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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Nov 2003
    Posts
    63

    VPS proof of performance testing?

    Is there a decent proof of performance test that tests available CPU cycles/second on a Linux box?

    I'm using a VPS that was wonderful when first set up, but now seems wildly overloaded. cPanel's Service Status consistently shows Server Load between 2 and 12, and there's almost no traffic or activity on my system. Response is really slow. I'm about ready to dump the VPS for a dedicated, but I like some of the VPS features.

    Displaying 'top' shows spamd frequently using 99% of the cpu. I have only a few accounts with normal email volumes set up, and using SpamAssassin to get rid of spam. I suspended the accounts with the highest mail volumes, but the Load stayed high. Their system admins have looked at things and proclaimed nothing wrong or abnormal.

    Since my traffic volumes haven't changed from the days when Server Load never went above 0.3, and there's no runaway scripts causing problems, I assume the box running my VPS is just overloaded, and can't even process email efficiently. I'm supposed to have about 1/30th the power of a real dedicated server available to me, I suspect it's currently much less than that. I'm looking for ways to test whether the problem is related to simple overloading/overselling.

    Jack.

  2. #2
    because it is the overall server
    which is shared by many clients

    does it show the red circle?

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Nov 2003
    Posts
    63
    Yes, Server Load is always red.

    I assume the very low Server Loads when I first signed on were because the server was lightly loaded. I think the server is now oversold, so there aren't enough resources left for me.

    Jack.

  4. #4
    well they should upgrade the server
    or move couple of clients to another server

  5. #5
    With what company is your VPS? I'm interested to get VPS but I need all the input I can get before I decide to get one. If the company you're with is overloading ther servers then it might be a warning to someone like me to stay away from them until they resolve to stop overloading their servers ...

  6. #6
    or it may be just one client using some kind of cgi / perl script overloarding the pc

  7. #7
    Join Date
    May 2004
    Posts
    398
    His proplem has nothing to do with the host server, as he says that spamd is taking all cpu, this means the problem is with his vps.

    There is no way to measure granteed CPU there, how they grantee it, is that, if the host CPU is 1Ghz=1000Mhz, and have 10VPS running in the same priority, then each VPS is granteed with 100Mhz at least, burstable to 1Ghz.

    Then you better check your configurations, since I had the same problem with some dedicated servers, and not VPS.

    Its probably misconfiguration in spamd configuration.

    You better check them, once your are using cpanel, I guess there are scripts to update spamd, and get it installed with new conf.

    Will look for this and post it for you.


    Note: please post us a snapshot of your top display.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Jun 2003
    Location
    UK
    Posts
    6,616
    Most VPS software shows the load on your section. We've had cases where the VPS of a customer load is up to 200+ due to a run away script but the host load was about 1.5. I would raise a support ticket with your host and ask them to check it out

    Rus
    Russ Foster - Industry Curmudgeon
    Freelance Sysadmin for Hire - email vaserv@gmail.com

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Mar 2001
    Location
    Indianapolis, IN
    Posts
    175
    Originally posted by kengrome
    I'm interested to get VPS
    I use DINIX.COM and would easily recommend their service to others. Always up, fast support and even better prices.
    David Smith

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Nov 2003
    Posts
    63
    Originally posted by almahdi
    His proplem has nothing to do with the host server, as he says that spamd is taking all cpu, this means the problem is with his vps.

    There is no way to measure granteed CPU there, how they grantee it, is that, if the host CPU is 1Ghz=1000Mhz, and have 10VPS running in the same priority, then each VPS is granteed with 100Mhz at least, burstable to 1Ghz.

    OK, but if there are 50 users on the VPS all contending for that 100% CPU power, then spamd requires 50 times as long to complete its task as when I was the only user. Probably longer, because of the frequent task swapping overhead. So, instead of a fractional second blip, spamd now requires several seconds to do the same job. I'm guessing that would cause the high Load indications.

    Then you better check your configurations, since I had the same problem with some dedicated servers, and not VPS.

