[Benchmarking] Test System Specs

[Daniel Morissette]

Daniel Morissette wrote:
> FYI I've picked up tonight the server that I had mentioned in a previous 
> email. Unless it really doesn't want to cooperate then we should have it 
> online in the next few days. I'd suggest we try that avenue and if it 
> doesn't work out then we can always look at renting.
> 

Talking of this server, I suggest we set it up with Ubuntu Hardy 
(8.04/LTS) 64 bits unless someone has objections. There are two 300GB 
disks that will be setup in software RAID-1.

Then we have a choice to make: we can either run everything in the same 
host, or use OpenVZ to setup two virtual environments (VEs) on the 
server, one for MapServer and one for GeoServer ... more VEs could 
easily be created on the machine if MapGuide or other groups join the 
game later on.

We have been using OpenVZ for a while and it's really great if you want 
to avoid possible conflicts between hosted environments. Think of it as 
a chroot++ where you have root access to a full OS instead of just a 
user account. I don't know if we absolutely need the VEs in this 
specific case, but OpenVZ is very light weight and should not impact 
performance unless two groups run benchmarks at the same time. Well, we 
may need to bump up the default limits on resources available to each VE 
since we want to push the limits of the system but that's about it. We 
could even shutdown all the VEs and keep only one running when we run 
the final/official benchmarks if anyone has concerns. The benefit is 
that each VE would be a standalone environment (a complete OS) where 
each group can install software at will and there is no risk that one 
group installs stuff that interferes with the other group's software.

OTOH, if we prefer to have everything (MapServer+GeoServer+...) in the 
same host/environment then I have no problem with that... we'll just 
have to be careful with what we install to not interfere with the other 
group's setup.

So I'm tempted to go with an OpenVZ setup with one VE for MapServer and 
one for GeoServer... if anyone has a better idea then please speak up ASAP.

Daniel
-- 
Daniel Morissette
http://www.mapgears.com/