Hello folks,
Let's say you have a super-complicated Drupal site with ubercart + a gazillion other modules, but you have 0 visitors.
Will that site use significant server resources? Or does a site require actual traffic in order to make an impact on server resources?
Thanks for the help.
Shai
It's unlikely it would cause a problem, but it's totally possible. For example, if you have a task that completely consumes the CPU/Disk/RAM then having 1 user running that task would slow down the other sites.
Given that it's unlikely, I suggest you "try it and see." Get a monitoring service for the live sites that shows their performance. If you notice it degrading after you setup this crazy site you'll know you've got a problem.
FWIW, I like pingdom.com for monitoring.
Cheers, Greg
-- Greg Knaddison | 720-310-5623 | http://growingventuresolutions.com Mastering Drupal | http://www.masteringdrupal.com
On Mon, Sep 27, 2010 at 10:08 AM, Shai Gluskin shai@content2zero.com wrote:
Hello folks, Let's say you have a super-complicated Drupal site with ubercart + a gazillion other modules, but you have 0 visitors. Will that site use significant server resources? Or does a site require actual traffic in order to make an impact on server resources? Thanks for the help. Shai
-- [ Drupal support list | http://lists.drupal.org/ ]
Greg and all,
Thanks.
To restate differently: though as little as one task can use significant server resources, zero tasks cannot. And for a site to be "on", "ready" for a visitor to visit, it doesn't have to run *any *tasks (though the very next visitor *could* cause server issues if the task were intense enough). So running Drupal is NOT like a computer operating system: it does not require extra overhead (other than the basic overhead of the LAMP [or whichever] stack) in order to be "on."
And thanks for the suggestion about pingdom.com. I'm going to be looking into it. I've been using websitepulse.com which can get really expansive and the UI is a bit tough. The expense has caused me to run limited tests. Though they certainly offer very fine grained controls and custom tests.
Thanks again,
Shai
On Mon, Sep 27, 2010 at 12:44 PM, Greg Knaddison < Greg@growingventuresolutions.com> wrote:
It's unlikely it would cause a problem, but it's totally possible. For example, if you have a task that completely consumes the CPU/Disk/RAM then having 1 user running that task would slow down the other sites.
Given that it's unlikely, I suggest you "try it and see." Get a monitoring service for the live sites that shows their performance. If you notice it degrading after you setup this crazy site you'll know you've got a problem.
FWIW, I like pingdom.com for monitoring.
Cheers, Greg
-- Greg Knaddison | 720-310-5623 | http://growingventuresolutions.com Mastering Drupal | http://www.masteringdrupal.com
On Mon, Sep 27, 2010 at 10:08 AM, Shai Gluskin shai@content2zero.com wrote:
Hello folks, Let's say you have a super-complicated Drupal site with ubercart + a gazillion other modules, but you have 0 visitors. Will that site use significant server resources? Or does a site require actual traffic in order to make an impact on server resources? Thanks for the help. Shai
-- [ Drupal support list | http://lists.drupal.org/ ]
-- [ Drupal support list | http://lists.drupal.org/ ]
On Mon, Sep 27, 2010 at 11:17 AM, Shai Gluskin shai@content2zero.com wrote:
Greg and all, Thanks. To restate differently: though as little as one task can use significant server resources, zero tasks cannot. And for a site to be "on", "ready" for a visitor to visit, it doesn't have to run any tasks (though the very next visitor could cause server issues if the task were intense enough). So running Drupal is NOT like a computer operating system: it does not require extra overhead (other than the basic overhead of the LAMP [or whichever] stack) in order to be "on."
I guess you want folks to evaluate that statement?
That is mostly true. If you are using an opcode cache they will often store the code in RAM regardless of whether or not someone is currently visiting that site.
I can't think of any other server resources that are consumed by a site with literally zero visitors.
Greg
-- Greg Knaddison | 720-310-5623 | http://growingventuresolutions.com Mastering Drupal | http://www.masteringdrupal.com
Except that even if you think you have zero visitors, you will still get a lot of spider traffic, enough that you really have to work at SEO and attract users before they dominate the spiders.
On Mon, Sep 27, 2010 at 1:51 PM, Greg Knaddison Greg@growingventuresolutions.com wrote:
On Mon, Sep 27, 2010 at 11:17 AM, Shai Gluskin shai@content2zero.com wrote:
Greg and all, Thanks. To restate differently: though as little as one task can use significant server resources, zero tasks cannot. And for a site to be "on", "ready" for a visitor to visit, it doesn't have to run any tasks (though the very next visitor could cause server issues if the task were intense enough). So running Drupal is NOT like a computer operating system: it does not require extra overhead (other than the basic overhead of the LAMP [or whichever] stack) in order to be "on."
I guess you want folks to evaluate that statement?
That is mostly true. If you are using an opcode cache they will often store the code in RAM regardless of whether or not someone is currently visiting that site.
I can't think of any other server resources that are consumed by a site with literally zero visitors.
Greg
-- Greg Knaddison | 720-310-5623 | http://growingventuresolutions.com Mastering Drupal | http://www.masteringdrupal.com -- [ Drupal support list | http://lists.drupal.org/ ]
Shai,
Keep in mind, too, that if by resources you are concerned about such things as RAM and CPU usage on the server, a simple Telnet connection and 'top' command can tell you a lot about your site. The threads/processes kicked off by your server are often much more the source of resource consumption than the Drupal site itself (although you cannot starve a site on memory based on how many modules you need).
I have found over the years that hosting services have very different and sometimes nonsensical assumptions about what a basic Apache (in my case) server config should be. For a module-intensive but low concurrent user scenario, you can very likely reduce the minimum number of thread/processes instantiated as well as reduce their lifespan and get good performance with limited resources.
Under Apache, such config settings as StartServers, MinSpareServers, MaxSpareServers, ServerLimit, MaxClients, and MaxRequestsPerChild can have a big impact on your Drupal site resource consumption and site performance.
BTW, I am no expert in these low level regards but can only speak from WTF?! experience.
--Sohodojo Jim--
On Mon, Sep 27, 2010 at 10:08 AM, Shai Gluskin shai@content2zero.com wrote:
Hello folks, Let's say you have a super-complicated Drupal site with ubercart + a gazillion other modules, but you have 0 visitors. Will that site use significant server resources? Or does a site require actual traffic in order to make an impact on server resources? Thanks for the help. Shai
-
Greg Knaddison -
Shai Gluskin -
Sohodojo Jim -
Walt Daniels