Re: Help choosing hardware
lsorense@csclub.uwaterloo.ca wrote:
If nothing else an opteron runs the i386 version of debian faster
thananything else, and if you need 64bit support, it can do that too (I
believe sarge does have amd64-libs and an amd64 kernel that can be used
on i386 sarge to run 64bit programs when there is a need for 64bit).
The 64 bit kernels are completely stable, as far as I know, so I would
suggest you use a 64 bit kernel and either a 32 bit or 64 bit userspace.
If the two userspaces are installed both as boot options and as chroots,
you can very quickly compare them in performance terms every time you
make a non-trivial change in the application architecture. If you keep
the data and logic stored in an architecture neutral repository that is
on a separate filesystem tree from the rest of the system binaries, you
can switch between 32 bit and 64 bit production environment in seconds
by stopping services in one chroot and starting them in the other.
If you're building a server grade SMP machine with a lot of memory, I
think you'll see big advantages of having the RAM distributed across the
hypertransport links and enabling processes to use large address spaces.
Therefore, I suspect you'll end up in 64 bit mode and liking it a lot.
However, the point is that you can defer the decision to deployment.
Oliver Korpilla wrote:
My tip would be: CHOOSE YOUR BOARD WISELY!!! Go for a well-supported board
and everything will be A-OK. (If in doubt, ask on the list)
With recent chipsets, the marketing materials often describe server
grade features that are worth paying money for but neglect to mention
that some of these are implemented in software rather than hardware.
It is disappointing to buy, for example, a RAID capable motherboard and
then find out that it is actually a non-RAID motherboard with a
different Windows software driver. Linux supports RAID natively anyway,
so you'd have just paid extra and not received anything you need.
Really really check with the list first, before buying, ...
Dale Scheetz wrote:
> Although I know that Debian hasn't released an official AMD64 port, I
> have seen several distros that use it (like Ubuntu) so my first guess
> is that it is mature enough for me to use on this project.
You're describing a standard server style software stack, such as has
been running on 64 bit architectures for years, and not something that
uses code originally written for x86 desktops and is only just porting.
Debian's AMD64 is a pure port, so I suggest it is just as reliable as
running Debian's Sparc 64 bit support for the same source versions.
The complications happen when you try to go biarch or have 32 bit
libraries integrated into the 64 bit system, but you don't need that.
Hope that helps,
Alex.
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