>-----Original Message----- >From: redhat-list-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx >[mailto:redhat-list-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of J. >Refugio Rodriguez >Sent: Wednesday, October 24, 2007 2:59 PM >To: General Red Hat Linux discussion list >Subject: Re: Xen and the art of Database performance > > >--- "McDougall, Marshall (FSH)" ><Marshall.McDougall@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > >> A while back we took delivery of several Dell 2950 >> servers to update our >> hardware environment which supports our Ingres, >> Sybase and DB2 systems. >> Ingres 2.6 and DB2 were running on RHEL 2.1, Sybase >> was running on >> RHEL3. We were hoping to be able to maintain the >> same levels software, >> but the new hardware is not supported by RHEL2.1. >> This is where the fun >> starts. I built up several RHEL4 servers and >> installed the Database >> systems on them and gave them to the DBA's to test. >> They promptly came >> back and said that they were up to 7 times slower >> than the previous >> hardware platforms, with the exception of DB2. I >> ran some OS benchmarks >> and they came back up to 7 times faster than the >> previous hardware. We >> worked on various tweaks and tunes to the OS and >> DBMS to no avail. >> At that point we started to engage the >> vendors/support orgs for the >> various products. Sybase could do nothing to >> improve performance on the >> RHEL4 server, so we tried RHEL5(or advanced platform >> or whatever they >> are calling it this week). The performance was just >> as dismal. We ended >> up going back to RHEL3U9 to get the Sybase >> environment to an acceptable >> performance level. >> Ingres is another story. First they said try Ingres >> 2006. It worked, >> but it has significant implications to our OpenRoad >> development >> environment, and as such is not really an option. I >> went the same route >> as before with the various flavours of RHEL and it >> made no difference. >> Finally, I built a RHEL5 server, installed VMWare >> Server, and created a >> RHEL2.1 guest on that. We now have performance >> where we want it. The >> downside is that on my server with 8GB of ram I can >> only use 3.6GB for >> the VM. >> My options as I see them now are; Install VMWare ESX >> and see if that >> buys me anything, or spend the time and effort to >> see if Xen will be of >> benefit. The problem with the latter is that >> according to the doc RHEL >> 2.1 is not a supported OS on RH5. > >Indeed, XenSource does not include the appropriate >modified kernel for RHEL 2.1 and, accordingly, is not >officially supported on XenEnterprise 3.2 or higher. > >Notwithstanding, you can create an proper Linux kernel >for your RHEL 2.1 by installing the same into a >machine that has the CPU virtualization extensions >(i.e., hardware assisted virtualization). > >Once you successfully install/modify your RHEL 2.1 >under XenEnterprise in the above hardware assisted >virtualization environment, you can use the image on >older non-hardware assisted virtualization CPUs. > >Before going to ESX, you may want to evaluate >XenEnterprise in price and performance. Back in >version 3.2 of XenSource XenEnterprise, you could >allocate to an virtual machine up to 15GB of memory. > >Disclaimer: Metztli Information Technology is an >Xensource Certified Partner. >> >> So, after all this, the gist of my post is; Has >> anybody successfully >> sparked up a RHEL 2.1 guest, using more than 4 GB of >> RAM, on a RH5 >> virtual platform, or, has anyone installed Ingres >> 2.6 on a Linux 2.6 >> kernel and made it perform at an expected level? >> Thanks for reading >> this far. >> >> Regards, Marshall >> -- >> redhat-list mailing list >> unsubscribe >> >mailto:redhat-list-request@xxxxxxxxxx?subject=unsubscribe >> https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/redhat-list >> >Jose R Rodriguez >http://www.metztli-it.com > > Thanks for the input Jose. It sounds like it's doable with Xen, but it also sounds like it's painful. Yesterday I downloaded a time bomb trial of ESX and had it and a RHEL2.1 VM running in about 1.5 hours. I've taken a lot longer than that just trying to understand the Xen docs that I can find. Regards, Marshall -- redhat-list mailing list unsubscribe mailto:redhat-list-request@xxxxxxxxxx?subject=unsubscribe https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/redhat-list
