On Thu, 22 Jun 2006, Joe Little wrote:
> On 6/22/06, Darren J Moffat <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > Rich Teer wrote:
> > > On Thu, 22 Jun 2006, Joe Little wrote:
> > >
> > > Please don't top post.
> > >
> > >> What if your 32bit system is just a NAS -- ZFS and NFS, nothing else?
> > >> I think it would still be ideal to allow tweaking of things at runtime
> > >> to make 32-bit systems more ideal.
> > >
> > > I respectfully disagree. Even on x86, 64-bits are common, and the
> > > price difference between 64-bit and 32-bit capable systems is small.
> > > So apart from keeping old stuff working, I can think of little or no
> > > justifcation to not go with 64-bit systems these days, even for a small
> > > S10 plus ZFS NAS appliance. That way you leave behind all the pain
> > > 32-bits gives you.
> >
> > Are VIA processor chips 64bit capable yet ?
> >
> > --
> > Darren J Moffat
> >
>
> Well, current Xeon-LVs are 32 bit only, but besides the point, I'm in
> education, where our storage boxes are purchased using grant money
> that must be utilized for x number of years. The answer from Rich Teer
> indicates that we should dump old infrastructure and buy new, or if
> you are in our industry (I represent Stanford University Electrical
> Engineering), take your money/infrastructure elsewhere as only new
> customers need apply :( A lot of organizations have a lot of 32 bit
While it may appear that he was being dismissive of your issues, I'm sure
that was not his intention (knowing the personality involved). And your
issue is very real. Juergen Keil <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> (amoung others) has
already (expertly) identified the ZFS issues that occur from kernal memory
starvation on a 32-bit platform. And between ZFS and DTrace - the Virtual
Memory management code is being (overly) "stressed" - to put it mildly.
All you need is a 32-bit only (Open)Solaris driver to ruin your ZFS
parade. Can anyone say Qlogic 2x00 ! :( I can!
> infrastructure with multiple RAID cards, drives, etc that they'd love
> to migrate over to ZFS. I'm using it now for creating large pools of
> 2nd tier storage. And yes, that will mostly be pre-existing hardware.
A possible solution would be to acquire one, fast 64-bit box and set it up
to be a NAS server running ZFS on the back-end. But quite honestly, with
hardware costs continuing to decrease, I'm not sure, that if I were Sun
Management, that I'd be priortizing work on older 32-bit only platforms
and drivers.
ZFS is awesome technology - but, sadly, only those who can pay the
"admission price" will be able to reap the full benefits of it.
Life and times in the Big City.
Regards,
Al Hopper Logical Approach Inc, Plano, TX. [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Voice: 972.379.2133 Fax: 972.379.2134 Timezone: US CDT
OpenSolaris.Org Community Advisory Board (CAB) Member - Apr 2005
OpenSolaris Governing Board (OGB) Member - Feb 2006
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