Is 256Mb RAM enough?

[jpetrov]

I would like to hear this from the users. I did some tests by installing small server-type applications (i.e. MS MSDE SQL Web Admin) and I ran into problems while installing one app while another is online.

The processing power has never been an issue - server idle process usually takes 90% of the task list... BUT memory footprint is easiliy approaching 256Mb. And when you overgrow your limit - one of the apps simply crashes. So this gives me an impression that the windows VPSes are hard limited with RAM? As I can recall the linux boxes have burstable option available.

Has SW Soft made some recommendations. I am not wise enough and have not enough data to claim that 256Mb for a windows box is too little but I must say that it's very easy to fill up the RAM. This might bring problems for more serious web applications.

From what I can see if I choose to run a Windows VPS I would definitely think about 384/512 Mb one if the hard limit still applies. Especially when adding up databases, .net components and so on.

BUT - I need to put a large disclaimer - I still need to test this with real web apps and not the classical ones (in this example I used an install of firefox as a guinea pig - my RAM was 95% running the plesk/windows server with resident clamav, msde web admin tool and my firefox install crashed). I stopped the msde web admin, RAM went down to 90something%, the install went trhough. Afterwards I restarted this service and firefox could run but RAM was 99%).

[1ONE]

Hm, I don’t know how bursting is working on Windows , but yesterday I “played” little with the box , and found some interesting readings. Under system info you can see that server is Dell something , with 6gb of ram, dual xeon 2.8 , etc… and when I look to Right click > My computer there you can find 32mb ram available. I think SW –soft engineers should play more with bursting and stuff like that. Also I think that bursting is working better on Linux because it has better swap memory that is on your Windows OS. So theoretically with 256mb you get 512mb or more ( depends how is your swap dir set ).

That’s my thoughts.

Ivan

[jpetrov]

I've got my first live web-app install... It's a MS shopping cart demo designed to show how fast is .net compared to j2ee (or not - I am not going to enter into debate I like both technologies).

http://204.157.9.123:8080/

is the app's address (note I can tweak win boxes with neat ip's and ports outside plesk :) )

Nevertheless - this app is very very fast for me (i like to rate web site speeds and this is (at least for me on my ADSL - google rate speed). But then maybe I need to load the VPS with 50 accounts like this and put them on a real strain (visitors) and see again how it performs...

[jpetrov]

I tried to install another app - it needed .NET SDK. I couldnt install the SDK (low RAM). Stopped Plesk and SQL server. Still no luck. Increased virtual memory (swap). All went fine. Restarted Plesk and MS SQL. The install wanted a restart. Did restart it. Could not bring up the VPS again (VPS is stopping now is shown in the PowerPanel). Web server still runs (!). Can not RDC. Have no clue!

[jpetrov]

update - logged in to plesk, issued a reboot request. it said it would reboot. now plesk is not available and powerpanel still says your system is shutting down.

[charles]

Hi Jovan

First, since we rebooted the server at 12:00 EST, have you had the reboot problem?

I would like to hear this from the users. I did some tests by installing small server-type applications (i.e. MS MSDE SQL Web Admin) and I ran into problems while installing one app while another is online.

The processing power has never been an issue - server idle process usually takes 90% of the task list... BUT memory footprint is easiliy approaching 256Mb. And when you overgrow your limit - one of the apps simply crashes. So this gives me an impression that the windows VPSes are hard limited with RAM? As I can recall the linux boxes have burstable option available.


With windows we cannot specify a burst max, but purely a fixed amount of RAM.


Has SW Soft made some recommendations. I am not wise enough and have not enough data to claim that 256Mb for a windows box is too little but I must say that it's very easy to fill up the RAM. This might bring problems for more serious web applications.

From what I can see if I choose to run a Windows VPS I would definitely think about 384/512 Mb one if the hard limit still applies. Especially when adding up databases, .net components and so on.


This is one of the things the beta will reveal.


BUT - I need to put a large disclaimer - I still need to test this with real web apps and not the classical ones (in this example I used an install of firefox as a guinea pig - my RAM was 95% running the plesk/windows server with resident clamav, msde web admin tool and my firefox install crashed). I stopped the msde web admin, RAM went down to 90something%, the install went trhough. Afterwards I restarted this service and firefox could run but RAM was 99%).

Yeah, I'd say dont run firefox on your server, but a good test i agree :)

But yes, we are very interested in hearing if 256M of RAM is too limiting.

charles

[charles]

Hm, I don’t know how bursting is working on Windows , but yesterday I “played” little with the box , and found some interesting readings. Under system info you can see that server is Dell something , with 6gb of ram, dual xeon 2.8 , etc… and when I look to Right click > My computer there you can find 32mb ram available. I think SW –soft engineers should play more with bursting and stuff like that. Also I think that bursting is working better on Linux because it has better swap memory that is on your Windows OS. So theoretically with 256mb you get 512mb or more ( depends how is your swap dir set ).

That’s my thoughts.

Ivan

We can only specify a fixed amount of RAM with the windows VPS. The 32mb shown in my computer is a known issue, but SWSoft says to not expect a fix for that anytime soon.

charles