About the license and CPUs

[Brainlag]

Hello,

I am a little bit confused about the license system and processors/cores.

Currently the configuration of the box I intend to install LiteSpeed is:

[root@server2 ~]# cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor : 0
vendor_id : GenuineIntel
cpu family : 15
model : 4
model name : Intel(R) Xeon(TM) CPU 3.20GHz
stepping : 10
cpu MHz : 3192.595
cache size : 2048 KB
physical id : 0
siblings : 2
core id : 0
cpu cores : 1
fdiv_bug : no
hlt_bug : no
f00f_bug : no
coma_bug : no
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 5
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe nx lm constant_tsc pni monitor ds_cpl cid xtpr
bogomips : 6387.71

processor : 1
vendor_id : GenuineIntel
cpu family : 15
model : 4
model name : Intel(R) Xeon(TM) CPU 3.20GHz
stepping : 10
cpu MHz : 3192.595
cache size : 2048 KB
physical id : 0
siblings : 2
core id : 0
cpu cores : 1
fdiv_bug : no
hlt_bug : no
f00f_bug : no
coma_bug : no
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 5
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe nx lm constant_tsc pni monitor ds_cpl cid xtpr
bogomips : 6383.98

processor : 2
vendor_id : GenuineIntel
cpu family : 15
model : 4
model name : Intel(R) Xeon(TM) CPU 3.20GHz
stepping : 10
cpu MHz : 3192.595
cache size : 2048 KB
physical id : 3
siblings : 2
core id : 3
cpu cores : 1
fdiv_bug : no
hlt_bug : no
f00f_bug : no
coma_bug : no
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 5
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe nx lm constant_tsc pni monitor ds_cpl cid xtpr
bogomips : 6384.08

processor : 3
vendor_id : GenuineIntel
cpu family : 15
model : 4
model name : Intel(R) Xeon(TM) CPU 3.20GHz
stepping : 10
cpu MHz : 3192.595
cache size : 2048 KB
physical id : 3
siblings : 2
core id : 3
cpu cores : 1
fdiv_bug : no
hlt_bug : no
f00f_bug : no
coma_bug : no
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 5
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe nx lm constant_tsc pni monitor ds_cpl cid xtpr
bogomips : 6384.18

What license (1-2or4 CPU ) should I apply ?

Thank you in advance for your reply.

[ffeingol]

Brainlag,

Don't think in terms of how many CPU's/cores you have (they are the same to LSWS as far as I know) think about how many you want LSWS to "use". If, for example, you are running a heavy PHP/MySQL application you may only want a 2-CPU license. That then "logically" leaves 1/2 your CPU's/cores to run the PHP process and MySQL.

I hope that helps,

Frank

[mistwang]

What Frank said is true, another thing to consider is the I/O wait, like all other light weight web servers, blocking disk I/O will block lshttpd process, so if your server has high I/O wait, you should consider license for higher CPU count in order to compensate and bring the best out.

[azn_romeo_4u]

I'm on a total newbie at servers. Someone has recommended me litespeed.

I have a Intel Core 2 Quad, so that means 4 cores right? So according to what ffiengol said, you don't have to actually purchase the 4 core package. Instead you can just purchase for php/mysql application? And all this can be set up easily by yourself?

Also is http stuff considered for 1 core?

[mistwang]

You are free to use 1-CPU, 2-CPU or 4-CPU license on your server.

[azn_romeo_4u]

Cool.

So for example. I have two websites. One is a pretty large and active forum, and another website that allows hotlinking of small 1kb-15kb files. Mainly in those range. Some files go over 100kb but rarely.

Would two core setup be good or should I just try the 4core?

Also on the trial version do you get to test the full version?

[mysitegroup]

Originally Posted by mistwang

blocking disk I/O will block lshttpd process

IOWAIT is the killer.... it is why we went to RAID 10 with 12 15K SAS drives... we increased our IO performance 5x over a 4 disc RAID 10 array (also 15k drives).

In my humble opinion, processor speeds almost make no difference... the key to a fast site (in addition to something like Litespeed) is minimum IOWAIT. It seems to be the major variable that affects web performance.

Anything to reduce IOWAIT is worth it.

Warm regards.

[auser]

Originally Posted by mysitegroup

IOWAIT is the killer.... it is why we went to RAID 10 with 12 15K SAS drives... we increased our IO performance 5x over a 4 disc RAID 10 array (also 15k drives).

interesting ... can you specify more about it: how can 12 disks achieve 5x IO performance than 4 disks? what's your RAID card? Thanks.

[mysitegroup]

Using IOZONE... you can easily test disk IO, and set block size and file size. If you want to test with noatime off or on, you can easily do that too - and know how much it helps on your system.

http://www.iozone.org/

You can also use SYSBENCH - use that to do OLTP benchmarks, test memory speed, and cpu speed. We have seen incorrectly matched memory cause as much as a 30% slowdown in the new Intel QUADQUAD and QUADHEX Dunningtons.

http://sysbench.sourceforge.net/

We have several servers... with different RAID 10 ARRAYS, based on SATA drives, SAS (SCSI)drives, and even SSD (Solid State Memory) (Intel X25-E Extreme) drives. Some are 4 drive RAID 10, some 6 drive, and some are RAID 1. We don't use RAID 5.

I have a file somewhere where I did a bunch of comparisons but I can't find it right now. Sorry.

In a nutshell, a RAID 10 array of 4 SAS 300GB 15K RPM drives results in ~ 46,000 on the Random write test, while a RAID 10 array of 12 SAS 300GB 15K RPM drives results in ~ 300,000.

The RAID 10 12 Disc Array is even faster than a single SSD drive.

We have found the SSD drives in RAID don't do very well - seems the controllers are not really up to it yet, even the latest Adaptecs.

We use the Adaptec \ 51645 \ SATA/SAS RAID controller in all our servers. Big onboard cache, fast co-processor, and 8x PCI.

Warm regards.

[ShoppingMopping]

Superb.It’s a great work. Thank you for sharing it.