Ram Usage

[Zero]

I've recently migrated to a dedicated environment - what a luxury! I'd like to know what kind of experience others have had regarding ram usage.

Obviously, the content and function of the site play a role and here are a few specifics..:

Processor Name	Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.80GHz
Vendor ID	GenuineIntel
Processor Speed (MHz)	2793.425
Processor Name	Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.80GHz
Vendor ID	GenuineIntel
Processor Speed (MHz)	2793.425
Total Memory	1027012 kB
Free Memory	68180 kB
Total Swap Memory	811240 kB
Free Swap Memory	784608 kB
System Uptime	6 Days, 1 Hours and 45 Minutes
Apache 1.3.33	Running
DirectAdmin 1.23.5 	Running
Exim 4.50	Running
MySQL 4.0.23	Running
Named 9.2.4 	Running
ProFTPd 1.2.9 	*** Stopped ***
sshd 	*** Stopped ***
vm-Pop3d 1.1.7e 	Running

My loads typically look like this;

18.58, 20.20, 19.39

MySql: 4.0.23
PHP: 4.3.11
Apache: 1.3.33

The machine has 1GB of ram currently, but the usage seems to be roughly equivalent to;

50 users = 512MB

That seems real hign to me and considering the site typically has 150-200 users online at any given time, the loads can be high and the performance less that idea. The engine of the site is based on e107 - although heavily modyfied.

I haven't 'tweaked' any of the core settings yet for PHP, Apache, MySQL but would very much like to know what I can do to make it run more efficiently.

Thanks!

 

[dbeames]

That is a bit high. Your load averages are up there. SSH into the box and run "top" and watch it for a while. See what is chewing up your processors. Once we know the culprit of usage, we can tweak it. Also, what is your output of "free"? Does it seem that alot of ram is used by cache? Or is it truly in use? Anytime you go into swap, thats bad. Swap is slow and the all sites would be affected. Running out of ram could be causing the cpu load to go up. Dunno, watch that top and see what you can come up with.

 

[Zero]

This is going to shock you but I'm only running one site on the box. What is 'top' and what's the command for it?

 

[Zero]

The confusion may stem from the comment I made about users..

'50 users' refers to the number of people signed into my site. :|

 

[jmstacey]

There is a howto on how to optimize MySQL on these forums. You should also adjust apaches values in the httpd configuation (/etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf)

 

[dbeames]

This is going to shock you but I'm only running one site on the box. What is 'top' and what's the command for it?

"top" is a program that monitors system resources. Just simply type top and press enter in a shell. You'll see. I agree with jmstacey though. Check out those posts on optimizing mysql/apache.

 

[Zero]

Thanks guys, I'll check the optimization howto. Bottom line is, you guys think that's the major issue here? I'm throwing ram at the problem but it's still not helping and I'm up to 2GB now.

 

[dbeames]

A correctly configured server with 2gigs of ram should be able to handle a very high traffic site. If not many high traffic sites. So your small usage (comparatively speaking) should not be throwing up that load. I would definately look at those enhancers.

 

[Zero]

'Enhancers' Hmm, me thinks I need to brush up on my lingo, is there a glossary around?

I'm off to find a "How TO Make N00b boXen work gooder" thread.

 

[dbeames]

Lol.. Enhancers, optimizers, optimizations... whatever floats your boat. Its just something that needs to be looked into.

 

[Zero]

I've searched around but I'm not finding a PHP/MySQL/Apache how to make go faster thread. Got a link..?

Thanks for all the help, btw!

 

[dbeames]

Not a problem its what we are here for (I have used DA on my servers for over a year now.. just got around to registering and actually giving back. )

MySQL Optimization: http://www.directadmin.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=132
Apache:
Not a thread here really. You have to browse around the net. Here is a good article to start: http://www.crucialparadigm.com/resources/tutorials/server-administration/optimize-tweak-high-traffic-servers-apache-load.php