Date: Fri, 10 Nov 1995 09:35:55 -0800 From: "Jordan K. Hubbard" <jkh@time.cdrom.com> To: announce@freefall.freebsd.org Cc: hackers@freefall.freebsd.org Subject: Anyone else think it's about time to beat a WEB server to death? Message-ID: <5587.816024955@time.cdrom.com>
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I frequently get asked the question: "How many users can I run off a FreeBSD WEB server?" and I'm naturally tempted to ask in response "How long is a piece of string?" However, I check myself with the knowledge that it's not an entirely unreasonable thing to want to know, and I merely wish that I had more data on this subject to provide in response. It's obviously impossible to come up with one number that fits all situations, but various guesstimates can be derived from existing data so that given a link speed of x, a PC of macho-factor y and the "average" user doing z, you can come up with a performance projection of n users. The only problem is that I don't *have* any existing data worth mentioning. I've really only two WEB servers that I can honestly say I have much experience with, and that's www.cdrom.com and www.freebsd.org. Unfortunately, www.cdrom.com gets so little WEB traffic in comparison to FTP traffic (on which we have LOTS of data) that the numbers are almost lost in the noise. www.freebsd.org is also a popular server as servers go, but not so popular that we're getting dozens of hits per second or anything as impressive sounding as that. What I'd most ideally like would be some numbers from a site that's to WEB servers what ftp.cdrom.com is to FTP servers, but I'll take whatever I can get! :-) Anyone got any stats they'd like to share? # of running daemons, server used, hits-per-second, hardware used, that kind of thing. If we can't get any actual data from existing WEB service providers, or even if we can, might I prevail on someone out there with a well-connected box to possibly declare a "flag day", during which as many people on this list as possible (and anyone else they can find) aggressively attempts to beat the server to its knees while the server maintainers busily collect stats on the event? Heck, if you need some additional incentive for signing up for such a mad scheme then might I suggest also putting up some adverts for whatever service you offer on the page as "live data" (grin) so all those hundreds (thousands?) of users will also see your advertising in the process of trying to see how much punishment a FreeBSD WEB server can take.. We could even make it more widely publicised challenge by posting details of the event in various non-FreeBSD newsgroups, like Linux's or BSDI's. Given an open invite to see if they can bring a FreeBSD WEB server to its knees, I'm sure many of the "competing OS" advocates wouldn't be able to resist a challenge like that, especially if the testing authority promised in advance to be relatively impartial and post full results, be they good or bad. I'm confident enough in this product that I think we'd come out looking pretty good! Either way, it would also generate a lot of publicity for all concerned (us and the test machine providers) and furnish the FreeBSD Project with some very valuable data that it doesn't have now. So how about it? Any takers? If you're really interested in helping to further the cause of Spreading The Word, I can assure you that this would be a significant step in the right direction. I'll also be more than happy to work with whomever steps forward in drafting a reasonably provocative-sounding announcement to ensure that people take up the gauntlet. After all, how much trouble can whapping "reload" for 5 or so minutes be? :-) Jordan P.S. Suggestions on how to make this an even more meaningful test from those webmaniacs out there among you would also be sincerely appreciated!
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