It would appear that gigabit LAN is not! In fact it often runs at the same speed as 100Mbps LAN. Let's look at why exactly.
After configuring your network you can use the ifconfig command to see what speeds the LAN is connected. Even though 1000Mbps is reported by the card, the reality is that the overall throughtput may well be ~100Mpbs. You can try copying a large file using scp to demonstrate this.
As it turns out, in order to use a gigabit LAN you need to use CAT6 cables. CAT5 and CAT5E are not good enough. End result, the ethernet cards throttle back the speed to reduce dropped packets and errors.
You can find a good article here titled Squeeze Your Gigabit NIC for Top Performance. After tuning up the TCP parameters i found that it made no dfifference. The principal reasons behind low gigabit ethernet performance can be summed up as follows.
- Need to use CAT6 cables
- Slow Disk speed
- Limitations of the PCI bus which the gigabit ethernet cards use
You can get an idea about the disk speed using the hdparm command:
Display the disk partitions and choose the main linux partition which has the / filesystem.
# fdisk -l
Then get disk cache and disk read statistics:
# hdparm -Tt /dev/sda0
On my desktop system the sata disk perfomance is a limiting factor. These were the results:
/dev/sda1:
Timing cached reads: 9984 MB in 2.00 seconds = 4996.41 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 84 MB in 3.13 seconds = 58.49 MB/sec
Well, that equates to a raw disk read speed of 58.49 * 8 = 467Mbps which is half the speed of a gigabit LAN.
So.. NAS storage with lots of memory looks to be the way to go... If you use the right cables!
There's a nice article on IBM developerworks describing how to package software using RPM. You can read it here.
When installing nomachine on redhat 5.3 64-bit be sure to:
- Make sure you have installed the 64-bit packages as the 32-bit ones will not work.
- add the hostname to /etc/hosts
- Check "Disable encryption of all traffic" (in configuration / advanced tab)
- add the hostname to /etc/hosts
- make sure the host IP is not specified as 127.0.0.1 line
- Uncheck "Disable encryption of all traffic" (in configuration / advanced tab)
Specifying this seems to reslove the problem:
-Xmx512m -XX:MaxPermSize=512m
- For building shared libraries on the MAC the following need to be set
-
- The shared library file extension should be .dylib
- The compile flag is -dynamic
- For accessing the shared libraries at runtime
-
- DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH needs to be set to the location of the shared libraries
- Useful utilities for shared library support
-
- The following command will display the table of contents of the dynamically linked library
otool -TV sharedlibraryfile.dylib
The REQUIRE() statement includes and executes the contents of the specified file at the current program execution level.
When a file is included, the code it contains inherits the variable scope of the line on which the include occurs. Any variables, procedures, functions or classes declared in the included file will be available at the current program execution level.
The REQUIRE_ONCE() statement is identical to the REQUIRE() statement except that Recital will check to see if the file as already been included and if so ignore the command.
The full syntax is:
REQUIRE( expC ) REQUIRE_ONCE( expC ) e.g. REQUIRE_ONCE( "myapp/myglobals.prg" )
When you start the loadbalancer.org appliance you will see the following:
Default login:
Username: root
Password: loadbalancer
Access to webclient from an external client is:
http://192.168.1.129:9080
http://192.168.1.129:9443
You can access the web administrator using the IP and ports described onscreen.
For the sri lanka porject we are looking for performance and the network diagram indicates we are happy to have the cluster on the same subnet as the rest of the network.
Direct routing is the fasted performance possible, it has the advantage over NAT that the Loadbalancer does not become a bottleneck for incoming and outgoing packets. With DR the loadbalancer simply examines incoming packets and the servers to route the packets directly back to the requesting user.
The web interfaceis the only way to fully configure the loadbalancer vm. The console tool lbwizard will get it initiallised and any further configurations can then be done via the webinterface.
Using lbwizard for the Sri lanka configuration follow these steps.
On the first Loadbalancer:
//Start
Is this unit part for a HA Pair?
YES
Have you already setup the Slave?
NO
Is this a one-armed configuration?
YES
Enter the IP Address for the interface eth0?
Enter IP address you wish to be assigned to the SLAVE loadbalancer.
Enter the netmask for interface eth0?
Enter netmask for the subnet.
Enter the Floating IP adrress?
Enter the IP address that will be IP assosiacted the the HA-pair of loadbalancers.
//Finish
On the 2nd loadbalancer VM, run the lbwizard.
//Start
Is this unit part of an HA-Pair?
YES
Have you already set up the Slave?
YES
What is the slave units UP address?
Enter the IP which you entered when configuring the other loadbalancer VM.
Is this a one-armed configuration?
YES
Enter the IP Address for the interface eth0?
Enter the IP that will be assigned to the MASTER loadbalancer
Enter the netmask for interface eth0?
Enter the subnet netmask.
Enter the Floating IP address?
Enter the IP address that will be IP assosiacted the the HA-pair of loadbalancers.
Enter the address of the default gateway?
Enter the deafult gateway for the subnet.
Enter the IP of the nameserver?
Enter the dns server.
Enter the port for the first Virtual server?
Enter 22 for ssh
Enter the IP address of the first real server?
Enter the real IP of the first appserver
//Finish
Now this is complete we need to go to the web admin interface to configure the 2nd Real Server. As the lbwizard program will only allow you to configure 1 real server.
Now login to the web admin using the default password:
username: loadbalancer
password: loadbalancer
Note: Connect to the IP you have now set for your master loadbalancer
Goto the edit configuration tab
Now click add a real server:
Enter a label
IP address of the server plus the port of the service i.e. 192.168.1.125:22
Edit Configuration -> Virtual Servers
persistancte -> NO
Scheduler-> LC
LC - Least-Connection: assign more jobs to real servers with
fewer active jobs.
Service to check -> custom1
Check port -> 22
Forwarding Method -> DR
Feedback Method -> Agent
Arp Problem when using DR
Every real server must be configured to respond to the VIP address as well as the RIP
address.
You can use iptables (netfilter) on the real server to re-direct incoming packets destined for the virtual
server IP address.
This is a simple case of adding the following command to your start up script (rc.local):
//replace 10.0.0.21 with the Virtual Server IP
iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -p tcp -d 10.0.0.21 -j REDIRECT
chkconfig iptables on
Yes, your FoxPlus and FoxPRO applications should run under Recital with little to no changes at all. We provide expert product support if you have any questions or problems. If you lack the resources to move your applications into Recital we can provide that service to you also if required.