[Sunhelp] Sizing a DNS server

[Doug McLaren]

On Sun, Sep 24, 2000 at 12:42:36PM -0500, Reagen Ward wrote:

| I'd wager your Quadra has better CPU than the IPX, but that's just me.

It's probably pretty close.  The IPX has a 40mhz Sparc chip, and the
Quadra has a 33mhz 68040?  If I'm right, I'd put my money on the IPX
being a good deal faster.

| However, the IPX might could handle more I/O than the quadra, as many
| 040 macs just weren't built for I/O.  Running BSD on the quadra would
| certainly help its stability.

Probably.

| I had a lot of problems with MacDNS and keep it up, and it was barely getting
| touched on a 7600.  I'd blame the application more than the hardware / OS.

Well, the the OS might be somewhat to blame too.  But you're right -
the hardware should be adequate.

| If
| you can afford to replace it temporarily, I'd suggest experimenting with
| NetBSD on that quadra.

That would work.  My guess is that an IPX would probably outperform
it, however.
...

| > At work we run the authoratative DNS server for our domain. The domain gets
| > about 200-300 email a day (in and out), 7,000 HTTP page requests a day and
| > we have about 50 users (about 10 that are active on the Internet).

And IPX should have no problem whatsoever handling this DNS load.

In fact, it probably could also handle all this email and webserver
load by itself as well :)

| > Currently we are running MacDNS on a Quadra 610, which I just can't seem to
| > get to stay running. I don't think the Quadra has been swamped, it is just
| > that the MacDNS software isn't very reliable. I've been thinking about
| > getting a small Sun box and running BIND 8. Do you folks think an IPX be
| > enough in this situation?

More than enough.

-- 
Doug McLaren, dougmc at frenzy.com
Yes, I am an agent of Satan, but my duties are largely ceremonial.