Tell me why...
I'm a happy user of Linode. I was at host22 and then I was migrated to host70 where I am now.
The performance in host22 was horrible. emerge –sync was so slooooow that I thought - seriously - in migrating my server to another hosting.
In fact I tried a Xen provider and its performance was way better than my host22 linode, so I signed up and placed my primary MX there.
But then I was migrated to host70, and it gave a boost to my performance. With exactly the same configuration, everything was faster, and then my linode becomed 2x or 3x better than my xen box. Now I'm thinking seriously in bringing the other box here
The question is, why this huge performance improvement? Maybe there was a resource-heavy box in host22 and it was migrated elsewhere? Is the hardware that better? Can I expect the same performance in any other server?
I know the migration was done several weeks (months) ago, but I'm just curious…
5 Replies
I just realized, it would be great if Linode could show also a "host CPU graph" like the current "My CPU graph" (with 30 days history…), wouldn't it?
Apart from that information, I have a little script that sends a lot of stuff to me every 5 minutes. It shows figures from inside my linode, but maybe it can help.
Commands logged (I run two more commands but they are not relevant for this matter):
cat /proc/io_status
cat /proc/loadavg
vmstat
free -m
cat /proc/meminfo
Jun 25 (before). 5 measures in a row (5 minutes between each pair):
****** MEASURE 1 ******
io_count=149657755 io_rate=0 io_tokens=800000 token_refill=512 token_max=800000
0.58 0.57 0.54 4/83 7800
procs -----------memory---------- ---swap-- -----io---- -system-- ----cpu----
r b swpd free buff cache si so bi bo in cs us sy id wa
4 0 0 50072 48924 284428 0 0 2 2 4 4 3 1 96 1
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 498 449 48 0 47 277
-/+ buffers/cache: 123 374
Swap: 1023 0 1023
MemTotal: 510280 kB
MemFree: 50072 kB
Buffers: 48924 kB
Cached: 284428 kB
SwapCached: 0 kB
Active: 327556 kB
Inactive: 44264 kB
SwapTotal: 1048568 kB
SwapFree: 1048568 kB
Dirty: 188 kB
Writeback: 0 kB
AnonPages: 38484 kB
Mapped: 13100 kB
Slab: 83912 kB
SReclaimable: 75836 kB
SUnreclaim: 8076 kB
PageTables: 816 kB
NFS_Unstable: 0 kB
Bounce: 0 kB
CommitLimit: 1303708 kB
Committed_AS: 101044 kB
VmallocTotal: 2481136 kB
VmallocUsed: 3068 kB
VmallocChunk: 2478028 kB
****** MEASURE 2 ******
io_count=149665137 io_rate=0 io_tokens=800000 token_refill=512 token_max=800000
0.53 0.83 0.69 4/78 8006
procs -----------memory---------- ---swap-- -----io---- -system-- ----cpu----
r b swpd free buff cache si so bi bo in cs us sy id wa
3 0 0 53032 48936 284740 0 0 2 2 4 4 3 1 96 1
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 498 446 51 0 47 278
-/+ buffers/cache: 120 377
Swap: 1023 0 1023
MemTotal: 510280 kB
MemFree: 52984 kB
Buffers: 48936 kB
Cached: 284740 kB
SwapCached: 0 kB
Active: 324608 kB
Inactive: 44392 kB
SwapTotal: 1048568 kB
SwapFree: 1048568 kB
Dirty: 136 kB
Writeback: 0 kB
AnonPages: 35340 kB
Mapped: 12852 kB
Slab: 83836 kB
SReclaimable: 75840 kB
SUnreclaim: 7996 kB
PageTables: 756 kB
NFS_Unstable: 0 kB
Bounce: 0 kB
CommitLimit: 1303708 kB
Committed_AS: 96252 kB
VmallocTotal: 2481136 kB
VmallocUsed: 3068 kB
VmallocChunk: 2478028 kB
****** MEASURE 3 ******
io_count=149671037 io_rate=0 io_tokens=800000 token_refill=512 token_max=800000
0.52 0.68 0.66 3/76 8144
procs -----------memory---------- ---swap-- -----io---- -system-- ----cpu----
r b swpd free buff cache si so bi bo in cs us sy id wa
2 0 0 51624 48944 284820 0 0 2 2 4 4 3 1 96 1
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 498 447 50 0 47 278
-/+ buffers/cache: 121 376
Swap: 1023 0 1023
MemTotal: 510280 kB
MemFree: 51576 kB
