GoFuckYourself.com - Adult Webmaster Forum - View Single Post - multiple servers to lessen load, what about members directory?

raymor · 04-27-2011, 12:46 PM

I should have also mentioned the FIRST thing you should do when considering any action
to reduce load. First, to avoid wasting time and money doing something stupid, UNDERSTAND
what your load is and where you bottlenecks are. It's not uncommon at all for people to double
the number of servers without reducing improving anything. They do that when they move all
of the disk load to one machine and all of the CPU load to another, instead of dividing the
disk load between different disks. The best way to create that kind of waste is to put videos,
which load the drives, on to one server and move the PHP and SQL, which load the CPU,
on another server. You just end up with two slow servers, one slow from overloaded drives
and one slow from overloaded CPU. Much better would have been to put tour videos
on one server and members videos on another, so that the disk load is split between the
servers. To make this kinds of decisions intelligently, you want a truly qualified sysadmin
to run some specific analysis on your system.

A proper analysis will result in a bunch of numbers, such as disk IOs per second and
MBs per second, each listed for read and write. (So four at least major numbers to describe
disk load, and hopefully a few more, like queue depth). If you get any recommendation not
backed by numbers, the person making the recommendation is either guessing, or suggesting
that you buy whatever they want to sell.

Very often, all that's needed is a couple of configuration adjustments, like using "noatime".
Taking about 5 minutes to set, noatime can often DOUBLE the capacity of a web server.
It's that kind of understanding and taking care that makes such a huge difference. You could
buy a whole new server and not reduce load much, and you can change one simple setting
to cut load in half. It's all about making a proper analysis of your systems to make the right
changes for your needs.

04-27-2011, 12:46 PM
raymor Confirmed User Join Date: Oct 2002 Posts: 3,745	I should have also mentioned the FIRST thing you should do when considering any action to reduce load. First, to avoid wasting time and money doing something stupid, UNDERSTAND what your load is and where you bottlenecks are. It's not uncommon at all for people to double the number of servers without reducing improving anything. They do that when they move all of the disk load to one machine and all of the CPU load to another, instead of dividing the disk load between different disks. The best way to create that kind of waste is to put videos, which load the drives, on to one server and move the PHP and SQL, which load the CPU, on another server. You just end up with two slow servers, one slow from overloaded drives and one slow from overloaded CPU. Much better would have been to put tour videos on one server and members videos on another, so that the disk load is split between the servers. To make this kinds of decisions intelligently, you want a truly qualified sysadmin to run some specific analysis on your system. A proper analysis will result in a bunch of numbers, such as disk IOs per second and MBs per second, each listed for read and write. (So four at least major numbers to describe disk load, and hopefully a few more, like queue depth). If you get any recommendation not backed by numbers, the person making the recommendation is either guessing, or suggesting that you buy whatever they want to sell. Very often, all that's needed is a couple of configuration adjustments, like using "noatime". Taking about 5 minutes to set, noatime can often DOUBLE the capacity of a web server. It's that kind of understanding and taking care that makes such a huge difference. You could buy a whole new server and not reduce load much, and you can change one simple setting to cut load in half. It's all about making a proper analysis of your systems to make the right changes for your needs. __________________ For historical display only. This information is not current: support@bettercgi.com ICQ 7208627 Strongbox - The next generation in site security Throttlebox - The next generation in bandwidth control Clonebox - Backup and disaster recovery on steroids