Re: server upgrade question

[Napoleon <rri0187@attglobal.net>]

Mag Gam wrote:
> At my university we have 10 servers. Each server has 8 cores with 32
> GIG of memory running Debian 4.0.  We have to give these servers to a
> different department, and our Dean would like to consiladate 10
> servers into 5 servers. The new server will have 16 cores with 64 GIG
> of memory. Basically a 2:1 type of deal.
>
> Since we are doing a 2:1, should we expect 2:1 performance? For
> instance, most of our applications are heavy compute and memory
> intensive applications. Would they run at the same speed, better, or
> worse with this new setup? My guess is that same?
>
> Oh, yeah will be running 4.0 :-)
>
> TIA

Too many variables to tell, but it won't be 2:1.  That won't be possible 
due to resource contention.

If you aren't using your existing cores effectively, you might not see 
any performance gain on a server-for-server basis.  But for typical 
systems, you might expect a 25-50% increase over an existing system.

That is, of course, assuming all other things (CPU speed, hardware cache 
sizes, disk speed, etc.) remain the same.  Changing those parameters 
makes things more complicated.