Server Performance
When running a Web server, it
is crucial that the machine hosting your site and the various software
components installed, is able to perform well at all times. Granted, there
will be times of increased traffic where users of your site will experience
slowdown. However, the slowdown must be kept within acceptable limits,
otherwise one of two things can happen. The server may fail under the strain
of heavy traffic, or users will be so discouraged by the poor performance,
that they will seek whatever it is the wish to find elsewhere. The aim of
having a website, is to entice as many people as possible, not to drive them
away. This is only half of the battle, getting them to stay is another
challenge altogether. This is extremely important, particularly if your site
provides a source of income, perhaps running an e-commerce application for
example.
Connection Speed
There are several things that
organisations can do in order to maintain acceptable levels of performance,
all server-based. A very important aspect of web server performance, is the
speed of connection to the Internet. As in all things, cost is a
consideration. It is advisable to stretch the budget as far as possible, in
order to acquire the fastest connection. The bottom end of the scale is a
56K modem connection. This is totally unacceptable for commercial use.
Modems may still have a part to play however, if several are installed and
the server software combines the bandwidth of all modems, thus increasing
the speed of the connection. This is perhaps acceptable for servers that are
not required to handle high volume traffic, however, faster technologies
such as ISDN, ADSL or even T1, are a more likely solution.
Hardware
Specification
The more obvious means of
ensuring good performance of the server, is to ensure that it is loaded with
fast resources. The internal components of the machine should again be the
best that is affordable. Cutting corners in this area will be terminal.
Server machines require as much RAM (random access memory) as possible, with
the amount of RAM being directly proportionate to the amount of traffic
being handled by the machine. Also, a fast processor is essential, in fact,
it might be a worth considering multiple processors. OEM versions of Windows
NT can support up to 32 CPUs. This may be rather heavy handed, however, more
than one is a worthwhile consideration, again as needs and cash flow
dictate. The hard drive is a component often overlooked. The faster data can
de accessed on the drive, the faster the user is serviced. Faster drive
types should be consider, e.g. SCSI (small computers system interface,
pronounced scuzzy). SCSI drives have faster access times and faster
throughput, therefore all round better performance. Also, the nature of SCSI
drives is such that more dives can be attached to the motherboard than the
EIDE variety. This of course amounts to more storage space also, very
important for clients who may wish to rent server space or upload sites.
Depending on the nature of your business and purpose of the server, the
extra space may be useful for storing utilities like programs, drivers,
presentations and files, made available as downloads via FTP.
The need for these types of
resources is further underlined by the fact that NT server is a
resource-hungry platform. Unix systems on the other hand, manage resources
more efficiently and requires less.
|
