[UCI-Linux] SuSE vs. Redhat / 2-CPU Recommendations
Mike Iglesias
IGLESIAS@uci.edu
Tue, 20 Apr 2004 20:15:07 -0700
> I'm unhappy with Redhat because it seems like they drop security patch
> support for old versions fairly quickly now. That's a problem for me
> because once Oracle is installed, I try not to upgrade major O/S versions;
> installing Oracle is a lot of work, and I can't take a chance that a new
> O/S version will mess it up. Redhat makes this situation even worse
> because of their non-GNU installation directories: once Redhat drops
> support for an old version, I have to re-install newer versions of the
> software myself, and then it gets weird trying to decide whether to re-use
> Redhat's locations or to uninstall the Redhat version and then re-install
> the software in the GNU default locations. Is SuSE any better in this regard?
You could go with RedHat Enterprise Linux. UCI has an agreement with
RH so you pay $25 for workstations and $50 for servers. NACS is running
a local up2date server, but I'm not sure if we are charging for access to
it or not. We're just starting to install Enterprise Linux on systems.
> Also, any vendor recommendations for 2-CPU systems? I'm not sure whether
> Oracle supports dual Opterons, but for this application the CPU's probably
> don't have to be top of the line. I was able to price out a full system
> online at Monarch Computer Systems with dual Athlon MP 2400+, a 3Ware RAID
> card, and four 120GB SATA drives, installed with SuSE 9.0 Pro (or RH), for
> less than $2900. That price would work for us, but I don't know anyone who
> has actually ordered from Monarch.
I just bought 2 1u rackmount systems from Appro. Dual 1.8ghz Opterons, 1gb
memory, 160gb SCSI disk (1 drive). $7500 for the two systems. I'm
running RH Enterprise Linux compiles for the Opterons. So far so good,
although I have had to add a couple of i386 library rpms that were not
installed by default.
Mike Iglesias Email: iglesias@draco.acs.uci.edu
University of California, Irvine phone: 949-824-6926
Network & Academic Computing Services FAX: 949-824-2069