How many users will it handle?

[Linux987]

I know this question has about an infinite number of variables, but I will ask it anyway. How many people do you think the server below could handle at one time? Figure in at any given time about 5% of people would be downloading a 600KB file. The only scripts used would be to create tables after a game is played and organize scores on the tables. Besides that it would be loading mostly static pages.

Windows 2000
Pentium 3 800 Mhz
256 MB 133MHz SDRAM ECC
Two 9.1GB Ultra 160 SCSI Hot-Swap SL HDD w/ raid 1

It would have a 20mbit connection to a backbone provider.

This would be a dedicated server, running only what I have said. I just need a good idea of how many people this thing might handle at one time. The next step up is Dual p3 1ghz with 512 MB ram...but I don't wanna pay for that one.

Thanks,
Aaron

[SKoL]

Originally posted by Linux987:
<STRONG>
Windows 2000
</STRONG>

I thought this was a linux forum.. :)

[Linux987]

Well, if I would have posted this question in off-topic then I would have probably been told this was a web-serving question, and since I posted it here I am being told it's an off-topic question.

I'm just looking for a little help..I'm not trying to corrupt the forum. :)

Thanks,
Aaron

[ 25 November 2001: Message edited by: Linux987 ]

[WilliamWallace]

well if you want an answer here you need to get rid of that disease you call windows2000 and install linux. after that you will recieve assistance. but yes, you are correct, by posting a windows question here you are corrupting this forum.

get linux, get smart........

[Linux987]

Fine, change the win2k to a linux solution. How many users do you think it would handle then?

[flynnwallace]

Honestly guys, his question is valid no matter what OS hw is running. So its not linux, this isnt the first time questions like this have been asked. Lets not get really picky. I am looking for the answer now as I believe its a formula to determine how many users your server can handle.

flynn

[Linux987]

I might add that the box would be using an SQL program of some sort, no VPN, and it won't be a mail server.

Thanks,
Aaron

[klamath]

How many people do you think the server below could handle at one time?

Why not run a benchmark and find out for sure? The right answer could change dramatically based on the application's design, server setup, database program and setup, the amount of caching used, etc. (these factors could easily make a 20x change in performance). If you get a set of benchmarks that accurately reflect the usage model of your site, you'll know for sure. Otherwise, we'll just be picking numbers out of the air.

256 MB of RAM seems kinda silly, considering the price of RAM right now. I'd start with 1GB and go from there -- since you have clients downloading large files, you can expect that webserver processes will be tied up serving content for a relatively long time, so you'll do well to have more RAM.

[Linux987]

Thanks for the help guys. I wish I could benchmark the setup, but this server was just an option from a dedicated host I was thinking about using. However, I found a good price for co-location and I'm thinking about doing that. For $199 a month I get 200GB of transfer with a 100mbit burstable connection to the OC48 line.. Any other service I want is extra. So I'm kinda thinking about piecing together my own servers. I may still go the other route, I just gotta calculate costs. I'm a little low on money at this point, so I've gotta compare dedicated servers vs. my own co-located servers.

[SKoL]

Originally posted by flynnwallace:
<STRONG>Honestly guys, his question is valid no matter what OS hw is running. So its not linux, this isnt the first time questions like this have been asked. Lets not get really picky. I am looking for the answer now as I believe its a formula to determine how many users your server can handle.

flynn</STRONG>


Yup, thats why I had a smiley aftwards.. Just kidding..

As far as users, I've seen a dual 550 P3 1 gig of ram server take almost 25,000 page views a day with a default configuration of apache. Now, yes, it was crapping out, but it was still generating 90% of the requests.

It's the ram really, and depends how many page views and/or unique visitors you have.

[thedexman]

Check out this Ace's Hardware article: http://www.aceshardware.com/read.jsp?id=45000240

It's a pretty interesting and quick overview on how they chose the hardware and software for their new web server.