RE: Why is the iSeries so slow

["Joe Pluta" <joepluta@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> From: Ken.Slaugh@xxxxxxxxxx
> 
> OK... I buy it. My calculations are a bit off, but here's the facts,
so
> far anyway...
> 
> At 3:30pm I started the GET command. Now it is 9:40pm and the file now
> contains 1,295,330kb. Facts or not, I'm guessing if I were to move the
> same
> file to the FTP share of this same PC and use another PC FTP client on
> this same network the throughput would be much better.

Well, if you're going to ignore other people's experience, and base your
decisions on guesses, then you're going to get whatever results you are
predisposed to have.


> History seems to prove my
> point around here and I'm just trying to find out why the IFS of the
> iSeries can't keep up with reality.

I'm telling you it works just fine here.  Your network is screwed up.


> FTP doesn't seem to be the only slow boat up the iSeries river. Simple
> drag
> and drop stuff is painfully slow as well and I've got three different
> iSeries boxes in-house and a long list of customer boxes to prove it.

"Painfully slow".  Quantify.  The IFS isn't as fast as a local drive,
but then nobody ever claimed it was.  The iSeries is not designed to be
a stream file server.  It's a database machine.  You need an FTP server,
use a Linux machine.


> I suppose if you throw enough money into the iSeries box then it may
> start to
> compete with the throughput of some FTP freeware product on a $800
Dell or
> Gateway PC. This shouldn't, of course, be the case and I'm looking for
an
> answer to justify the differences.

Actually, the iSeries will never "compete with" a Dell machine.  This
ground has been covered many times.  If you have a job that can run on a
dedicated PC, then by all means run it on a dedicated PC.  In that case,
you have a CPU doing one thing and one thing only.  That's not what a
multi-purpose server box like the iSeries is built for.


> If the platform is more stable but not fast enough to perform the task
in
> an adequate time frame, then stability is a moot point.

Why would you use the iSeries as an FTP server?  From a cost per
gigabyte standpoint on both disk and memory, and a cost per CPU MHz
standpoint, the iSeries can never compete with a cheap PC.

But a Dell can't run a dozen users on simultaneously accessing a hundred
million record database.  Right tool for the right job.

Joe