From jcrowell at dcn.davis.ca.us Wed Sep 1 00:21:49 2004 From: jcrowell at dcn.davis.ca.us (John M. Crowell) Date: Wed, 1 Sep 2004 00:21:49 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [DCN-TechOps] Monthly LoginID Report Message-ID: DCN LoginID Activity: August 1, 2004 - August 31, 2004 -------------------------------------------------------- This is a summary of LoginID activity on wheel for the month of August, 2004. This represents only the activity affecting the password authentication file, and reflects only LoginID's. There is not a one-to-one correspondence between LoginID and registered subscribers, but the correlation is close. Activity for the month of August: 27 New LoginID's 19 Active LoginID's deleted 0 Suspended LoginID's deleted 2 LoginID's suspended (i.e. LoginID exists, but password invalidated) 1 LoginID's reactivated Current LoginID's as of: 31-Jul 31-Aug Category --------------------------------------------------------------------- 13 13 System ID's used only by the OS and netadmin 8 8 DCN internal and administrative accounts 10 10 Training accounts used for classes and demonstrations 12 13 Suspended/inactive LoginID's 2127 2134 Active LoginID's ---- ---- 2170 2178 Total ---------------------------------------------------------------------- John M. Crowell Learn from the Past Davis Community Network Live for Today DCN Systems Manager Look to Tomorrow netadmin at dcn.davis.ca.us Take a Nap This afternoon Sacramento Master Singers Music Librarian jcrowell at mastersingers.org ______________________________________________________________________ From jcrowell at dcn.davis.ca.us Wed Sep 1 00:22:51 2004 From: jcrowell at dcn.davis.ca.us (John M. Crowell) Date: Wed, 1 Sep 2004 00:22:51 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [DCN-TechOps] Monthly Downtime Report Message-ID: Monthly System Availability Report: August 2004 Systems: wheel: 00:00 01-Sep-04 uptime= 98 days 12:54 hours No downtime web: Scheduled interruptions every Saturday midnight for cycling log files. downtime ~3 min. spoke: 00:00 01-Sep-04 uptime = 347 days 8:59 hours No downtime velocipede: 00:00 01-Sep-04 uptime = 13 days 6:02 hours 18Aug04 10:40-13:30 Catastrophic system failure. (2:50) Failed CPU board isoloated and removed. Rebooted with diminished CPU capacity at 13:30 18Aug04 16:37-17:58 Replacement and testing of new CPU (1:21) board under service contract. Modems: No reported outages. Network: No reported outages. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- John M. Crowell Learn from the Past Davis Community Network Live for Today DCN Systems Manager Look to Tomorrow netadmin at dcn.davis.ca.us Take a Nap This afternoon Sacramento Master Singers Music Librarian jcrowell at mastersingers.org ______________________________________________________________________ From msmosaic at dcn.davis.ca.us Sun Sep 5 06:23:00 2004 From: msmosaic at dcn.davis.ca.us (msmosaic at dcn.davis.ca.us) Date: Sun, 5 Sep 2004 06:23 -0700 Subject: [DCN-TechOps] Web Activity Summary Message-ID: <200409051323.i85DNCio013842@wheel.dcn.davis.ca.us> 1,076,738 requests 10,046,056,544 bytes transferred Subdomains by bytes transferred ------------------------------- 1 peanutscollectorclub.com 1,218,721,083 12.13 2 academic-genealogy.com 964,494,668 9.60 3 vctinney 739,990,773 7.37 4 vme 537,849,862 5.35 5 gizmo 478,067,007 4.76 6 redwoodbarn.com 458,283,004 4.56 7 warbird.com 432,007,873 4.30 8 gvcc 367,084,908 3.65 9 DCN 348,476,332 3.47 10 members.dcn.org 267,969,205 2.67 11 gracevalley.org 233,037,161 2.32 12 klsabin 232,268,953 2.31 13 abih.org 206,518,622 2.06 14 multiwareinc.com 187,948,081 1.87 15 palmsplayhouse.com 186,269,032 1.85 16 vetsoft 150,595,859 1.50 17 explorit.org 144,103,952 1.43 18 birchlane 125,977,073 1.25 19 rentcomputers.com 123,849,906 1.23 