Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Dedicated Server : 1GBPS Port

[flyah]

Hi,

I have a question. Well my shoutcast radio is getting quite attention. recently our listeners increased up to 1,500 and the stream is kinda' buffering.

We have 4 dedicated servers with 100mbps ports and 2 VPS servers that is hosted to a node which has 1gbps port. We've been balancing the load across the servers but our listeners can still experience lags.

So my question is, if we upgrade the servers to 1gbps port, will it actually help to decrease the buffer issues?

Btw, we stream on 80kbps MP3 24/7. Each servers has either 300 or 600 maximum limits

Thanks

[VINAX]

What is the bandwidth usage of these 4 servers? are they using over 100Mbps? If not, upgrading to 1Gbps won't help.
Sounds like a network issue or poor bandwidth quality.

[stian]

80 * 1500 = 120000 = ~117MB/s. 4x100mbit is just 50MB/s, and a shared VPS might not give you all the joy of a 1gbit port. So I'd think you might be able to decrease it with a bandwidth upgrade.

[Host Ultra]

Originally Posted by stian

80 * 1500 = 120000 = ~117MB/s. 4x100mbit is just 50MB/s, and a shared VPS might not give you all the joy of a 1gbit port. So I'd think you might be able to decrease it with a bandwidth upgrade.

Your mixing up bits and bytes.
80 * 1500 = 120000 = 120mbps.
So 4 x 100mbps is more than enough.

[UNIXy]

What's the server load like?

Regards
Joe / UNIXY

[funkywizard]

If a given server has 600 maximum connections, at 80 kilobits, that's a maximum of 48 megabit / second. Even with some overhead, you're still well under 100 megabit.

Just based on the bandwidth used, I'd either suspect the network quality is poor (oversold or otherwise not working right), or you're exhausting your cpu or otherwise overloading your servers.

If you've got users in the US and in Europe, you might want to have a local relay on each continent and direct users appropriately. Other than that, maybe try getting a server with another provider and see if that performs any better. I seriously doubt upgrading to 1gbit port rather than a 100mbit port will help in any case.

[Zhang]

If a given server has 600 maximum connections, at 80 kilobits, that's a maximum of 48 megabit / second. Even with some overhead, you're still well under 100 megabit.

It is more likely 80kiloBYTES / second - which is A LOT more than 48Mbit.

[funkywizard]

Originally Posted by Zhang

It is more likely 80kiloBYTES / second - which is A LOT more than 48Mbit.

that's incorrect. mp3 streams are measured in kilobits / second. A "cd quality" stream is usually 128 kilobit, or 16 kilobyte. The OP has stated they're doing 80 kilobit. Uncompressed cd audio is 160 kilobyte, so it would be completely out of the question for them to be doing 80 kilo*byte* in mp3 format.

[JackDavies768]

The lag could be form a number of reasons. It could be some of the listeners locations or the locations of the servers. You are best to have say a UK Server for UK Listeners, US for US... etc. The ports should be OK As is. The 1GBPS on the VPS will more then likely not true because on the server it is hosted on will be more than one VPS all sharing the physical port. So its not true 1GBPS.

[fgkfgk]

Originally Posted by funkywizard

that's incorrect. mp3 streams are measured in kilobits / second. A "cd quality" stream is usually 128 kilobit, or 16 kilobyte. The OP has stated they're doing 80 kilobit. Uncompressed cd audio is 160 kilobyte, so it would be completely out of the question for them to be doing 80 kilo*byte* in mp3 format.

In fact, the maximum possible bitrate with mp3 is 320 kbit/s (40 kbyte/s):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MP3#Bit_rate

[Krazy]

80kbps mp3 streams,

you can fit close to 1150 streams in 100mbps pipe, first get out of the VPS , you never know what is happening on the background, based on live or on demand , it requires more disk activity. this looks like station, so not much disk activity needed, also not much cpu, however still get a own machine dual core/ 2gb type, 100mbps dedicated ( unmeter if this is full 1/2 of the time). Get gbit port or another 100mbps server to cater extra load.

[Deroba]

How's the hardware load?

Are these lines dedicated(the 100mbit), maybe that's the problem.

[flyah]

Originally Posted by VINAX

What is the bandwidth usage of these 4 servers? are they using over 100Mbps? If not, upgrading to 1Gbps won't help.
Sounds like a network issue or poor bandwidth quality.

Since we use Windows, The resource manager tells me we hit around 50-65mbps on off-peak times.

Well I'm not really sure if I got the right tool to measure it.

[flyah]

Originally Posted by UNIXy

What's the server load like?

Regards
Joe / UNIXY

We use x3460s and it hits around 80-90% on CPU Utilization according to Windows Task Manager.

Thanks!

[flyah]

Originally Posted by funkywizard

If a given server has 600 maximum connections, at 80 kilobits, that's a maximum of 48 megabit / second. Even with some overhead, you're still well under 100 megabit.

Just based on the bandwidth used, I'd either suspect the network quality is poor (oversold or otherwise not working right), or you're exhausting your cpu or otherwise overloading your servers.

If you've got users in the US and in Europe, you might want to have a local relay on each continent and direct users appropriately. Other than that, maybe try getting a server with another provider and see if that performs any better. I seriously doubt upgrading to 1gbit port rather than a 100mbit port will help in any case.

Yes, the CPU Utilization is kinda' high and we since our listeners most of them are from asia, we got a relay in Malaysia though it doesn't help that much.