Return to BSD News archive
Newsgroups: comp.infosystems.www.servers.unix,comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!simtel!news.kei.com!news.mathworks.com!newsfeed.internetmci.com!howland.reston.ans.net!ix.netcom.com!netcom.com!fod From: fod@netcom.com (Frank O'Donnell) Subject: Hardware specs for a Pentium-based Web server under NetBSD Message-ID: <fodDGFAC2.AJ6@netcom.com> Followup-To: comp.infosystems.www.servers.unix Organization: Les Amis de l'Accordeon Date: Sat, 14 Oct 1995 05:09:38 GMT Lines: 49 Sender: fod@netcom18.netcom.com Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.infosystems.www.servers.unix:5373 comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc:1195 I'm involved in running a Web site that currently has one server, a Sun SPARCstation20 running NCSA httpd 1.4.2 under SunOS 4.1.3; it sits on a fiber-optic WAN that is connected to the net at large by a group of T1's. We're thinking about adding another server to divide up the load. Instead of just getting another Sun, we've been hearing that it's possible to achieve a competitive load-handling capability on a fast (120-MHz-plus) Pentium machine running one flavor or another of Unix-like OS. Since we have some existing users of NetBSD we'd probably go with that to keep things simple (although I've also tried both FreeBSD and Linux, and both are fine packages). We'd probably also stick with NCSA httpd unless there's a real strong reason for changing. At the moment we're trying to think about what hardware we should specify to develop a Web server capable of handling heavy loads. Here are some specific questions I'd be very interested in putting to someone with practical experience with this kind of configuration: -- I think I've heard that the bus and hard drive controller types are critical for achieving maximum throughput. If I remember right, a SCSI controller that talks to a PCI bus is the ideal thing. Is this right? Is there anything more we have to worry about here? We'd want a SCSI bus with some flexibility that could accommodate several 2-GB-class hard drives. -- How much RAM memory do we need to optimize httpd, while not adding so much that some of it sits there idle? Is there any major difference in memory usage between NetBSD, FreeBSD and Linux? -- What's a typical size for a swap partition for a machine acting as a heavy-usage Web server but not doing much else? -- Are network cards ever a bottleneck? Will an IDE legacy NE2000+ type card do ok in a PCI bus machine, or do we need a PCI-based network card? -- Is there anything else we should be thinking about in terms of hardware? Since this machine will sit in a closet and share an old VGA type monitor, I don't see any point in having anything but a minimal video card in it. Thanks for any reactions, Frank fod@netcom.com