Buffers: 48944 kB
Cached: 284820 kB
SwapCached: 0 kB
Active: 325312 kB
Inactive: 44376 kB
SwapTotal: 1048568 kB
SwapFree: 1048568 kB
Dirty: 448 kB
Writeback: 0 kB
AnonPages: 35940 kB
Mapped: 12884 kB
Slab: 84160 kB
SReclaimable: 75840 kB
SUnreclaim: 8320 kB
PageTables: 744 kB
NFS_Unstable: 0 kB
Bounce: 0 kB
CommitLimit: 1303708 kB
Committed_AS: 96500 kB
VmallocTotal: 2481136 kB
VmallocUsed: 3068 kB
VmallocChunk: 2478028 kB
****** MEASURE 4 ******
io_count=149677370 io_rate=0 io_tokens=800000 token_refill=512 token_max=800000
0.55 0.58 0.62 4/78 8252
procs -----------memory---------- ---swap-- -----io---- -system-- ----cpu----
r b swpd free buff cache si so bi bo in cs us sy id wa
3 0 0 52848 48948 285064 0 0 2 2 4 4 3 1 96 1
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 498 449 48 0 47 278
-/+ buffers/cache: 123 374
Swap: 1023 0 1023
MemTotal: 510280 kB
MemFree: 49684 kB
Buffers: 48948 kB
Cached: 285064 kB
SwapCached: 0 kB
Active: 327872 kB
Inactive: 44360 kB
SwapTotal: 1048568 kB
SwapFree: 1048568 kB
Dirty: 556 kB
Writeback: 0 kB
AnonPages: 38236 kB
Mapped: 13072 kB
Slab: 83928 kB
SReclaimable: 75844 kB
SUnreclaim: 8084 kB
PageTables: 788 kB
NFS_Unstable: 0 kB
Bounce: 0 kB
CommitLimit: 1303708 kB
Committed_AS: 106740 kB
VmallocTotal: 2481136 kB
VmallocUsed: 3068 kB
VmallocChunk: 2478028 kB
****** MEASURE 5 ******
io_count=149682462 io_rate=0 io_tokens=800000 token_refill=512 token_max=800000
0.54 0.52 0.57 2/82 8374
procs -----------memory---------- ---swap-- -----io---- -system-- ----cpu----
r b swpd free buff cache si so bi bo in cs us sy id wa
1 0 0 48780 48960 285200 0 0 2 2 4 4 3 1 96 1
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 498 450 47 0 47 278
-/+ buffers/cache: 124 373
Swap: 1023 0 1023
MemTotal: 510280 kB
MemFree: 48780 kB
Buffers: 48960 kB
Cached: 285200 kB
SwapCached: 0 kB
Active: 328696 kB
Inactive: 44372 kB
SwapTotal: 1048568 kB
SwapFree: 1048568 kB
Dirty: 516 kB
Writeback: 0 kB
AnonPages: 38924 kB
Mapped: 13340 kB
Slab: 84008 kB
SReclaimable: 75848 kB
SUnreclaim: 8160 kB
PageTables: 820 kB
NFS_Unstable: 0 kB
Bounce: 0 kB
CommitLimit: 1303708 kB
Committed_AS: 104636 kB
VmallocTotal: 2481136 kB
VmallocUsed: 3068 kB
VmallocChunk: 2478028 kB
Yesterday, same hour, same information:
****** MEASURE 1 ******
io_count=7023879 io_rate=4 io_tokens=799989 token_refill=512 token_max=800000
0.04 0.06 0.03 5/81 14873
procs -----------memory---------- ---swap-- -----io---- -system-- ----cpu----
r b swpd free buff cache si so bi bo in cs us sy id wa
4 1 0 56828 44540 330828 0 0 15 30 165 69 3 1 95 1
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 497 442 55 0 43 323
-/+ buffers/cache: 75 422
Swap: 1023 0 1023
MemTotal: 509716 kB
MemFree: 56796 kB
Buffers: 44540 kB
Cached: 330828 kB
SwapCached: 0 kB
Active: 308460 kB
Inactive: 91092 kB
SwapTotal: 1048568 kB
SwapFree: 1048568 kB
Dirty: 292 kB
Writeback: 0 kB
AnonPages: 24208 kB
Mapped: 11192 kB
Slab: 48828 kB
SReclaimable: 41828 kB
SUnreclaim: 7000 kB
PageTables: 776 kB
NFS_Unstable: 0 kB
Bounce: 0 kB
CommitLimit: 1303424 kB
Committed_AS: 88464 kB
VmallocTotal: 2481136 kB
VmallocUsed: 3064 kB
VmallocChunk: 2478032 kB
****** MEASURE 2 ******
io_count=7030718 io_rate=76 io_tokens=800000 token_refill=512 token_max=800000
0.15 0.15 0.08 4/71 15078
procs -----------memory---------- ---swap-- -----io---- -system-- ----cpu----
r b swpd free buff cache si so bi bo in cs us sy id wa
3 0 0 57952 44620 331800 0 0 15 30 165 69 3 1 95 1
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 497 441 56 0 43 324
-/+ buffers/cache: 73 424
Swap: 1023 0 1023
MemTotal: 509716 kB
MemFree: 57780 kB
Buffers: 44620 kB
Cached: 331800 kB
SwapCached: 0 kB
Active: 337444 kB
Inactive: 61444 kB
SwapTotal: 1048568 kB
