High volume AMD64 MySQL server -- FreeBSD vs Linux?

[James Van Artsdalen]

How do SQL servers respond to additional memory?

The thing that sets 64-bit FreeBSD apart in my mind is the ability
for a process to have a 16+ GB resident working set if desired.

See if the SQL guys have performance curves for process sizes.

I would not be at all surprised if a single 8 GB Opteron could
outperform a pair of Xeon systems, even if the Xeons had faster CPU
and disk.  If RAM is a powerful influence keep in mind that you
can go to 16 GB without doing anything exotic, using ECC RAM at
< $500 per GB.

PS. I'm aware of Intel systems with > 4 GB RAM.  PAE is a hack and
not at all the same as having the memory in-process.

> From: "Haapanen, Tom" <tomh at waterloo.equitrac.com>
> Date: Tue, 2 Mar 2004 19:25:59 -0500 
> 
> Currently running dual Opteron 242s with 2 GB, and there has not been a
> single FreeBSD or MySQL glitch in the 45 or so days that the system has been
> in production.
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: JG [mailto:amd64list at jpgsworld.com] 
> Sent: Tuesday 02 March 2004 18:59
> To: freebsd-amd64 at freebsd.org
> Subject: High volume AMD64 MySQL server -- FreeBSD vs Linux? 
> 
> Tyan S2880UGNR Dual Opteron Motherboard
> 2 Opteron 240 CPU's
> 2 gigs (2 1gig modules) of PC2700 Registered ECC DDR memory LSI Zero Channel
> Raid Controller (Megaraid 320-0)
> 4 Fujitsu MAM3184MP U160 Scsi Drives - 15,000rpm 18gb
>    - these will be ran as two 2 drive raid 0 channels,
>      one for MyISAM tables and the other for InnoDB.