I received this request off-list, believe it would be more usefull if discussed in the right forum.
> I have read many of your post in the forum, but couldnt quite arrive at the apt hardware requirement and server setup required for moodle installation to support 100 concurrent users and around 65 to 70 courses deployed.
First of all, don't expect an answer like "AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+, 2x 1 MB L2 cache, 90 nm, FSB 1000, 4 GB DDR-2 RAM 1000, Mother Board ..., Debian Etch 64 bit, ...". There are simply too many alternatives. People here can give only guide lines. This should be your first port of call http://docs.moodle.org/en/Performance
Secondly, there are various approaches to buying server hardware, as explained here http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=39903#p193045 Decide on the approach which suits you.
Thirdly, "100 concurrent users" is too vague. Are they just reading online docs or writing forum postings or taking an online-test (quiz) or chatting (chat module) make a huge difference. As a rough estimate a state-of-the art server (64 bit 3 GHz, 4 GB RAM, LAMP untuned. Moodle 1.8) will most likely have problems with 100 candidated taking an online test. Will definitely not handle 100 people chatting (using the chat module)! See http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=77158
And there is a debate on what "concurrency" means, see http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=69926#p315984
Finally, don't forget the network infrastructure!
Hope this helps
In reply to Visvanath Ratnaweera
Re: apt hardware requirement and server setup required
by Kiril Ilarionov -
I investigate about guide lines -
how to set up moodle server for
up to 120 concurrent users and
about 70 courses deployed now.
The first choice must be
an intermediatle layer between
hardware, application and network infrastucture.
i.e. Linux or BSD.
My choice is BSD family, incl. MAC OS,
because:
1) there is a clean development line
and upgrade process
2) stability + excelent networking (1st OS implemented to Internet)
3) huge set of proven development tools
In connection to stability my favourite is OpenBSD.
If IPSec is not a requirement
then OpenBSD 3.9 is an excelent choice today.
I am looking for a hardware from upper side of
a list of devices supported by OS,
http://www.openbsd.org/39.html
particularly now.
i.e. hardware power for stable OS
with excelent benchmarks about lower hardware.
required set of functions
and version stability. i.e.
it have to be not less than Moodle 1.x.4
from a set of supported versions.
Today Moodle 1.6.5+ is a good choice
for a green as grass Moodle sites and
to upgrade Moodle in connection with
local Moodle user education
and requirements.
Is it a reliable server?
Kiril
how to set up moodle server for
up to 120 concurrent users and
about 70 courses deployed now.
The first choice must be
an intermediatle layer between
hardware, application and network infrastucture.
OS
The above layer have to be open source OS,i.e. Linux or BSD.
My choice is BSD family, incl. MAC OS,
because:
1) there is a clean development line
and upgrade process
2) stability + excelent networking (1st OS implemented to Internet)
3) huge set of proven development tools
In connection to stability my favourite is OpenBSD.
If IPSec is not a requirement
then OpenBSD 3.9 is an excelent choice today.
HARDWARE
And now the second choice is hardware.I am looking for a hardware from upper side of
a list of devices supported by OS,
http://www.openbsd.org/39.html
particularly now.
i.e. hardware power for stable OS
with excelent benchmarks about lower hardware.
ADD-ONS INSTALLATION and CONFIGURATIONS
- initial instalation of an OpenBSD
- build a new kernel for a real server inventory
- use server by command prompt only, i.e. no any X.
- firewall and antivirus
- DNS servers
- mail server, incl. sendmail version for OpenBSD
- Apache 1.3.x
- PHP not less than 5.2.x
- a set of PHP accelerators
- PHP Settings, Extensions and libraries as per http://docs.moodle.org/en/Install
- Postgres 8.2.x or later
Moodle Install
Moodle version depends of a required set of functions
and version stability. i.e.
it have to be not less than Moodle 1.x.4
from a set of supported versions.
Today Moodle 1.6.5+ is a good choice
for a green as grass Moodle sites and
to upgrade Moodle in connection with
local Moodle user education
and requirements.
Is it a reliable server?
