Path: utzoo!utgpu!cunews!bnrgate!brtph3!brchh104!brchs1!bnr.ca!rice.edu!sun-spots-request
From: lbd@alux5.att.com
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun
Subject: SS-1+ performance: swapful vs. standalone
Keywords: Miscellaneous
Message-ID: <1631@brchh104.bnr.ca>
Date: 13 Feb 91 22:03:00 GMT
Sender: news@brchh104.bnr.ca
Organization: Sun-Spots
Lines: 34
Approved: Sun-Spots@rice.edu
X-Original-Date: Wed, 6 Feb 91 18:33 EST
X-Sun-Spots-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 39, message 11
X-Note: Submissions: sun-spots@rice.edu, Admin: sun-spots-request@rice.edu

My group of three Sun administrators is faced with the task of installing
30 new SS-1+'s at our existing site of ~200 Suns (servers/clients,
mostly). We are trading in older models for these SS-1+'s. Our existing
site has 14 servers, 4 3/280s and 10 4/280s, all of the relevant ones
running 4.1. We have one or two servers per lan, and, in all but one case,
at least one 4/280 per lan. The backbone is now ethernet but we are
testing fddi.

Now, for my question:

We can install these new SS-1+s either swapful or standalone. We see a
potential administrative headache if we go standalone, but we also
understand that there may be a performance hit if we go swapful. 

Has anyone out there benchmarked these scenarios? Gut feelings won't help
us here -- management can't put intuition on a viewgraph :^). We're trying
to find out if the increased administrative overhead might be balanced by
a dramatic increase in performance if we go standalone. Dramatic means 20%
or more. 

I realize that any numbers I get will be relative to the type of work done
on the machines, the amount of swap on each client, configuration of the
network, etc. I'm willing to take whatever I can get.  We just don't have
the man- (woman-?) power or the time to perform these benchmarks. Any
numbers at all would be helpful -- we're really divided on this issue.

I know that standalones perform better -- the question is, how much
better? Is it worth the hassle?

Profuse thanks in advance, and I will summarize...

Leslie Dreyer
AT&T Bell Labs, Allentown, PA
lbd@alux2.att.com