Hardware/hosting for 1000 users accessing scorm

Hardware/hosting for 1000 users accessing scorm

by Shail Chopra -
Number of replies: 6

Hello,

I am a first time poster and a new Moodle user.

I am considering a use case where around 1000 users might be accessing a scorm package that serves audio enabled .swf. Scorm module would last around 30mins, and will not be accessing the database. Module would have multiple pages though - each page being an audio enabled .swf of around 2 to 3mins as mentioned above.

How do I define concurrent users here? Is it 1000? Or will it be lesser, since the concurrency will be only when the client downloads each of the 2 to 3min .swf page?

What kind of server/hosting should I select for such an use case? I reviewed options by Moodle Partners, but they seem a bit costly.

I looked at Performance FAQs, but got lost in too much info there smile I'd appreciate any good pointer from experienced users here.

Thanks,
Shail

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In reply to Shail Chopra

Re: Hardware/hosting for 1000 users accessing scorm

by Andrew Lyons -
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Hi Shail,

It's very difficult to define 'concurrent' users. Some people would define it as the number of users seen within the past 5 minutes, but others within a shorter period of time.

For your use case, you're not hitting the database hard (as a quiz would for example), and most users are going to be hitting the same files so the chances are that they'll be cached for some of the requests. Are all of your 1,000 users going to be at their computers at exactly the same time, or is it more likely that they'll be doing the activity over the course of a week for example?

In terms of server/hosting there are many many options and it will depend on various factors including whether you intend to host a solution yourself, or wish to have someone else host it.
If you're hosting yourself, then you need to consider what you feel comfortable with (e.g. Windows or Linux; MySQL or Postgres (or Oracle or MSSQL or...)).
If you're planning to pay someone else to host for you, then there will obviously be various other trade-offs such as reliability, and of course cost. It is also possible to find people other than Moodle partners offering Moodle hosting, so you might want to search further than the Moodle Partners page if you're interested in a hosted moodle solution.

Hope that this clarifies a little and doesn't muddy the water further!

Andrew
LUNS Limited
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In reply to Andrew Lyons

Re: Hardware/hosting for 1000 users accessing scorm

by Shail Chopra -

Thank for the reply, Andrew. Are you aware of any profiling tool that I could run on my machine locally to see how much RAM and processing power hit is my webserver taking per request of opening the scorm module and each 2/3 min page of it? Perhaps this would give me a better idea on what kind of hosting to choose.

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In reply to Shail Chopra

Re: Hardware/hosting for 1000 users accessing scorm

by Visvanath Ratnaweera -
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Hi Shail

The difficulty in your enquiry is that you have only a vague idea of the expected load. From what I gather, you'll have a total of 1000 users who will follow units of 30 min. scorm units, which in turn are sequences 2-3 min. long flash files.

For a calculation you need more accurate numbers. At a first glance I would say, you don't need a powerful machine. The network bandwidth could be a more important factor, depending on the 'weight' and frequency of those media.

Question: What do you mean by, "Scorm module would last around 30mins, and will not be accessing the database"? Are these files externally hosted? Then the network bandwidth becomes less critical.

Since you emphasize "non-technical" support is going to be the critical issue. The hoster should look after upgrades, backups, failover. Possibly a part of the Moodle-admin job like getting the media properly through, and some other configuration issues like repositories, additional modules, etc. If you take the full picture, it is even more than a "turn-key" solution. This is the expensive part.

My company does that kind of work, based in Central Europe. Check my profile!
wink
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In reply to Visvanath Ratnaweera

Re: Hardware/hosting for 1000 users accessing scorm

by Shail Chopra -

Hi Visvanath, thanks for your comments. When I say the scorm package won't access database, I mean it does not have any quiz. This will be an audio narrated powerpoint converted to flash. Each slide could last 2/3 mins. Do you feel this could be an issue for bandwidth? You are right that I do not have clear idea about the concurrency. Could you please suggest some profiling tool that could give me a better idea with some more experimentation? That might be a good start for me.

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In reply to Shail Chopra

Re: Hardware/hosting for 1000 users accessing scorm

by Ramil Valitov -

For load tests (benchmarking) I suggest using loadimpact.com or use free tools, e.g. ab tool from Apache.

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In reply to Shail Chopra

Re: Hardware/hosting for 1000 users accessing scorm

by Visvanath Ratnaweera -
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Hi Shail

The additional information you provided:

> When I say the scorm package won't access database, I mean it does not have any quiz.

supports what I said earler:

>> At a first glance I would say, you don't need a powerful machine.

And the second bit of information:

> This will be an audio narrated powerpoint converted to flash. Each slide could last 2/3 mins.

Makes the network requirement:

>>The network bandwidth could be a more important factor, depending on the 'weight' and frequency of those media.

less stingent.

> Could you please suggest some profiling tool that could give me a better idea with some more experimentation? That might be a good start for me.

Unfortunately there is no systematic input from profiling Moodle. That would greatly help increasing the efficiency of Moodle.

If you mean benchmarking and monitoring the compulsory docs mentioned in the introduction to this forum explains them to a certain extent. Also go through recent dicussions, there is one on monitoring tools, and another one on PHP-accelearators, etc.

My rough guess is that you worry too much on the technical side. I repeat:

>> Since you emphasize "non-technical" support is going to be the critical issue. The hoster should look after upgrades, backups, failover. Possibly a part of the Moodle-admin job like getting the media properly through, and some other configuration issues like repositories, additional modules, etc. If you take the full picture, it is even more than a "turn-key" solution. This is the expensive part.
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