Advice on Optimizations

2025-04-15

Hi guys I am just looking for any advice, tips and suggestion on how to further optimize my server. Its a Dell P4 2.8Ghz (HT), 2Gb Ram, 2 X 120Gb. The server mainly serves files (95% of the time) ranging from a few Mb to over 100Mb (say average of 40Mb).

I am thinking of getting a second server, probably more or less the same specs .. is it a good idea?? or must I go for more processing power??

You guys have helped me a lot of the last couple of months, hopefully someday I will be able to give a little back.

Below are sample from "top" run about 10 minutes apart. Believe it or not this were taken at somewhat off peak times (not quiet off peak, not quiet peak too)

TOP1

11:57:23 up 1 day, 7:18, 1 user, load average: 12.21, 9.45, 7.55
1015 processes: 1012 sleeping, 1 running, 0 zombie, 2 stopped
CPU states: cpu user nice system irq softirq iowait idle
total 0.7% 0.0% 9.9% 0.8% 2.7% 85.6% 0.0%
cpu00 0.7% 0.0% 7.8% 1.1% 5.2% 84.9% 0.0%
cpu01 0.7% 0.0% 11.9% 0.5% 0.1% 86.4% 0.0%
Mem: 2054968k av, 2036340k used, 18628k free, 0k shrd, 33524k buff
1425624k actv, 269188k in_d, 29716k in_c
Swap: 2040212k av, 217260k used, 1822952k free 1289852k cached

PID USER PRI NI SIZE RSS SHARE STAT %CPU %MEM TIME CPU COMMAND
8 root 15 0 0 0 0 SW 4.5 0.0 12:01 1 kscand
7 root 16 0 0 0 0 SW 1.1 0.0 4:54 0 kswapd
12377 root 16 0 1928 1928 892 R 0.8 0.0 0:00 0 top
8700 nobody 16 0 5976 5152 4240 S 0.6 0.2 0:00 0 httpd
2297 nobody 15 0 19508 11M 1040 D 0.1 0.5 0:04 0 spamd
18326 mysql 15 0 10776 6756 824 S 0.1 0.3 0:10 1 mysqld
11523 nobody 15 0 3496 2656 1780 S 0.1 0.1 0:00 1 httpd
11941 root 15 0 1304 1260 912 S 0.1 0.0 0:00 0 sshd
1 root 15 0 192 156 132 S 0.0 0.0 0:05 1 init
2 root RT 0 0 0 0 SW 0.0 0.0 0:00 0 migration/0
3 root RT 0 0 0 0 SW 0.0 0.0 0:00 1 migration/1
4 root 15 0 0 0 0 SW 0.0 0.0 0:00 1 keventd
5 root 34 19 0 0 0 SWN 0.0 0.0 0:00 0 ksoftirqd/0
6 root 37 19 0 0 0 SWN 0.0 0.0 0:00 1 ksoftirqd/1
9 root 15 0 0 0 0 SW 0.0 0.0 0:00 1 bdflush
10 root 15 0 0 0 0 SW 0.0 0.0 0:21 1 kupdated
11 root 25 0 0 0 0 SW 0.0 0.0 0:00 0 mdrecoveryd
18 root 25 0 0 0 0 SW 0.0 0.0 0:00 0 scsi_eh_0
19 root 25 0 0 0 0 SW 0.0 0.0 0:00 0 scsi_eh_1
22 root 15 0 0 0 0 SW 0.0 0.0 0:04 0 kjournald
668 root 15 0 0 0 0 SW 0.0 0.0 0:00 1 kjournald
669 root 15 0 0 0 0 DW 0.0 0.0 0:44 0 kjournald
670 root 15 0 0 0 0 DW 0.0 0.0 0:16 0 kjournald
975 root 15 0 328 308 244 D 0.0 0.0 0:02 0 syslogd
979 root 15 0 256 244 192 S 0.0 0.0 0:00 1 klogd

TOP2
12:07:15 up 1 day, 7:27, 1 user, load average: 6.90, 6.02, 6.51
987 processes: 985 sleeping, 1 running, 0 zombie, 1 stopped
CPU states: cpu user nice system irq softirq iowait idle
total 0.4% 0.0% 9.3% 0.8% 1.7% 87.4% 0.0%
cpu00 0.3% 0.0% 9.8% 0.5% 3.5% 85.6% 0.0%
cpu01 0.5% 0.1% 8.8% 1.1% 0.0% 89.1% 0.0%
Mem: 2054968k av, 2036756k used, 18212k free, 0k shrd, 49108k buff
1426876k actv, 271160k in_d, 30372k in_c
Swap: 2040212k av, 217396k used, 1822816k free 1284112k cached

PID USER PRI NI SIZE RSS SHARE STAT %CPU %MEM TIME CPU COMMAND
8 root 15 0 0 0 0 SW 4.7 0.0 12:08 1 kscand
7 root 15 0 0 0 0 SW 2.0 0.0 4:56 1 kswapd
30337 nobody 15 0 2796 1600 1060 D 0.9 0.0 0:00 0 httpd
12377 root 16 0 1732 1732 684 R 0.7 0.0 0:11 0 top
1 root 15 0 192 156 132 S 0.0 0.0 0:05 0 init
2 root RT 0 0 0 0 SW 0.0 0.0 0:00 0 migration/0
3 root RT 0 0 0 0 SW 0.0 0.0 0:00 1 migration/1
4 root 15 0 0 0 0 SW 0.0 0.0 0:00 1 keventd
5 root 34 19 0 0 0 SWN 0.0 0.0 0:00 0 ksoftirqd/0
6 root 37 19 0 0 0 SWN 0.0 0.0 0:00 1 ksoftirqd/1
9 root 15 0 0 0 0 SW 0.0 0.0 0:00 1 bdflush
10 root 15 0 0 0 0 SW 0.0 0.0 0:21 1 kupdated
11 root 25 0 0 0 0 SW 0.0 0.0 0:00 0 mdrecoveryd
18 root 25 0 0 0 0 SW 0.0 0.0 0:00 0 scsi_eh_0
19 root 25 0 0 0 0 SW 0.0 0.0 0:00 0 scsi_eh_1
22 root 15 0 0 0 0 SW 0.0 0.0 0:04 1 kjournald
668 root 15 0 0 0 0 SW 0.0 0.0 0:00 1 kjournald
669 root 15 0 0 0 0 SW 0.0 0.0 0:45 0 kjournald
670 root 15 0 0 0 0 SW 0.0 0.0 0:16 1 kjournald
975 root 15 0 328 308 244 S 0.0 0.0 0:02 1 syslogd
979 root 15 0 256 244 192 S 0.0 0.0 0:00 0 klogd
989 root 15 0 280 272 220 S 0.0 0.0 0:02 0 irqbalance
999 root 15 0 244 224 184 S 0.0 0.0 0:00 0 mdadm
1024 nobody 15 0 796 360 252 S 0.0 0.0 0:00 1 proftpd
1957 named 25 0 3164 2940 992 S 0.0 0.1 0:00 0 named