OT: Upgrade feasibility, to AMD64/5.x.x or to stay i386/4.9 on AMD64 hardware?

[Eirik Øverby]

Hoi there,

I don't see any problems, except ..... <browse down>

On 18. Oct 2004, at 21:19, Communications Machine wrote:

> Hey all, looking to upgrade a server used in a small business here, 
> looking
> for opinions and advice about migrating to an AMD64 system, vs. using 
> i386
> box, also if it would not be just as feasible to use i386 distribution 
> on
> AMD64 hardware simply for the speed?
>
> Here's what we've got now, and have been running for a few years 
> without
> fail; just things getting a little slow to keep-up with things now:
>
> AMD K62 - 300mhz CPU
> 768 Megs RAM
> 60GB ATA-133 and 80GB ATA-133 Drive attached to Promise TX2 Controller 
> (no
> raid)
>
> System serves as:
>     - mailserver (sendmail/pop3/spamd/mimedefang with custom filters)
>     - webserver ('standard' apache serving mostly static pages)
>     - application server (apache/mod_perl mostly, lot of custom apps)
>     - squid proxy server/gateway using authentication and custom 
> logging
>     - samba server for workgroup, not primary fileserver but used 
> quite a
> bit
>     - MySQL server *** several databases nearing couple hundred megs 
> worth
> of data, queries starting to take longer than ever before...
>     - FTP server, (combined with http/upload virtually hosted site),
> operates as place for customers/vendors to drop/receive data - used 
> quite
> frequently, but for mostly sub 1gb files
>     - many custom apps, mostly written in PERL, which process data via
> cronjobs, etc.
>
>
> Here's what we're proposing for the new hardware:
>
> AMD Athlon64 - 3200+ (Socket 754 - I know, but it's cheap)
> MSI K8T-FSR (VIA Chipset)
> Adaptec AAC-2410SA 4-Port S-ATA RAID Controller

This one is gonna be tricky on you, I think. The driver used for most 
Adaptec RAID controllers (IDE and SCSI alike) isn't currently working 
on amd64 (in 64-bit mode, that is). I have repeatedly asked if anyone 
will step up to the task and fix that, as I have an Adaptec 
Zero-Channel RAID add-on-board for my dual opteron just collecting dust 
at the moment, but the general answer is 'no time'... Too bad.
Then again, I have nothing but really REALLY bad experiences with 
Adaptec IDE RAID solutions, so perhaps you should choose differently 
there.. Most all the others are supported, and supported well afaik.

/Eirik

> (4) Seagate 200GB S-ATA Drives to be configured RAID 5
> 2048MB DDR400 Non-ECC RAM
> DVD-ROM, floppy, etc...
>
> Just wondering if we should maintain i386/4.9 distribution and wait 
> for the
> AMD64 platform to mature further into stability as the releases 
> progress...
> or to jump on the FreeBSD 5.x.x bandwagon and go with a native AMD64
> platform; so long as we can run Apache/mod_perl + mysql, things should 
> be
> all good... or not?
>
> Any advice, suggestions (hardware or software) would be greatly 
> appreciated,
> please either CC the list and reply, or vice-versa as we are not 
> directly
> subscribed to the mailing list for -questions, only for amd64 - 
> thank-you.
>
> --
> Nathan Vidican
> itstaff at wmptl.com
> Windsor Match Plate & Tool Ltd.
> http://www.wmptl.com/
>
>
>
>
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