The Truth about Servers
CPU manufacturers and their allies will tell you that servers you need for the day will require the fastest processor that the vendors ship and the building blocks that these vendors actually recommend.
They are “almost” right! Note the “almost” in quotes. It’s almost because for most demanding applications you run, need maximum power, larger memory, more cache , and faster and fatter disks.
And beyond all these is the matter of cores. Now I am sure you are all aware that current crop of microprocessors being shipped by most vendors are multi-core. The vendors have switched to multi-core because the venerable Moore’s law has basically hit the ceiling.
It makes a lot of sense since a dual core processor is just like two single core processors on the same board. And is actually better theoretically at least, than two core processors sitting on same main board. This is because when the two cores are sitting on the same die, they communicate and can cooperate a lot faster.
Now let’s discuss some caveat. The software that you run to make best use of a multicore, need to be written using multi-threading techniques to take maximum advantage of the multiple cores.
It is seen that some of the simple archaic applications often run slower on a dual core Pentium processor, than on a previous generation processor such as a Pentium 4 HT clocking 3 GHz processor.
While buying a server it is important to remember ask some questions?
1) What are you planning to do with the server?
2) What kind of applications are you planning to run on the server?
3) What kind of load the server need to take?
If you plan to run a database such as Oracle or DB2, or even more demanding application such as an SAP R/3 or Seibel CRM, then go for the best in class server that you can afford. If you ask us, we will recommend a Netzary 4000 or 8000 series from our own stables. Or if your prefer an HP then an HP DL160, and if you prefer an IBM an IBM X3450 are all good starts.
Well, if what you need is a simple gateway server, a Squid caching firewall or even a remote SSL VPN server or even a combination of all these for a network of less than 50 users, then you do not require a Quad Core Xeon or a Shanghai Opteron chip. Remember most of the code in such products (take Squid for example) was written originally to run on early Pentium MMX processors. While code based of most of these products has grown in the past several years, the changes have been incremental at the best. A recommended PC configuration for a Squid, OpenVPN, or IPTables is still a Pentium 500 MHz processor with around 512 MB RAM.
A classic Celeron 1.8 Ghz chip with 512 K cache is around 4-5 times faster than a Pentium 500 Mhz chip. Throw in faster chipsets, more memory and disks with large cache memory; you are creating enough headroom for you to scale depending on the application’s requirements.
At Netzary we believe that every product or service we create should be priced suitably for our customers. While many of our competition believes in building specialized hardware, using ASIC based chips and embedded motherboards, we are firm believers in using standard available options to create products that are as good as tailor made for our customers.
While embedded products cater to your special needs, our solutions grow along with you. We add new features to all the products we ship and continue doing so during the warranty period and all critical updates for the lifetime of the product, and sometimes update them even without you as a user not knowing about it.
While some vendors urges you to spend on something that looks grand and mighty, and creates a hole in your pocket, we will be happier to recommend you something that is best fit for your network and your pocket.
That is precisely the reason we chose to build our entry level servers with Intel’s Atom processor. These little boxes see pictures are equipped with extra cooling fans, just in case there is excess heat disippation. We have two servers that is running as a VPN Server/Mail Server/UTM Solution for past two months at two of our client’s premises, and so far there was not even a reboot.
I was actually stunned when I saw the CPU utilization, it was less than 10% 99.99% of the time.
So if you are looking at buying a server think twice, before you spend on an expensive chip.
Tagged under Python , Django , Servers
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