Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
Date:      Mon, 30 Dec 1996 20:37:22 -0600
From:      "Jacob Suter" <jsuter@intrastar.net>
To:        "Richard Stanford" <richards@herald.net>
Cc:        "FreeBSD ISP List" <isp@FreeBSD.ORG>
Subject:   Re: Bandwidth..
Message-ID:  <199612310333.VAA24950@intrastar.net>

next in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
> > Oh geez no..  I put my current web server (AMD 5x86/133 w/ 32 megs ram)
to
> > the test..  16,000 hits in 12 hours and it wasn't even really stressed.
> 
> Is this really a volume test?  Sounds kinda low to me.  We have a single
user's
> home page that gets around 7,000 hits a day.

Well, I didn't want to kill the box doing my tests...  I was down to 85% at
times, which IMHO is when a system starts "breaking down" and starts having
response time problems. 

> > > I dont think that anyone would recommend a '386 for anything nowadays
> > > (with '486-100s with on-board PCI IDE at about $100.)....I was
talking
> > > much more about the '486 or 100Mhz Pentium vs the higher end
> > > stuff than obsoleted equipment like '386.
> 
> > Any kind of quality 486 system (even an SX/25) would work well for a
web
> > server on a 128K link pretty much no matter what kind of content
> > (10-zillion little icons to 40 meg graphics), even on a pretty cheazy
> > system ($9 hard drive controller).  
> 
> Sure, a 128k link.  But considering that P5-133s are, oh, around $200
these
> days, why not go for them?  If you can afford (thinking US here) more
than a
> 64K line, you should be able to get a comfortable webserver (P5, SCSI, et
> cetera).  This is assuming you're reselling webspace (or giving it away
w/
> dialup accounts, something more than a personal webserver).

Well, yeah... if you like Intel stuff it'd be pretty decent.  I've found
IDE is fine if you buy quality IDE products, and pack enough memory for the
job.  

> Is it "needed"? Probably not, on a low-volume link.  But it's a cheap
comfort,
> IMO.  Just think of it this way -- how many customers would you need to
lose
> through irritation if there's a problem to pay for the hardware?  Not
/that/
> many.

oh well of course, you HAVE to have backups and reliable hardware.

> The only trouble with things like IDE drives and $9 controllers on a
production
> machine that I see is reliability.  Speed is not the issue (not on a 128K
link)
> but moving from a 2% chance per year to a 1% chance per year of failure
is more
> than worth it (fictional numbers, but you get the idea).  The point is to
make
> your servers bulletproof and efficient, then you don't have to worry
about them.

So far IDE has treated me well.  I'm planning on moving my main server off
of IDE soon, but thats in a few months.  

> Also, you should get in extra hardware for when they do (and they will)
fail ..
> you can't prevent this, but you can minimize the number of times it
happens.

Well, of course.  I'd love to afford full basically drop-in-and-go backups
for the servers, but I have too much stuff I need other than that online
and live to afford to do that...  When stuff breaks my 6x86 replaces
whatever goes down, and whatever services died in the process are back
online with an hour or so...

Hey, customers can't complain - whens the last time their telephone was
fixed in one hour?  I can't get a T1 fixed that fast.

JS




Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?199612310333.VAA24950>