N
Niall Connaughton
Guest
Hi,
I'm going to ask a question you've probably seen a lot of, but my problem is
that finding one source of information that is whole and consistent on this
issue has been quite tricky. So I thought I'd ask here to see if I get some
expert knowledge.
It have to decide what version of Windows Server 2003 to install on a
collection of servers, choosing from Standard or Enterprise editions, 32 or
64 bit. Our provider charges us roughly 3-4 times the price of Standard for
installing and maintaining Enterprise edition.
On the servers, we'll be running a service written in C# which uses some
mixed managed/unmanaged C++ code. The machines have at least 8GB of RAM and 8
cores (dual CPU quad core Xeon machines). The service will be run as one
process and will be the only process on the machine doing anything. It
processes a lot of data in real time so we want it to be as performant as
possible.
I'm a developer, not a hardware or operating system expert. Basically what I
want is for the process to be able to use as much of the RAM in the machine
as it needs, without having to write AWE code. My understanding is that the
different editions of 2003 32 bit can provide access to more or less amounts
of RAM, but you still have a 2GB address space limit per process, 3GB if you
change a switch in the boot.ini file to make Windows use less for itself.
Neither of these options let us use all the RAM in the machine.
So I'm looking at x64 versions of 2003. My understanding is that we will
have a 64 bit address space and so each process will be able to allocate a
lot more than 2GB. Both Standard and Enterprise give access to more than the
RAM we have (Standard is 32GB max where I've read it, Enterprise is 1TB).
I've read over comparison charts and the only other thing that concerns me is
that Standard has 4-way SMP capability, Enterprise has 8-way. I've done a lot
of reading and I'm fairly confident that is referring to physical processors,
not cores within the processors.
With this information, it would seem Standard meets our needs. However I'm
reluctant to choose the lesser option until I'm fully confident it is what I
think it is, especially in regards to the SMP capabilities.
Can anyone correct any of my information or give some advice please?
Thanks,
Niall
I'm going to ask a question you've probably seen a lot of, but my problem is
that finding one source of information that is whole and consistent on this
issue has been quite tricky. So I thought I'd ask here to see if I get some
expert knowledge.
It have to decide what version of Windows Server 2003 to install on a
collection of servers, choosing from Standard or Enterprise editions, 32 or
64 bit. Our provider charges us roughly 3-4 times the price of Standard for
installing and maintaining Enterprise edition.
On the servers, we'll be running a service written in C# which uses some
mixed managed/unmanaged C++ code. The machines have at least 8GB of RAM and 8
cores (dual CPU quad core Xeon machines). The service will be run as one
process and will be the only process on the machine doing anything. It
processes a lot of data in real time so we want it to be as performant as
possible.
I'm a developer, not a hardware or operating system expert. Basically what I
want is for the process to be able to use as much of the RAM in the machine
as it needs, without having to write AWE code. My understanding is that the
different editions of 2003 32 bit can provide access to more or less amounts
of RAM, but you still have a 2GB address space limit per process, 3GB if you
change a switch in the boot.ini file to make Windows use less for itself.
Neither of these options let us use all the RAM in the machine.
So I'm looking at x64 versions of 2003. My understanding is that we will
have a 64 bit address space and so each process will be able to allocate a
lot more than 2GB. Both Standard and Enterprise give access to more than the
RAM we have (Standard is 32GB max where I've read it, Enterprise is 1TB).
I've read over comparison charts and the only other thing that concerns me is
that Standard has 4-way SMP capability, Enterprise has 8-way. I've done a lot
of reading and I'm fairly confident that is referring to physical processors,
not cores within the processors.
With this information, it would seem Standard meets our needs. However I'm
reluctant to choose the lesser option until I'm fully confident it is what I
think it is, especially in regards to the SMP capabilities.
Can anyone correct any of my information or give some advice please?
Thanks,
Niall