20 lamppostpizza.com 110,478,909 1.10 21 jfhess 107,991,775 1.07 22 davisairporter.com 102,254,796 1.02 23 mos 100,799,705 1.00 Subdomains by requests ---------------------- 1 abih.org 102,786 9.55% 2 peanutscollectorclub.com 90,502 8.41% 3 DCN 88,042 8.18% 4 redwoodbarn.com 74,415 6.91% 5 vme 67,883 6.30% 6 daviscampusco-ops.net 48,138 4.47% 7 coffer.com 40,157 3.73% 8 vetsoft 32,748 3.04% 9 palmsplayhouse.com 29,482 2.74% 10 warbird.com 26,646 2.47% 11 gvcc 23,868 2.22% 12 academic-genealogy.com 21,969 2.04% 13 yolorecorder.org 21,370 1.98% 14 explorit.org 18,872 1.75% 15 birchlane 18,704 1.74% 16 davisairporter.com 18,006 1.67% 17 members.dcn.org 17,637 1.64% 18 lamppostpizza.com 16,607 1.54% 19 klsabin 16,560 1.54% 20 gizmo 16,071 1.49% 21 gracevalley.org 15,657 1.45% 22 rentcomputers.com 12,282 1.14% From msmosaic at dcn.davis.ca.us Sun Sep 12 06:23:00 2004 From: msmosaic at dcn.davis.ca.us (msmosaic at dcn.davis.ca.us) Date: Sun, 12 Sep 2004 06:23 -0700 Subject: [DCN-TechOps] Web Activity Summary Message-ID: <200409121323.i8CDNOio025130@wheel.dcn.davis.ca.us> 1,021,223 requests 10,183,064,304 bytes transferred Subdomains by bytes transferred ------------------------------- 1 peanutscollectorclub.com 1,190,905,370 11.69 2 academic-genealogy.com 1,106,950,226 10.87 3 gvcc 828,246,656 8.13 4 vctinney 802,044,909 7.88 5 vme 571,851,412 5.62 6 redwoodbarn.com 465,630,443 4.57 7 warbird.com 437,991,532 4.30 8 DCN 368,010,255 3.61 9 gizmo 365,484,072 3.59 10 members.dcn.org 288,234,979 2.83 11 klsabin 247,825,927 2.43 12 abih.org 197,519,931 1.94 13 palmsplayhouse.com 190,402,747 1.87 14 explorit.org 176,517,440 1.73 15 vetsoft 159,414,706 1.57 16 rentcomputers.com 134,430,922 1.32 17 gracevalley.org 129,930,337 1.28 18 yannascimbene.com 123,822,037 1.22 19 mos 116,077,372 1.14 20 multiwareinc.com 115,764,241 1.14 21 lamppostpizza.com 115,129,259 1.13 22 birchlane 113,674,495 1.12 23 jfhess 112,440,224 1.10 24 davisairporter.com 108,113,989 1.06 Subdomains by requests ---------------------- 1 abih.org 105,803 10.36% 2 DCN 94,251 9.23% 3 peanutscollectorclub.com 88,235 8.64% 4 redwoodbarn.com 74,735 7.32% 5 vme 64,867 6.35% 6 coffer.com 37,143 3.64% 7 vetsoft 32,716 3.20% 8 palmsplayhouse.com 31,172 3.05% 9 gvcc 27,988 2.74% 10 warbird.com 27,262 2.67% 11 explorit.org 24,121 2.36% 12 academic-genealogy.com 23,243 2.28% 13 members.dcn.org 20,465 2.00% 14 davisairporter.com 19,932 1.95% 15 birchlane 19,091 1.87% 16 lamppostpizza.com 18,016 1.76% 17 klsabin 17,966 1.76% 18 yolorecorder.org 15,316 1.50% 19 gracevalley.org 12,937 1.27% 20 rentcomputers.com 12,509 1.22% 21 gizmo 12,431 1.22% 22 yannascimbene.com 11,527 1.13% 23 vctinney 11,291 1.11% From msmosaic at dcn.davis.ca.us Sun Sep 19 06:23:00 2004 From: msmosaic at dcn.davis.ca.us (msmosaic at dcn.davis.ca.us) Date: Sun, 19 Sep 2004 06:23 -0700 Subject: [DCN-TechOps] Web Activity Summary Message-ID: <200409191323.i8JDNIio016777@wheel.dcn.davis.ca.us> 1,089,226 requests 10,336,126,068 bytes transferred Subdomains by bytes transferred ------------------------------- 1 peanutscollectorclub.com 1,299,648,227 12.57 2 academic-genealogy.com 1,040,392,113 10.07 3 vctinney 833,686,208 8.07 4 warbird.com 705,177,251 6.82 5 vme 537,696,927 5.20 6 redwoodbarn.com 511,067,811 4.94 7 gizmo 382,817,507 3.70 8 klsabin 373,239,104 3.61 9 gvcc 363,257,796 3.51 10 DCN 362,319,281 3.51 11 members.dcn.org 315,940,221 3.06 12 abih.org 231,544,520 2.24 13 palmsplayhouse.com 197,247,436 1.91 14 explorit.org 186,509,080 1.80 15 multiwareinc.com 171,825,050 1.66 16 gracevalley.org 167,456,108 1.62 17 rentcomputers.com 158,322,812 1.53 18 vetsoft 152,717,094 1.48 19 birchlane 136,503,983 1.32 20 yannascimbene.com 125,636,428 1.22 Subdomains by requests ---------------------- 1 abih.org 125,471 11.52% 2 peanutscollectorclub.com 