IBM Director Server on Windows or Linux

[grshpr]

We are going to be installing a Director server to support more than 2500 POS devices. We are debating Windows 2003 culster vs Linux cluster. Backend DB will be Oracle, Cost for the OS is not really a consideration as either way we have to pay for support on the OS and the costs are fairly equal.

Considering that the devices with the agents are windows based, what are your recommendations. Any performance issues or gains with gowing with one over the other? HW for the servers will most likely be 2x2.4 AMD with 2GB RAM.

Please provide me any thoughts and real-world experiences you have. I'm new to director as we have not had much in the way of IBM servers, mostly Dell and HP, but with the IBM POS units we need to bring up Director.

Thanks!

 

[Kozusnik]

I come from healthcare, so uptime is critical. You'll get the Win vs. Lin from everyone here.

Here's my $.02...

If you decided on Win, increase redundancy more so than Lin. One little bug can require several reboots. "kill -9" in Linux works better than Win's "task manager" for stoping runaway processes. IMHO

As for Lin, hire someone who knows the OS very well. Not just a weekend hacker. Or, take the hacker and get them real training. I manage everything from OS/400, AIX, VMS, Linux, and some Win. All of my Linux machines run 24x7, and have never been rebooted (3-4 years). They run the hospital's wesite (IT helpdesk and several other apps) and the HL7 interface engines (100,000 transactions monthly).

Obviously Lin is my choice, but you need to be sure that you have some expertise in-house with whatever OS you choose. If you have no Linux admins and no plans to hire...you may be better off with Win.

Mark