[FX.php List] Handling heavy loads

[Jonathan Schwartz]

Hi folks,

Well, I launched ver2 of my School Directory site last Friday with an 
email blast to 3000 users, requesting they login and update their 
records.  That's when the fun started.

I got another dose of reality several minutes later when dozens of 
users signed on simultaneously and the server hit 100% and stayed 
there until it crashed.  I restarted. It did it again. Then the phone 
started ringing.  This went on for some time, as I made a mental note 
to not repeat this episode.

Ultimately, I'd like to ask what path to take to improve my systems. 
The heavy load situation has never happened before, although this is 
the first project involving an email blast with an invitation to 
login and use the system.

 From the fx.php side, I already know that implementing that last 
suggestion I received a week ago to use portals to accumulate data 
from 4 tables into one screen was my downfall.  It wasn't the 
suggestion itself, but how I implemented it.  In order to display the 
summary data needed, the page executes six (6!) fx.php searches to 
get the required data from related tables.  And to a make things 
worse, this same summary data was displayed on each of 7 screens as 
the user progressed through the process until the end, so the 
searches were repeated for each page. It didn't seem to be a problem 
when I was developing, but I quickly realized that I should probably 
be storing the data in the Session and then redisplaying on each 
page.  If the data was edited, I would summon only the changed 
portion.  That will be ver3. ;-) The good news is that this system is 
only live for 10 days and then taken down.

Back to my primary question: hardware.  I am running on a single 
macmini that is being colo'd at macminicolo.net.  Here are the specs:

Macmini 1.42Ghz
512MB RAM
OEM drive (5400 rpm)
OS X Server 10.4 6
FMSA 8.5

I *know* that set up is a poster child for the results I received, 
but the loads before this point just have not justified more 
hardware...until now.

Some of my choices:
	Replace macmini with Intel, 1-2GB RAM, 7200RPM drive.
	Add second mac mini (above) with second IP/split FMSA from 
the datafiles. Pay 2x hosting $.
	Dump the mini. Buy used xserve. Pay about the same as colo-ing 2 minis.
	Other?

Thanks for your help.

Jonathan



-- 

Jonathan Schwartz
FileMaker 8 Certified  Developer
Associate Member, FileMaker Solutions Alliance
Schwartz & Company
jonathan at eschwartz.com
http://www.eschwartz.com
http://www.exit445.com
415-381-1852