EXTREME Overclocking  - Server Power & Performance Article - Page: 2
Home | Reviews | Forums | Downloads | $ EXTREME Deals $ | RealTime Pricing | Free Magazines | Gear | Folding Stats Newsletter | Contact Us

Server Power & Performance:
A Buyers Guide To Upgrading Your System

Date: January 14, 2004
Author: Jason Rabel

 

Real Life Scenario:

One of our web / database servers was hitting an unusually high load level and suffering from poor performance during peak hours of website traffic. After tuning the OS and application as much as could be, the server would still run out of physical memory and thus be forced to swap to virtual memory. As soon as it started swapping to virtual memory was when the load levels started to increase and performance decrease.

Simple solution? Add more RAM to the system. (You knew I was going to say that.)

We contacted Crucial Technology about our situation, and a few days later we had a 1GB PC2100 ECC Registered DIMM ready to install in the server.

System Specifications

Motherboard: MSI K7D-L
CPUs: 2 x AMD 2100+ MP
Memory: 2 x 512MB Crucial PC2100 (Before)
1 x 1GB Crucial PC2100 (Added)
Hard Drive: Maxtor 120GB 7200RPM
OS: Red Hat Linux 7.2

The web server used is Apache, which generates dynamic web pages based on data from the MySQL database. The database holds anywhere from 5-10 million rows of data at any given time! Caching data plays a key role in keeping performance at acceptable levels for the users. The requests are generally for the same lumps of data, potentially requesting thousands of rows of data initially, which must be aggregated together and summarized down to something that is human-readable.

Even though this is a production server, it was taken out of the loop long enough to run some performance comparisons before and after adding in the extra gigabyte of memory. Instead of using synthetic benchmark programs, which don't really reflect what this server does day-to-day, I chose to use a program called siege. Here's a quick quote from the author's site about siege:

Siege is a http regression testing and benchmarking utility. It was designed to let web developers measure the performance of their code under duress, to see how it will stand up to load on the internet. Siege supports basic authentication, cookies, HTTP and HTTPS protocols. It allows the user hit a web server with a configurable number of concurrent simulated users. Those users place the web server "under siege."

Siege is very configurable, settings like concurrent users and repetitions allow you to simulate an entire day's traffic in just a matter of seconds (hence the name "siege"), so one must be careful using this tool as it can be very easy to overload a server. Also instead of requesting just a single page from the server, a file can be created with a list of URLs to request during the test, thus making it more accurate of a simulation of real (and random) traffic.

 





EXTREME Overclocking Newsletter
Thousands of PC enthusiasts are already subscribed to the EXTREME Overclocking Newsletter, have you signed up yet?
Your Email Address:
Sponsored Links
Latest Reviews
Most Downloaded Files
Recently Added Files
CPU-Z 1.4912/12/08
Compare Prices On Top Brands!
Search:
For:

Intel Processors
Core i7 - Nehalem
965 Extreme  940  920

Core 2 Extreme - Yorkfield XE
QX9775  QX9770  QX9650

Core 2 Quad - Yorkfield
Q9650  Q9550  Q9400  Q9300  Q8300  Q8200

Core 2 Quad - Kentsfield
Q6600

Core 2 Duo - Wolfdale
E8600  E8500  E8400  E8200  E7300  E7200

AMD Processors
Phenom II X4
940 Black  920

Phenom X4
9950 Black  9850 Black  9750  9650

Phenom X3
8750  8650  8450

Athlon X2
7750 Black  6000+  5600+  5400+  5200+  5000+  5050e  4850e

Video Cards
nVidia GeForce GTX 200 Series
GTX 295  GTX 285  GTX 280  GTX 260

nVidia GeForce 9 Series
9800 GX2  9800 GTX+  9800 GTX  9800 GT  9600 GT  9600 GSO

ATI Radeon HD 4000 Series
4870 X2  4870  4850  4830  4670  4650

Search By Brand
ASUS  BFG  Diamond  eVGA  Gigabyte  HIS  MSI  Palit  PowerColor  PNY  Sapphire  Visiontek  XFX

PC Memory
DDR3  DDR2  DDR

Motherboards
ASUS  Biostar  DFI  ECS  eVGA  Foxconn  Gigabyte  Intel  MSI  Shuttle  Supermicro  Tyan  XFX

Hard Drives
Seagate  Maxtor  Samsung  Fujitsu  Western Digital

  Technology Magazines FREE to Qualified Professionals.
eWeek MagazineeWeek is the essential technology information source for builders of e-business. Focuses on e-commerce, communications and Internet-based architecture. Oracle MagazineOracle Magazine contains technology-strategy articles, sample code, tips, Oracle and partner news, how-to articles for developers and DBAs, and more. Dr. Dobb's JournalDr. Dobb's Journal enables programmers to write the most efficient and sophisticated programs and help in daily programming quandaries. InformationWeekInformationWeek is the only newsweekly you'll need to stay on top of the latest developments in information technology.
  Other Popular Titles: PC Magazine, BusinessWeek, Baseline, Business Solutions, Software Magazine, InfoStor, Security Source , TelevisionWeek, more...
  EXTREME Deal Of The Day | More EXTREME Deals
Dell Small Business - Dell Vostro 220 Slim Tower Computer with Dual Core Processor, 2GB of Memory, 160GB Hard Drive and 18.5" LCD Monitor for Only $389!
Dell Vostro 220 Slim Tower ComputerYou get a 2.6GHz Intel Dual Core processor, 2GB of DDR2 SDRAM memory, 160GB SATA 7200rpm hard drive, DVDROM and Dell's E1910H 18.5" LCD monitor for just $389 after a $248 instant savings. You get the option of switching out the Norton for Trend Micro instead (which is DEFINITELY recommended) for the 15 month period and a 250GB hard drive is just $15. Windows 7 Home Premium 32bit comes with this system and you're all set to go for pretty much any home office, kids, school, work computing that you need to get done. DELL VOSTRO 220 SLIM TOWER COMPUTER WITH 18.5 INCH LCD MONITOR COMBO DEAL

Dell Financial Services - 33% Off Coupon for EVERYTHING!
Huge discount on their hot factory certified desktop computers and laptops. Stock is limited to whatever they've got in hand so grab it quick if you see what you want. Use coupon code: Save33PreHoliday (expires 11/9/09)

Copyright © 2000-2009 EXTREME Overclocking. All rights reserved.
Disclaimer of Liability - Privacy Policy