Chapter 4 Platform-Specific Issues and Tips

This chapter provides platform-specific tuning tips, and includes the following topics:

• Solaris Platform-Specific Issues

• Solaris File System Tuning

• Solaris Platform-Specific Performance Monitoring

• Tuning Solaris for Performance Benchmarking

• Tuning UltraSPARC® T1–Based Systems for Performance Benchmarking

Solaris Platform-Specific Issues

This section discusses miscellaneous Solaris-specific issues and tuning tips, and includes the following topics:

• Files Open in a Single Process (File Descriptor Limits)

• Failure to Connect to HTTP Server

• Connection Refused Errors

• Tuning TCP Buffering

• Using the Solaris Network Cache and Accelerator (SNCA)

Files Open in a Single Process (File Descriptor Limits)

Different platforms each have limits on the number of files that can be open in a single process at one time. For busy sites, you might need to increase that number. On Solaris systems, control this limit by setting rlim_fd_max in the /etc/system file. For Solaris 8, the default is 1024, which you can increase to 65536. For Solaris 9 and 10, the default is 65536, which doesn't need to be increased.

After making this or any change in the /etc/system file, reboot Solaris to put the new settings into effect. In addition, if you upgrade to a new version of Solaris, any line added to /etc/system should be removed and added again only after verifying that it is still valid.

An alternative way to make this change is using the ulimit –n "value" command. Using this command does not require a system restart. However, this command only changes the login shell, while editing the etc/system file affects all shells.

Failure to Connect to HTTP Server

If users are experiencing connection timeouts from a browser to Web Server when the server is heavily loaded, you can increase the size of the HTTP listener backlog queue. To increase this setting, edit the HTTP listener's listen queue value.

In addition to this setting, you must also increase the limits within the Solaris TCP/IP networking code. There are two parameters that are changed by executing the following commands:

/usr/sbin/ndd -set /dev/tcp tcp_conn_req_max_q 8192
/usr/sbin/ndd -set /dev/tcp tcp_conn_req_max_q0 8192

These two settings increase the maximum number of two Solaris listen queues that can fill up with waiting connections. tcp_conn_req_max_q increases the number of completed connections waiting to return from an accept() call. tcp_conn_req_max_q0 increases the maximum number of connections with the handshake incomplete. The default values are 128 and 1024 respectively. To automatically have these ndd commands executed after each system reboot, place them in a file called /etc/init.d/network-tuning and create a link to that file named /etc/rc2.d/S99network-tuning.

You can monitor the effect of these changes by using the netstat -s command and looking at the tcpListenDrop, tcpListenDropQ0, and tcpHalfOpenDrop values. Review them before adjusting these values. If they are not zero, adjust the value to 2048 initially, and continue to monitor the netstat output.

The Web Server HTTP listener's listen queue setting and the related Solaris tcp_conn_req_max_q and tcp_conn_req_max_q0 settings should match the throughput of the Web Server. These queues act as a "buffer" to manage the irregular rate of connections coming from web users. These queues allow Solaris to accept the connections and hold them until they are processed by the Web Server.

You don't want to accept more connections than the Web Server is able to process. It is better to limit the size of these queues and reject further connections than to accept excess connections and fail to service them. The value of 2048 for these three parameters typically reduces connection request failures, and improvement has been seen with values as high as 4096.

This adjustment is not expected to have any adverse impact in any web hosting environment, so you can consider this suggestion even if your system is not showing the symptoms mentioned.

Connection Refused Errors

If users are experiencing connection refused errors on a heavily loaded server, you can tune the use of network resources on the server.

When a TCP/IP connection is closed, the port is not reused for the duration of tcp_time_wait_interval (default value of 240000 milliseconds). This is to ensure that there are no leftover segments. The shorter the tcp_time_wait_interval, the faster precious network resources are again available. This parameter is changed by executing the following command (do not reduce it below 60000):

usr/sbin/ndd -set /dev/tcp tcp_time_wait_interval 60000

To automatically have this ndd command executed after each system reboot, place it in a file called /etc/init.d/network-tuning and create a link to that file named /etc/rc2.d/S99network-tuning.

If your system is not exhibiting the symptoms mentioned, and if you are not well-versed in tuning the TCP protocol, it is suggested that you do not change the above parameter.

Tuning TCP Buffering

If you are seeing unpredictable intermittent slowdowns in network response from a consistently loaded server, you might investigate setting the sq_max_size parameter by adding the following line to the /etc/system file:

set sq_max_size=512

This setting adjusts the size of the sync queue, which transfers packets from the hardware driver to the TCP/IP protocol driver. Using the value of 512 allows the queue to accommodate high volumes of network traffic without overflowing.

