Are you sure you need that many CPUs? Have you confirmed your apps are
CPU-limited? In my case they are disk-limited (CPU is almost idle even on
our most intensive queries, whereas disks are struggling).

Given your woes with IBM I'd look into Dell, making sure the HW is
Linux-certified and the Linux distro is DB2-certified, of course. I'd get a
4-way Xeon with as many Ultra-SCSI disks as possible and stripe them.

Good Luck!

GID

Greig Wise wrote:

> I'm running DB2 on an 8 way XSeries 455 (this is an Itanium based
> system) running Red Hat Linux. The first question I have is if there
> are any other poor schmucks in the whole world running this kind of
> configuration?
>
> This thing has just been a total disaster. We've had multiple hardware
> failures and IBM can't get parts anywhere in this country (the last set
> was shipped in from Canada). We've had the server spontaneously reboot,
> without a trace of any failure in message logs or in DB2's logs. From
> our standpoint, it looks like an orderly shutdown, as if a shutdown
> command had been issued.
>
> We've had multiple DB2 problems. The current problem is that DB2 seems
> to hang periodically. I've had this problem recur twice in the last 48
> hours. I've got IBM support involved on this and they've tracked it
> down to some sort of "latching" issue. They've suggested that I turn
> off INTRA_PARALLEL on the box as a workaround, I'm just afraid that with
> some of the complex queries we run, this would take the system's
> response time down to an intolerable level.
>
> We also have an outstanding issue where thousands of "floating point
> assist" errors are being issued in our system messages log per day from
> DB2. This is an issue that we've had DB2 support working on for about a
> month now without a fix. I have to believe that this is adversely
> affecting performance which has not been stellar to begin with.
>
> So, if there are any poor souls out there running this type of
> configuration, can you tell me if you have had similar problems? Does
> anyone have any pointers on how to mitigate the DB2 issues I've had?
>
> Having said all that, for the longer term (and maybe even for the
> shorter term), we're considering jumping ship. Given that we want to
> stick with DB2 and Linux/Unix of some flavor, can anyone offer
> suggestions for the must reliable/stable/trouble free/high
> performing/reasonably priced platform on which to run DB2? Also, how
> would the performance of said platform compare with an Itanium 8 way?
> If for example we were to decide AIX on p-Series, would a 4-way P5
> provide similar performance to our 8 way Itanium?
>
> Any input that can be offered would be much appreciated.
>
> Thanks,
> Greig Wise
> DBA on the verge of insanity
>
> P.S. I've just been notified that our "standby" server (another 8 way X
> 455) has broken down again (for about the fourth time this month) and we
> can't get parts until tomorrow.
>
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