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Server Performance Question

Sorry for posting this question here. It belongs in hardware I know, but I've posted there and they just cleanup spyware and deal with overclockning it seems. This is totally server based. And you sever gurus know hardware as well as the software i'm sure. So I apologize in advance.

My webserver seems to go slow. I want to do the most economical boost in performance.

I do a lot of server sided scripting. I host 5 sites, about 6000 pages, most dynamic with php scripting and mysql.
This is my entire setup.

3meg cable line (residential..I know) into a windows 2003 server. That server is my router/firewall/mysql server.
from there it goes to a cisco switch, which has my PCs and my webserver.
Win2k3 server is fairly good. 2.8GHz, 512mb, good enough for routing I'd say.
Plain cat5e for everything.
10/100mb nic in everything.

Webserver is a bit older.
Compaq Deskpro. 350mhz. 256mb ram. Pentium II I think. Original 6gb hard drive, single drive.
Webpages are slow to load, especially php ones. And if I try to browse my internal network it is fairly slow.
Linux, debian, apache, php. All command line.

So what would be the best upgrade? My network connection is obvious, but thats expensive for anything higher.

Would a better CPU orRam do it better? Or is it probably harddrive access, get a raid formation with atleast 7200rpm drives?

At work, large expensive servers, I can browse network shares like it's local folders. I would like something similar to that for the local network. And something to boost up my website loading times for external people as well.

Any suggestions? I can give lots more info.

ahoffmann

if your low on money upgrade from 265mb to 512 or 1gb, stop all services you don't need, then check performance again

another option:
switch hardware for router and web server, then move mysql to the web server machine too
(256mb for routing and firewal is sufficient)

undy30

ASKER

I was considering the switch. But then I'd have to reinstall both OS's. Windows 2k3 won't transfer over and I've never done it with linux so I probably will just reinstall.

I dont want to upgrade memory if it isn't needed.
What, with server-sided scripting, is the main resource hog? CPU, Memory, or HDD access time/data transfer. I was leaning towards hard drives because they are the slowest thing on a computer usually (except the user in most cases).

ahoffmann

I guess that you php is the main problem. Did you enshure that it is mod_php and not CGI?

undy30

ASKER

i don't know that much about it. or what to ensure what is mod_php or cgi.

If you mean the modules I load in the apache httpd.conf file then I do have:
AddModule mod_php4.c

as a line.

Also:
LoadModule php4_module libexec/libphp4.so

The only references to CGI is:

<Directory />^M
Options FollowSymLinks +ExecCGI^M
AllowOverride None^M
</Directory>^M

ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ "/var/backhand/cgi-bin/"

<Directory "/var/backhand/cgi-bin">^M
AllowOverride None^M
Options None^M
Order allow,deny^M
Allow from all^M
</Directory>^

AddHandler cgi-script .cgi .pl

AddModule mod_cgi.c

Are these CGI calls in my httpd.conf file making PHP files load slower?

Which are safe to delete if so?

ahoffmann

I meant if your .php pages are called as CGI, doesn't look like according your posted config
You may use ps ax to see if there're php running, that should not be when mod_php is in use.

undy30

ASKER

Everything is located in /var/backhand in regards to webpages.
Bin has the httpd file and apachetc1 file.
Htdocs has webpages
Conf has configs.

PID TTY STAT TIME COMMAND
1 ? S 0:06 init [2]
3 ? SW 0:08 [kupdate]
4 ? SW 0:00 [kswapd]
45 ? SW 0:00 [khubd]
121 ? S 0:00 /sbin/dhclient-2.2.x -q eth0
190 ? S 0:01 /sbin/syslogd
193 ? S 0:00 /sbin/klogd
203 ? S 0:00 /usr/sbin/inetd
219 ? S 0:08 /usr/sbin/nmbd -D
221 ? S 0:03 /usr/sbin/smbd -D
233 ? S 0:00 /usr/sbin/cron
241 1 S 0:00 /sbin/getty 38400 tty1
242 2 S 0:00 /sbin/getty 38400 tty2
243 3 S 0:00 /sbin/getty 38400 tty3
244 4 S 0:00 /sbin/getty 38400 tty4
245 5 S 0:00 /sbin/getty 38400 tty5
246 6 S 0:00 /sbin/getty 38400 tty6
658 ? S 0:00 /var/backhand/bin/httpd
16778 ? S 0:00 /usr/sbin/pptpd
20506 ? S 0:00 /usr/sbin/lpd
20899 ? S 0:00 ps ax
125 ? S 0:00 /sbin/portmap
230 ? S 0:00 /usr/sbin/atd
263 ? S 0:00 /usr/local/mysql/bin/mysqld --defaults-extra-file=/usr/
265 ? S 0:00 /usr/local/mysql/bin/mysqld --defaults-extra-file=/usr/
266 ? S 0:00 /usr/local/mysql/bin/mysqld --defaults-extra-file=/usr/
659 ? S 228:31 /var/backhand/bin/httpd
660 ? S 0:06 /var/backhand/bin/httpd
661 ? S 0:03 /var/backhand/bin/httpd
662 ? S 0:22 /var/backhand/bin/httpd
663 ? S 0:26 /var/backhand/bin/httpd
664 ? S 1:00 /var/backhand/bin/httpd
665 ? S 0:50 /var/backhand/bin/httpd
666 ? S 1:03 /var/backhand/bin/httpd
667 ? S 1:16 /var/backhand/bin/httpd
668 ? S 1:13 /var/backhand/bin/httpd
669 ? S 0:48 /var/backhand/bin/httpd