Using the Solaris Network Cache and Accelerator (SNCA)

The Solaris Network Cache and Accelerator (SNCA) is a caching server that provides improved web performance to the Solaris operating system.

It is assumed that SNCA has been configured for the system on which the Web Server is running. For more information about SNCA and its configuration and tuning, refer to the following man pages on your system:

• ncab2clf(1)

• ncakmod(1)

• nca(1)

• snca(1)

• nca.if(4)

• ncakmod.conf(4)

• ncalogd.conf(4)

To Enable SNCA to Work With Web Server

This procedure assumes that SNCA has been configured, as discussed above.

1. From the Common Tasks page, choose a configuration and click Edit Configuration.

2. Click the HTTP Listeners tab and select the HTTP listener to edit.

3. On the Edit HTTP Listener page, set the Protocol Family to nca.

   The HTTP listener must be listening on port 80 for this to work.

4. Save your changes.

5. Click the Performance tab.

6. Click the Cache sub tab.

7. On the Cache Settings page, make sure the file cache is enabled and enable Use Sendfile.

8. Save your changes.

9. Redeploy the configuration for your changes to take effect.

Maximum Threads and Queue Size

When configuring Web Server to be used with SNCA, disabling the thread pool provides better performance. These settings are on the configuration's Performance tab ⇒ HTTP sub tab, under Thread Pool Settings. To disable the thread pool, deselect the Thread Pool Enabled checkbox. You can also disable the thread pool using the wadm set-thread-pool-prop command's enabled property.

The thread pool can also be disabled with non-SNCA configurations, especially for cases in which short latency responses with no keep-alives must be delivered.

Solaris File System Tuning

This section discusses changes that can be made for file system tuning, and includes topics that address the following issues:

• High File System Page-In Rate

• Reduce File System Housekeeping

• Long Service Times on Busy Disks or Volumes

Please read the descriptions of the following parameters carefully. If the description matches your situation, consider making the adjustment.

High File System Page-In Rate

If you are seeing high file system page-in rates on Solaris 8 or 9, you might benefit from increasing the value of segmap_percent. This parameter is set by adding the following line to the /etc/system file:

set segmap_percent=25

segmap_percent adjusts the percentage of memory that the kernel maps into its address space for the file system cache. The default value is 12; that is, the kernel reserves enough space to map at most 12% of memory for the file system cache. On a heavily loaded machine with 4 GB of physical memory, improvements have been seen with values as high as 60. You should experiment with this value, starting with values around 25. On systems with large amounts of physical memory, you should raise this value in small increments, as it can significantly increase kernel memory requirements.

Reduce File System Housekeeping

UNIX file system (UFS) volumes maintain the time that each file was accessed. Note that the following change does not turn off the access time updates when the file is modified, but only when the file is accessed. If the file access time updates are not important in your environment, you could turn them off by adding the noatime parameter to the data volume's mount point in /etc/vfstab. For example:

/dev/dsk/c0t5d0s6 /dev/rdsk/c0t5d0s6 /data0 ufs 1 yes noatime

Long Service Times on Busy Disks or Volumes

Web Server's responsiveness depends greatly on the performance of the disk subsystem. Use the iostat utility to monitor how busy the disks are and how rapidly they complete I/O requests (the %b and svc_t columns, respectively). Service times are unimportant for disks that are less than about 30% busy, but for busier disks, service times should not exceed about 20 milliseconds. If your busy disks have slower service times, improving disk performance might help Web Server performance substantially.

Your first step should be to balance the load: if some disks are busy while others are lightly loaded, move some files off of the busy disks and onto the idle disks. If there is an imbalance, correcting it usually gives a far greater payoff than trying to tune the overloaded disks.

Solaris Platform-Specific Performance Monitoring

This section describes some of the Solaris-specific tools and utilities you can use to monitor your system's behavior, and includes the following topics:

• Short-Term System Monitoring

• Long-Term System Monitoring

• “Intelligent” Monitoring

The tools described in this section monitor performance from the standpoint of how the system responds to the load that Web Server generates. For information about using Web Server's own capabilities to track the demands that users place on the Web Server itself, see Monitoring Server Performance.

Short-Term System Monitoring

Solaris offers several tools for taking “snapshots” of system behavior. Although you can capture their output in files for later analysis, the tools listed below are primarily intended for monitoring system behavior in real time:

• The iostat -x 60 command reports disk performance statistics at 60-second intervals.

