Server specs

irlrobins

Quickie question. What sorta server specs would I need to run Oracle 10g Database with 500Gb of Data and 500Gb of document images.

Never bought a server before so not sure what I need to look for.

Blazer

All depends..will there be many people or pc's accessing it at the same time?
If so memory config will be very important particulary if they're big files.
You might also need dual nic's to cope with network traffic etc.
Speedwise do u want to go the SCSI or SAS route or if it isn't stick to SATA.

irlrobins

Limited number of people (i.e. not web facing).

What are pros and cons of SCSC vs SAS vs SATA?

SwampThing

My 2c.

SATA is fine for archiving or little-accessed data. It's not fast and people don't expect it to be fast. It's cheap and can be mirrored or a RAID 5 + on-line spare setup cheaply to give some level of redundancy.

For a database server, or any production server for that matter, I'd always opt for SCSI over SATA.

Sizing a server is always a worry. Always try leave room for some level expansion - don't use up all memory slots, drive bays etc.

Check if Oracle has any 'issues' with various RAID configs. I don't expect it to but we use Progress and it hates RAID 5 and performs like a dog on RAID 5.
Check the memory requirements for the OS, add in whatever Oracle recommend (you should get some guide on memory/disk req'mts on their website) and add a little for comfort.

For disks - always put some sort of redundancy in. If you're not restriced by RAID levels, then RAID 5 gives you the most usable space for your money and one more disk gives you an on-line spare. Also bear in mind a slight performance loss as individual disk capacities get bigger. As I said, work out your disk requirments and make sure you have a few spare bays for expansion.

Any preferred hardware vendor? IBM? HP? Dell (spits out)

It'll need a backup device obviously and with a terabyte of data now and factoring for growth, you're looking at a fairly sizeable backup. Any preferred solution? Do you have existing backup devices that you might need interoperability between? will this data need to be restored or transferred to another system? Do they have the same backup format?
All questions to ask and answer before you spend your cash.

Hope this is of some help.

Static M.e.

Havent Speced for an Oracle server before but Ive speced for SQL servers..

From what I can remember though I "think" oracle charge per Processor rather per server, licence wise. So if you got two processors you would need two licences. Worth checking out.

The other point would be what OS is it going to sit on (I presume it does) for Server 2003 remember that once you go above 4 GB Ram you need an Enterprise Server licence rather than the standard one.

You should also of course take into account expansion over 3 years (You probably have already) so that 1 Tb of HD space could work out to be 2 Tb needed at the end of 3 years.

Ill second what Swampthing said in regards to the Spec though only I would go with raid 10

Blazer

Another factory is expense..SCSI +SAS are way more expensive than SATA..you'll have to balance that fact that if you only have a few users it might be hard to justify shelling out €500 for a 300gb 10K scsi.
The 15K 147GB drives are the same price. That's a lot of money for a server with 1-2TB of h/d space.
How many users are you talking about? How often will they be accessing it?

SwampThing

If static is correct about the licencing per processor, you might want to ask about dual core. I know VMWare charge per socket, so you get a bit more bang from dual core/quad core although I doubt that'll last much longer. I've no idea how Oracle do it.

As for the RAID level, I still amintain RAID 5 gives you thee maximum usable capacity for your money. RAID 10 is becoming more popular as disk prices tumble and spindle capacites get bigger and bigger. It depens on your needs really.

You asked a 'quickie question' but there's a fair bit to consider. As the spend increases, you need to make sure you're getting it right.

kenco

Agree with the Oracle licensing point, be very careful here especially around the standard vs enterprise edition options.

Whats the security requirements for the data?

Also do you intend sticking an Aps server in front of the database (i.e. 3 tier application)?

irlrobins

Cheers guys, info is for a mate of mine doing some research for his boss. I've passed on the questions he needs to ask. Appreciate the help.

Khannie

We run 10G for low number of requests. We do it on Sun boxes though. Is that an option for you / friend? If so, I'll get you the specs we use.

irlrobins

Every bit of info helps, I'd appreciate it.

Ginger

My 2C

We just bought one of the new 2950s outta dell with Dual Quad Cores and 16GB of RAM (4*4GB) with 6 * 300GB SAS Drives...

Its for a development test lan .. virtual servers running on a machine for test purposes..

One of the considerations was the slots.. makings sure that if we need to upgrade we can.. Now this is prolly a bit extreme..

But for you document server.. you should be looking at fast drive access (especially if there is going to be a lot of saving and reading) .. decent amount of memory and multiple processors.. We have something similar for one of ours here .. but we use SQL Server (on a seperate box)

Khannie

irlrobins wrote:

Every bit of info helps, I'd appreciate it.

This is from memory:

The backend machines running 10G are Sun V240's (this is a clustered mirror configuration because downtime needs to be close to 0 on these boxes). Each (of two) 240's is connected to a scsi drive array (sun sell these separately, but they are just boxes of hard drives). Veritas is used for the clustering management. As others have pointed out, there are a shed load of licencing options with Oracle. It's worth phoning them tbh.

For a document management system, I'd go with multi-core intel based kit from a reputable vendor myself (edit: Now that I think about it, probably AMD based kit from Sun). I think sun kit is worth every penny in an enterprise environment where downtime is a real issue, but for a document management system (is that right? can't remember where I got that from) I think some Raid 5'd 10K scsi drives is probably what you're looking for.

my 2c.

Capt'n Midnight

You may also need to factor in backup costs, with M$SQL you can do dumps and so don't need a special agent - not sure if you can do the same with Oracle.

You could also use external storage too.

If you are buying a large box with redundant PSU's and HOT Swap RAID then it's usually not too much more expensive to buy a second processor, offload the OS and everything to it and use the other cpu for the dB only

500GB SATA drives are common enough so you could set up the server with a two pairs of mirrored drives for now.

Anti

Why do you not actually send a email to blacknight solutions, and ask them. Im sure they would have a very good idea of exactally what you need.

irlrobins

They're not gonna help me when they know they're not going to get any business out of it.

SwampThing

Any idea of budget for this or is that being too nosey?

Anti

irlrobins wrote:

They're not gonna help me when they know they're not going to get any business out of it.

Then lie

Bit late now though.