to MTS or not to MTS? 1

[DBAwhosaysNIE]

hi, all,

I'm trying to find some criteria for when to switch from dedicated to MTS. Is there some relatively static threshold or is it more a function of hardware (of which we have plenty)? Can I keep pileing on user processes as long as I have idle CPU and am not swapping? Examples with metrics would be greatly appreciated!

 

[karluk]

Based on my experience I would avoid MTS unless I had absolutely no other choice. We were plagued by intermittent server crashes that turned out to be caused by bugs in MTS. At the time we were running Oracle 8.0.5.

Naturally this advice is potentially obsolete - Oracle fixes bugs with every new release. However I have seen complaints posted by users running MTS with Oracle 8.1.6 and 8.1.7, so probably the product still needs some work. In any case it seems to me that for something with as poor a reputation as MTS, the onus is on Oracle to prove that they've gotten all the bugs out.

 

[DBAwhosaysNIE]

Thanks for the warning and here's a free one for you: ditto on AQ!

I talked to a guy who used to work @ eBay and he claims they did 800 sessions dedicated server on an E1000 so my paltry little 4500s should be able to handle the 300/per I'm currently expecting. I was just getting a little nervous since the sessions/web server has trippled since the hardware was speced and was worried about a "Titanic effect" where if one instance failed then its clients would fail over to another node, potentially overload it and (worst case) domino through the others.
Obviously there are other ways to manage this.

Again, thanks for your advice!

 

[MichaelTHudacko]

Unfortunately, the need for MTS became apparent when TOO many dedicated server processes were spawned by the Webserver... aside from an occassional "shared server" dying... there have been no issues for me...

 

[DBAwhosaysNIE]

what db/hardware/os are you running? we're running 8.1.6.2.1 (w/"special" undocumented AQ patch) on several E4500s (8x400/4G). based on karluk's advice and our own experience w/AQ & OSS) I think I'll take my chances w/dedicated server.

 

[gaus]

Hi, I am installing Oracle 8i on a clean install of nt 4.o workstation. I was told to do the typical insall, but it will not create the database due to an invalid passed to MTS_DISPATCHERS. This is a standalone machine with no networking at all. Can I not install MTS somehow during install?
Thanks,
Gary