Kiril
In reply to Visvanath Ratnaweera
Re: apt hardware requirement and server setup required
by Lakshmi Iyer -
Hi Visvanath,
Thanks a lot for the reply. I am a newbie to moodle. We are actually experimenting the hosting of moodle for our college and we are setting up the server for 100 concurrent users. When I say 100 concurrent users, they are the users who take up a quiz at the same time. We have come up with configuration as below
2 servers
1. For apache/moodle
2. For mysql Server
Apache server configuration is as follows ( Dual Socket, Dual-Core 1U Rack Server)
1. Dual core Opteron 2210, 2*1.8 GHz, 2*1MB Cache
2. 4 GB RAM
3. 80 GB SATA Hard Disk
Mysql Server Configuration ( 2-Socket, Dual-Core 2U Rack Server)
1. 2 Dual-Core 64-bit AMD OpteronTM 2200 Series Processors with 2x1MB L2 cache 3 GHz
2. 8 GB RAM
3. 140 GB SATA Hard disk
Operating System: SUSE Linux 10
Network Bandwidth: 10MBits/sec
Can you please let me know if this configuration helps in catering to 100 users accessing quiz at the same time??
Thanks in Advance,
Regards,
Lakshmi
We have a single linux box with 4GB RAM and it occasionally handles 100 concurrent users; with little delay. The difficulty in answering your question depends on the type of quiz. For my final exam I would have about 100 students in our labs taking a 150 question quiz generated as a single page. It takes a few seconds for Moodle to create each quiz and the rooms have to be staggered somewhat to prevent the server from becoming overloaded. If we used pages of 5 or 10 questions each it would probably not be that much of an issue but you can see that depending on what you are asking Moodle to do will depend on how many concurrent users you can have. My initial reaction to your setup however is that it should be adequate. Peace - Anthony
In reply to Lakshmi Iyer
Re: apt hardware requirement and server setup required
by Visvanath Ratnaweera -
> Can you please let me know if this configuration helps in catering to 100 users accessing quiz at the same time?
As you can see from my question here http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=57028#p340313 I'm looking for the answer myself.
Let's take the various issues seperately:
1. RAM: For Moodle 1.7 http://docs.moodle.org/en/Performance recommends 40 MB per PHP process. Which means 100 really concurrent users will eat up your 4 GB. You'll be happy that the OS is Linux, a Windoze will waste a good 0.5 GB I heard.
I personally prefer a self-compiled Linux-Kernel on a Debian, Slackware or *BSD. Also some adminstrators here recommend Lighttpd over Apache, if you looking for efficient memory usage. but they aren't options for you I guess.
2. CPU: You haven't purchased machines I understand. Otherwise the standard method of comparing servers here is http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=57028
3. Network: Do you mean the machines are connected to the switch with 10 Mbit/s network cards? Today 100 Mbit/s is standard. For cross-connecting servers, like the connection web-server db-server people take 1 GBit/s cards.
100 Mbit/s makes IMHO sense. Because the harddist subsystem of todays machines can deliver 60-80 Mbit/s throughput. By putting a 10 Mbit/s link you cap that capacity.
I hope others who are working with setups of this size, will come to my rescue
As you can see from my question here http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=57028#p340313 I'm looking for the answer myself.
Let's take the various issues seperately:
1. RAM: For Moodle 1.7 http://docs.moodle.org/en/Performance recommends 40 MB per PHP process. Which means 100 really concurrent users will eat up your 4 GB. You'll be happy that the OS is Linux, a Windoze will waste a good 0.5 GB I heard.
I personally prefer a self-compiled Linux-Kernel on a Debian, Slackware or *BSD. Also some adminstrators here recommend Lighttpd over Apache, if you looking for efficient memory usage. but they aren't options for you I guess.
2. CPU: You haven't purchased machines I understand. Otherwise the standard method of comparing servers here is http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=57028
3. Network: Do you mean the machines are connected to the switch with 10 Mbit/s network cards? Today 100 Mbit/s is standard. For cross-connecting servers, like the connection web-server db-server people take 1 GBit/s cards.
100 Mbit/s makes IMHO sense. Because the harddist subsystem of todays machines can deliver 60-80 Mbit/s throughput. By putting a 10 Mbit/s link you cap that capacity.
I hope others who are working with setups of this size, will come to my rescue
In reply to Visvanath Ratnaweera
Re: apt hardware requirement and server setup required
by Maik Riecken -
My two cents:
Hardware needs heavily depend on individual requirements. Text based quizzes are another league than quizzes containing multimedia files.
Make yout installation able to scale (a separate MySQL ist a good idea) und buy lots of RAM.
With reverse proxy or fastCGI-setups (wonderful loadbalance possible with lighty) you can add new servers when ressources become low.
Maik
Make yout installation able to scale (a separate MySQL ist a good idea) und buy lots of RAM.
With reverse proxy or fastCGI-setups (wonderful loadbalance possible with lighty) you can add new servers when ressources become low.
Maik