How do I check how my dedicated server is performing?

[mally]

Hi all, I need to check how much spare resources I have on my dedicated server, whats the best way to check this on WHM please?

I'm looking to downsize, and reduce costs, but I've no idea if my server use is light medium or heavy

Cheers Mally

 

[tifosi]

whm isn't the best. It'll give you a snapshot but not the best long-term trends.

I use loadavg (http://www.loadavg.com/). Free and for a linux server as much stats as you need.

What server you need depends on the use. For a low use / high burst set up the requirements are different than for a high use / low burst set up. The former may be suited more to a configurable vps and the latter a multi-core high ram dedicated.

 

[mdrussell]

WHM makes it pretty easy.

Login > go to Server Status > Service Status

That will show you load, number of CPUs, memory and swap usage. You can also see partition usage. Generally a load of up to 1 per CPU core is acceptable without performance degradation.

If you need a more in-depth review - get your current host to audit the server, or the new one you plan on moving to to evaluate the performance.

Matt

 

[mally]

Here's my stats ( I think copied)

System information

Server load 2.09 (24 CPUs)
Memory Used 17.93% (5,881,416 of 32,794,576)
Swap Used 19.3% (809,516 of 4,194,296)

 

[mdrussell]

Here's my stats ( I think copied)

System information

Server load 2.09 (24 CPUs)
Memory Used 17.93% (5,881,416 of 32,794,576)
Swap Used 19.3% (809,516 of 4,194,296)

What CPUs do you have in the server?

 

[RobM]

High server load is not good. I like mine to run around 0.1-0.4

 

[mally]

I can see 24 processors in the list however I copied the top

Total processors: 10
Processor #1
Vendor
GenuineIntel
Name
Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5645 @ 2.40GHz
Speed
2394.243 MHz
Cache
12288 KB

 

[mdrussell]

High server load is not good. I like mine to run around 0.1-0.4

Any reason? 1.0 per CPU isn't high.

 

[mdrussell]

I can see 24 processors in the list however I copied the top

Total processors: 10
Processor #1
Vendor
GenuineIntel
Name
Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5645 @ 2.40GHz
Speed
2394.243 MHz
Cache
12288 KB

You'll have a dual E5645. http://ark.intel.com/products/48768...E5645-(12M-Cache-2_40-GHz-5_86-GTs-Intel-QPI)

12 Cores / 24 Threads

The E56xx is a good performer if slightly power hungry. The new E5 Series (http://ark.intel.com/products/family/59138) is faster and more power efficient. You might save money switching to one of these, some providers have them aggressively priced.

 

[tifosi]

Here's my stats ( I think copied)

System information

Server load 2.09 (24 CPUs)
Memory Used 17.93% (5,881,416 of 32,794,576)
Swap Used 19.3% (809,516 of 4,194,296)

Trouble is with a snapshot is you can't see performance over time.

Really shouldn't be needing to use swap with all that memory. Has apache / mysql ever been specially configured to use that much resource? What are you running on it? Have you got an opcode cache installed if running php e.g. XCache?

I wouldn't expect a server like that to be breaking 0.5-1.0 at cruising speed and no more than 5.0 when getting battered by something like a digg storm.

 

[tifosi]

Any reason? 1.0 per CPU isn't high.

That's the upper limit. Configuring the server should make it run at 10-25% most of the time.

 

[jimm]

No one can answer if your server is over used with the info given. To really answer the question you need to look at far more than is being asked here. Whats your IO like, how much memory is used by buffers? What are the peaks and troughs like? How is MySQL set up? Does it ever require/request more resources? How is apache set up?
It really needs someone to jump on the server and take a look at the config for a decent educated guess and some monitoring to get a real look at the server over a bit of time to get a better picture.

If you want someone to take a look Im happy to spend 10 mins looking at it.

 

[mdrussell]

Trouble is with a snapshot is you can't see performance over time.

Really shouldn't be needing to use swap with all that memory. Has apache / mysql ever been specially configured to use that much resource? What are you running on it? Have you got an opcode cache installed if running php e.g. XCache?

I wouldn't expect a server like that to be breaking 0.5-1.0 at cruising speed and no more than 5.0 when getting battered by something like a digg storm.

Yep. Lots of free RAM so I think you can tune this. It would also be interesting to take a look at the disk setup.

 

[mdrussell]

That's the upper limit. Configuring the server should make it run at 10-25% most of the time.

That's generally accepted at the point you'll start to see performance degradation but not, the value is per core. So for the 12 core server mentioned in this thread that load is of no concern at all as it'd have a ceiling of 12.

If you only run servers to 10% of their potential you have a lot of unused capacity...

Matt

 

[tifosi]

Unused capacity yes, but the idea is to have the server over resourced during normal running - it actually runs much quicker, especially for io dependent processes like a web server. Then for periods of high activity & traffic e.g. a media article / tv, then the server is able to take up the slack.

Same with a car. You might have a 3l v8 but you don't shag it 100% of the time, but it cuises away from the lights and leaves the rest in a cloud of diesel with hardly a press on the accelerator.

Than again, you could do that with a 2.5 and might not need the 3l v8. You get where I'm going with this! It's a balance between resources and purpose.

That's the problem you get for a lot of resellers with shoehorned sites where there is over-competition for resources and no ability to deal with high traffic... server crashes.

 

[mdrussell]

Unused capacity yes, but the idea is to have the server over resourced during normal running - it actually runs much quicker, especially for io dependent processes like a web server. Then for periods of high activity & traffic e.g. a media article / tv, then the server is able to take up the slack.

Same with a car. You might have a 3l v8 but you don't shag it 100% of the time, but it cuises away from the lights and leaves the rest in a cloud of diesel with hardly a press on the accelerator.

Than again, you could do that with a 2.5 and might not need the 3l v8. You get where I'm going with this! It's a balance between resources and purpose.

That's the problem you get for a lot of resellers with shoehorned sites where there is over-competition for resources and no ability to deal with high traffic... server crashes.

There's a lot of difference between running a server to 10% capacity and having safe overheard though There's also a lot more efficient methods of having additional capacity when you need it (e.g. a CDN, CloudFlare, etc) than running at such a level.

There's also cloud which theoretically allows unlimited scalability but generally isn't suited to heavy i/o operation.

I don't disagree that you need the right balance but my argument that 10 and even 25% isn't the right level.

Matt

 

[mdrussell]

That's the problem you get for a lot of resellers with shoehorned sites where there is over-competition for resources and no ability to deal with high traffic... server crashes.

BTW we use www.CloudLinux.com to prevent that from happening. Foolproof? No. But it certainly helps prevent errant sites from causing issues for everyone else.

Matt

 

[damion]

http://newrelic.com/