[K12OSN] Re: Performance issue and question - more information on server

["Terrell Prudé, Jr."]

Liam Marshall wrote:

> Terrell Prudé, Jr. wrote:
>
>> Liam Marshall wrote:
>>
>>> Dean Weiten wrote:
>>>
>>>> Folks have repeatedly asked how much RAM is in the server.  Sorry, 
>>>> but I
>>>> don't monitor the mailing list constantly...
>>>>
>>>> We have two servers, identical hardware, sharing the outside 
>>>> backbone.  They
>>>> both have the same symptoms.
>>>>
>>>>    RAM is 2 Gb
>>>>
>>>>    HDD is Western Digital WD400JB-00FMA0 (according to dmesg)
>>>>
>>>>  
>>>>
>>> one big problem could be the hard drive.  Even EIDE is going to be 
>>> slower accessing files than scsi.  Any number of users over 5-10 and 
>>> you will notice serious problems with performance.
>>>
>>
>> My experience has been quite different.  Granted that SCSI is faster, 
>> and true hardware-based SCSI RAID 5 is yet better, but my server runs 
>> two EIDE disks and responds just fine for 25 users running OO.o, 
>> Mozilla, and the GIMP.
>>
>> snip
>
>
>
> really?  I was told there was no way EIDE could handle a load of 25 
> users.  Are your two drives set with RAID 0?  what speed are the drives?
>
> Next year, or as early as christmas, I am going to change drives.  If 
> I could get away with EIDE that would be fantastic!  Of course, first 
> I need to figure how to change drives but copy the old partitions onto 
> them.
>

No, they're JBODs (Just a Bunch Of Disks), and they are 7200RPM drives.  
I don't remember if they're 2 or 8MB cache; since this server had to be 
built on a budget, I suspect they're the 2MB versions.  This was before 
SATA became the "en vogue" thing to do, and we just couldn't build the 
server with both SCSI and 4GB DRAM and keep it under US$2000.  The large 
DRAM might be helping a lot here, and given the choice of either large 
DRAM or going with SCSI hard disks, I took the DRAM.  Proved to be a 
smart choice.

--TP