ticalc.org
Basics Archives Community Services Programming
Hardware Help About Search Your Account
   Home :: Archives :: News :: Welcome to Our New Server

Welcome to Our New Server
Posted by Henrik on 4 October 2003, 09:19 GMT

If you are reading this, then you are visiting us at our new server.

After two years of planning and behind-the-scenes work, we have finally retired our old trustworthy Pentium 200 MMX, 128 MB memory, running Linux 2.2. On our Hardware and Software page, you can read more about the new hardware in our main server and what software we use as of now.

Basically, we now have a dual processor machine, lots of memory, and hard disks in a RAID 5 configuration that gives four times as much disk space as before. We have also moved up to Linux 2.4 and Apache 2.0 (from 1.3).

But it is not all hardware and server software. More behind-the-scenes work has been done on our in house software solutions. We took the time to streamline and optimize, sometimes rewrote parts of our systems and services to better serve you in the years to come.

This upgrade will enable to us to extend, enhance, and add new features to the ticalc.org you know and love. Once again, welcome to our new server.

(The photo shows the new server in the back of Magnus' car on 28 October 2002 when he picked it up from Henrik.)

Update (Henrik): You should also note better response and download times from our web server. The first reason is Apache MPM worker that gives us a hybrid multi-threaded multi-process server instead of the old non-threaded, pre-forking server. The second reason is mod_deflate that compresses content before it is delivered to the client. Both these new features will most of the time decrease download time per page at least tenfold.

Update (Henrik): Buy & Sell service has been retired as there are better similar services out there.

Update (Henrik): Site Map is gone as we believe our site is easy enough to navigate anyway.

Update (Henrik): Hosted sites are able to update their sites again.

Update (Henrik): Our file archivers are processing the incoming queue once again. Please report any problems.

Update (Henrik): Hosted sites should ftp to their hostname in order to update their site, not ftp.ticalc.org, as it does not exist anymore.

 


The comments below are written by ticalc.org visitors. Their views are not necessarily those of ticalc.org, and ticalc.org takes no responsibility for their content.


Re: Welcome to Our New Server
Aaron Riekenberg  Account Info

It's cool that you guys upgraded your server, but a dual PPro 200 box? No offense, but that's *OLD*! PPros go for almost nothing these days. Why not go for some slightly newer hardware?

     5 October 2003, 05:58 GMT

Re: Re: Welcome to Our New Server
henrik Account Info
(Web Page)

Actually it is very hard to get your hands on a real Pentium Pro. P2s are much more common but sucks in server applications.

The server was free and a huge improvement of our earlier one. Hence it is a huge improvement for us at no cost. Also, we do not need anything 'better', it is not Windows we are running after all (in which case we would need 20 times better hardware to make up for bad written software).

     5 October 2003, 11:02 GMT

Re: Re: Welcome to Our New Server
henrik Account Info
(Web Page)

And also of course, processor speed is not at all very important in server appliances. You need a good and effective bus architecture, lots of memory (512+) and good disks (SCSI).

You can have many MHz you want, if you still use EIDE disks your machine will crawl under server load.

There is really no need for today's rediculous processor speeds in servers. Those processor speeds of the P4 is to make up for all the other crappy hardware, crappy motherboards, crappy hard disks, crappy NICs, and so on.

As a fnal note, our processors spend most of their time being idle as it takes much less than 400 MHz to run the site.

     5 October 2003, 11:07 GMT

Re: Re: Re: Welcome to Our New Server
Matt M

Is it just me or does it seem that every time a company comes out with a new computer or Microsoft comes out with new software they get less and less reliable? I know people who like the fonts "Pica" and "Elete" (typewriters) because they don't lock up, crash, dump your work, open the wrong file, loose a document, etc.

     5 October 2003, 19:22 GMT

Re: Re: Re: Welcome to Our New Server
Aaron Riekenberg  Account Info

I agree with your logic of not using more hardware than you need to run the site, and I certainly always applaud the use of free hardware. However, in the interest of keeping the facts straight, here are a few notes:

"Actually it is very hard to get your hands on a real Pentium Pro. P2s are much more common but sucks in server applications."

I agree that it is hard to get PPros anymore. P2s are probably still more common, although they too are getting rather old and are no longer being produced. I'm not sure why you think P2s suck compared to PPros for servers. A P2 can have a 100mhz fsb, whereas the fastest PPro only had a 66mhz bus. P2 boards also support SDRAM DIMMs, as opposed to the slower EDO or FPM SIMMs a 440FX-based PPro board would use. In addition, P2s use nearly the same core as a PPro... the only differences are the addition of MMX on the P2 (which makes certain operations faster) and, of course, the higher clock speed of the P2. The really cool of feature of the PPro was that it had L2 cache on the cpu that ran at the full cpu clock speed. Admittedly, the L2 cache on a P2 runs at only half the clock speed of the cpu, but decently fast P2 (400-450mhz) is still going to have cache as fast or faster than a PPro and the cpu itself will be much faster.

