My 2.4 SuperServer needs relief. What's best option? Options

[unixrules]

I've got a 2.4Ghz with 1G of memory. It's running Linux/Red Hat.

Everything is good except my server is too busy. At first server was bogging down to a crawl, now I've tweaked it so it keeps running without blossoming to 800 processes, but wait times are often a problem. Mostly works, but if it gets behind I'll be restarting Apache and/or MySQL.

Heavy MySQL usage on this server. Most of the load comes from hundreds of phpBB forums, etc. I'm using the MySQL tune-up my.cnf that has been posted here (MySQL caching) but tuned slightly to my RAM.

MySQL > Status shows:

Threads: 4  Questions: 6999017  Slow queries: 5634  Opens: 787822  Flush tables: 1  Open tables: 512  Queries per second avg: 41.406

I was thinking about a 3.6 Super Server with a memory upgrade to 2G, although that isn't available now according to the ticket talk. There might be a 3.2 available though.

Anyway, for those with more knowledge than I, what would you recommend? Will the 3.2 be enough power and have room for a lot of growth. I'm expecting more phpBBs and lots of php and image serving. The plan is to split my major sites to the new server, keeping the medium/small ones on the 2.4.

Any suggestions?

[xenneo]

I've got a 2.4Ghz with 1G of memory.  It's running Linux/Red Hat.

Everything is good except my server is too busy.  At first server was bogging down to a crawl, now I've tweaked it so it keeps running without blossoming to 800 processes, but wait times are often a problem.  Mostly works, but if it gets behind I'll be restarting Apache and/or MySQL.  

Heavy MySQL usage on this server.  Most of the load comes from hundreds of phpBB forums, etc. I'm using the MySQL tune-up my.cnf that has been posted here (MySQL caching) but tuned slightly to my RAM.  

MySQL > Status shows:

Threads: 4  Questions: 6999017  Slow queries: 5634  Opens: 787822  Flush tables: 1  Open tables: 512  Queries per second avg: 41.406

I was thinking about a 3.6 Super Server with a memory upgrade to 2G, although that isn't available now according to the ticket talk. There might be a 3.2 available though.

Anyway, for those with more knowledge than I, what would you recommend? Will the 3.2 be enough power and have room for a lot of growth. I'm expecting more phpBBs and lots of php and image serving. The plan is to split my major sites to the new server, keeping the medium/small ones on the 2.4.

Any suggestions?

3.6 is according to that thread , maybe the ram isnt though

[Creed3020]

I would recomend going with something that is 3.0 or faster because of the high demand you have with MySQL.

You mentioned you only have one gig of ram. A server with 2 gigs would do you well especially since you expect to expand in the future.

Since you plan on splitting the sites over two servers that should be the best way to increase performance across the board.

[unixrules]

Thanks for comments.

Maybe I should try for the Xeon?

Can anybody give me a rough idea of how much faster the Xeon Dual 2.4 would be? Is that like 4.8 compared to Super Servers, or ever more?

[nForcer]

Dual processors, keep in mind, do not process twice as fast as a single processor - they can actually be 2-4 times faster - UNDER certain circumstances.

In your case, dual Xeon processors with 2 Gig of ram would be very suitable for your needs and allow you to grow as well.

The discussion about single vs dual is a long and legnthy one depending on what uses/areas you need it for but if you're doing a lot of processing, or have a lot of tasks running at the same time, dual processor machines can handle them with better abiity than just a single one. I think that answers your question.

[Blue|Fusion]

Don't count on CPU alone. As others said, more RAM will help, too. But one of the most critical peices of hardware that can increase performance, especially with applications such as MySQL is the harddisks. For best performance, use SCSI. If you don't go the SCSI route (or even if you do) you will definatrly want to balance your disk I/O accros two or more disks. Mount /var/lib/mysql on the secondary drive and maybe some other directories which will keep the input/output between the two disks about equal. That allows data to be written to and read from each disk at the same time, increasing performance and decreasing load.

[eddy2099]

What is your current CPU Load, memory usage and swap usage ?

[Beansprout]

Tweak MySQL and throw in more RAM. But more than anything, don't throw so much on a budget box...

[unixrules]

Interesting multi-disk idea.

Here's the display from top. This is from a fairly happy state...

CODE

17:37:01  up 28 days, 59 min,  2 users,  load average: 0.52, 0.52, 0.87

217 processes: 211 sleeping, 2 running, 4 zombie, 0 stopped

CPU states:  cpu    user    nice  system    irq  softirq  iowait    idle

          total   14.0%    0.0%    2.2%   0.0%     0.2%   43.6%   39.6%

          cpu00   19.5%    0.0%    3.3%   0.1%     0.5%   40.6%   35.6%

          cpu01    8.5%    0.0%    1.1%   0.0%     0.0%   46.6%   43.6%

Mem:  1027996k av, 1007424k used,   20572k free,       0k shrd,   97556k buff

                   734388k actv,   85716k in_d,   13972k in_c

Swap: 2040212k av,  609756k used, 1430456k free                  310612k cached

If some other stats would be useful, tell me, I'll post them. Thanks.

Budget box being the 2.4? If so, tell me about it!

[Jeff]

With a noticable amout of iowait even during a fairly happy state, I think your next server should definitely have a set of scsi drives if possible.

[eddy2099]

Adding more RAM might not be a bad idea, I can see that more than 600k of the harddisk is being cached. If you have more RAM, more of the processing can be done in memory rather than on the disk. Disk access is slower than RAM access.

[Blue|Fusion]

No matter what you do with the RAM, you will definately need SCSI if you plan to grow at all. I run a few big sites on a dual xeon with only 1GB RAM and 2 SCSIs. Low load and pretty high-volume traffic.

[unixrules]

Thanks. Do I have to move to Total Control to get the SCSIs? Looks highly sweet.

[nForcer]

At the moment, yes.

[Creed3020]

Insomia365 also features SCSI drives, both of my servers have SCSI drives.

[Blue|Fusion]

Go with a Total Control series server. I've been using them and recommending them to my friends in the business for almost two years no.

[unixrules]

Thanks everybody for the advice.

I'm considering the P2800SL with 2G RAM upgrade. It gets me in the Total Control door, with faster cpu, more memory and faster drive. That will probably hold me for a while.