  Watch the %b column to see how much of the time each disk is busy. For any disk busy more than about 20% of the time, pay attention to the service time as reported in the svct column. Other columns report the I/O operation rates, the amount of data transferred, and so on.

• The vmstat 60 command summarizes virtual memory activity and some CPU statistics at 60-second intervals.

  Monitor the sr column to keep track of the page scan rate and take action if it's too high (note that "too high" is very different for Solaris 8 and 9 than for earlier releases). Watch the us, sy, and id columns to see how heavily the CPUs are being used; remember that you need to keep plenty of CPU power in reserve to handle sudden bursts of activity. Also keep track of the r column to see how many threads are contending for CPU time; if this remains higher than about four times the number of CPUs, you might need to reduce the server's concurrency.

• The mpstat 60 command gives a detailed look at CPU statistics, while the netstat -i 60 command summarizes network activity.

Long-Term System Monitoring

It is important not only to "spot-check" system performance with the tools mentioned above, but to collect longer-term performance histories so you can detect trends. If nothing else, a baseline record of a system performing well might help you figure out what has changed if the system starts behaving poorly. Enable the system activity reporting package by doing the following:

• Edit the file /etc/init.d/perf and remove the # comment characters from the lines near the end of the file. For Solaris 10, run the following command:

  svcadm enable system/sar

• Run the command crontab -e sys and remove the # comment characters from the lines with the sa1 and sa2 commands. You might also wish to adjust how often the commands run and at what times of day depending on your site's activity profile (see the crontab man page for an explanation of the format of this file).

  This causes the system to store performance data in files in the /var/adm/sa directory, where by default they are retained for one month. You can then use the sar command to examine the statistics for time periods of interest.

“Intelligent” Monitoring

The SE toolkit is a freely downloadable software package developed by Sun performance experts. In addition to collecting and monitoring raw performance statistics, the toolkit can apply heuristics to characterize the overall health of the system and highlight areas that might need adjustment. You can download the toolkit and its documentation from the following location:

http://www.sunfreeware.com/setoolkit.html

Solaris 10 Platform-Specific Tuning Information

DTrace is a comprehensive dynamic tracing framework for the Solaris Operating Environment. You can use the DTrace Toolkit to monitor the system. It is available from the following URL:

http://www.opensolaris.org/os/community/dtrace/dtracetoolkit/

Tuning Solaris for Performance Benchmarking

The following table shows the operating system tuning for Solaris used when benchmarking for performance and scalability. These values are an example of how you might tune your system to achieve the desired result.

Tuning UltraSPARC® T1–Based Systems for Performance Benchmarking

Use a combination of tunable parameters and other parameters to tune your system for performance benchmarking. These values are an example of how you might tune your system to achieve the desired result.

Tuning Operating System and TCP Settings

The following table shows the operating system tuning for Solaris 10 used when benchmarking for performance and scalability on UtraSPARC T1–based systems (64 bit systems).

Note that the IPGE driver version is 1.25.25.

Disk Configuration

If HTTP access is logged, follow these guidelines for the disk:

• Write access logs on faster disks or attached storage.

• If running multiple instances, move the logs for each instance onto separate disks as much as possible.

• Enable the disk read/write cache. Note that if you enable write cache on the disk, some writes might be lost if the disk fails.

• Consider mounting the disks with the following options, which might yield better disk performance: nologging, directio, noatime.

Network Configuration

If more than one network interface card is used, make sure the network interrupts are not all going to the same core. Run the following script to disable interrupts:

allpsr=`/usr/sbin/psrinfo | grep -v off-line | awk '{ print $1 }'`
   set $allpsr
   numpsr=$#
   while [ $numpsr -gt 0 ];
   do
       shift
       numpsr=`expr $numpsr - 1`
       tmp=1
       while [ $tmp -ne 4 ];
       do
           /usr/sbin/psradm -i $1
           shift
           numpsr=`expr $numpsr - 1`
           tmp=`expr $tmp + 1`
       done
   done

Put all network interfaces into a single group. For example:

$ifconfig ipge0 group webserver
$ifconfig ipge1 group webserver

Web Server Start Options

In some cases, performance can be improved by using large page sizes. To start the 32–bit Web Server with 4 MB pages:

LD_PRELOAD_32=/usr/lib/mpss.so.1 ; export LD_PRELOAD_32; export MPSSHEAP=4M; ./bin/startserv; unset LD_PRELOAD_32; unset MPSSHEAP

For 64–bit servers:

LD_PRELOAD_64=/usr/lib/64/mpss.so.1; export LD_PRELOAD_64; export MPSSHEAP=4M; ./bin/startserv; unset LD_PRELOAD_64; unset MPSSHEAP