Re: Multi processor System

[Daniel MD <IM-Thinking_(_at_)_clix_(_dot_)_pt>]

At 12:51 16-09-2001 -0400, you wrote:
> It sounds a little strange that you are starting from a critera of
> "must support multi-processor" for what you called an "Entry level web
> server".  Usually, you should start from the task you are attempting
> to accomplish, not start by spec'ing out the hardware.

OH, sorry for not explaining my problem.

Well, from what i have seen this can only be called an entry level web 
server, and the question i had was about support for multi-processor, the 
task i am attempting to accomplish is to set up a web server for my 
company, and host a couple of web sites for my clients, my main problem is 
that most web sites will be pretty large, because they are FLASH animation 
intensive, (i know it becomes more of a bandwith problem than a CPU problem).

Ok let me tell you my problem, i did not want to go extremely off-topic, 
but since you are willing to help, and i appreciate all the help, here is 
the problem.

I need a web server to run multiple web sites, my own site and a couple of 
my clients sites, all sites are Flash Intensive, and my site has dynamic 
page creation, backed by a database (not to large).

In the same system i have to run a graphical workstation environment 
(win2k), to create the Flash Content,  Photoshop, 3D Studio Graphics, and 
some Audio files.

This is a server/workstation combination, i will have to use VMware,( or 
some emulation software that can run Macromedia Flash, Adobe Photoshop, and 
3D Studio), to run two OS, a Web server on a Unix system 
(Apache,or  thttpd), and Windows2k for creation of graphical content to 
that server, (here lies my need for CPU speed).

Now you might be asking yourself, why doesn't he use the win2k Apache port, 
or just goes for Microsoft ISA server ?
Well, my answer would be Windows2k requires more maintenance, takes up more 
resources, and i am not going to develop graphical content for the web 
sites every day, or week, so i prefer to have a system that does not 
require so much maintenance, provides a high level of up time, and does not 
take up all the system resources. But i am not excluding the possibility to 
run it all on Windows.

I don't want to spend too much money on this, so i thought about a 
(SUN/Solaris Netra X1 server, but i see you are not big fans of it around 
here, i like Solaris, but i must say i don't like the Netra X1), and i 
would need another system for graphical development.

So this is my problem, please send me your advices.

A solution to my problem from my point of view is:

T1 Line
Dual Athlon 1.2GHz (i'm going AMD because of the price/performance, i don't 
have the cash to spend on Xeon processors)
Tyan Motherboard (AMD 760 MP chipset, ServerWorks chipsets are too rich for 
my blood, and all other "server" motherboards are just to expensive).
512-1024Mb DDR Ram (Rambus is just too expensive)
Wacom A4 Tablet (pricey but well worth the money)
VMware (UNIX,Win2k)
OR
A good P4 Intel Box.

> The processor isn't usually an issue for a simple web server, and
> being that you provided zero details, I'm inclined to believe you are
> looking at a fairly simple app, for were you doing doing dynamic page
> creation using a large database, I would think you would probably not
> neglect to say so.  Memory is usually far more significant a
> consideration, otherwise more processor just speeds the time to the
> next disk access.

Well actually processor don't do nothing for disk access if you have one of 
those Intelligent I/O processors from Intel, i which there was more 
motherboards with the darn thing, and i wish they would not cost so much.

>   Other issues are listed here:
>   http://misc.bsws.de/obsdtuning/webserver.txt

Thanks for the link

> Nick.
> (if 2x1.2GHz is "entry level" what do you call my Pentium 75? 8-)

My mail server :-)

Well here is the problem, hope you can help out i am really confused, i 
don't know if i should go Dual, Intel, or SUN, i have spend the weekend 
reading reviews, and getting benchmark results, performance results, and 
basically researching 24*7.

Thank You for your time, Best Regards, and Have a Nice Day...
Daniel MD [DanielMD_(_at_)_im-thinking_(_dot_)_com] of IM-Thinking Consulting.