[imp] Performance and PHP accel question

[Eric Jon Rostetter]

Quoting Tornoci Laszlo <torlasz at xenia.sote.hu>:

> I am considering a hardware upgrade to our mail system, and I want to
> ask your opinion about it.

Sounds good. :)

> HW: an IBM xSeries 232 system (1.2 GHz PIII, 3 GB RAM, 4x36GB U160 SCSI
> in software RAID1 config, ext3 fs)

That should be more than enough to run Horde/IMP/sql/apache on.
Moving the mail services off to another machine should free this box up
to run like a tiger.

> SW: Red Hat EL AS3, postfix, cyrus-imapd, mysql, apache, Horde3/Imp4,
> amavisd-new, Spamassassin, greylisting

Probably it is the mail, in particular the spamassassin, slowing you down.

> The system is a lot slower than it used to be when I had set it up 4
> years ago (traffic and usage went up, also Horde2->Horde3 upgrade did
> make things slower). Some of the slowness is due to I/O, because

Probably mostly due to spam hitting the server...  4 years ago spam wasn't
much of an issue performance wise.  Today it is usually the #1 killer of
mail server performance, with over 80% of the mail being spam.

> accessing the server directly through IMAPS/SMTP is sometimes slow as well.
> I definitely want to separate the Horde/Imp/Apache service from the
> others and move all other services to a new box (IBM xSeries 346, 3Ghz
> Xeon, 2GB RAM, 6x73 GB U320 SCSI, hw RAID1).

Sounds like a great idea.

> Question #1: is separation of the services a good idea and if yes, am I
> planning it the right way?

Yes, it is a great idea.  Whether you are doing it right, can't say as
that depends on your site, needs, etc.

> Question #2: can the current box give me fast enough service (let's say
> < 5 sec waiting time) for Horde/Imp if I move all other functions to the
> new box?

I think so.  I would leave only the Horde/IMP/SQL/apache/php stuff on the
old box, moving all else to the new box.

If the new box needs SQL also, I'd consider putting it on both, using
each only for what is needed on each...  Again, it is going to depend on
your setup/needs though.

> I consider using some of the tips in Horde/docs/PERFORMANCE, a
> PHP accelerator and the mcrypt module.

Can't hurt.

> Question #3: which _free_ PHP accelerator do you recommend, what is your
> experience with them?

I don't recommend any of them, but I use phpa from
http://www.php-accelerator.co.uk/

Which works best might depend on your php version, apache version, etc.

>                                  Yours: Laszlo

-- 
Eric Rostetter
The Department of Physics
The University of Texas at Austin

Go Longhorns!