     6 October 2003, 04:01 GMT


Re: Re: Re: Re: Welcome to Our New Server
Magnus Hagander  Account Info
(Web Page)

The P2 sucks compared to a PPro at equivalent speed. Actually, a PPro beats a P2 at much higher clockspeed. But not at twice the clockspeed - you're definitly right there.

Also, the P2 scales *much* better in multi-CPU scenarios. IIRC, Intel built a box with 9000+ PPro CPUs back then (note: Did not run Windows. Nor Linux.). The generic p2 never scaled beyond 2.

     6 October 2003, 08:34 GMT


Re: Re: Re: Welcome to Our New Server
Aaron Riekenberg  Account Info

This is a second post to beat the post length limit. :) To continue...

"There is really no need for today's rediculous processor speeds in servers. Those processor speeds of the P4 is to make up for all the other crappy hardware, crappy motherboards, crappy hard disks, crappy NICs, and so on."

To the first part of this, I would say that it depends on what type of server you're running. For a web server like yours, a more modern processor probably isn't necessary as you say. However, I can think of many server applications for which a dual Pro 200 box simply wouldn't cut it (consider the fact that you got the box for free, after all). And I certainly don't believe that todays cpus are as fast as they are simply because other hardware is "crappy". If you believe modern devices are poor, why not just use your old ones with a newer board and cpus? Personally, though, I think that a nice dual-channel DDR motherboard paired with 64-bit PCI-X nics and raid controllers won't need an incredibly fast cpu to overcome its "crappiness" as compared to older hardware.

     6 October 2003, 04:02 GMT


Re: Re: Re: Re: Welcome to Our New Server
Matt M

There's a limit???

     7 October 2003, 20:03 GMT


Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Welcome to Our New Server
Chivo  Account Info

Yeah, a limit was placed on post lengths sometime after someone posted chapters from "War and Peace" on one of these forums about a year or so ago. I don't know if that's the reason for the limit, but it's probably one the reasons.

     8 October 2003, 20:06 GMT


Re: Re: Welcome to Our New Server
Magnus Hagander  Account Info
(Web Page)

Actually, I was looking at replacement PPro CPUs for work about a year back. They go for around $2,500. (Assuming you want new, which you want for a production server at a professional organisation)

     5 October 2003, 11:48 GMT


Re: Re: Re: Welcome to Our New Server
Aaron Riekenberg  Account Info
(Web Page)

Umm... if you can find somebody willing to pay $2500 for any 200MHz x86 CPU, I've got a nice beach-front resort in Antarctica he or she might also be interested in. :)

Seriously though, I think you're going to have trouble finding a "new" Pentium Pro... according to Intel's site they're no longer being manufactured, and interactive support was discontinued on October 24, 2000 (this support would be discontinued AFTER the cpus stopped being manufactured, btw). If you're willing to go for used, then, you can easily find a pair of PPros for around 20-30 USD on a site like eBay.

     6 October 2003, 03:35 GMT


Re: Re: Re: Re: Welcome to Our New Server
Magnus Hagander  Account Info
(Web Page)

This is why they are so expensive. Companies like IBM and HP/Compaq can still deliver them as part of service agreements, and outside. They have stockpiles.

     6 October 2003, 08:38 GMT

Re: Welcome to Our New Server
Nitrocloud  Account Info
(Web Page)

Linux 2.2!? That's OLD as CRAP! You need to get a compiled and optimized 2.6.0-test6, it's a little faster and still stable. At least you could do stable 2.4.22! But 2.2 is old...

     5 October 2003, 16:36 GMT

Re: Re: Welcome to Our New Server
Nitrocloud  Account Info
(Web Page)

Notice that I'm talking about the old server, which although slow, could run these kernels perfectly.

     5 October 2003, 16:48 GMT


Re: Re: Re: Welcome to Our New Server
Magnus Hagander  Account Info
(Web Page)

Yes, we could've put at least 2.4 on it. On the other hand, 2.2 was rock solid on it (zero problems for years - except for the occasional security update). And changing the kernel level on a production server is not something to undertake lightly. And in the equation was the knowledge that we had a full hardware replacement in plan..

