Re: [gentoo-amd64] 32 or 64 for web server and mysql

[Mark Haney]

P.V.Anthony wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I going to built a 1U server which will have the following.
>
> 1. Apache 2
> 2. Lighttpd
> 3. qmail
> 4. vpopmail
> 5. mysql
> 6. postgres
> 7. ruby
> 8. php
> 9. perl
> 10. tinydns
> 11. pureftpd
> 12. high availblity tools for fail over
>
> The question is which way to go 64bit or 32bit? Which more stable? Which
> is better?
>
> The reason for this questions is that there are some information on the
> net that says that there is no much difference between them.
> Is that true? Thought that 64bit is always better.
>
> Please share some opinions.
>
> P.V.Anthony


Okay, here goes.  64-bit has performance advantages.  Primarily a 64-bit
data path.  Now if the app running doesn't know how to handle that much
data (compiling for 64-bit doesn't always guarantee that it will play
nice) then you won't see much improvement.

Now, here's where my opinion comes in.  I've found Gentoo's 64-bit to be
much better than, say, Fedora's 64-bit because I didn't compile much of
anything for a GUI of any type.  (On my server that is.)  I have no hard
numbers, but I can tell you it's pretty noticeable in performance with
identical apps (web apps like PHP/MySQL, etc) on it.  Specifically for
me it was cacti.

That said, you really won't see a heck of a lot of difference except
under pretty heavy loads.  Normal web traffic is limited more by network
bandwidth than by system resources, so unless you're gonna beat the crap
out of that server day and night, either might be fine.



-- 
Recedite, plebes! Gero rem imperialem!


Mark Haney
Sr. Systems Administrator
ERC Broadband
[phone]

Call (866) ERC-7110 for after hours support
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