Entry Processes High

My host has monitoring software installed which is showing this with the limit currently set at 20.


This raises the questions, what processes does Jamroom run in the course of a day? Are they spaced out as cron jobs should be? When are they likely to peak?

Related to that, is their a process viewer built in that will show running processes. For instance, how do we know that it's a good time to do a performance test when we can't see what processes are running?



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Ken Rich
indiegospel.net

updated by @ken-rich: 03/21/15 09:42:38PM

Its a server command, but
from the command line on linux will show you what processes are running.

Jamroom puts things into a queue so the user doesn't have to wait around watching the screen while stuff happens. eg sending out mail, converting an audio file etc...

You can see things in the queue from
ACP -> CORE -> TOOLS - QUEUE VIEWER

Hi Michael,

He can see what processes the server is running already. The problem is, those specifically being generated from Jamroom are not easily identified, or not showing, as they are internal - if I am understanding correctly.

I know what the queue viewer is, but unless I'm converting a video or something, I generally don't see anything there. However, if nothing is showing there Jamroom still has to be running processes, or else it would be dead.

What I'm looking for is something that shows me all running Jamroom process, just like when I go to my Windows task manager, I can see running processes.

Why would it need over 20 simultaneous processes running at times? Could this be when the daily integrity check runs? Where is the peak coming from - how can we know without a process viewer?


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Ken Rich
indiegospel.net

updated by @ken-rich: 02/15/15 02:48:17PM

perhaps:
from the server command line.

That shows the current processes running and the heaviest ones and the usage of the cpu cores. (You're getting way into advanced territory. This kind of stuff is beyond anywhere I normally play.)

When I refresh a page it show that apache process in htop and closes once it finishes.
--
After searching on duckduckgo, I found this:
http://www.myintervals.com/blog/2014/12/10/five-linux-commands-every-web-developer-should-know/

which has:
to show only the processes that apache user is running. for me, the user was www-data, you can see which is the username from the normal htop screen

Thanks Michael - I'll pass it along and see if that helps.

Also, my performance test is generally over 900 but drops below 300 on occasion. It is always because of a high MSQL reading.

Not only that, but the set-up I'm on is much better than the baseline for the test, and should "smoke" it well over a thousand. I've only seen it break a thousand once, and I can test when there is no load SHOWING on the server, and have anywhere from 300-950.

Physically, we have the fastest form of storage, so I'm thinking perhaps the MSQL settings or general config settings are not "tuned" properly.

Is there a recommended guide somewhere that addresses optimizing the settings? I found this - is this what we should be looking at? https://www.jamroom.net/brian/documentation/guides


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Ken Rich
indiegospel.net

Thats the guide I use to setup my local server. Brian wrote it, so its good.

Cool - thanks


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Ken Rich
indiegospel.net

This means your hosting provider is limiting you to 20 Apache processes, which will nail you if you ever get busy (that would be max 15-20 users t one time on your site).

Jamroom does not use cron (unless you're using Jamroom Cloud, which you're not).

Hope this helps!


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Brian Johnson
Founder and Lead Developer - Jamroom
https://www.jamroom.net

How about we approach the question a little differently. How many processes does Jamroom run in the course of a day? How many run simultaneously. In other words, internal processes unrelated to user activity.


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Ken Rich
indiegospel.net

If you have no visitors, then it will be 0. If you have 1 million visitors, it would likely be hundreds.

There is NO internal processing unrelated to user activity, since everything Jamroom does is triggered by user activity on your site.


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Brian Johnson
Founder and Lead Developer - Jamroom
https://www.jamroom.net

OK thanks...


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Ken Rich
indiegospel.net

He's got it set to 40 now. There was lot's of disagreement over what the number really means, but at least it's doubled now.

In the Jamroom hosting, what is the limit on EP? My understanding is there should be some kind of limit to foil DOS attacks. Also on shared servers, it prevents one site from hogging all the resources from the others.

Am I to understand that Jamroom hosting is not shared, that we get a server all to ourselves, with all of it's resources devoted only to our script?

When your documentation says 4 CPU's, is that actually 4 CPU's, or just 1 CPU with 4 cores?

For instance, I am on a server with 2 CPU's but 8 cores, RAM is 8 GB, my space is 200GB on S4 SSD, and my host is telling me that what I have now in terms of available resources is "monstrous", compared to what Jamroom is offering for the same price.

