[WEB4LIB] Single/dual processor servers and ILLiad

[Phillip Whitford]

 My experience supports Sam McDonald's view that multiple servers are better
than one.  We started out with one box doing everything. As resources
permitted we moved to separate machines for the major services. We now have
seven severs, including a separate OPAC server. Overall I feel management of
the whole is easier and it certainly allows for a lot more fault tolerance.

I'm not familiar with Illiad but you might want to check and see if the
applications you are going to run will really benefit from a dual processor
box. There appear to be few applications which actually use the capabilities
of the dual processor servers.  I've got both single and dual processor
servers in my mix, and all other things being equal, I don't see a lot of
difference in performance.

Phillip Whitford
Braswell Memorial Library
Rocky Mount, NC

-----Original Message-----
From: web4lib at webjunction.org
[mailto:web4lib at webjunction.org]On Behalf Of Dan Lester
Sent: Monday, October 23, 2000 4:08 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: [WEB4LIB] Single/dual processor servers and ILLiad


I need to do some picking of the fruits of wisdom found hereabouts.
Here's the scoop.

We're about to purchase the ILLiad system for ILL management, ILL
requests, and document delivery.  (We're doing all three now with
three other systems, and none are integrated. We lack the time or
inclination to reinvent the wheel now that ILLiad is affordable)

We're also about to purchase a new webserver for the library.  If I
were to buy two servers, they'd each run Win2K server, be on the order
of 600mhz P3s with 256-512mb of ram and plenty of disk.  They'll run
IIS5 for server (still really like WebSite, but....things change).
Library server will also have a bunch of ColdFusion on it for local
databases, etc.

However, I'm also considering buying one big box and running all of it
on a dual processor server.  Would save some money, be one less box to
manage, and "feels better".  However, I'm interested in the gotchas
that I'm not thinking of.

NOTE:  Please don't bother me with why I should use **ix or any
similar, why I should use PHP, Apache, etc.  Those aren't open for debate
in the real world I'm operating in.

Feel free to reply privately if you wish, though I'd personally rather
see the dialogue in public.

thanks

dan


--
Dan Lester, Data Wrangler  dan at RiverOfData.com
3577 East Pecan, Boise, Idaho  83716-7115 USA
www.riverofdata.com  www.postcard.org  www.gailndan.com