Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Web Hosting : Web Hosting Tutorials : What is my server load ? Load Balancing ?

[generouswebhostin]

Server Load - you hear the term used often and maybe your not quite sure what it is and what effect it has.....

Server load refers to the amount of processes that are running on the server at a given time. The higher the rate the slower the server will be able to handle incoming requests. In general server load will depend upon several factors. RAM, and CPU speed. A server load for a Xeon processor would be different from a load on a Pentium 3 server.

Many times users/clients assume that when the server load goes into red in CPanel that their website is not loading correctly or is down. This is not the case. The server load will often spike up into the high range (generally in the double digits) but return to normal range within a few minutes.

The CPANEL setting does not take into account the RAM or CPU Speed, the number is fixed at 4.00.

In general a server load in the double digits would be considered high if it was like that for a prolonged period of time.

For a dual xeon processor with 2GB ram a load of 2.00 would be the norm.

Unfortunately, to many people use the load as a determination of quality of service. This isn't the most accurate measure and is often hard to determine the effect it will have on your website.


Also.... have you ever wondered what is load balancing ?

When a website becomes highly popular a single server can become overloaded and overworked quickly. This is why many providers use clustering, creating server farms. For increased scalability more servers are added to distrubute and split the load among many servers. This is refered to as a "server cluster". The load that distributed among these servers is called "load balancing". This technique has grown in popularity even for web-hosts who are able to increase uptime by elminating periods of downtime from a server that was overloaded/rebooted.

[Total Choice]

I have a amd 2.4 with 512 ram running cpanel on centOS with 300 accounts or so. I usually have a load of 1.30...is this normal?

What do you think a 2x2.8 xeon with 1gb ram could handel? As in amount of accounts?

[PHPGeek2k3]

Originally Posted by Total Choice

I have a amd 2.4 with 512 ram running cpanel on centOS with 300 accounts or so. I usually have a load of 1.30...is this normal?

What do you think a 2x2.8 xeon with 1gb ram could handel? As in amount of accounts?

a dual xeon might handle the sites better depending on what the sites are doing exactly and what resources they require. and how optimized you have the box. the amd 2.4 could possibly handle the load with the right optimization techniques and enough memory but again it all depends on what you are running on your sites. And how you have apache / mysql and other software configured and optimized.

Thanks
- James

[skysenshi]

Since you guys are discussing server load here...
I emailed my host as to why my site was suspended when I don't have any remaining balances, this was their reply:

Your site was suspended yesterday for excessive resource usage, and
> we are not talking about bandwidth or space, your site alone was
> using more RAM and CPU than all the rest of the sites on the server
> together.

What does this mean? If it's not space or bandwidth, and I'm not running any scripts (except...prolly for blogger, 3 blogs where my students post their reports), what's causing my site to hog all the RAM and CPU resources?

[Corptex]

It's possible, but you haven't supplied enough info.

I have one client that uses the majority of a dual-Xeon 2.4, 2GB RAM, and he doesn't even have a MySQL running.

You'd need to provide a lot more info for someone to assess what and where your consumption might be.

What I don't like is that they suspended your account without discussing anything with you in advance. It is doubtful that your site simply sky-rocketed (though possible), and any host that just decides to *spontaneously* suspend your account is not a very good host in my book. Your host is supposed to be doing an important job for you, and so many think they're doing you a favor.

They should have discussed the problem with you long before suspending your account, so measures could be taken that your site would remain up and running. How did this *suddenly* catch them by surprise that an 'emergency' suspension was necessary? Your webhost is supposed to HOST your site, not suspend it, unless as a last resort. That's your webhost's job; that's why you pay them. Not to just suspend your account. Anybody can do that. That should be considered unacceptable to anyone. Obviously, you weren't intending to take up so much resources. Don't you feel it's unacceptable for them to suspend your account without even contacting you afterwards, no less. Nothing. They did nothing.

You should provide their name so other people can stay away from them. I don't particularly like this kind of host being my competitor; I don't think they deserve a single customer from the way they've treated you. Personally, I dont think these people belong in a service business.