What I don't understand, is if what he is saying is true, why we are not "smoking" the performance test? He says my limits are wide open, but the script is not utilizing the "monsterous" resources available to it. As if the installation is misconfigured, or not tuned properly to the server!

I've seen it break 1,000 twice, most tests are between 850-950, a few drop to the 300's always because of a temporarily high MSQL reading.


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Ken Rich
indiegospel.net

updated by @ken-rich: 02/17/15 08:29:35AM

Yep...


It is 4 CPU cores - they are XEON E5-2680 CPU's, so each physical CPU die has 8 cores - you get 4 of those. They support hyperthreading as well.


Yeah if you have 16 Cores, 8G RAM and 200G Space then that is more than you're getting with our 4G server option.


Honestly it all comes down to how the server is configured. The problem you are facing is that your server is completely tuned for the "lowest common denominator" - i.e. it is running Cpanel and needs to be able to support almost ANYTHING. There's a price to pay for that, and it is performance. You need A LOT more resources for Cpanel (WHM is a huge resource sink) as it has hundreds of different small servers running all the time checking for quotas, email spam, etc. It's also setup to run PHP in a multi-user environment so it has to run PHP as a CGI (as it as to be able to "setuid" to the user that it is running under) - this is the absolute SLOWEST way to run PHP - like 100 times slower than mod_php/RUID2, which is what we use on Jamroom Hosting.

It's a combination of a lot of things, but think of Cpanel hosting as a great big shopping mall with thousands of stores and an overwhelming number of things for you to do - there's a TON of overhead for all that. Jamroom Hosting is like a single store that JUST SELLS Jamroom - less overhead = better performance.

Let me know if that helps.


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Brian Johnson
Founder and Lead Developer - Jamroom
https://www.jamroom.net
updated by @brian: 02/17/15 09:14:45AM

Hi Brian,

What you are saying makes sense to me - thanks.

BTW - we I'm told we have 2 CPU's (4 cores each), for 8 cores total. So I don't think that we have more processing power, not now that you've told me what you are running with.

If I am understanding correctly, 1 CPU at Jamroom (XEON E5-2680) has 8 cores. I think it's a much higher rated CPU (by comparison to ours) in terms of raw processing power, so that may be at least part of the reason why tests run faster at Jamroom.

The MSQL PDO thing you needed is enabled, so please move me in to Jamroom hosting ASAP.


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Ken Rich
indiegospel.net

updated by @ken-rich: 02/17/15 10:15:37AM

On our JR 4G server you actually get half the CPU - 4 of the 8 cores - NOT 4 physical CPU's


OK let me get on that - I will follow up with you via ticket.

Thanks!


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Brian Johnson
Founder and Lead Developer - Jamroom
https://www.jamroom.net

(XEON E5-2680) has 8 cores, we get half or 4 cores. That is important information.

One can look at benchmark tests and get an idea of how much "bang for the buck" one is getting.
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Xeon+E5-2680+%40+2.70GHz

Nice to know when comparing JR hosting, to other offerings. For instance, I believe half of that CPU (4 cores) would still "smoke" both of our CPU's put together, since we are using cheaper CPU's with benchmarks that are way lower.

Sometimes "monsterous" power is "in the eye of the beholder" (subject to bias and inflated by salesmanship).

Benchmarks give a more accurate assessment of what one is actually getting. Therefore, details about the actual hardware being employed is important.

I think such details need to be clearly defined in the documentation. It will work to your advantage I'm sure.


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Ken Rich
indiegospel.net

updated by @ken-rich: 02/17/15 10:44:59AM

The CPUs are actually this:

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_lookup.php?cpu=Intel+Xeon+E5-2680+v2+%40+2.80GHz&id=2061

which is a bit faster than the first version of the E5-2680.


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Brian Johnson
Founder and Lead Developer - Jamroom
https://www.jamroom.net
updated by @brian: 02/17/15 12:53:48PM

Updated:

Yes, that CPU is worth almost 10 of our old CPU's. It's worth almost 3 of our current ones, going by benchmarks .

So going from 2 CPU's to half a CPU is not a step down from "monstrous" power. Here are the actual numbers:

Current host has 2 of these - [Dual CPU] Intel Xeon L5420 @ 2.50GHz Average CPU Mark 6.610 No of Cores: 4 each (8 cores total), with 8 GB of ram.

I ran the performance test and my network runs about 100 points higher on the JR server, with your half a E5-2680 v2 (4 cores) and 4 GB ram.


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Ken Rich
indiegospel.net

updated by @ken-rich: 02/17/15 02:00:28PM