On the web requests forum Raven wrote:

"I've got a RaQ4i maxed out with 512MB of RAM struggling to run one site with WWWThreads (2200 board users) and Digichat."

This is a nightmare I'd hate to encounter. So hosts which setup (processor, memory, OS, etc) is best suited for message boards and chats? From cheap to top-of-the-line. I'm curious what's too little and what's an overkill.

Advice/ideas/suggestions?

The problems with RAQ:
1. It's only AMD K6
2. Only 512MB maximum memory
3. It's running IDE drives (I would guess it's 5400rpm)

This kind of server might be good to server static html pages (with images, etc) and will do well I think. But for dynamically generaged pages with heavy usage on mysql, php, or other scripts (perl, etc), the system becomes a huge bottleneck.

One thing you can do, get two raqs (at rackshack this can be done cheaply) and use one as a web/mail server and the other one to server mysql servers. Or if you can't afford a dedicated server, find a semi-dedicated account on a very powerful servers (dual CPU, tons of memory, SCSI, etc). That way you can afford a cheaper hosting solution but at a better performance ...

cheers,
:beer:

I'm a newbie in this area and I'll ask some dumb questions about this stuff, yet I want to learn..............

Would a RAID setup address the I/O bottleneck (along with increased processor and memory)?

How CPU intensive is mySql/PHP/CGI? I read a lot about they can be a performance hog, but by how much (anyone have examples)?

Also how many mySql databases does a message board need? Is more better? And how much more starts killing performance?

I'd eventually would want a message board for fellow artists and web designers but I have no clue how much power is needed for a busy site (and designer sites can be *very* graphic intensive and with many visitors who want to preview work).

Advice?

Originally posted by ChrisLM2001a
I'm a newbie in this area and I'll ask some dumb questions about this stuff, yet I want to learn..............


as the saying goes ... there are no dumb questions, just dumb answers (hopefully mine are not :) ).


Would a RAID setup address the I/O bottleneck (along with increased processor and memory)?


If you set it as raid 0 (Stripping) then it might help. The way raid 0 works is that it will write data on two hard drives in such a way that a part of the data will be written on drive1 and the other part will be written on drive2, _at the same time_ ... Hence, the second part of the data does not need to wait the first part to be done written on the drive before it will get its turn to. Same with reading data off the drive ...

For busy webservers, I am thinking also (instead of doing RAID 0) to use two drives and dedicate one drive for mysqld and the other drive for httpd ... This way, the I/O bottleneck can be reduced also ...


How CPU intensive is mySql/PHP/CGI? I read a lot about they can be a performance hog, but by how much (anyone have examples)?


Not sure how to show how busy mysql/php would be ... Consider this, with my P3/850Mhz and 2GB of memory and (one) 7200rpm IDE, my server load could jump as high as 20-70 for 15 miniutes average for hours (Typically, around 1-4). This server is being used to host two popular VB forums with total concurrent user online can be more than 500+ at one time and serving about 100000 pave views a day ...

Also how many mySql databases does a message board need? Is more better? And how much more starts killing performance?


One mysql db is enough .... And the number of databses is not the issue here. What really matters when your board attract more visitors is how many open connection to your mysqld is being served ... The more, the higher the mysql activities(read/write/querry, etc). One single mysql database with too many open connection can in fact slow down the whole server.

I'd eventually would want a message board for fellow artists and web designers but I have no clue how much power is needed for a busy site (and designer sites can be *very* graphic intensive and with many visitors who want to preview work).


Start small ... When your total number of concurent visitor online is still a few, a shared hosting (even on a raq) will be sufficient ... But once the concurrent visitors online goes to more than 300+ then you will start to see some changes on the server load (with my server specs above). If it goes to 400+, the server load will become higher, unproportionally (compared to 300 users). That's why I think I/O bottleneck is the cause of this problem ... SCSI drives with Dual CPU will be a solution, at least I hope ...

good luck,

cheers,
:beer:

Originally posted by ChrisLM2001a
On the web requests forum Raven wrote:

"I've got a RaQ4i maxed out with 512MB of RAM struggling to run one site with WWWThreads (2200 board users) and Digichat."

This is a nightmare I'd hate to encounter. So hosts which setup (processor, memory, OS, etc) is best suited for message boards and chats? From cheap to top-of-the-line. I'm curious what's too little and what's an overkill.

Advice/ideas/suggestions?

First, digichat, unless it is wildly popular, probably wouldn't be doing much of the damage. I switched from a php chat that gave the server 7.50+ with 23 users chatting to digichat which dropped the level to 0.00 (not that I'd personally recommend digichat).

I'm not sure but some forum scripts simply are hogs, and while RaQs certainly aren't the ideal machine for such beasts, this particular one might be a killer, and if they switched to vBulletin, all might be fine.

If you need to run resource hogging scripts, you *need* a server capable of delivering, and RaQs are not the machine anyone on this forum would suggest for such a site. It is great for several smaller sites, better than a reseller account, great if your site is too big for a shared solution but doesn't need a $350/mo server yet, etc.

Dek and Chicken thanks for your imput. I'll come back tomorrow with some more questions. Currently I'm really zoned out on codeine to effectively ask more - but I have more to ask.

Again thanks for teaching me about server ops!