Question about server load - help
 

I got a dedicated server a few days ago. Last night I got up to pushing 5Mbits from it. Today, when you try to load a page, it takes 3 or 4 seconds to respond, then the page starts loading fast, then is pauses for another 2 or 3 seconds and then the page finishes loading fast again. Is the server too slow to push 5Mbits? it is a duron 1Ghz with 512mb. Shoudl I get a faster one or is there soem type of adjustment I'm missing? It is all static content. it is alot of movies and jpegs.

Speaking of loads I shot one this morning

maybe it only has a 5Mbit network card ?

Your capped at what?
Did you also do a trace to your box?
Login in ssh and do a check on your process running.
If its a heavy load, then the box might not take the heat of 5 Mbits....

Im supposedly not capped at all and I do not know what a trace is.

hmmm. It comes up 80%-90% idle.

Do you know how to use SSH or telnet? If so, go into your box.

Type in uptime - this will tell you load. With 5MBit the three numbers you get should be under 2.

I think I know what your problem is, though, because we had something similar happen, if so it's not you server, it's not your network card (I've never heard of 5 megabit ethernet card, I don't believe they exist), it's most likely script kiddies and a new form of screwing with password-protected sites. ICQ me 92621328 and I will help you figure this out

-doug

seriously, maybe it´s just your internet connection ... mind posting your site´s domain ??

and there are many things you can tweak in the httpd.conf

sounds like your httpd.conf needs a bit of fiddling - look me up at 4646141 if you dont feel at home in vi/pico/httpd.conf :)

re's

Bucho :)

yes ... do the following:

cd into new Apache directory
edit ./src/include/httpd.h
change #define HARD_SERVER_LIMIT 256
to #define HARD_SERVER_LIMIT 1024

run:

make clean
./configure
make
make install

edit your http.conf and do the following changes:

Timeout 30
KeepAlive On
MaxKeepAliveRequests 100
KeepAliveTimeout 15
MinSpareServers 10
MaxSpareServers 20
StartServers 50
MaxClients 1000
MaxRequestsPerChild 0

... then restart the apache webserver :

/usr/local/apache/bin/apachectl stop
/usr/local/apache/bin/apachectl start

note: apachectl can be in another location, you can find it by:

locate apachectl

... hope this helps ?

Bucho is my hero. He telneted in and fixed it. thanks for everybody elses help, I appreciate it.

no problemo (btw, i ssh'ed - dont ever use telnet man :))

did you upgrade to apache2 (I am pretty happy with it) ... or just made the httpd.conf changes ??

just made the changes to httpd.conf - was all it needed - and its fast again now :)
hardlimit was allready at 2048 as standard

I use a bit different settings than you listed, but hey - thats almost a religious discussion :)
So lets not go there...

I run apache2 on one of my servers, havent really stressed it yet, so i dont really know that much about it yet.

don't mean to shit on this.. apache tuning is more an art than science and to some degree, subjective.

First off, increasing the hard server limit beyond the amount of RAM in the server is not a great idea. This WILL cause apache to crash depending on the size of each apache process and the number of concurrent connections he has. I recommend 512.

MaxClients 1000 - Why set this at 1000 when you just recompiled for 1024? This should be set at 512 as well.

Turn KeepAlives off. Each KeepAlive will be a slot that can be could have been used by an active surfer. But with it turned on, your server is sitting waiting for the last user to let apache know its done.

Increase MinServers to 50 and Max to 100. What this does is keep a buffer of 50 to 100 idle apache processes. This prevents users from having to wait for content.

Check performance. See if you need more RAM. Also check dmesg and make sure you are not running out of network buffers. You will see errors when you type "dmesg" in the console.

Not having enough memory assigned to the network buffers will cause issues. The buffers keep a state table of active network connections (exasorbated by keepalives). If the network buffer does not have enough memory, well then, it can't retain the network state of active connections and they drop (fail)

ICQ me at the ICQ below and I will tune it for you.