Planning on running Oracle 10g RAC ...

[Kuba Ober]

> I joined the Linux Desktop mailing list a few days ago, after ordering 2
> Dell E520n.
>
> I posted the following question on that list and got referred here even
> though I'm using an E520n.  I'm hoping someone will have insight.
>
> I'm looking to install CentOS on them and then Oracle 10g RAC.  I'm
> wondering if anyone has some experience with Dell (E520n or similar
> system), CentOS (or any other version of UNIX), and Oracle 10g RAC.  I also
> ordered three Maxtor
> <http://www.maxtorsolutions.com/en/catalog/OTIII_Triple/> OneTouch III -
> 500GB FireWire 800/FireWire 400/USB 2.0 Drives (T01W500), with the Oxford
> 924 chipset for the database.

Myself, I'd shy away from anything firewire/USB for mission critical on-line 
use. I doubt that those interfaces are really proven for much besides backup 
device applications. They are OK for desktop use such as video editing and 
whatnot, but for database storage, where if something gets corrupted a 
rebuild may be nontrivial -- nope.

Are you trying to setup a system to play with, or is this to be a server? I 
wouldn't use an E520n (desktop) for a database server. Neither would I use 
firewire drives, even to play with databases. It may be perfectly stable and 
whatnot, but then it may not quite be so. Since there are so many possible 
interplays between a firewire storage device and rest of the system, it'd be 
safest to rely on well researched approaches such as IDE, SCSI or SCSI RAID. 
At least with those, the harmful interactions have been mostly worked out.

Cheers, Kuba