    Its probably misconfiguration in spamd configuration.

    That's quite possible. SpamAssassin was installed by cPanel, and I've made no configuration changes between when things were wonderful and now, so my first suspicion is that something external to my VDS is sucking up "my" resources.

    You better check them, once your are using cpanel, I guess there are scripts to update spamd, and get it installed with new conf.

    Will look for this and post it for you.
    Thanks, I'd like this info.

    Note: please post us a snapshot of your top display.
    See below
    Hi Almahdi,

    I'm not including a top snapshot because the host is working on my VDS right now.

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Nov 2003
    Posts
    63
    If there is a performance benchmark for Linux hosts, I'd appreciate hearing about it. I could shut down exim & spamd to make things more fair.

    What I really wanted was a simple CPU-intensive task to indicate performance on a Linux host. Perhaps something in PHP that counts how many repititions of a do-nothing script can be performed in a millisecond. If this test was initiated every few seconds, and the results logged, I think it would be a useful way to compare & verify available CPU resources. If benchmarks were done on representative server hosts, I could say "My VDS runs at about 1/10 the speed of a Celeron host, except when the host is really busy, the speed drops to about 1/whatever".

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Nov 2003
    Posts
    63
    Here's a 'top' snapshot, after the host rebooted & updated cPanel. The old Server Load and response times are back! But, exim and spamd still indicate 99.9% of the VDS during the brief times they run. Is that "normal", for a UML box?


    11:36:58 up 1:03, 1 user, load average: 0.00, 0.03, 0.04
    71 processes: 69 sleeping, 2 running, 0 zombie, 0 stopped
    CPU states: 3.0% user 3.0% system 0.0% nice 0.0% iowait 94.0% idle
    Mem: 252316k av, 237492k used, 14824k free, 0k shrd, 27380k buff
    90064k active, 121416k inactive
    Swap: 262136k av, 7168k used, 254968k free 100332k cached

    PID USER PRI NI SIZE RSS SHARE STAT %CPU %MEM TIME CPU COMMAND
    960 mailnull 0 0 1796 1596 1484 S 99.9 0.6 0:00 0 exim
    987 root 7 0 18364 13M 2036 S 99.9 5.4 0:00 0 spamd
    5065 root 9 0 1020 1020 788 R 0.3 0.4 0:05 0 top
    533 root 8 0 4284 4088 3936 S 0.1 1.6 0:01 0 httpd
    1 root 0 0 484 484 432 S 0.0 0.1 0:02 0 init
    2 root 9 0 0 0 0 SW 0.0 0.0 0:00 0 keventd
    3 root 19 19 0 0 0 SWN 0.0 0.0 0:00 0 ksoftirqd_CPU
    4 root 9 0 0 0 0 SW 0.0 0.0 0:00 0 kswapd
    5 root 9 0 0 0 0 SW 0.0 0.0 0:00 0 bdflush
    6 root 9 0 0 0 0 SW 0.0 0.0 0:00 0 kupdated
    7 root 9 0 0 0 0 SW 0.0 0.0 0:00 0 jfsIO
    8 root 9 0 0 0 0 SW 0.0 0.0 0:00 0 jfsCommit
    9 root 9 0 0 0 0 SW 0.0 0.0 0:00 0 jfsSync
    10 root 18446744073709551615 -20 0 0 0 SW< 0.0 0.0 0:00
    11 root 9 0 0 0 0 SW 0.0 0.0 0:01 0 kjournald
    374 nobody 9 0 **** 1064 920 S 0.0 0.4 0:00 0 proftpd

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Jun 2003
    Location
    UK
    Posts
    6,616
    The last exim update on C-Panel is not the best in the world and we've seen its been a bit spikey. Its not bad but its more C-Panel than a VPS, as we've seen it on our dedicateds as well

    Rus
    Russ Foster - Industry Curmudgeon
    Freelance Sysadmin for Hire - email vaserv@gmail.com

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