SwapFree: 1048568 kB
Dirty: 488 kB
Writeback: 0 kB
AnonPages: 22488 kB
Mapped: 10240 kB
Slab: 48656 kB
SReclaimable: 41828 kB
SUnreclaim: 6828 kB
PageTables: 652 kB
NFS_Unstable: 0 kB
Bounce: 0 kB
CommitLimit: 1303424 kB
Committed_AS: 80804 kB
VmallocTotal: 2481136 kB
VmallocUsed: 3064 kB
VmallocChunk: 2478032 kB
****** MEASURE 3 ******
io_count=7034501 io_rate=32 io_tokens=800000 token_refill=512 token_max=800000
0.02 0.08 0.08 4/70 15157
procs -----------memory---------- ---swap-- -----io---- -system-- ----cpu----
r b swpd free buff cache si so bi bo in cs us sy id wa
3 0 0 57540 44640 331868 0 0 15 30 165 69 3 1 95 1
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 497 441 56 0 43 324
-/+ buffers/cache: 73 423
Swap: 1023 0 1023
MemTotal: 509716 kB
MemFree: 57492 kB
Buffers: 44640 kB
Cached: 331868 kB
SwapCached: 0 kB
Active: 337476 kB
Inactive: 61504 kB
SwapTotal: 1048568 kB
SwapFree: 1048568 kB
Dirty: 172 kB
Writeback: 0 kB
AnonPages: 22492 kB
Mapped: 10264 kB
Slab: 48740 kB
SReclaimable: 41828 kB
SUnreclaim: 6912 kB
PageTables: 652 kB
NFS_Unstable: 0 kB
Bounce: 0 kB
CommitLimit: 1303424 kB
Committed_AS: 80932 kB
VmallocTotal: 2481136 kB
VmallocUsed: 3064 kB
VmallocChunk: 2478032 kB
****** MEASURE 4 ******
io_count=7038684 io_rate=113 io_tokens=800000 token_refill=512 token_max=800000
0.09 0.06 0.06 5/73 15233
procs -----------memory---------- ---swap-- -----io---- -system-- ----cpu----
r b swpd free buff cache si so bi bo in cs us sy id wa
4 0 0 49504 44680 332092 0 0 15 30 165 69 3 1 95 1
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 497 452 45 0 43 324
-/+ buffers/cache: 84 413
Swap: 1023 0 1023
MemTotal: 509716 kB
MemFree: 46232 kB
Buffers: 44680 kB
Cached: 332092 kB
SwapCached: 0 kB
Active: 366940 kB
Inactive: 43572 kB
SwapTotal: 1048568 kB
SwapFree: 1048568 kB
Dirty: 620 kB
Writeback: 0 kB
AnonPages: 33760 kB
Mapped: 15004 kB
Slab: 48608 kB
SReclaimable: 41828 kB
SUnreclaim: 6780 kB
PageTables: 720 kB
NFS_Unstable: 0 kB
Bounce: 0 kB
CommitLimit: 1303424 kB
Committed_AS: 94000 kB
VmallocTotal: 2481136 kB
VmallocUsed: 3064 kB
VmallocChunk: 2478032 kB
****** MEASURE 5 ******
io_count=7043753 io_rate=37 io_tokens=800000 token_refill=512 token_max=800000
0.01 0.05 0.06 4/79 15325
procs -----------memory---------- ---swap-- -----io---- -system-- ----cpu----
r b swpd free buff cache si so bi bo in cs us sy id wa
3 0 0 52696 44776 332344 0 0 15 30 165 69 3 1 95 1
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 497 446 51 0 43 324
-/+ buffers/cache: 78 419
Swap: 1023 0 1023
MemTotal: 509716 kB
MemFree: 52648 kB
Buffers: 44776 kB
Cached: 332344 kB
SwapCached: 0 kB
Active: 378972 kB
Inactive: 24564 kB
SwapTotal: 1048568 kB
SwapFree: 1048568 kB
Dirty: 232 kB
Writeback: 0 kB
AnonPages: 26436 kB
Mapped: 11612 kB
Slab: 48940 kB
SReclaimable: 41828 kB
SUnreclaim: 7112 kB
PageTables: 764 kB
NFS_Unstable: 0 kB
Bounce: 0 kB
CommitLimit: 1303424 kB
Committed_AS: 90264 kB
VmallocTotal: 2481136 kB
VmallocUsed: 3064 kB
VmallocChunk: 2478032 kB
I can see load average goes down (like from 0.58 0.57 0.54 4/83 7800 to 0.04 0.06 0.03 5/81 14873). I suppose this means that the processes run faster, so they don't use as much CPU as they used to.
But I don't know the reason. AFAIR, there has been no significant change in the running services/programs inside the linode between these two dates. I suspect the hardware has been significantly changed between old host22 and new host70 - maybe faster CPU and faster HD?
I'm not a Linux expert, so any discussion on these figures is very welcome
caker
Linode Staff
Glad to hear it's performing well
-Chris
MemTotal: 510280 kB
Now, it says:
MemTotal: 509716 kB
Having said that, I can see the actual hardware having a good effect too.