Technical thread for Server Discussion (merged)

[Henry]

Yes, some people don't remember the dark days when we had to limit ENWorld to 200 simultaneous users. (Rhetorical) You think people have trouble NOW??? Just imagine the MODS having trouble trying to edit! I wasn't on the forum staff back then, and I was considering going elsewhere, until Adlon came along and made his proposal.

Lesson I learned: High-member count forums have no business on single Win2000 server boxes. You could load it with hardware to compensate, but for the same hardware, a linux or unix box kicks major butt.

 

[Rackhir]

I asked about this once before, but there was no reply. I may be able to persuade my boss to donate a Perc 2DC (dual Channel) Ultra2 SCSI RAID card. Would that be useful for the server(s)?

 

[BSF]

Henry, I hear you!

I maintain two AIX servers, a FreeBSD box a linux server and oversee more than 50 windows servers. I spend more time with problems on any one of the windows boxes than I do on the unix boxes combined. The latest versions of windows aren't bad, they certainly have their place in business, but I just have fewer problems with our unix boxes.

 

[KB9JMQ]

Sorry if I missed it earlier but what are the specs of the current machine.
Just wanting to compare that with the TOP specs posted earlier.

 

[Henry]

I asked about this once before, but there was no reply. I may be able to persuade my boss to donate a Perc 2DC (dual Channel) Ultra2 SCSI RAID card. Would that be useful for the server(s)?

Rackhir, I don't recall your previous post, but count that to lack of observation on my part. I'll repeat your offer to the Server Committee, and see what they say. And thank you!

 

[Piratecat]

I asked about this once before, but there was no reply. I may be able to persuade my boss to donate a Perc 2DC (dual Channel) Ultra2 SCSI RAID card. Would that be useful for the server(s)?

Rackhir, how'd I miss this? I'm emailing Adlon right now to find out if this will work for us. Thank you!

KB9mumblemumblemumble, our current setup is:

Athlon XP 1600 processor
1 GB RAM
One hard drive (dunno type).

It was pretty good on a budget 3 years ago.

 

[Henry]

Rackhir, how'd I miss this? I'm emailing Adlon right now to find out if this will work for us. Thank you!

KB9mumblemumblemumble, our current setup is:

Athlon XP 1600 processor
1 GB RAM
One hard drive (dunno type).

It was pretty good on a budget 3 years ago.

Scary thought to know that I'm posting to the server, from a machine more powerful than the server, isn't it?

If you don't see a message in the forum, PKitty, it's 'cause I now know you just caught wind of it.

 

[KB9JMQ]

Thanks PC

 

[Piratecat]

Here's a chart showing EN World's bandwidth. Someone want to decipher it for us non-techheads? I'm curious what our total bandwidth usage is for a month.

I just got off a conference call with Walter Peterson of Cyberstreet and Adlon. I believe we use just under a T-1 in bandwidth right now and are hooked up to a 10 MB pipe that can easily be increased to 100 MB as needed; we have extreme flexibility during peak times to handle surges in bandwidth. Cyberstreet looks at average usage, so our average would have to rise 40% from current before our cost would rise; we won't get dinged if we have one extremely busy month that pushes us above average.

 

[BSF]

Just eyeballing that and it looks like bandwidth is just fine overall. It looks like that is a bit below a T1 on average with spikes that would exceed a pure T1. So if you had a T1 installed at your house and had the site setup there, occasionally the entire connection might become saturated and connections would be dropped.

The problems we are seeing with the site is definitely on the server hardware.