Well, that's gone off the topic a bit ...

[cgiGeek]

short answer: 1.3 loading times are not bad,
I myself like opterons for duals more.
What I look for is the swap usage, is a better heads up then loading times at least for me.

[tormeu]

Originally Posted by Corptex

It's possible, but you haven't supplied enough info.

I have one client that uses the majority of a dual-Xeon 2.4, 2GB RAM, and he doesn't even have a MySQL running.

You'd need to provide a lot more info for someone to assess what and where your consumption might be.

What I don't like is that they suspended your account without discussing anything with you in advance. It is doubtful that your site simply sky-rocketed (though possible), and any host that just decides to *spontaneously* suspend your account is not a very good host in my book. Your host is supposed to be doing an important job for you, and so many think they're doing you a favor.

They should have discussed the problem with you long before suspending your account, so measures could be taken that your site would remain up and running. How did this *suddenly* catch them by surprise that an 'emergency' suspension was necessary? Your webhost is supposed to HOST your site, not suspend it, unless as a last resort. That's your webhost's job; that's why you pay them. Not to just suspend your account. Anybody can do that. That should be considered unacceptable to anyone. Obviously, you weren't intending to take up so much resources. Don't you feel it's unacceptable for them to suspend your account without even contacting you afterwards, no less. Nothing. They did nothing.

You should provide their name so other people can stay away from them. I don't particularly like this kind of host being my competitor; I don't think they deserve a single customer from the way they've treated you. Personally, I dont think these people belong in a service business.

Well, that's gone off the topic a bit ...

My account is suspended (lunarpages) 24 hours later still disabled...no question...just check your scripts...what kinda company is this...
I'm trying to move to a VPS....

[Corptex]

Hi tormeu

I don't do VPS, but there's some smaller-medium sized hosting companies on the forums here that do, and I would suggest going with a smaller host than a giant like LunarPages so you get someone who cares about your hosting.

Check out various posts here about VPS, and see if there's any hosts in the forums that strike your fancy and give those guys a contact.

I've dealt with some of the other hosts on this site and have had very good experiences.

Good Luck

[hfguide]

Originally Posted by tormeu

My account is suspended (lunarpages) 24 hours later still disabled...no question...just check your scripts...what kinda company is this...
I'm trying to move to a VPS....

Sigh... LP strikes again!

I'm kinda shocked they suspended you. They usually don't do that-- they just move you temporarily and give you a choice of fixing whatever problem may be causing the resource usage or leaving.

[aLeX_1]

I agree with all of you, I have come across that and i think i know the reason they do it.. they think like "Nah I don't care since i make more $$ from the others i will suspend him and keep my biz up". It's not a totally wrong thought though as all of you guys told, they should contact the acc owner to fix this problem.

[mubashirnisar]

really handy tutorial and informatic

[psyCHZZZ]

This thing might come in handy as well... You can use DomainTools.com's Reverse IP to check on your current/future web hosting server and see the number of other websites it's hosting.

This way, you can gauge the number of clients on the server and a good idea of the server load. It's more of a simple check before you engage a particular web hosting company. Just to see how much they oversell (if they oversell)....

Cheers~!


Note: Lots of accounts doesn't naturally mean high server load but it might mean that the resources allocated (space, RAM etc) are virtual and is not fixed.

[funkytaco]

Probably the best *technical* explanation one can give for explaing load:

"In short (load) is the average sum of the number of processes waiting in the run-queue plus the number currently executing over 1, 5, and 15 minute time periods."

I would add this if you run a Dual or multi-CPU server, cut the load by the number of CPU's. So a load of 2 on a Dual Xeon setup is comparable to a single Xeon with a load of 1.

There are also methods of allocating processes to specific CPU's, which I will not go into. I'm not sure how this helps with load, though, as I have not tried anything like this.

[l33thosting]

Load shouldent really be over 1.00 at any time

[cywkevin]

Originally Posted by l33thosting

Load shouldent really be over 1.00 at any time

Try compiling a large project it's pretty much a sure thing load will go over 1 and quite normal.