on one machine. I reccomend this setup as being a little more robust than
a single server, too.
        Some things to consider:  
                o inexpensive machine for ingestion and decoding 
                o High speed networking to distribute the products
                o workstations running local copies of McIDAS/Gempak
                        (ADDE stuff under McIDAS is nice)
                o NT/HummingBird Exceed for remote display terminals.
        5 - $1500 machines and a 100mBit LAN between them will run as well
as, probably better, than  1 - $10000 machine. And, it'll provide more
flexibility and multiple MapRoom display capbility.  Load balancing,
spell-casting and black-magic are required arts, of course. 
        For your servers, use SCSI. I have a RAIDed 120g (4-30g IDE HD's)
drive under Linux. It consumes all of the 300mHz CPU it sits on. A similar 
RAIDed 10g drive (5-2g SCSI HD's) ran on a 200mHz CPU with LDM and decoders
and McIDAS. IDE is really out of place on a server.
                                A world of choice. 
                                <Wow, I thought a 12mHz 286 was hairy!>
                                                jdm

       
 
At 02:47 PM 10/10/2000 -0500, you wrote:
>On Tue, 10 Oct 2000, Dan Vietor wrote:
>
>> > We are running Solaris.  I would definitely recommend Solaris
>> > over Linux for ease of administration, and compatibility.
>> 
>> I think this is pretty much a wash.  For those familiar with Solaris,
>> stick with it.  For those use to Linux, go that route.  BTW, I've found
>> Linux to be closer in compatibility to Solaris than almost any other
>> Unix variant.
>
> I agree, except I have found Redhat Linux much easier to install starting
>with version 6.0. I can't download 7.0 yet due to bandwidth problems.
> 
>> Solaris is more reliable under heavy loads than Linux.  I've found
>> problems with Linux and swapping.  Under heavy loads Linux tends to bog
>> down far more than I've seen with Solaris.  Plus I've seen timing/buffer
>> issues with IDE drives cause Linux to crash on occasions under heavy
>> loads.
>
>Dan,
>
>This issue has, apparently, been alleviated with recent upgrades. Dunno
>about IDE drives; I stick with SCSI and they work great for me!
> 
>> > The only problem with Solaris is that the hardware support is poor.
>
>THANK YOU! :-) BTW, in years past, their OS has been just as bad. I have
>been told by many that it is good now, but I remain skeptical. Besides,
>think about this: Why buy a $20,000 Solaris box when, for $4,000, you can
>have the same thing plus much cheaper/available parts?
> 
>> > I am sure you'll get a lot of opposing views on the Solaris
>> > vs. Linux issue..
>> 
>> This is almost as much of a religious war as the Mac vs PC issue is.
>> Personally, I like Linux more for development and Solaris more for
>> runtime reliability and IO speed.
>
>It's not a religious war. Linux rules, Solaris drools! OK, OK, all sarcasm
>aside, I love Linux because for me, the runtime reliability has been
>great. I run two Pentium II boxes here at NIU Weather, and I run and maul
>them with WXP, McIDAS and other stuff. And they work great! When I used
>Solaris in the 1990s, I had to deal with rude customer service/tech
>support people, and broken equipment that was horribly costly to replace.
>I can say that our original Solaris server in the NIU Meteorology program
>was made in 1988, and is still used as an LDM server. And it's still
>chugging right along with it's dual 33 MHZ processors.
>
>But then again, so is the 286 in our office taking weather obs, a PC
>(can't remember the brand name) from 1987. It happily runs DOS. So, take
>your pick! :-)
>
>***************************************************************************
****
>Gilbert Sebenste                                                     ********
>Internet: address@hidden    (My opinions only!)                     ******
>Staff Meteorologist, Northern Illinois University                      ****
>E-mail: address@hidden                                 ***
>web: http://weather.admin.niu.edu                                      **
>Work phone: 815-753-5492                                                *
>***************************************************************************
****
>
>
James D. Marco, address@hidden, address@hidden
Programmer/Analyst, System/Network Administration, 
Computer Support, Et Al. 
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