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Date:      Thu, 3 Jun 2004 18:03:41 -0400
From:      Bill Moran <wmoran@potentialtech.com>
To:        Kenji M <kenji@kenjim.com>
Cc:        freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: Running FreeBSD/PostgreSQL on high-end dual Xeon box
Message-ID:  <20040603180341.1bc147ac.wmoran@potentialtech.com>
In-Reply-To: <20040603214253.GA93387@kenjim.com>
References:  <20040603214253.GA93387@kenjim.com>

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Kenji M <kenji@kenjim.com> wrote:

> Hello everyone, first time list leech.
> 
> I am in the process of speccing out a high end PC to be used
> as a database server for PostgreSQL.  We are currently running
> MySQL on Linux, but want to migrate our code to PostgreSQL and 
> we are primarily a FreeBSD shop.  
> 
> I am currently specing a 2U dual Xeon server and hope to use 
> RAID 0+1 capability.  The question is for PostgreSQL admins...
> 
> 1) Which RAID controller should we use?

Depends on your need.  If you don't have outrageous requirements, vinum
would work fine as software raid.

If you have very high performance requirements, the general consensus on the
Postgres lists is that a SCSI raid controller with a large battery-backed
cache produces the best performing, most reliable systems.  I don't have any
specific model numbers, though.

> 2) Considering Q1, does it not even make sense to use FreeBSD+PostgreSQL
> and bite the bullet and go with Linux (assuming it has better hw RAID 
> support) and run PostgreSQL on that using a fancier journaling filesystem.

I doubt it.  If you use battery-backed cache, you have no need of journalling.
Even still, you get comparible performance with ufs+softupdates (although it's
just a _little_ slower).

Now, I've never done "plug tests" on UFS, but I haven't heard of any UFS
filesystems getting beyond the point that PostgreSQL couldn't recover the
database.

-- 
Bill Moran
Potential Technologies
http://www.potentialtech.com



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