92,494 8.49% 3 DCN 90,589 8.32% 4 vme 68,187 6.26% 5 redwoodbarn.com 65,218 5.99% 6 warbird.com 49,673 4.56% 7 coffer.com 40,411 3.71% 8 gvcc 33,115 3.04% 9 palmsplayhouse.com 32,725 3.00% 10 vetsoft 32,705 3.00% 11 explorit.org 26,046 2.39% 12 klsabin 25,755 2.36% 13 birchlane 23,592 2.17% 14 academic-genealogy.com 22,181 2.04% 15 members.dcn.org 22,101 2.03% 16 yolorecorder.org 21,131 1.94% 17 davisairporter.com 16,009 1.47% 18 rentcomputers.com 15,637 1.44% 19 lamppostpizza.com 15,094 1.39% 20 gizmo 13,439 1.23% 21 gracevalley.org 13,133 1.21% 22 vctinney 11,827 1.09% From msmosaic at dcn.davis.ca.us Sun Sep 26 06:23:00 2004 From: msmosaic at dcn.davis.ca.us (msmosaic at dcn.davis.ca.us) Date: Sun, 26 Sep 2004 06:23 -0700 Subject: [DCN-TechOps] Web Activity Summary Message-ID: <200409261323.i8QDNYQ5024860@wheel.dcn.davis.ca.us> 1,127,221 requests 10,288,783,800 bytes transferred Subdomains by bytes transferred ------------------------------- 1 peanutscollectorclub.com 1,329,208,902 12.92 2 academic-genealogy.com 980,021,139 9.53 3 vctinney 755,809,001 7.35 4 warbird.com 724,179,201 7.04 5 vme 523,794,318 5.09 6 redwoodbarn.com 492,783,613 4.79 7 DCN 386,711,084 3.76 8 gizmo 361,375,303 3.51 9 members.dcn.org 358,425,143 3.48 10 klsabin 259,634,702 2.52 11 gvcc 252,945,459 2.46 12 gracevalley.org 241,731,569 2.35 13 abih.org 228,717,522 2.22 14 explorit.org 201,043,944 1.95 15 palmsplayhouse.com 183,851,990 1.79 16 yannascimbene.com 167,098,146 1.62 17 vetsoft 162,835,526 1.58 18 birchlane 135,685,415 1.32 19 lamppostpizza.com 133,794,052 1.30 20 rentcomputers.com 123,918,530 1.20 21 multiwareinc.com 117,731,957 1.14 Subdomains by requests ---------------------- 1 abih.org 123,908 10.99% 2 DCN 99,043 8.79% 3 peanutscollectorclub.com 97,758 8.67% 4 vme 78,845 6.99% 5 redwoodbarn.com 68,637 6.09% 6 warbird.com 46,349 4.11% 7 coffer.com 40,636 3.60% 8 vetsoft 32,632 2.89% 9 palmsplayhouse.com 31,741 2.82% 10 gvcc 30,564 2.71% 11 members.dcn.org 28,837 2.56% 12 explorit.org 28,261 2.51% 13 birchlane 23,606 2.09% 14 academic-genealogy.com 22,333 1.98% 15 yolorecorder.org 21,592 1.92% 16 lamppostpizza.com 20,061 1.78% 17 klsabin 19,054 1.69% 18 gracevalley.org 15,645 1.39% 19 gizmo 14,461 1.28% 20 davisairporter.com 12,895 1.14% 21 yannascimbene.com 11,619 1.03% 22 rentcomputers.com 11,518 1.02% From steve at dcn.org Tue Sep 28 08:46:59 2004 From: steve at dcn.org (Steve McMahon) Date: Tue, 28 Sep 2004 08:46:59 -0700 Subject: [DCN-TechOps] Specs for new DCN server Message-ID: <41598773.5060002@dcn.org> Greetings DCN tech ops, Jack Crowell, Robert Nickerson, Tom Stanionis, Richard Lowenberg and myself recently met to discuss specs for a couple of new application servers. Please join us in the discussion, as we try to spec machines. Requirements for the new systems: * Excellent processor and memory performance to capably run Zope, Plone and MySQL. * Ideally running Solaris, to leverage Jack's experience, but Linux or BSD would be acceptable if we can't manage Solaris in our budget. * At least two ether ports. * At least RAID 1 (mirroring) capable. We don't, though, need huge initial storage. * Redundant power supplies would be nice. * Start w/ at least 1GB of RAM, expandable to at least 4GB. Budget: we need to come in under $10,000 for two similarly equipped machines and 1-yr service contracts. Initial comments and links from Jack, Rob and myself are pasted below. Thanks, Steve Robert Nickerson wrote: > Hi > > Server suggestions > > Really like these: > > www.supermicro.com > > hada colo customer a while back that had several of these for a redundant > database style application similar to what you are planning. Also my good > buddy in the NOC at Exodus recommends them > > > Sun NETRA series is the price range we are looking at > http://www.anysystem.com/netra-t1-105-special-1.html