Understanding Servers

[oo7josh]

Ok, I'm not new to servers and clients and all but I'm not as technically proficient as all you other guys. So, when I ask you what

• Server load is
• How it affects us
• What we can do to make it from going bad
• What Apache has to do with servers

Staff please don't close this topic , because I'm not complaining about the servers just trying to understd them....

[mr kennedy]

OK I have some knowledge about Computers and I'll try to answer your questions as far as i can ok? ;)


Server load is: The overall load the server is taking from all the scripts running within that server.
How it affects us: Well you can notice it very quickly as for x10's servers are blazing fast. It will affect you if your hosting is using too much resources for a certain period of time by a suspension.
What we can do to make it from going bad: do not use server intensive scripts such as Torrent Trackers(illegal and kilss the server)
What Apache has to do with servers: Apache is the one that initiates the server's port 80 to be accessible anywhere in the world

Well I tried to make it simple as far as I can and I hope I was able to answer your questions properly ;)

[Tariqul Islam]

I wanna add that

Server load is the main thing to consider about any server. This is very much important because overall bandwidth depends on that.

[Walrii]

I wanted to clear up the definition of Apache:

Apache IS the HTTP server. So, when you use Firefox / IE / whatever to view your site, your web browser is establishing a connection to apache (on port 80) which then services your request by giving you images and generating the content (whether the files are just pulled from the disk or generated dynamically). Apache is very flexible and on the servers here and many other places, can also use the programming language PHP (along with others? perl? python? probably, I don't use them specifically) to generate the dynamic web page.

Apache is just a program like any other. So if too many requests come in and it can't handle it (whether the hard drive isn't fast enough or maybe the internet connection isn't big enough) then you'll notice slow connections or dropped connections. That's server load, the work that Apache is doing.

There's also of course the load on the server from the database service (mySQL) and the FTP server.

[Christopher]

Server load is - Ram and cpu that is being used
How it affects us - The higher it is the slower the server runs
What we can do to make it from going bad - Don't use scripts that are very resource intensive, don't run crons right on the hour Do them at a odd time. Midnight is a especially heavy time. I run mine at 3 something am and 4 something am
What Apache has to do with servers - That is what shows you your website.

[munim]

My explanation:
The server can refer to the software installed on the "server computer" which enables it to host websites on the internet. Apache is a popular server software for Unix/Linux based systems. IIS is one for windows.
Your browser requests a page from the server software through a port. the server takes these requests and executes the required php files if needed, sends the output back to your browser.
What you must understand is that the term "server" can refer to the software like Apache, and it can also refer to the computer as a whole.

[oo7josh]

Wait, so Apache and FTP should be interrelated right?

[mr kennedy]

Yes, It is. Because when you use FTP, it uses Apache HTTP to crawl your files ;)

[oo7josh]

OK, but when Corey is administrating the servers, and the Apache HTTP goes down, how come the FTP still remains up?

[mr kennedy]

Well the FTP Gateway(usually port 21) stays up but it can't crawl any files. and Corey's just fixing major stuff lately, that's why he's stopping the Apache service for some time ;)