Re: Processor speed

["Evan Harris" <spanner@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Dave

> doing Heavy work.  In the Client Server world, End user response times are
> criticall and this was our benchmark.  In order for an AS/400 to achieve
the
> same End User response times (ie opening Database, opening Documents,
sending
> E-mail's with Attachments,  refreshing the screen, submitting SOR's,PO's)
we
> needed a 4 way AS/400, adding more memory and more disks made little
difference,
> but I agree that when the Workload increases the AS/400 Scalability would
knock
> NT off the shelf,  this is why the AS/400 is the Ideal platform for Domino
to
> run on,  but at what Cost?

I have to say that I agree with you. It would seem to me that the lower end
machines do not deliver what an NT box solution appears to deliver, but when
you get to a couple of hundered users, then it's pretty difficult for an NT
box to compete. Unfortunately, the AS/400 needs to be sized correctly in the
first place, and certainly for smaller sites, the cost of an AS/400 to do
the job would (IMO) bury the AS/400 as a viable option. Running Domino on
the AS/400, especially if anything else is running, seems to require a lot
of initial grunt, far more than a comparable PC server would seem to
require - and at a far pricier premium.

Compounding the price performance issue is the difficulty of understanding
how to tune and administer Domino. My experience so far is that the Domino
Adminstrators I have encountered tend to offer "run it on an NT box" as
their advice when quizzed about scheduling, memory and resources etc.
therefore the AS/400 person is left to try and tune Domino running on the
AS/400. Not an easy task, especially as all the "old ways" are not quite
applicable.

Scalability is not really an issue when the in-house testing of Domino fails
and an NT solution appears to offer a more reponsive and robust solution and
the Domino Adminsitrator (who probably has NT at home with Domino running on
it) is quietly promoting NT.

Cheers
Evan Harris


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