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

[Communications Machine]

Thanx for the advice, we had actually chosen a 3 Ware Escalade 8500-series
S-ATA controller, but have been unable to locate a dealer for the product
locally (or online) with a good price; thus the fall-back to Adaptec. Lots
of eBay-ers' selling them, but no one has retail versions, only OEM lacking
the required cable kits... any help here? Anyone know-of / have / are a good
source for these boards? Need basic RAID 5 functionality with best support
possible, at a sub $500 pricetag for 4 channel serial ATA...


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Eirik Øverby" <ltning at anduin.net>
To: "Communications Machine" <ITStaff at wmptl.com>
Cc: <amd64 at freebsd.org>; <questions at freebsd.org>
Sent: Monday, October 18, 2004 4:07 PM
Subject: Re: OT: Upgrade feasibility, to AMD64/5.x.x or to stay i386/4.9 on
AMD64 hardware?


> 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/
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > freebsd-amd64 at freebsd.org mailing list
> > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-amd64
> > To unsubscribe, send any mail to
> > "freebsd-amd64-unsubscribe at freebsd.org"
> >
> >
> >
> >
> - Love over Gold -
>
>
>
>