Sletten Kenneth W wrote:
...
>
> This customer asked a very experienced techie how much
> additional system resources it would be prudent to add in
> making this move.  The expert's advise:  Figure on adding
> three times the memory and five times the disc.  Customer
> went ahead anyway...  time passes...  Customer comes back
> and is unhappy;  complaining about how even three times the
> memory and five times the disc was not enough to get
> equivalent performance....

Perhaps he forgot the 2 or 3 times the CPU and faster [SIC] disks.:-)

>
...
> Semi-SIDEBAR:  Trying to main some semblance of objectivity,
> let me add that from all reports (no first hand experience (thank
> goodness) ), HP-UX has gotten a lot more reliable over the last
> several years.  Expect y'all have seen HP's adds, touting the
> "five nines" (99.999 percent) uptime guarantee for the latest HP
> 9000's and HP-UX.

Yes, but, of course, it all depends on what you run and how well the
applications behave, etc., so YMWV. HPUX 10.20 is much improved over 8. I
haven't used 11 yet and don't plan to anytime soon.

In the last three or four years, I've experienced two or three of hung or
extreme slowdown problems with HPUX server systems, but only one panic (MPE
system halt equiv.).  *However*, you must take into account that prior to
last 9 months, where I used to work we would reboot the HPUX system *nightly*
to preserve application performance and stability - so I'm quite sure that
worked to keep HPUX much happier.:-)

Once we got it installed (that is where the panic came in and 48 hours of
down time) 10.20 is much better than earlier 10.x versions.  The workstations
seemed to be a bit more inclined to panics, but then it might be how we were
using them (firewall and network management).  Our HPUX server system here at
UTC has been considerably more stable, but that is probably due to a
combination of improved system management and a simpler set of more reliable
applications.

Do please draw the conclusion that HPUX stability and performance is *rather*
sensitive to application stability, etc.!


> MPE and IMAGE can't be content just to
> rest on their laurels and well-deserved past reputation.  It's the
> comparison between the MPE / IMAGE combination and other
> competing OS and DBMS from here forward that counts most
> of all in the long run....
>
> Ken Sletten

--
Richard Gambrell
Database Administrator and Consultant to Computing Services
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, Dept. 4454
113 Hunter Hall, 615 McCallie Ave. Chattanooga, TN 37403-2598
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