Chapter 2. Hardware Architectures and Linux Kernels

When it comes to large databases the hybrid x86-64 architecture platform is strongly recommended over the 32 bit x86 platform. 64 bit platforms can access more than 4GB of memory without workarounds. With 32 bit platforms there are several issues that require workaround solutions for databases that use lots of memory, for example refer to Chapter 17, Using Very Large Memory (VLM). If you are not sure whether you are on a 32 bit or 64 bit hardware, run dmidecode or cat /proc/cpuinfo. Running uname -a can be misleading since 32 bit Linux kernels can run on x86-64 platforms. But if uname -a displays x86-64, then you are running a 64 bit Linux kernel on a x86_64 platform.