Quicker updates on the new stats server?

[DriveEuro]

I saw your post at the top of the stats pages. Congrats getting the servers switched (finally ).

Was the stats update quicker since its been moved to the new server? I know you don't have all the optimizations in place yet, but I'm just curious. Any clue as to how much faster they *might* be when you get the multiple thread optimization in place?

[Jason]

I *just* changed the DNS over a couple minutes ago, so for some people it might take a couple hours to propagate, others will probably hit it right away...

As for the update time on the new server.... 3 minutes....

The speedy time is due to several factors:

1. Even though the history table is so huge, the new server has a lot more RAM (8GB vs 2GB) so I can dedicate more of it to MySQL which is able to cache indexes better. Also running a lot newer version of MySQL.

2. Multi-threaded processing (4 threads seems to be optimal) + more CPU cores (8 vs 2) and faster CPUs overall... I can run the multithreaded code and still have CPU cores left over for MySQL and the regular website functions.

2. The DBs are running on dedicated 15K RPM 2.5" SAS HDs... The old server had a 10K RPM 3.5" drive for the DB either U160 or U320...

[runlinux]

omg....

THIS IS AWESOME!!!!

[DriveEuro]

Great. I was hoping the stats were going to update as fast as they used to 3-4 years ago (took only 10-15 minutes). But this is even better!

[Librarian]

Well all i could say during the update that just finished was "whoa!" It started, in 1 minute it updated all 8 of the WU's I had done in 3 hours and it was done update like you said in 3 minutes. Great job Jason, this thing is amazing. So if I understand things right, you put the server that you built into the data center and transferred the stats to that?

[Jason]

Actually, as nothing ever goes to plan, here's how things went...

Originally my plan was to build the dedicated FAH processing box and have it here at my office (which I posted some pictures of on the FAH page)... That box got built and I've been using it as a development platform. The reason being the old server that EOC runs on was getting hit pretty hard by the stats as it was older technology (a pair of old single-core netburst 2.4 GHz Xeon's). Without the stats processing capacity was just fine so there was no real need to upgrade the whole server and pay a lot more each month for something that only requires a "burst" of CPU processing every 3 hours.

Not long after it got built, my hosting provider had a major power outage (their power room exploded or something like that), and we were down for a day or two (along with like 9,000 other servers), and even after they temporarily patched power back to the systems we were plagued by continued network and DNS problems... So I decided it was time to jump ship since I have already had some other "issues" since The Planet bought out EV1 and I finally had enough.

So I searched for co-lo providers in Texas (wanted something at least semi-local) and ironically I found my old ISP (which I was very happy with, but I had to switch service due to AT&T screwing me over) offered co-lo here in the Houston area. I called them up and got some more info. They basically have a few racks in a Level 3 owned facility, not too far from where The Planet's building is (since all the fiber terminates in that area, TP probably gets some of their bandwidth from that facility).

Anyhow, I ordered a Dell Power Edge 2970 (2U Rackmount) server that had redudant everything, got it setup as fast as I could here at the office and got it installed in the new facility. Since then I've been moving the sites over from the old server... Most things were moved over rather quickly, the only lingering thing has been the folding stats because they required some careful re-work and testing to make sure nothing broke and ensure the numbers are correct. I have one little site to move over that I'm hosting for a friend, then I can finally cancel my old server at The Planet and be done with them. I was with EV1Servers back when they were called RackShack... many years ago... Basically since I first started having to use dedicated servers. But since TP bought them out customer service has gone in the hole, and the power outage (and how they handled it) finally pushed me over the edge to leave.

So now I "own" the hardware the EOC site runs on (Before, TP owned the servers, you just rent them)... If I ever need to switch providers I can physically go to the facility, take my server, and plug it in its new home. No need to reconfigure anything (except DNS). Also I can upgrade or add hardware whenever, for only the cost of buying the stuff... Places like TP charge a (overpriced) monthly fee for adding things like more RAM or hard drives... And the best thing of all... I'm paying less for co-lo than I am for my rented server at TP... Sure there is the up-front cost of the server, but that gets offset from the monthly savings.

So... Back to the original server I "built", it probably won't be used for its intended purpose (at least not right now) since the current server has more than enough horsepower (and I can upgrade hardware pretty easy since the facility is only about 10-15min away from my office). But it is currently being used for me to code v3 of the folding stats. Depending on how things turn out, I might have it process the stats and upload a delta file to the EOC server, or I might just let the EOC server do all the processing to keep things simple... It does fold too (the server at the office)...

[leprechanmonkie]

amesome work man.

i usually waited until 20-30 min after the update, i guess i can go look alot quicker now huh?

Jason deserves some credit. EOCF folding stats is THE BEST FOLDING STATS page online, period.

[Jason]

Originally Posted by leprechanmonkie

i usually waited until 20-30 min after the update, i guess i can go look alot quicker now huh?

Yep... If you go to the DB Info page it shows you how long the last update took... But also in the top left corner it says if its current or processing...