I agree that modern, faster cpus should be first choice. And PCI-X, a very
nice feature...wish I could get it. 66MHz bus right? Instead of the 33MHz bus
of the PCI or 25MHz bus of sbus. And if this is a master and data mover, more
slots is better for ethernet and HBAs. v480 (max. 900MHz) or better in sun
world. A v280 can be faster (max 1.2GHz) but only has 4 slots.
However, it is possible that more cpus on the e450 will be all that is
needed....depending on expected growth. Yes, he will still be limited to a
single thread on a cpu for nsrd, but his nsrmmd/nsrmmdbd/nsrindex/etc processes
could then execute on a different cpu than nsrd. It is still limited to 450MHz
for nsrd, but there are 3x 450MHz to run the other data mover processes like
nsrmmd/nsrexec/nsrindex....instead of the current situation of all fighting for
the same cpu.
A sun engineer I spoke with told me Sun's rule of thumb is "One CPU per
GigEthernet, One CPU per HBA". So one GigE NIC (or 2x 100MB Quad Port
Ethernet) for one cpu, HBA to tape for one cpu, nsrd for one cpu, and all other
system and legato processes on last cpu. Yes, going to 4 cpus does not give 4x
the backup capacity. If you think you will be growing at a good rate, you
should look at reengineering your solution as either a e450 master w/ a better
I/O server node (e4500s aren't bad) or a better, faster master/node combo. In
a straight master/node configuration, with the master only doing indexes and
self backups, the master can be a dual cpu setup. Your storage nodes (or any
data mover server) should have good I/O.....multiple cpus to match the multiple
I/O ports like ethernet and HBA/SCSI traffic.
$.02
--Ted
-----Original Message-----
From: Tarjei T. Jensen [mailto:Tarjei.Jensen AT AKERKVAERNER DOT COM]
Sent: Friday, August 01, 2003 10:20 AM
To: NETWORKER AT LISTMAIL.TEMPLE DOT EDU
Subject: Re: [Networker] Too many tape mounts
Stan Horwitz wrote:
>Stan Horwitz wrote:
>>>Thanks Ted. This is very helpful information. Yes, you're right, nsrd is
>>>usually at the top or high up on the process list. We are going to get
>>>three additional CPUs on order for our Enterprise 450 and more RAM. The
>>>CPUS are rated at 450Mhtz. The machine we migrated from is 500Mhtz, if I
>>>remember correctly.
>>
>>Since nsrd is a single process, you may find that it will not help to add
>>CPUs. It may work in the beginning, but as you add clients the problem
>>might return. I would advice you to get hold of a more recent machine with
>>faster CPUs.
>
> Thanks. Are there any suggestions on a more powerful Sun
> system than the E450 for backing approx 120 clients
> (including four NDMP with SnapImage)?
I'm bigoted, so my first choice would be an SGI Origin 350 with 4 700MHz
CPUs with an PCI-X module. If I could get faster CPUs, I would. If I expect
that I never will go beyond 4 CPUs, then a tezro in a rack mount will do.
If you are a sun shop you should probably be thinking of a SunFire V480 and
up. Which one depends on CPU speed and number of expansion slots. You should
perhaps go for a system which backs up to disk and then clones to tape (that
is what we are planning for the time being).
greetings,
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