From: Joe Atzberger <ohiocore@gmail.com> Date: Oct 23, 2007 4:18 AM Subject: Re: [Koha] Which OS? To: "Joshua M. Ferraro" <jmf@liblime.com> If you are building a mission critical server, I don't think the mac mini would be a prime choice, regardless of whether koha "runs fast" on it. The mini is a cool desktop, workstation or auxiliary server, but it isn't designed to fill a mission critical role. I'm using Apple's spec page as reference: http://www.apple.com/macmini/specs.html Just as all living things must die, even the best servers will eventually have parts fail. So one big question is "What happens when a failure occurs?" Good server design offers several features that prevent you from being utterly screwed just because one fan or drive failed. These features are notable in the mini's case, by their absence. Mini's Major Downsides: ~ not site-serviceable: (1) You do not have guaranteed access to parts; (2) Unlike, say, the G4 chassis, Mini is not really designed for serviceability; ~ drive performance: 2.5-inch 5400 (not even 7200) rpm HDD! ~ drive reliability: no hardware RAID. ~ no redundant power supplies. ~ Looks small, but takes 2U in a rack. A second question is "How likely is a serious failure?" The miniaturized environment means more heat, increasing the wear on and failure rate of moving parts, in particular hard drives and power supplies. So failure is more likely, and sooner. Without redundancy or self-serviceability, when failure does occur, you don't have a fallback. Apple may decide that the only thing to do is have you ship it back to them to service it. And that does not involve getting koha and your data back together. Even if Apple will send a tech, what is the turnaround time on your AppleCare service calls now? What kind of turnaround are they obligated to provide? Unspecified. Basic AppleCare doesn't really have SLA-style assurances that govern the details of their service to you. Compare this to the industry standard "4 Hour Response, Next Day Parts" provisions of AppleCare "Premium" for Xserve. So it is clear by their support provisions what hardware Apple regards as server-grade. During a Mac Mini's unspecified service period downtime, your library would have to operate ad hoc (note: offline circulation *is* being developed for koha, but is not bankable yet), while you endure considerable pressure... yet may not be able to affect the outcome. This is what I mean as being "utterly screwed." I agree with Josh's preference for Debian. At worst, it won't cost you anything to try it. --joe On 10/18/07, Joshua M. Ferraro <jmf@liblime.com> wrote:

----- "ils shopping" <ils.shopping@gmail.com> wrote:

...

I see directions for running Koha on Debian, Ubuntu, MacOSX, and Windows. Which is best? I'm really a mac head and love the form factor of the Mac Mini. Would a 2ghz dual core mini with 2GB of ram be sufficient to handle 50k of patrons, 120k of materials, and 500K of circ for 1 facility? Thats our current load. Well, it'll work on all of the above, running any operating system. I've always found it's easiest on Debian, but that's just my bias :-)

The specs you quote will be fine if you're planning to roll out on the 3.0 codebase, but I wouldn't want to run 2.2 on those specs. Without Zebra your searching will be pretty slow on 2.2 ... searching is definitely the bottleneck to consider. But 3.0 will literally fly something like a Mac Mini :-)

Cheers,

-- Joshua Ferraro SUPPORT FOR OPEN-SOURCE SOFTWARE President, Technology migration, training, maintenance, support LibLime Featuring Koha Open-Source ILS jmf@liblime.com |Full Demos at http://liblime.com/koha |1(888)KohaILS