[Beowulf] High Performance for Large Database

[Joshua Marsh]

Hi all,

I'm currently working on a project that will require fast access to
data stored in a postgreSQL database server.  I've been told that a
Beowulf cluster may help increase performance.  Since I'm not very
familar with Beowulf clusters, I was hoping that you might have some
advice or information on whether a cluster would increase performance
for a PostgreSQL database.  The major tables accessed are around
150-200 million records.  On a stand alone server, it can take several
minutes to perform a simple select query.

It seems like once we start pricing for servers with 16+ processors
and 64+ GB of RAM, the prices sky rocket.  If I can acheive high
performance with a cluster, using 15-20 dual processor machines, that
would be great.

Thanks for any help you may have!

-Josh