Let's revisit RAM disks

[markmaytum]

Used to run FMS on a G4 1g with a L3 array. Moved it to a W2K server - still with 1g of RAM.

I remember trying to serve some of our more heavily bashed databases of off a RAM disk on the G4. First of all, I could only make a 256mb ramdisk on the mac. Second of all, it turned a rock solid server into a er,....less than rock solid server. Third of all, the performance increases were minimal.

Now on the new W2K server, I can see avg disk queues often so the array often isn't keeping up the requests. I was thinking of trying the RAM disk thing again. Anyone have any experience with this on W2K FMS?

Any advice or comments appreciated!

TIA,

Mark Maytum

Pompanoosuc Mills Corporation

[eremaut]

Hi,

Last year on the FM Developer Conference (Palm Springs) there was a lecture (the session was TEC312) on RAM DISK's by Michael A. Scott from CalTrans. Those guys are using it since oct. 1999 on multiple servers across the country.

There speed is 1000 times faster! If i recall they use the Ram-Bunctious as ramdisk software for Mac (we use Windows here, so i'm not sure about the correct spelling).

But running a ramdisk server is more than only the ramdisk software. You also need a good server monitoring tool (they use WhisteBlower for this) and a good remote administration tool (they use Timbuktu).

Try to find the man's e-mail address and your homefree. Perhaps the info on session TEC312 is still available somewhere on the www.advisor.com

Best regards,

Erwin

[DykstrL]

Look at: http://www.fmforums.com/ubb/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=27&t=000154