TimLovell wrote:
> I am setting up a home server based around an N4000 server. The
> hardware is fixed but I have a choice of either the Debian Linux
> port or HPUX. The server itself has 8x 550MHz processors and 4GB
> ram so if multiprocessor is an issue then that may be the deciding
> issue. Certainly the hardware should handle the load.

What is the load of your home server?

> What I am looking for is current comparable performance data. Most
> of the data that I have been able to find on the web is over 2 years
> old, long predating a fully stable complete Linux port, and was
> often PA-RISC/HPUX vs Intel/Linux. What I am after is data on the
> same hardware.

I suspect it will be hard to find if it even exists.

> What I am concerned about are the issues of stability and
> performance, if the server goes down when I am away from home, which
> happens quite frequently, then the family has no server until I
> reboot it.

> I know linux well, although I have not used debian for some years.
> I've used both SCO and Solaris over the years so the idea of another
> variant of unix doesn't particularly bother me. Are there any
> obvious gotchas that I might have missed?

If your hardware is fixed to PA-RISC and the N4000, and "stability"
and "performance" are your primary concerns, then you likely want to
go with HP-UX. While I don't have concrete examples to give you, my
understanding is that parisc linux has to do things like disable
spaceid hashing in the processor data caches, and that can be a
performance degredation. Also, while the parisc linux port may have
declared "stable" I think that is meant as in "stable" from an
engineering rather than production standpoint. They might even say
something to that effect on their website at parisc-linux.org.

Also, I suspect, but again have no hard data to confirm, that the
performance of code generated with gcc for PA-RISC is not as high as
that from the HP compilers. Running parisc-linux means gcc.

I am in _no_ way trying to disparage parisc-linux, and perhaps I've
read too much into your statement about stability and performance
(particularly in light of it being a "home server"). FWIW, I run
parisc-linux on netperf.org - but then I wouldn't even begin to
describe netperf.org as a mission critical sort of application.

Now, when you are ready to upgrade your home server to Itanium...

rick jones
once MPE/XL, once HP-UX, now Linux, always HP
used to sit across from one of the parisc-linux people
--
oxymoron n, Hummer H2 with California Save Our Coasts and Oceans plates
these opinions are mine, all mine; HP might not want them anyway...
feel free to post, OR email to rick.jones2 in hp.com but NOT BOTH...