John M. Crowell wrote: > FWIW: Here's a recent Sun presentation on their new systems: > > http://see.sun.com/Apps/DCS/mcp?r=70042sYz3dlu01A0003miB3miy42sYz0mbbb0bcE [From Steve:] Take a look at Sun's entry Opteron offering: http://store.sun.com/CMTemplate/CEServlet?process=SunStore&cmdViewProduct_CP&catid=111394 The "Small" configuration -- plus an additional drive -- would get us going with an option to add a second processor later. We could start with 32-bit Solaris and upgrade to 64 when available. Steve -- ______________________________________________________ Steve McMahon Reid-McMahon, LLC steve at reidmcmahon.com steve at dcn.org From steve at dcn.org Tue Sep 28 08:51:44 2004 From: steve at dcn.org (Steve McMahon) Date: Tue, 28 Sep 2004 08:51:44 -0700 Subject: [DCN-TechOps] [Fwd: RE: Meeting to specify new servers and backup] Message-ID: <41598890.6000308@dcn.org> DCN Tech Ops, Here's a contribution from Tom (whom I've just added to the tech-ops mailing list): -------- Original Message -------- Subject: RE: Meeting to specify new servers and backup Date: Tue, 28 Sep 2004 08:42:58 -0700 From: Tom Stanionis To: Robert Nickerson , "John M. Crowell" CC: Tom Stanionis , Richard Lowenberg , References: So i played a bit with the SUN server configurations, here is something that comes close to what we discussed. Remembering that i have a prejudice towards Intel style platoforms: -- ______________________________________________________ Steve McMahon Reid-McMahon, LLC steve at reidmcmahon.com steve at dcn.org -------------- next part -------------- An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: file:///C|/DOCUME%7E1/STEVEM%7E1/LOCALS%7E1/TEMP/nsmail-1.txt URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Sun server configuration.pdf Type: application/octet-stream Size: 72960 bytes Desc: not available URL: From JLee at ci.davis.ca.us Tue Sep 28 08:58:20 2004 From: JLee at ci.davis.ca.us (Jon Lee) Date: Tue, 28 Sep 2004 08:58:20 -0700 Subject: [DCN-TechOps] Specs for new DCN server Message-ID: This is the price I would pay for a dell server. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: dell 2650.pdf Type: application/pdf Size: 95904 bytes Desc: not available URL: From jhframe at dcn.org Tue Sep 28 10:14:58 2004 From: jhframe at dcn.org (Jim Frame) Date: Tue, 28 Sep 2004 10:14:58 -0700 Subject: [DCN-TechOps] Server Specs (Another Forward) Message-ID: <5.2.0.9.2.20040928101425.034a4568@wheel.dcn.davis.ca.us> Date: Tue, 28 Sep 2004 09:19:08 -0700 From: Bill Broadley To: Jon Lee Cc: dcn-technical-committee at velocipede.dcn.davis.ca.us On Tue, Sep 28, 2004 at 08:58:20AM -0700, Jon Lee wrote: > > > This is the price I would pay for a dell server. $3,914.61. This particular machine would have a peak of 4.2 GB/sec (which the real world being around 1/2) of that, and it is shared so each processor would have to negotiate for the memory bus and wait if it was already in use. I often seen dual intels provide LESS performance than a single processor because of memory contention issues, in this particular case you are getting a memory system 2/3rds as fast as a cheap single cpu dell and sharing it among 2 processors. The dual opteron using PC2700 memory would have 2 128 wide memory interfaces at 333 Mhz for a total of 10.6 GB/sec. With PC3200 it's a total of 12.8 GB/sec. The dell is also not protected against buffer overflows (if you care). I've heard that solaris-intel has limited support for hardware is the Dell PERSC3-DI supported by solaris? I've had rather bad experiences personall with the dell perc, and in general I recommend against hardware raid controllers of any type, they typically cost substantially in performance and if you have have a problem you have to find another identical (often same revision of the