Also, 2.6.0-testing? On a production server? You have to be kidding. Sure, it's nice, but it's still testing. Going with the experience from preivous Linux versions, not until 2.6.10-15 or so, no thanks.
(Now, on a desktop or personal server, that's a whole different issue)

     5 October 2003, 18:00 GMT

Re: Re: Welcome to Our New Server
Kevin Kofler
(Web Page)

>2.6.0-test6

So you are suggesting to use a testing kernel on a production server? Not a good idea IMHO...

     5 October 2003, 17:12 GMT


Re: Re: Welcome to Our New Server
Matt M

Who cares if it's old if it works!!! I have a 10+ year old computer at my grandparents and it has windows 3.1 and dos! OK, it's slow but it hasn't crashed yet. Just because it's newer and faster dosn't mean it's better.

     5 October 2003, 19:17 GMT


Re: Re: Re: Welcome to Our New Server
slimey_limey  Account Info
(Web Page)

Yes and I downloaded dosemu for my Linux box the other day... emulating a 386 on my 1.7GHz Celeron... happy memories...

I found a bootdisk and it booted from it, at poweron! 5.25", 1200K, DOS 4! Fun, eh?

     15 October 2003, 16:42 GMT

Re: Welcome to Our New Server
DWedit  Account Info
(Web Page)

Why don't you just stick a like to /pub right on the top bar? Label it "File Archives" or something. Remove one of those useless links, or just add it. It would probably make the site a lot more newb friendly. No more 5 clicks to get to /pub.

     5 October 2003, 22:15 GMT


Re: Re: Welcome to Our New Server
Matt Mullins  Account Info

Yeah! I'd have to agree with that --- A LOT.

Good idea.

-MrM

     6 October 2003, 00:44 GMT

Re: Re: Re: Welcome to Our New Server
angelboy Account Info
(Web Page)

Why do so many people depend on their mouse? Can't you just type in ticalc.org/pub/ instead of being lazy?

     6 October 2003, 21:10 GMT

Re: Re: Re: Re: Welcome to Our New Server
no_one_2000_  Account Info
(Web Page)

More than that, I type the whole thing out every time I browse the archives...

http:// www.ticalc.org/ pub/89/asm/games/, for instance. It saves a LOT of time... but now that the server is faster, I think I might not need to go to all that work.

     6 October 2003, 23:50 GMT

Re: Re: Re: Re: Welcome to Our New Server
Matt Mullins  Account Info

Well, that works --- very well :-)

-MrM

     7 October 2003, 02:27 GMT

Re: Re: Re: Re: Welcome to Our New Server
Travis Evans Account Info

Or you could just bookmark it.

     7 October 2003, 16:43 GMT

Re: Re: Re: Re: Welcome to Our New Server
Matt M

but the keyboard uses more energy - with the mouse all you need to move is 1 finger! (or 1 hand if you don't have a touchpad/pointstick like a laptop has)

     7 October 2003, 20:06 GMT


Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Welcome to Our New Server
hat118  Account Info
(Web Page)

I type it out and it is much easier than moving the mouse around since I would need to move my arms to move the mouse and then get my hands back to the keys and if someone is talking to me I just use alt+tab from the keyboard. So even typing is a form of lazyiness

     7 October 2003, 21:51 GMT


Re: Re: Re: Re: Welcome to Our New Server
Nathan Crank  Account Info
(Web Page)

or they could add a button, and we could all be lazy... i like that idea much better mr. angleboy

     9 October 2003, 02:29 GMT


Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Welcome to Our New Server
angelboy Account Info
(Web Page)

You might like it better, but others might not

     12 October 2003, 19:00 GMT


Re: Re: Re: Welcome to Our New Server
Matthew Marshall  Account Info

>>-MrM

M's are aesthetically pleasing, arn't they?

MWM

     10 October 2003, 22:29 GMT


Re: Re: Re: Re: Welcome to Our New Server
Matt Mullins  Account Info

Yes. However, `MRM' happens to be my initials :-)

-MrM

     12 October 2003, 20:30 GMT

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Welcome to Our New Server
W Hibdon  Account Info

While that is fine and dandy, Mr. Marshall's initials also happen to me M_M, with the middle initial being a W. I thought that it was a play on my initials at first, but it is not.

-W-

     13 October 2003, 20:18 GMT


Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Welcome to Our New Server
Matt M Account Info

ME TOO!

     18 October 2003, 21:31 GMT

1  2  3  4  5  6  7  

You can change the number of comments per page in Account Preferences.

  Copyright © 1996-2012, the ticalc.org project. All rights reserved. | Contact Us | Disclaimer