Sorry, I should have specified that I'm already using PerlIS. I'm specifically interested in whether there are any scalability issues with DBI, since it appeared to be proliferating DBI threads that were causing the problem. We fixed it on the fly by throwing more RAM and a second processor into the server, after which things went well. As mentioned, I'm also interested in advice on stress-testing such an app to forestall such problems in the future.
---------------FROM------------------- David R. Miller Manager, Computer-Based Testing Medical Council of Canada [EMAIL PROTECTED] (613) 521-6012 (613) 521-9722 (fax) ----------------------------------------- -----Original Message----- From: Trevor Joerges [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: 27 November 2001 9:45 p.m. To: 'MILLER David R.'; 'Perl-Win32-Web (E-mail)' Subject: RE: Web app advice Scalability with Perl CGI applications is a known issue. The problem is that the Perl interpreter loads every time as a new process in protected memory. Alternatives to increase scalability are FastCGI, mod_perl (for Apache) or Perl ISAPI on WinNT. <snip> -----Original Message----- From: MILLER David R. [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, November 27, 2001 4:31 PM To: Perl-Win32-Web (E-mail) Subject: Web app advice I've created a Perl-driven web app that delivers a high-stakes examination to remote computer labs. We recently ran a session and experienced some problems that I am seeking advice on. Perl v5.6.1, ... Binary build 629 DBI::DBD.pm,v 10.8 2000/06/11 00:06:02 DBD::ODBC.pm,v 1.12 1998/08/14 19:29:50 Windows 2000 IIS 5 SQL Server 7.0 Although things went well in testing, in practice our server memory usage went nuts past a threshold of perhaps 100 simultaneous users. We're not sure why, but the clues seem to point to the DBI. I realize that specific advice is impossible without seeing code, but at the moment I'm asking two general questions: 1. Are there scalability issues with DBI/DBD/ODBC that I should be aware of? (The last time we ran the exam I was still using Win32::ODBC and didn't see this particular problem, although the current code is definitely more database-intensive.) 2. The big lesson is that we have to stress-test our app. I need to create a host of virtual candidates taking the exam so I can try out different components and different scenarios. Does anyone have recommendations for a suitable tool for doing this, Perl-based or otherwise? I can't say that price is not a factor, but the costs and stress associated with a server meltdown are pretty considerable. TIA ---------------FROM------------------- David R. Miller Manager, Computer-Based Testing Medical Council of Canada [EMAIL PROTECTED] (613) 521-6012 (613) 521-9722 (fax) ----------------------------------------- _______________________________________________ Perl-Win32-Web mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://listserv.ActiveState.com/mailman/listinfo/perl-win32-web