ahoffmann

check with top which process(es) are consuming time and/or memory

undy30

ASKER

PID USER PRI NI SIZE RSS SHARE STAT %CPU %MEM TIME COMMAND
659 nobody 7 0 2344 2344 2012 S 0.9 0.9 228:48 httpd
20938 root 13 0 944 944 748 R 0.9 0.3 0:00 top
20927 root 1 0 1988 1988 1708 S 0.3 0.7 0:03 sshd
1 root 0 0 488 488 424 S 0.0 0.1 0:06 init
2 root 0 0 0 0 0 SW 0.0 0.0 0:00 kflushd
3 root 0 0 0 0 0 SW 0.0 0.0 0:08 kupdate
4 root 0 0 0 0 0 SW 0.0 0.0 0:00 kswapd
5 root 0 0 0 0 0 SW 0.0 0.0 0:00 keventd
45 root 0 0 0 0 0 SW 0.0 0.0 0:00 khubd
121 root 0 0 844 844 708 S 0.0 0.3 0:00 dhclient-2.2.x
125 daemon 0 0 416 416 344 S 0.0 0.1 0:00 portmap
190 root 0 0 792 792 664 S 0.0 0.3 0:01 syslogd
193 root 0 0 904 904 408 S 0.0 0.3 0:00 klogd
203 root 0 0 700 700 624 S 0.0 0.2 0:00 inetd
219 root 0 0 1280 1280 820 S 0.0 0.4 0:08 nmbd
221 root 0 0 1256 1256 1068 S 0.0 0.4 0:03 smbd
227 root 0 0 1212 1212 1076 S 0.0 0.4 0:00 sshd
230 daemon 0 0 584 584 504 S 0.0 0.2 0:00 atd
233 root 0 0 684 684 564 S 0.0 0.2 0:00 cron
237 root 0 0 1084 1084 896 S 0.0 0.4 0:00 safe_mysqld
241 root 0 0 468 468 408 S 0.0 0.1 0:00 getty
242 root 0 0 468 468 408 S 0.0 0.1 0:00 getty
243 root 0 0 468 468 408 S 0.0 0.1 0:00 getty
244 root 0 0 468 468 408 S 0.0 0.1 0:00 getty
245 root 0 0 468 468 408 S 0.0 0.1 0:00 getty
246 root 0 0 468 468 408 S 0.0 0.1 0:00 getty
263 mysql 0 0 1116 1116 788 S 0.0 0.4 0:00 mysqld
265 mysql 0 0 1116 1116 788 S 0.0 0.4 0:00 mysqld
266 mysql 0 0 1116 1116 788 S 0.0 0.4 0:00 mysqld
658 root 0 0 2120 2120 2032 S 0.0 0.8 0:00 httpd
660 nobody 0 0 4192 4192 2600 S 0.0 1.6 0:06 httpd
661 nobody 0 0 4256 4256 2608 S 0.0 1.6 0:03 httpd
662 nobody 0 0 4532 4532 2668 S 0.0 1.7 0:22 httpd
663 nobody 0 0 5088 5088 2668 S 0.0 1.9 0:27 httpd
664 nobody 0 0 5220 5220 2700 S 0.0 2.0 1:01 httpd
665 nobody 0 0 5088 5088 2672 S 0.0 1.9 0:50 httpd

ahoffmann

nothing suspicious, what exactly is your problem (except PHP)?

undy30

ASKER

I thought this was clear but it's more hardware.

What is the major thing needed for a fast websever, doing mainly php serving.

cpu
memory
fast hard drive
raid

or anything else. network can't be upgraded because it's much too expensive.

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

ahoffmann

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undy30

ASKER

I really thought hard drive would make a large difference. Since I have a windows 2003 file server with a good cpu and lots of memory but browsing a network or serving files takes a very long time as well.

And the top command showed the cpu/memory were less than 1%.
But you're the expert.

ahoffmann

> Since I have a windows 2003 file server ...
sorry, not an expert for that, useless attempt ...

with cpu+memory I meant the linux one 'cause Linux caches as much as possible in memory (you don't need to configure that;-)

undy30

ASKER

Really?
Interesting, I never knew that.
Maybe I'll save up for a gig of ram and a P4 2.8Ghz CPU instead of the fast SCSI drives then huh?
Should be enough for an entry level webserver.
Probably will get a new hard drive, just a basic IDE 7200RPM, raided for redundancy. Since the drive I'm using now, 24x7 operation, is about 10 years old.

Thanks alot for the info.

ahoffmann

> 10 years old ..
not that bad ;-)
good luck