Your secret spy resident for Linux, web server and hardware

I would like to share some of my thoughts about storage performance in Linux, pros and cons of SSD in comparison with HDD, and of course the simplest way to check disk speed on Linux.

First about measurement tools. I use hdparm. Easy and reliable, though it would be nice to perform the test 2-3 times and calculate and average.

The command is quite trivial: hdparm -tT /dev/sd*

For instance I will try to show it on example across my several servers with different configurations.

So here the test of HHD RAID1 2x73GB 15000 RPM, Ultra Wide SCSI 320.

Well. Looks slow, but deadly reliable. Never had any troubles for the last 5 years.

Now the test of HHD 1TB 7200 RPM WD WD1003FBYX  SATA2 on HP DL 140 G3. I’ve recently obtained it only for 120$.

The server got RAM 16 GB DDR2-667 FB-DIMM,  and CPU 2×5335 Intel XEON 2Ghz. So this WD results looks good enough for web purposes.

And now SSD on the same server. Full specifications of the SSD: 60 Gb SATA-II OCZ Vertex 2, p/n: OCZSSD2-2VTXE60G.

SDD is definitely better, with mean time between failures (MTBF) of 2,000,000 hours where the best expensive HDD gives 1,200,000 MTBF and access speed less than 0,1 ms makes the SSD best choice for server environment, especially for heavy load web server.  On the top of these benefits add the dramatically less power consumption, heating reduce, and mechanical failure resistance. Price of HDD, fu#k the price, this is server, reliability is everything. Next time your MBA “IT manager” (master of bugger all) will open it’s mouth to disapprove your suggestion to replaced failure HHD with SSD, you should smash into face by failure one

Hardware power is never enough. But should we buy new one. I think the best way is to squeeze out the most from what you got already. Since 1995 I've touched almost well know brand IBM, HP and Dell, from low and to enterprise, and I can say all of the are reliable and easy to mange, but … until you don't pay for them. So if you a start-up counting each pence in your pocket than you should choose the chip, easy upgradeable, easy recoverable hardware. As the "Automatism theory" says that you can build a reliable system if you use many unreliable components, means you can follow it as a mantra an build your rock solid solution. 

Continue reading ‘Hardware for stable web service’ »

Good question…  what is proper? The answer is – your budget will determined what is proper. My proposals will be suitable for Web Servers with PHP projects, using MySQL as a database and Nginx as a web server.

I do not speak here about hired dedicated servers or hostings. Only collocation with proper server or even your company/home server room with serious ISP channel will be reviewed here.

If you will go to collocation, in most cases you will be limited by corporate style rack servers, though there are might be some options how to avoid huge expenses.

If will build company/home server room, than the great number of possibilities how to save the money and make service reliable will become available for you.

The biggest pros of colocation are:
1) Security.
2) Monitoring.
3) Power supply protection Continue reading ‘Proper place for heavy load web server’ »