[mapserver-users] Try Again ... Large scale implementation

[Chris Casad]

Ed:

Thank you for the response.  I'm glad you let me know that my question was
very vague, I wasn't sure if no one could answer it or what.

As for more detail ...

The simple version:  The application in its simplest form would have a
zipcode polygon vector layer that is used to return the zip/cityname where
the lat/long point lies in.  For example, the front-end request would pass a
lat/long and app would respond with the zip/cityname the lat/long resides
in. For something this simple is there a better way then using MapServer?

The complex version:  The application in its complex form would have a
zipcode polygon vector layer and a street line vector layer.  The front-end
request would pass a lat/long and the app would respond with the
zip/cityname and a zoomed in image around the lat/long point.

I understand that saying  "100's of hits per minute or per second" is a wide
range. I guess I was just being broad in the fact that I was hoping to get
some examples for others on what they need hardware wise if they have 100's
per minute or per second.  Unfortunately you never really now whether you
are going to get 100's per minute or 100's per second so I am trying to look
at best and worst case scenarios. =)

I have seen a lot of threads about which is better ArcIMS or MapServer. And
from what I have read MapServer is faster. But is that a simple one to one
request comparison, where MapServer just draws a map faster?  If I have
100's of hits per second do I need to have 50 more servers to handle these
requests than ArcIMS would need?  If so then it would probably be cheaper to
pay for ArcIMS and to not have to deal with a large number of servers?
Correct? Unfortunately I haven't noticed any threads about anyone using
MapServer for large-scale implementations (hence my thread).  Also, I know
that ArcIMS is somewhat easily scaleable if your hit counts increase. Can
MapServer be just as easily scaleable if the need arises or is there a lot
more coding you would have to do?

I would love to be able to use MapServer but I don't want to jump into the
deep end not having any idea of what to expect using it.  I can get an
estimate from ESRI for ArcIMS on how many servers are needed for certain
large scale hit counts, I am hoping to get the same type of estimates or
examples from users of MapServer so that I can hopefully use MapServer.

I hope this is a little more detailed. =)

Thanks
Chris


-----Original Message-----
From: Ed McNierney [mailto:ed at topozone.com]
Sent: Monday, November 19, 2001 10:09 AM
To: Chris Casad; mapserver-users at lists.gis.umn.edu
Subject: RE: [mapserver-users] Try Again ... Large scale implementation


Chris -

This is a pretty complicated question.  The short answer is, sure -
MapServer can do that.  Most things could do it, depending on how much
hardware you throw at them.

You don't do into a lot of detail, and that makes it really hard to
answer your question well.  Saying "100's of hits per minute or even per
second" is a load range of 60 times - there's a long way between 100
hits a minute and 100 hits a second.  Do you know what your requirements
will be?

You might not want to use MapServer for everything.  You mention using
lat/long to return a city/zip, for example.  Depending on exactly what
you're trying to do (do you need the exact zip code that point lies in,
or do you need the nearest zip code centroid?) there might be other
(better) ways to address that specific task.

What kind of data are you using?  Do you have a single vector layer, 14
raster data layers, or 73 vector layers on top of a raster base map?
There's a huge range in there.

There are lots of folks here willing to help, but if you can possibly be
more specific about what your requirements are it will be MUCH easier to
help.

	- Ed

Ed McNierney
Chief Mapmaker
TopoZone.com
ed at topozone.com
(978) 251-4242


-----Original Message-----
From: Chris Casad [mailto:chris at casad.net]
Sent: Monday, November 19, 2001 9:36 AM
To: mapserver-users at lists.gis.umn.edu
Subject: [mapserver-users] Try Again ... Large scale implementation


Hello:

I would really like to be able to use MapServer for my project but I
need
some evidence that it can handle what I need!!

I was wondering if anyone has used MapServer for a large scale
implementation where you could be having 100's of hits per minute or
even
per second.  It may or may not return an image. At the very least it
would
use a lat/long to return a city/zip.

Can MapServer handle a task like this?  Would we have to use a large
number
of servers to handle this number of requests?

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Anyone have any
real
world implementations like this?

Thank you,
Chris