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Re: [LUG] OT: Sage Line 50 (was Hard Drives)

 

rich@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
>
> Just to fill you in a bit. We have a Mac Pro running 2 quad core
> processors with 8gb ram on a gigabit ethernet.

I've administered 500 users ERP systems on much much less powerful hardware.

> All the Mac Pro currently
> does is to serve Sage Line 50 files. It is fast - very fast but the boss
> wants to squeeze more speed. e.g. A Sage search can take up to 12
> seconds to process! Ok the real problem is that while waiting for that
> search other folks are getting locked out and Sage is crashing maybe 2/3
> times a day. The real answer is to buy the proper tool. I've been trying
> to get the client to look at mysql and some front end support and build
> your own - erp, crm tool. We could then switch to a full Linux system.
> However, in the meantime we have crashes to deal with.
> 
> So the data:
> Gets written to a lot
> Gets read a lot
> Searches crash the computers
> 
> Any thoughts on whether speeding up a hard drive would make that much
> difference please?

What database engine is Sage using?

I get the impression it is file based. You say sharing files, I assume
this is a Samba share?

So for queries/searches (reading), the file is presumably in the 8GB of
RAM after the first read, so that disk speed would be irrelevant. I
don't know what caching SMB does, but probably some basic stuff, so
possibly the network speed in irrelevant for actions that only read.

Thus I suspect it is the speed of the client machine that is the
limiting factor. Does the same query go noticeably faster if run from a
faster client machine? If so there is your answer.

Sage were planning to migrate to a MySQL backend - have you asked them?

Most file based databases need routine maintenance to address
fragmentation and similar issues. Some systems do this automatically at
start-up, I understand Sage doesn't. Does anyone ever do routine
maintenance to the database files?

File based databases are simply a bad idea for multiuser systems. This
has long been known.

 Simon

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