Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!swrinde!ucsd!ucbvax!mtxinu!sybase!oy!ben From: ben@oy.sybase.com (benjamin e. von ullrich) Newsgroups: comp.databases Subject: Re: Informix queries: raw partitions, price support Message-ID: <12550@sybase.sybase.com> Date: 30 Apr 91 21:17:09 GMT References: <461@octelb.octel.UUCP> Sender: news@Sybase.COM Organization: sybase, inc., emeryville, ca Lines: 50 In article <461@octelb.octel.UUCP> jfd@octel.UUCP (John F. Detke) writes: >We are trying to setup an Informix DB on a SPARCstation. Has anyone had any >better luck with the Informix non-support line? Waiting 20 minutes on hold to >talk to a decidedly non-UNIX support person is frustrating at best. Anyhow, >our current problem is: Informix wants to chmod and chgrp informix /dev/rsd0d >in order to use raw partitions. Why the heck do they have set-uid root programs >then? The DBA wants the speed improvements, but I am reluctant to open up /dev >like this. Why does giving access to one partition ``open up /dev??'' It's not like they have write permission to the directory. As long as the partition doesn't have anything to do with other operations, (such as being at cyl 0 or overlapping another partition), there is no more risk in granting a user access to a partiton of the disk than letting her create files in a filesystem. The other point about running suid root has already been aptly made. >Also: if Informix is listening: How the hell do you justify pricing Informix >on a 4/490 $20,000 (or more, depending on who we talk to) more than on a >SPARCstation II? I KNOW the code is the same! The SPARC II is arguably faster >than a 4/490, but of course the 4/490 (should) handle heavy I/O better (but >at $20,000 more I can buy another Sparc II with 1GB disk). Sun naturally positions its departmental servers (4/400 series) in a price range far above the workstation-class (SPARCstation-2) series. The SPARCstation-2 may have a faster processor, but a faster processor doth not a fast, all-purpose computer make. In this age of RISC, the majority of newer workstations have much faster processors than their larger predecessors. Servers are more expensive because they have much more capacity, bus and i/o bandwidth for large data processing needs. They are priced accordingly: big systems == big bucks. The software vendors do the same thing: they ship the same binary for both systems, but charge drastically different rates. This is because the price range for the two systems is different, and the software can naturally follow in sync. Once you decide to buy a big box, you decide to pay big bux for everything. The argument can be made that you get more utility out of software running on a big box, and might get that same utility on a SPARC 2, but pricing normally adheres to different principles. Believe it or not, no one charges the same as it costs to make software when they sell it! Golly! As I usually say to those who surmise they can do something cheaper and more cleverly than others: go do it if it's such a good idea, and spare us the whines. ..ben ------ benjamin e. von ullrich only i do the talking here -- not my employer. ben@sybase.com {pyramid,pacbell,sun,lll-tis}!sybase!ben "why waste time learning when ignorance is instantaneous?" -- hobbes on calvin