> I need to provide a big client with the practical limits of > ColdFusion 5 running on a Windows 2000 server. The clients > wants to know that the server and the associated MS SQL > Server can handle 2000 simultaneous transactions. Are there > any published stats that would help? Would I need to lod > balance several servers to support this?
The short answer is that CF doesn't have any practically limits. Or, if you prefer, it's practically limitless. ;^) That being said for every jobs there's a perfect tool - and CF isn't always that tool. However in my experience there's simply been nothing that it couldn't do. As others have said - your numbers are vague at best (not your fault of course). It doesn't matter what they say, you have to sit down with your clients and figure out what they MEAN. I had one client that began the engagement claiming that they needed to build a site (a parents site helping parents to evaluate their young children's development) that could handle two million users, 20,000 of them simulataniously. They were actually getting there numbers by taking a percentage of (a very high percentage) of total parents in the country. Suffice to say that they ended up with quite different numbers of actual usage. Dig into the numbers - are they saying simultanious because that's how people will be on at the same time or because that's the total audience and they expect to all visit at the same time? Or some other reason. Also the many suggestions to load test are good. Build you application well (scalable), then load test it - testing will tell you how much iron you need to run the app. At this point your tool choice is, I think, pretty much irrelevant when it comes to peformance or scalability. Tool choice is all about development speed, support, etc. Any enterprise-level tool is going to give you the performance you need (with possibly more or less, but not that much more or less, hardware). I don't know if it will help at all, but I've done some threading tests (on a really slow server) on CF 4.5 and 5.0 (I've yet to redo them on MX) and here's the results: http://www.depressedpress.com/DepressedPress/Content/ColdFusion/Essays/4 5v5Threading/Index.cfm I've also uploaded the WebTrends Stats from the busiest site I do, www.firstnight.org. The site gets a whole buttload of traffic - but only for a few days a year (which is why I like the stats - it's a nice little microcosm): http://www.depressedpress.com/DepressedPress/Content/WebDesign/Stats/FN2 000/Index.cfm I hope that some of this helps, Jim Davis ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/index.cfm?forumid=4 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/index.cfm?method=subscribe&forumid=4 FAQ: http://www.thenetprofits.co.uk/coldfusion/faq This list and all House of Fusion resources hosted by CFHosting.com. The place for dependable ColdFusion Hosting.
