Hi all, I'm a sysadmin and a web-programmer at a company in the Netherlands. In the following month we will launch a webshop which will have a estimated 1000 full hits in the first weeks (estimated through calculation of the marketing-departement). I am writing the webshop, and have installed the webserver. Because of issues with our housing, we can't put our HP webserver to use, since it produces to much noise in our very small building. Since we are moving in a few months, we decided to use a HP laptop instead (reasonably fast CPU, 512 Megs) since we had a few to spare. The toy is currently set up with FreeBSD 6.0-BETA2, Apache 2.0, MySQL 5.0 and PHP-5.0 with all the reasonable modules. Everything is compiled from ports. No changes to the kernel yet, no world-rebuilding done. I trust the laptop enough to get the job done, but I wonder if 6.0-BETA2 will be up for the task. I heard rumours that it should be more stable and faster then 5.4-RELEASE (which I use mostly nowadays), but it IS beta after all. On the other hand, I get the impression that 6.0 is the release of choice for deploying anything on a laptop (considering that darned Pentium-M). Another thing, I do not fully trust the combination of Apache 2.0, MySQL 5.0 and PHP 5.0, since they are all quite new in the frontlines. This would be a decent testcase for 6.0, but the thing is... I can't afford any crashes (this webshop is considered to settle the future for our company) and we are talking about a laptop here. I will post all problems not yet reported to the list, but if anyone of you would like to share his or her opinion on this matter, please let me know. Will 4.11-RELEASE perhaps be a better choice? I'm not subscribed to the list (allthough I follow the archives now and then) so please CC me. Thanks. -- Frans-Jan v. Steenbeek Pakhuisweg 16-II 6718 XJ Ede T: 06-43536482 E: Frans-Jan@van-Steenbeek.net
On Fri, 19 Aug 2005 23:42:18 +0200, Frans-Jan v. Steenbeek <Frans-Jan@van-Steenbeek.net> wrote:> Hi all, > > I'm a sysadmin and a web-programmer at a company in the Netherlands. In > the following month we will launch a webshop which will have a estimated > 1000 full hits in the first weeks (estimated through calculation of the > marketing-departement). I am writing the webshop, and have installed the > webserver. Because of issues with our housing, we can't put our HP > webserver to use, since it produces to much noise in our very small > building. Since we are moving in a few months, we decided to use a HP > laptop instead (reasonably fast CPU, 512 Megs) since we had a few to > spare.What do you mean by 1000 hits? Is it 1000 customers or 1000 http requests? 1000 hits a week is 1000 / ( 7 * 24 * 60 ) = 0 hits per minute or 5 in an hour. If your laptop crashes every 10 minutes there is a change no customer wil notice it.> The toy is currently set up with FreeBSD 6.0-BETA2, Apache 2.0, MySQL 5.0 > and PHP-5.0 with all the reasonable modules. Everything is compiled from > ports. No changes to the kernel yet, no world-rebuilding done. > > I trust the laptop enough to get the job done, but I wonder if 6.0-BETA2 > will be up for the task. I heard rumours that it should be more stable > and > faster then 5.4-RELEASE (which I use mostly nowadays), but it IS beta > after all. On the other hand, I get the impression that 6.0 is the > release > of choice for deploying anything on a laptop (considering that darned > Pentium-M). Another thing, I do not fully trust the combination of Apache > 2.0, MySQL 5.0 and PHP 5.0, since they are all quite new in the > frontlines. > This would be a decent testcase for 6.0, but the thing is... I can't > afford any crashes (this webshop is considered to settle the future for > our company) and we are talking about a laptop here.Funny to settle the future for a company this way. I hope your customers aren't reading this. ;-)> I will post all problems not yet reported to the list, but if anyone of > you would like to share his or her opinion on this matter, please let me > know. Will 4.11-RELEASE perhaps be a better choice?You are asking a silly question. It comes down to "I'm running BETA software. Can I expect this to be STABLE?". If it is stable, it wil say stable in the version number. Except for Apache all your software is beta, but from sourcecode which is quite mature for some time. You can only answer this question by inviting 1000 (virtual) friends and ask them to buy something in your webshop. Ronald. -- Ronald Klop Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Frans-Jan v. Steenbeek wrote:> Hi all, > > I'm a sysadmin and a web-programmer at a company in the Netherlands. In > the following month we will launch a webshop which will have a estimated > 1000 full hits in the first weeks (estimated through calculation of the > marketing-departement). I am writing the webshop, and have installed the > webserver. Because of issues with our housing, we can't put our HP > webserver to use, since it produces to much noise in our very small > building. Since we are moving in a few months, we decided to use a HP > laptop instead (reasonably fast CPU, 512 Megs) since we had a few to > spare. > >I would recommend: Not to use a laptop for a web (or any sort of) server, as laptops typically are not designed for this sort of use (e.g. some will overheat if you never let 'em sleep, and they generally have terrible IO performance). Find yourself a spare desktop box (e.g. a fast PIII with 512Mb will be at least as fast and more reliable as a server). There should be no noise issue with such a box either (funnily enough, I'm typing this on a PIII 1Ghz with 512Mb - and it's pretty much silent). Run 5.4-RELEASE or 5.4-STABLE (or 4.11-RELEASE even), as, ahem, they are stable.... Finally did you really mean 1000 hits per week? Cheers Mark
On Fri, 2005-Aug-19 23:42:18 +0200, Frans-Jan v. Steenbeek wrote:>building. Since we are moving in a few months, we decided to use a HP >laptop instead (reasonably fast CPU, 512 Megs) since we had a few to >spare. > >The toy is currently set up with FreeBSD 6.0-BETA2, Apache 2.0, MySQL 5.0 >and PHP-5.0 with all the reasonable modules. Everything is compiled from >ports. No changes to the kernel yet, no world-rebuilding done.I'd also be extremely loath to bet my company on a laptop running beta software. As others have pointed out, laptops aren't designed for this. (Though my old Compaq laptop ran FreeBSD 24x7 for several years and I only stopped using it because the lid was cracking too badly). If you're really concerned about noise: - use an older desktop and maybe even underclock it to keep it cooler - build your own system. Either go the low power route (mini-ITX) so you don't need noisy fans or use an over-rated PSU and CPU heatsink to keep fan speed (and noise) down. In either case, you'll need to look around to find a quiet HDD. - [as a completely left-field suggestion] look at something like an Apple G5 system - large fans running slowly generate very little noise. At the very least, you need to build a test harness to test the system under load (and maybe get some friends and/or friendly customers to hammer it as well). Whilst all the software is derived from a mature code-base, I'd be surprised if you can't crash it.>I will post all problems not yet reported to the list, but if anyone of >you would like to share his or her opinion on this matter, please let me >know. Will 4.11-RELEASE perhaps be a better choice?4.x is definitely more mature than 6.x. That said, I'd recommend against deploying 4.x in a new system because it is a dead end - you'll need to migrate off it at some point and that's far easier to do before a system goes live. You made the point that you support for newer hardware is better in newer releases. Why not use 5.4? As you point out, you are more familiar with it. And, once 6.x does become more stable, moving from 5.x to 6.x will be far easier than moving from 4.x to 6.x. -- Peter Jeremy