STAFFA at NIEHS.NIH.GOV wrote:
: To my vast sorrow, there is a move from on high at this institution to
: put GCG on a Unix platform. This machine is not yet bought.
: The question is:
: What platform, hardware and operating system, would you recommend for
: GCG?
: I've noticed on INFO-GCG that people with Unix systems are always
: having some kind of trouble. I've always thanked God for VMS and
: deleted these messages without paying them much mind. The questions:
: What unique problems arise when running GCG on Unix?
: What sort of user-unfriendliness would I have to be warning my clients
: about when they are forced to make the transition?
I think your fears are somewhat overblown. I'm the maintainer of the GCG system
here at UNMC, and it occupies <5% of my time keeping it going. Almost all of
the user calls I get saying its broken are pilot error on the user part. It
installs very smoothly, the database updates are simple. We are using a Sun
Sparc10 Mod 41, and seem to have no problems with overloading the system so
far. There are about 150 users registered, and maybe 3-5 on the system at any
one time, often less. My opinion of size of box is: 64+MB RAM and at least 2GB
available for the database (it takes 95% of a 1GB drive right now), and another
1GB for user files and operating system. That should keep it going for a year
to 2 years before it's necessary to buy more hard drive.
My wife uses the software on a VMS system, and aside from operating system
peculiarities between the 2, doen't care whether she's on a Unix box or a VMS
box.
Later this year, or next year when the X-Window version (8) comes out, I
suspect that Unix will be a favored platform, just because X is native to Unix.
But since at least up to now, the source has been as close to identical as
possible on both VMS and UNIX platforms, functionality is identical. Joe King,
the guy who does the porting, is good!
I would say that compatibility with other Unix boxes at your site, to make
things easier for the Sys Admin, is more important that which specific Unix
box. Just pick a box that is an officially supported one: Sun, SGI, DEC, IBM
RS/6000 (I think), and has a competitive price. We're happy with Sun, and will
probably continue getting Suns.
--
Chad Price
University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE (402) 559-7936
cprice at netserv.unmc.educhad at windsurf.unmc.edu