firmware) raid controller to recover your data. If you are looking for tier-1, IBM, HP, Sun all sell dual opterons. -- Bill Broadley Computational Science and Engineering UC Davis --------------------------------------------------------------------- Jim Frame jhframe at dcn.org (530) 756-8584 756-8201 (FAX) Frame Surveying & Mapping 609 A Street Davis, CA 95616 -----------------------< Davis Community Network >------------------- From jhframe at dcn.org Tue Sep 28 10:14:04 2004 From: jhframe at dcn.org (Jim Frame) Date: Tue, 28 Sep 2004 10:14:04 -0700 Subject: [DCN-TechOps] Server Specs (Foward) Message-ID: <5.2.0.9.2.20040928101245.034b8c78@wheel.dcn.davis.ca.us> Date: Tue, 28 Sep 2004 09:07:44 -0700 From: Bill Broadley To: Steve McMahon Cc: techops Subject: Re: [DCN-TechOps] Specs for new DCN server > Requirements for the new systems: > > * Excellent processor and memory performance to capably run Zope, Plone > and MySQL. Opterons have by far the best memory system, they have a memory system per cpu. They also happen to win mysql benchmarks against intel machines. > * Ideally running Solaris, to leverage Jack's experience, but Linux or > BSD would be acceptable if we can't manage Solaris in our budget. As you might imagine sun supports solaris on sun hardware, the v20z is a quite nice machine. > * At least two ether ports. Dual GigE and Dual ports for management are standard. > * At least RAID 1 (mirroring) capable. We don't, though, need huge > initial storage. I'm running a few now with a raid-1 mirror. They provide 2 hot-swap parts, and on board scsi. > * Redundant power supplies would be nice. This is mostly incompatible with the 1u, I'm sure one of numerous white box vendors can build one for you though. The suns do have lights out management, temperature monitoring, and other cool stuff available via the management port, which supports ssh and snmp for full lights out management. > * Start w/ at least 1GB of RAM, expandable to at least 4GB. The v20z dual 1.8 Ghz machine comes with 2GB ram and can easily handle 16GB. > Budget: we need to come in under $10,000 for two similarly equipped > machines and 1-yr service contracts. Hrm, sun sneaks over this with a 3 year, does DCN get any type of .edu or non-profit discount from sun? Sun seems to be specifically targeting opteron for future solaris, java, and related development, they now sell duals and quads. If you want solaris the opteron is a very strong candidate. If you want linux it's also very strong. Oh, one other thing, AMD has a per page execute bit which adds significant protection against buffer overflows, thus increasing the security of the system against the traditional (and common) buffer overflow attack. -- Bill Broadley Computational Science and Engineering UC Davis --------------------------------------------------------------------- Jim Frame jhframe at dcn.org (530) 756-8584 756-8201 (FAX) Frame Surveying & Mapping 609 A Street Davis, CA 95616 -----------------------< Davis Community Network >------------------- From wizstan at pacbell.net Tue Sep 28 10:35:29 2004 From: wizstan at pacbell.net (Tom Stanionis) Date: Tue, 28 Sep 2004 10:35:29 -0700 Subject: [DCN-TechOps] Server Specs (Foward) In-Reply-To: <5.2.0.9.2.20040928101245.034b8c78@wheel.dcn.davis.ca.us> Message-ID: <41593E71.23319.9807FC@localhost> here is a v20z configuration from sun, though i don't see an option for a redundant power supply.... -------------- next part -------------- The following section of this message contains a file attachment prepared for transmission using the Internet MIME message format. If you are using Pegasus Mail, or any other MIME-compliant system, you should be able to save it or view it from within your mailer. If you cannot, please ask your system administrator for assistance. ---- File information ----------- File: Sun server configuration opteron.pdf Date: 28 Sep 2004, 9:38 Size: 72904 bytes. Type: Unknown -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Sun server configuration opteron.pdf Type: application/octet-stream Size: 72904 bytes Desc: not available URL: From steve at dcn.org Tue Sep 28 12:49:46 2004 From: steve at dcn.org (Steve McMahon) Date: Tue, 28 Sep 2004 12:49:46 -0700 Subject: [DCN-TechOps] Server Specs (Foward) In-Reply-To: <41593E71.23319.9807FC@localhost> References: <41593E71.23319.9807FC@localhost> Message-ID: <4159C05A.50207@dcn.org> Tom Stanionis wrote: > here is a v20z configuration from sun, though i don't see an option for a > redundant power supply.... That's rare in 1U designs. It's a real advantage of something like the v65x that it's a 2U with all that extra room for drives and power. Also, I think that we'll qualify for free Solaris binary licensing so long as the machine has 1 CPU: http://wwws.sun.com/software/solaris/binaries/ -- ______________________________________________________ Steve McMahon Reid-McMahon, LLC steve at reidmcmahon.com steve at dcn.org From steve at dcn.org Tue Sep 28 13:00:44 2004 From: steve at dcn.org (Steve McMahon) Date: Tue, 28 Sep 2004 13:00:44 -0700 Subject: [DCN-TechOps] Server Specs (Another Forward) In-Reply-To: <5.2.0.9.2.20040928101425.034a4568@wheel.dcn.davis.ca.us> References: <5.2.0.9.2.20040928101425.034a4568@wheel.dcn.davis.ca.us> Message-ID: <4159C2EC.1030609@dcn.org> Jon Lee wrote: > ... > I often seen dual intels provide LESS performance than a single processor > because of memory contention issues, in this particular case you are > getting a memory system 2/3rds as fast as a cheap single cpu dell and > sharing it among 2 processors. > ... There are ways around this for our particular cycle/memory hog, Zope. We can (with some effort) install it in a client/server architecture with both clients and server on the same machine, bound to different processors. But, I think we'd be OK for some time with just one processor. So, the issue of efficiently using two could be postponed. -- ______________________________________________________ Steve McMahon Reid-McMahon, LLC steve at reidmcmahon.com steve at dcn.org From bill at cse.ucdavis.edu Tue Sep 28 13:44:07 2004 From: bill at cse.ucdavis.edu (Bill Broadley) Date: Tue, 28 Sep 2004 13:44:07 -0700 Subject: [DCN-TechOps] Server Specs (Another Forward) In-Reply-To: <4159C2EC.1030609@dcn.org> References: <5.2.0.9.2.20040928101425.034a4568@wheel.dcn.davis.ca.us> <4159C2EC.1030609@dcn.org> Message-ID: <20040928204407.GH26783@cse.ucdavis.edu> > >I often seen dual intels provide LESS performance than a single processor > >because of memory contention issues, in this particular case you are > >getting a memory system 2/3rds as fast as a cheap single cpu dell and > >sharing it among 2 processors. > > There are ways around this for our particular cycle/memory hog, Zope. We > can (with some effort) install it in a client/server architecture with > both clients and server on the same machine, bound to different processors. That doesn't help the issue of a slow shared memory system. > But, I think we'd be OK for some time with just one processor. So, the > issue of efficiently using two could be postponed. $10k is plenty for 2 duals: http://cse.ucdavis.edu/bill/UCD092804.pdf I just got a quote from Team HPC (a copy I've been buying compute nodes from): 3U rackmount dual 1.8 GHz opterons 2GB PC3200 ram (twice what you asked for) 200GB disk (sata) DVD+CDRW (for backups) dual gige 3 year warranty For TWO of the above for $5,040, I could ask for a quote on a redundant power supply, or maybe just a 3rd node as a spare? I have 4 of these locally if anyone wants to touch one. -- Bill Broadley Computational Science and Engineering UC Davis