Post by n***@pisd.eduThanks for the info Larry. I'll be loading the DB on my SAN and have come up with the disk resources to handle my database.
I'm completely green on DB2 (and 400 for that matter) and would appreciate any advice, gotchas, success stories, etc., that anybody would like to share with respect to my forthcoming LUW installation. Or if anybody is running something similar I'd be interested in knowing what type of hardware configuration you used.
Linx or Windows? Other than internal personnel/tech support for the OS, are there any benefits to using one over the other? ie, is the db more stable, or is there better performance on a particular OS?
My database is currently about 50GB on my 400 and I will be going with the enterprise version of DB2 LUW. I don't have specific numbers within my database, but I am currently averaging around 5MB of bandwidth talking to the DB and peaking around 15MB. The server is responding to about 50 http requests per second. It is supporting about 225 concurrent sessions and at times is sluggish. The new LUW will need to be able to handle around 1000 concurrent sessions. My 400 has 2 CPUs and 8GB of RAM and I think it is rated at 3000 cpw (not sure what that means). The x86 box that I purchase to replace the 400 will need to have enough horsepower to house the DB for a few years and I don't want to have to upgrade between now and then. Any recommendations on # of CPUs, amount of RAM, etc, for the new LUW box? Money is not an object, but I am restricted to an x86 platform.
Hmmm. Can't answer all of this, maybe others can. I recommend getting
your IBM sales team to help you size this. Suffice to say that the
amount of memory and processing power that you will need will be
dependent upon the type of application. For example, DSS apps tend to
require more memory because they do more sorting and sometimes have
large result sets. OLTP type txns have a different profile. Supporting
1000 concurrent users for DSS type application could require a
substantial amount of memory.
As for Linux vs. Windows, yes ... skill base has a lot to do with it. I
don't really want to get into recommending one over the other, but
suffice to say that this choice probably also depends upon the
"criticality" of the application. If it was me? If this was a critical
financial application? I wouldn't do this on x86, I'd want to do it on a
proven UNIX platform like AIX or Sun. While Linux has come a long way
and it has matured, it still IMO doesn't have the same "years of field
experience" as UNIX. On the other hand, there are some large customers
running critical apps on Linux so it may be fine. Windows? That's
another story and most of my customers use either UNIX or Linux for
critical apps. You'll have to do some research on Windows scalability
and reliability.
One more thing. If you are going for an x86, it probably won't add much
cost if you overconfigure it. You can add dual or quad-core processors
and some extra memory and not have to be as worried about running out of
gas. Make sure you get an x86 model that has plenty of room to add more.
Good luck.
Larry