Will I get better speed from linux?

Will I get better speed from linux?

by Graeme Forrester -
Number of replies: 13

Now I don't want to ignite another WW but I have a moodle server with P4 3 GHz and 2 Gb RAM. I am currently running a WAMP install but have been dabbling in linux of late (Ubuntu 6.10 - so I am reasonably comfortable with it).

Here it comes - If I reformat the same server to ubuntu linux am I likely to get more speed and better connectivity for my users? I currently have 1500 users with about 50 connected at any one time. I have read most of the posts about tuning your server and have done so but I would like to eek a little more speed out of the thing in the short term.

My linux install is on a celeron desktop with 512 RAM and runs quicker than the server on windows (with no users).

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In reply to Graeme Forrester

Re: Will I get better speed from linux?

by Anthony Borrow -
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On our production server with a similar setup we were running a WIMP server and I converted it to a LAMP (Ubuntu) server. I found it easier to install APC (php caching) on the LAMP server and that probably is what produced the biggest improvement; however, I estimate that the server serves pages about 10 times more quickly with the same hardware. I have had over 100 concurrent users and have not had any troubles. To setup the LAMP server I installed Ubuntu as a workstation because I like having the GUI and it is easier for the others who do not have much linux experience to get in and move around. I basically followed the instructions from http://www.howtoforge.com/perfect_setup_ubuntu_6.10 and have been very happy with the installation and have had very little maintenance work to do. I think it is definitely worth it and in fact I considered it an upgrade. Peace.
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In reply to Anthony Borrow

Re: Will I get better speed from linux?

by Jason Hollowell -
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Anthony,

I just stumbled onto your message as I'm searching for information about setting up a Linux system for hosting my Moodle. When you say you intalled "Ubuntu as a workstation" what do you mean? Sorry but I'm before the beginner stage when it comes to Linux so I may be asking a terribly simple question but....

I'd like to avoid the command line environment as much as possible and the GUI sounds like a wonderful option for the Linux server setup. Just want to make sure I know how to get there smile

Jason
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In reply to Jason Hollowell

Re: Will I get better speed from linux?

by Anthony Borrow -
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When I said I installed it as a workstation, I mean that I simply did a full installation (rather than choosing to do a LAMP or server installation). In other words, it installs gnome, X11, openoffice, firefox, etc. I have found this helpful as I go in to the server room to troubleshoot something. I can easily pull up the site and navigate around using a GUI. Just do a regular install and then follow the instructions from the Perfect Server setup. I opted to use the GUI package manager to select the packages as it automatically included some others that were not on the list of packages in the perfect setup documentation. Please let me know if you have specific questions. I appreciated having the documentation as it gives a clear set of instructions of how to do what I did from the beginning.
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In reply to Anthony Borrow

Re: Will I get better speed from linux?

by Mark Burnet -
One tip here, after the basic setup and install, you don't need to run the Gui all the time. To save memory, I set the runlevel in yast to 3 and don't automatically load the gui interface. If I must have it, then I run startx. 99% of the time the server console just sits there and configuration can be managed through webmin, which is a pretty nice remote interface for basic things that need to be managed on the server. In other words, install everything as a full workstation and run it like a server.
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In reply to Jason Hollowell

Re: Will I get better speed from linux?

by Graeme Forrester -

If you use Ubuntu server eg 6.10 or 6.0 and install webmin then you have a gui interface that is web based. Many ex windows people such as myself get lost in the command line stuff and this does the same as a gui package but without the overhead that a full gui install does. There are excellent tutorials at

http://www.howtoforge.com/perfect_setup_ubuntu_6.10 for the linux install

or

http://www.mysql-apache-php.com/

or

http://www.debianadmin.com/ubuntu610-edgy-lamp-server-installation-with-screenshots.html

and then for the webmin

http://www.debianadmin.com/webmin-installation-and-configuration-in-debian-and-ubuntu-linux.html

http://www.webmin.com/ is the webmin site

All are helpful and in 2 nights I pretty well had it down pat. I could then do most of my tasks with a gui interface that only uses resources when the page is called. The whole point behind a LAMP server is no gui or unnecessary services to allow the box to act as a quick webserver.

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In reply to Graeme Forrester

Re: Will I get better speed from linux?

by Jason Hollowell -
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Thanks Graeme and Anthony,

You've provided a wealth of valuable information here. I'll work my way through it and hopefully get my server up and running and will probably learn a few things along the way smile

Thanks again

Jason
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In reply to Graeme Forrester

Re: Will I get better speed from linux?

by Chris Ainsworth -

Graeme,  your server is only one component in the whole equation. When people ask me these questions, I always come back to analysing their entire environment.

Questions ......

Where is the server installed?
Are you hosting this yourself or do you have the server inside an ISP?
Internal or external users?
What is the available bandwidth?

These are only a few of the basic questions that need to be addressed / ticked off your check list. Any server change maybe useless if you do not have a large enough pipe to serve your client base. If you have a decent sized pipe and available bandwidth, then the server can influnece your Quality Of Service (QOS).  I know ISP's who have BIG pipes, but they throttle the bandwidth to servers to ensure there is a distribution of bandwidth across their server farm.

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In reply to Chris Ainsworth

Re: Will I get better speed from linux?

by Graeme Forrester -

Where is the server installed? On a Gb switch
Are you hosting this yourself or do you have the server inside an ISP? Myself
Internal or external users? Both
What is the available bandwidth? 1.73Mb pipe

After moving to linux - yes performance is better and I spent a lot of time tuning the server under windows. Possibly it was the antivirus software but a bare bones Ubuntu server seems to have sorted most of the problems - no gui, no extra services.

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In reply to Graeme Forrester

Re: Will I get better speed from linux?

by Chris Ainsworth -

Graeme, in the longer term, your biggest bottleneck will be you link to the outside world. Whilst the performance of the windows server may have appeared slow, and as you said the antivirus may have contributed, reality is that the link to the outside world will be your greatest source of aggrivation, and one that will need to be monitored carefully.  If you have a decent hardware router, then you may desire to look at some QoS settings (Quality of Service) to ensure your bandwith to your server is guarrnatted a minimum slice of that 1.73 Mb pipe.  I would also suspect that if your provider is claiming that speed of Upload (and I am making an assumption that you have a high speed ADSL connection that is 24 Mbs down 2 Mbs Up)  that you may only be getting half of that at best.

If your connection is a T1 (1.5 Mbs) then you will only be getting 512mbs upload speed which will also affect your service delivery.

All factors to consider when host Moodle yourself on (I assume) your  home line.  If you are you may want to speak to your provider and secure a business grade line.

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In reply to Chris Ainsworth

Re: Will I get better speed from linux?

by Visvanath Ratnaweera -
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At such low speeds like 1.5 Mbit/s, it is very likely that the link will be the bottleneck. Still I have a question: Where did this figure appear in the current discussion.

A decent hoster will have a couple of Gbit connections with the peers, so the bottleneck in the uplink is effectivey the 100 Mbit/s network card (unless you opted for a Gbit card).

At those rates the bottleneck may shift to what the disk subsystem can deliver. I guess modern disks give like 60-80 MByte/s.

Once you hit that limit, all sorts of caching systems and the cpu itself come into the picture.

In any case, this discussion hat no direct connection to the original question "Will I get better speed from Linux?".
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In reply to Visvanath Ratnaweera

Re: Will I get better speed from linux?

by Anthony Borrow -
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My experience was yes, I did get better speed from my LAMP server than I did when it was configured as a WIMP server; however, it is hard to determine what improvements came from Linux and which ones came from Apache. Since I did not run apache on the Windows server it is not a fair comparison.
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