I am in the process of speccing out a new box for a highly utilized
(updates, inserts, selects) 40GB+ database. I'm trying to maximize
performance on a budget, and I would appreciate any feedback on any
of the following.
Hardware:
2 - Intel Xeon 5160 3.0 GHz 4MB 1333MHz
8 - Kingston 4GB DDR2 ECC Fully Buffered
16 - WD Raptor 150GB 10000 RPM SATA II HD
1 - 3Ware 9550SX-16ML Serial ATA II RAID card
1 - Supermicro X7DBE+ Motherboard
1 - Supermicro SC836TQ-R800V Case
The Woodcrest CPU, Raptor HD and 3Ware 9550SX RAID card have all been
highly recommended on this list, so there may not be much to comment
on there. The Supermicro X7DBE+ motherboard is appealing because of
its 16 RAM slots and 64GB of maximum memory. The Supermicro SC836TQ-
R800 case was selected because of its 16 drive bays in 3U and dual
800W power supplies (the motherboard requires 700W).
RAID Configuration/File System:
A lot of info in the lists, but I'm not sure of the best approach for
this setup.
I was thinking of using 14 drives in a RAID 10 (ext3) for the db and
wals and 2 mirrored drives (ext3 or xfs) for the OS. Another option
would be 12 drives in a RAID 10 for the database (ext3, maybe ext2)
and 4 drives in a RAID 10 for the OS and wals (ext3) (with separate
RAID cards). There are many choices here. Any suggestions?
OS:
The consensus in the list seems to be as long as you have the 2.6
Linux Kernel, it's really a matter of personal preference. However,
it's hard to have a preference when you're new to the Linux world,
like I am. Red Hat, Fedora Core, Slackware, Suse, Gentoo? I guess my
primary goal is speed, stability, and ease of use. Any advice here,
no matter how minimal, would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Brian Wipf
