[lug] server spec

[Bear Giles]

karl horlen wrote:
>> I'd say it's cheaper to buy more CPU/RAM/boxes than
>> to spend a lot of 
>> time optimizing.  What exactly do you mean by sw
>> optimization?
>>     
>
> well, apache can be optimized.  so can mysql. so can
> php.  caching / config options. so can the cms and
> site pages, how css and js files are delivered, etc. 
> for a server that is functioning solely as a web
> server, it can help a lot (and it's free!).
>   
First step in any serious setup will be splitting your web and database 
servers. I would also look into whether mysql has solved its load 
problems.  I know a while back postgresql had a slower connect time(*) 
but handled heavier loads gracefully.  Mysql had a faster connect time 
but would fail catastrophically once the load crossed a magic threshold.

And (*) brings up another point -- you really need to know your tools.  
I'm a J2EE developer, not perl/php, but one of the first things taught 
is to use connection pools since that, alone, can make a huge difference 
in performance and acceptable load.  I don't know if p* can use 
connection pooling, but if so you should definitely use it.