[ILUG] nt vs linux

Anthony Durity adurity at uk.constellar.com
Wed Jun 30 15:43:32 IST 1999


i have to agree that all this anti ms stuff gets really boring really
quickly. compiling faqs and stats on WHY LINUX IS SO MUCH BETTER THAN NT is
just a waste of time. i want to talk about cool stuff like "why php3 saved
my life" and "i'm working on a gealic version distro". 

-Anthony

ps: mandrake sucks :)

-----Original Message-----
From: Kevin Dobey [mailto:kevin.dobey at trintech.com]
Sent: 30 June 1999 15:18
To: 'Michael Field - NC Systems Server Engineering - SUN Ireland';
ilug at linux.ie
Subject: RE: [ILUG] nt vs linux

Re: microsoft dot com web site ...

Well actually the archicture is quite impressive. (of course it would be
better if they used linux ... but hey [of course that statement is proven
false]) 

Anyway ... 
It is true to say that they use 6 servers to serve the content but actually
the site has a lot more going on behind that.
Twenty-nine servers host general Web content. 
 - 25 servers host SQL, 
 - 6 respond to site searches; 
 - 3 service download requests (+30 in distributed data centers) 
 - 3 host FTP content

There is of course clustering going on and a single IP Solution. 
The HTTP requests get bumped on to a server that has a the lowest load.  The
CPU load on the 6 primary servers usually sits at about 40-60%. 

With this they aim for 99.8% availability and seem to get it. 
Not bad considering they get 228 million hits a day (+ 12 mililion 

In terms of connectivity they have 6 Ethernets provide 600 megabits of
capacity per second to servers in the data centers. Two OC12 lines connect
microsoft.com to the backbone of the Internet, providing 1,200 megabits of
capacity per second each. 

Now before you flame be for painting the MS (or M$) picture let me first say
this 
 - as a technologist I find this interesting. 
 - I admire the scale of the deployment regardless of what you may 
   think of the company and/or it's software. 
 - Please remember this is a Linux Mailing list not an anti-ms one 
   (i was on an anti ms mailing list once got very boring very quickly)
   and yes I know this could be considered off topic.  
 - I am actually a unix developer. 
 - Lyda .. Lay off !!

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Michael Field - NC Systems Server Engineering - SUN Ireland
> [mailto:Michael.Field at ireland.sun.com]
> Sent: 30 June 1999 11:00
> To: ilug at linux.ie
> Subject: Re: [ILUG] nt vs linux
> 
> 
> 
> Perhaps it's all on one server with forty odd mirrors, just 
> in case......
> 
> 
> Michael.
> 
> > 
> > I liked the column written by someone who analysed the 
> claims made by
> > Micro$oft about the capabilities of that quad box running 
> NT. Basically
> > he took the figures, figured out what sort of network load 
> the box would
> > be capable of handling, and disovered that according to 
> Micro$oft that 
> > single box would be entirely capable of running a site an order of 
> > magnitude larger than microsoft.com *on it's own*.
> > 
> > However, if you actually look at M$.com's hardware, you'll find
> > something
> > like 42 NT servers (someone correct me on this if it's wrong).
> > 
> > Vin




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