Setting acceptance criteria when buying a new machine

[Glen Eustace]

Our University Registry is about to request proposals for a new Unix
machine.  It will be used primarilly to host large Ingress Databases.
The current problem is how to set up and then ensure that certain
minimum performance criteria are met.  The MIS Director does not want
to buy a machine which looks good on paper and then find that once
the operational environment is complete it does not perform as
expected.  I suppose this almost amounts to being able to do some
form of application benchmark rather than a raw performance benchmark.

As this is a first time down this particular road, we would be
interested in hearing any advice or experiences others may have had.

Reply's may also be EMailed to G.W.Bahlman at massey.ac.nz.


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Glen Eustace, Software Manager, Computer Centre, Massey University,
Palmerston North, New Zealand.        EMail: G.Eustace at massey.ac.nz
Phone: +64 63 69099 x7440, Fax: +64 63 505 607,    Timezone: GMT-12