SUMMARY: Anyone using Sparcstation 2 as a server?

From: Mike_Strawbridge_x3852 (straw@cam.nist.gov)
Date: Mon Feb 03 1992 - 06:42:53 CST


Thanks to all who sent advice on using a Sparcstation 2 as a server system.

My original request:

>We are contemplating using a Sparcstation 2 as a server for some dataless
>clients. The system will have 32 MB of memory and will use SCSI disks
>connected by either the internal controller, an SBUS SCSI controller or
>a SBUS<->VME adapter.

>Has anyone tried a configuration like this? My concern of course is the
>performance delivered to the dataless clients and it seems to me the
>critical bottleneck will be the disk performance. Am I missing something
>else?

>Our current servers are Sparc 330s with Xylogics 753 controllers and
>SMD disks. How will performance on a SS2 server compare with these?

>Is using a SS2 as a server a good idea? If so, which controller/SCSI disk
>give the best performance.

Most respondents reported using SS2s as servers with no problems and no one
claimed the SS2 was not up to the job.

One suggestion was to configure the system with more than 32 MB if possible.

Three advised me to use the external SBUS SCSI connections instead of
SBUS<->VME. SCSI disks available today are fast enough so converting to
VME is not worth the effort.

Thanks to:

smfedor@discovery.lerc.nasa.gov (Gregory Fedor)
svb@cs.purdue.edu (Stephan Bechtolsheim)
hanson@calvin.fnal.gov (Steve Hanson)
mattson@cs.UCSD.EDU (Jim Mattson)
danw@hobbes.prime.com (Dan Westerberg)
dan@breeze.bellcore.com (Daniel Strick)
jlf@galaxy.East.Sun.COM (John L. Furlani)
ebg@atr-hr.atr.co.jp (Ed Gamble)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
NAME: Michael Strawbridge TELE: (301) 975-3852
USMAIL: National Institute of Standards ARPA: straw@cam.nist.gov
                and Technology UUCP: uunet!cme-durer!straw
        Rm. B-146, Bldg. 225
        Gaithersburg, MD 20899



This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : Fri Sep 28 2001 - 23:06:35 CDT