root@ucbvax.UUCP (10/10/83)
From GEOFF5@SRI-CSL Mon Oct 10 01:38:50 1983
I have some questions about VMS performance for all you out there,
especially the academic sites.
1. What kind of VAX are you running (750, 780, 782, etc), how
much memory, what disks, etc?
2. What is your load mix? Lots of students doing edits and compiles?
People doing word processing, SPSS or other stats packages,
database, etc...
3. How many users does it take to make response time unacceptable?
What do you consider unacceptable response? For example,
a compile taking more than 5 times longer to complete than
if you had the system to yourself.
4. If you have multiple systems, how do you do load balancing
between them? Administrative users on one, students on another?
Vaxclusters?
We are planning to replace our old, tired Xerox Sigma-7 and DEC KI-10
with a new system(s). One of the systems under consideration is
VMS. We would have students doing the usual edit, compile, find a bug,
edit, compile, etc., administrative users doing word processing, database,
etc., faculty/grad students/others doing statistical stuff in SPSS and
whatever other stats packages are available, AI types doing LISP and
other AI languages, people doing graphics via TELLAGRAF, etc.
The usual academic job mix, I guess.
We would probably have around 80 users who would
want to be logged in at the same time (judging from the load on the
Sigma-7 and KI-10). From what I have heard, a single 780 can't handle
a load like this, and it may take a couple of 782s to do it.
Thanks for any information you can provide. I will summarize to
INFO-VAX any responses I get.