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ee99ee
Jun 11, 2007, 04:15 PM
What kind of hardware do you guys run to keep this forum up? 6000+ users is massive...


mattscott306
Jun 11, 2007, 04:18 PM
I think I remember it being stated there were four servers that MR used. I suppose Q or arn or Knox will be along shortly to give you an exact number.
arn
Jun 11, 2007, 06:59 PM
What kind of hardware do you guys run to keep this forum up? 6000+ users is massive...

We can support up to 2000-3000 or so users with one PHP box (Dual Xeon 2.6Ghz 2GB RAM) and one MySQL server (Dual Xeon 2.8Ghz, 4GB RAM, SCSI RAID)... but it gets spotty in that range. The PHP server starts getting very slow.

At MWSF we cloned the PHP server across many instances of Amazon's Elastic Compute Cloud, and then we found that the MySQL server dies at 5000-ish users.

This time, we added a server for Memcached, PHP (+ EC2 clones), and single MySQL server and hit the 6000 users.

There were some errors though due to some PHP instances not working out right for some reason. we'll try to sort it out for next time.

arn
dartzorichalcos
Jun 11, 2007, 07:00 PM
We can support up to 3000-4000 or so users with one PHP box (Dual Xeon 2.6Ghz 2GB RAM) and one MySQL server (Dual Xeon 2.8Ghz, 4GB RAM, SCSI RAID)... but it gets spotty in that range. The PHP server starts getting very slow.

Why don't you use Xserves?
mad jew
Jun 13, 2007, 05:57 AM
Would there ever be any opportunity for members to offer their hardware in the form of P2P-style hosting?
darwen
Jun 13, 2007, 06:03 AM
I guess we can just be glad the you guys are staying on top of understanding how to keep the servers running under all this traffic. I never really considered the volume of users posting here. I knew about traffic issues on Keynote days but even keeping up the boards is probably pretty intense!
kwood
Jun 13, 2007, 08:50 AM
Why don't you use Xserves?

I am assuming because they are so expensive. It is cheaper to build a cheap box with those specs then to buy an Xserve. Plus you can download Linux and throw it on there to perform the same task as an Xserve would do.
edesignuk
Jun 13, 2007, 10:08 AM
Why don't you use Xserves?How many hosting companies do you know that use XServes, and what do they cost compared to LAMP boxes?
pengu
Jun 13, 2007, 10:37 AM
How many hosting companies do you know that use XServes, and what do they cost compared to LAMP boxes?

who cares. i want to know what in the name of Joe Pesci (why pray to God when you can pray to Joe Pesci?) that avatar you have is!?
dartzorichalcos
Jun 13, 2007, 10:43 AM
How many hosting companies do you know that use XServes, and what do they cost compared to LAMP boxes?

XTech uses Xserves and the Xserves are not that expensive. In the US Refurbished Store (http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore.woa/wa/RSLID?nnmm=browse&mco=3929D548&node=home/specialdeals/mac) there is a refurbished Xserve for $2299.