Hi Bruce, Theoretically, I think that ought to be enough resources in general for a reasonable starting system. But I honestly do not have exact metrics for system specifications to draw from. Other folks might suggest more appropriate specs based on their experience. I'm going to do some thinking aloud next...
For a moment or so, I wondered on average how large the PostgreSQL metabib indexes would look like for a library with 30k titles. Using a totally, terribly rough example on this, I have access to an Evergreen library's database that I know which has roughly 10k live bibs equaling around 1.3 GB of metabib data content (using Galen Charlton's method for analyzing Evergreen database size: https://galencharlton.com/blog/2010/05/database-server-disk-space-usage-in-evergreen/). So if you're three times that, that could mean you might use up 3.9 GB (or more if your bibs are well defined). Not to mention all the other parts of the database. *Note: these numbers are very rough and quite possibly wrong in either direction.* Having a large database of contents could affect overall system performance, because if you do not have enough memory to keep your Evergreen database happy in memory, it will have to hit the disk to retrieve necessary data more frequently. That said, because Linode uses SSDs for disk storage, I wonder if PostgreSQL performance issues would be mitigated anyways with the generally faster I/O with that technology. Unfortunately, that is not something I have easy experience measuring... though hey, I once ran a copy of our production Evergreen database (with 1.2 million bibs) on a Thinkpad laptop with 2 core i7 CPU, 16 GB of RAM, and 500 GB SSD and it felt like I was searching faster than our old production environment (made up of lots of clustered servers and regular disk storage). So you never know what magic SSDs can deliver... :) I know from my own personal experience using Linode, that there are also plans like the one you describe where you can add on extra RAM with additional cost. Not sure if that's worth looking into long-term either. In any case, it would seem that you may have some options to alter the system specifications later if necessary to expand the environment. Hope some of this proves useful and spurs thought and suggestions by others. Cheers, -- Ben On Thu, Nov 19, 2015 at 9:45 PM, Bruce Willms <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi Ben, et al., > > Thanks for the information. I thought I had sent a reply a long time ago, > but I just discovered that it somehow got hung up in my outbox, and I can't > dislodge it. So I'm sending another. > > Would a set-up like the one below be sufficient for a smallish instance of > Evergreen, or do you think we would need something more robust? Our > collection is small, probably less than 30,000 titles, and we don't expect to > do much circulation, being essentially a research library. > > 4 GB RAM > 4 CPU Cores > 96 GB SSD Storage > 4 TB Transfer > 40 Gbps Network In > 500 Mbps Network Out > > This bundle would cost $40 a month, which is quite reasonable in my book. I > don't know yet what sort of backup or other support is provided for this > price. > > Any advice is greatly appreciated. > > Best regards, > Bruce > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Open-ils-general > [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Ben > Shum > Sent: Wednesday, November 11, 2015 8:25 PM > To: Evergreen Discussion Group <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Linux VPS > > Hi Bruce, > > I've used Linode for personal applications like IRC and testing web services, > but have not applied it towards any live Evergreen systems. > I have created test droplets with DigitalOcean too, back when they were one > of the leaders in use of SSD disk storage, and that was certainly a nice > hosted environment. The SSDs make things speedier when you don't necessarily > have all the memory you'd like to run things fast. > > These are some areas I would be check before using any third-party host > environment: > > 1) Making sure to spec out a powerful enough system (or more than one > instance if needed). Getting the right amount of resources for CPU, RAM, > disk space can be very important when putting together a proper Evergreen > system. Even a test server could malfunction on less than 2 GB of RAM (with > memory killers wrecking your installed instance). So having an appropriate > sized instance is important. > > 2) Knowing what your data protection services are like. In the past, with > groups like DigitalOcean, they had issues where the data in the instances > could be leaked due to not properly deleting content between node rebuilds > (which has since been fixed, as far as I last read). > But how safe is your data "in the cloud"? What rules govern how your > instances are accessed? With library data, I try to be cautious on this > front. > > I'll let others chime in when they can, but hopefully this gets some > conversation going for you. > > Good luck in your investigations, and feel free to ask further questions as > applicable. > > -- Ben > > On Thu, Nov 5, 2015 at 10:12 PM, Bruce Willms <[email protected]> wrote: >> We are just gearing up to set up an instance of Evergreen and are >> wondering if anyone is running the system on a hosted VPS service like >> Linode. It seems like a reasonable solution in our case since we >> don’t have IT staff to support a server, etc. I’m curious to know if >> others have done this and what their experience has been – good, bad, >> or otherwise. Or if this is a recipe for disaster. >> >> >> >> I’m new to this list and to Evergreen, and looking for some pointers >> from experienced hands. >> >> >> >> Bruce Willms >> >> East Side Freedom Library >> >> St. Paul, MN >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> > > > > -- > Benjamin Shum > Evergreen Systems Manager > Bibliomation, Inc. > 24 Wooster Ave. > Waterbury, CT 06708 > 203-577-4070, ext. 113 > -- Benjamin Shum Evergreen Systems Manager Bibliomation, Inc. 24 Wooster Ave. Waterbury, CT 06708 203-577-4070, ext. 113
