Server to slow for Gentoo?

Message

bassvandijk · Post by **bassvandijk** » Wed Aug 24, 2005 12:09 am

Hi guys,

I received an old computer (Pentium 166Mhz., 32MB RAM, 6GB HD) from my girlfriend and I managed to put Gentoo on it.

Right now the server runs smoothly and is happy serving a little website (also indirectly reachable through www.verguldeventuri.tk).

The server also functions as a gateway / caching DNS / firewall to my LAN.

The problem I have is that my internet speed has gone down. When, for example, I download I large file I only get about 30Kb/s down as opposed to 500Kb/s down in my previous setup.

Also, when I'm logged in my server via SSH and I'm also downloading, I can hardly type in any characters and my download speeds gets practically zero (it even stalls sometimes).

Is my server just to slow or to low on memory to act as a gateway, firewall and webserver?
Also, what actions can I take to make it faster?

Following is 'a bit' of extra info on my server:

Services running: samba, djbdns, apache2, sshd, ntpd, dhcpd

My firewall is configured by shorewall.

emerge --info

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Portage 2.0.51.22-r2 (default-linux/x86/2005.0, gcc-3.3.5-20050130, glibc-2.3.5-r1, 2.6.12.5 i586)
=================================================================
System uname: 2.6.12.5 i586 Pentium MMX
Gentoo Base System version 1.6.13
distcc 2.18.3 i586-pc-linux-gnu (protocols 1 and 2) (default port 3632) [enabled]
dev-lang/python:     2.3.5
sys-apps/sandbox:    1.2.12
sys-devel/autoconf:  2.13, 2.59-r6
sys-devel/automake:  1.4_p6, 1.5, 1.6.3, 1.7.9-r1, 1.8.5-r3, 1.9.5
sys-devel/binutils:  2.15.92.0.2-r10
sys-devel/libtool:   1.5.18-r1
virtual/os-headers:  2.6.11-r2
ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86"
AUTOCLEAN="yes"
CBUILD="i586-pc-linux-gnu"
CFLAGS="-O2 -march=pentium-mmx -fomit-frame-pointer -pipe"
CHOST="i586-pc-linux-gnu"
CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/kde/2/share/config /usr/kde/3/share/config /usr/share/config /var/qmail/control"
CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/gconf /etc/terminfo /etc/env.d"
CXXFLAGS="-O2 -march=pentium-mmx -fomit-frame-pointer -pipe"
DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles"
FEATURES="autoconfig distcc distlocks sandbox sfperms strict"
GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://ftp.snt.utwente.nl/pub/os/linux/gentoo"
PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages"
PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp"
PORTDIR="/usr/portage"
SYNC="rsync://rsync.nl.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage"
USE="x86 apache2 apm bash-completion crypt cups curl eds foomaticdb gdbm gpm gstreamer ldap libwww mysql ncurses nls nptl nptlonly ogg pam python readline samba spell ssl tcpd vorbis xinetd xml2 zlib userland_GNU kernel_linux elibc_glibc"
Unset:  ASFLAGS, CTARGET, LANG, LC_ALL, LDFLAGS, LINGUAS, MAKEOPTS, PORTDIR_OVERLAY

free

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             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:         29208      23332       5876          0       2984      10464
-/+ buffers/cache:       9884      19324
Swap:        72252       8524      63728

ps -A -o pid,comm -H

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PID COMMAND
    1 init
    2   ksoftirqd/0
    3   events/0
    4   khelper
    5   kthread
    7     kblockd/0
   59     aio/0
  696     reiserfs/0
 8622     pdflush
 8645     pdflush
   58   kswapd0
  643   kseriod
  724   udevd
 4052   metalog
 4057     metalog
 5399   dhcpcd
 5424   dhcpd
 5583   ntpd
 5584   ntpd
 5625   smbd
 5627     smbd
 5628   nmbd
 5671   sshd
 8728     sshd
 8734       bash
 9187         ps
 5688   agetty
 5902   apache2
 5906     apache2
 7852     apache2
 7853     apache2
 9094     apache2
 9100     apache2
 8506   svscan
 8510     supervise
 8513       dnscache
 8511     supervise
 8512       multilog

cat /proc/cpuinfo

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processor       : 0
vendor_id       : GenuineIntel
cpu family      : 5
model           : 4
model name      : Pentium MMX
stepping        : 3
cpu MHz         : 166.511
fdiv_bug        : no
hlt_bug         : no
f00f_bug        : yes
coma_bug        : no
fpu             : yes
fpu_exception   : yes
cpuid level     : 1
wp              : yes
flags           : fpu vme de pse tsc msr mce cx8 mmx
bogomips        : 327.68

lspci

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0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 430VX - 82437VX TVX [Triton VX] (rev 02)
0000:00:07.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82371SB PIIX3 ISA [Natoma/Triton II] (rev 01)
0000:00:07.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82371SB PIIX3 IDE [Natoma/Triton II]
0000:00:0a.0 VGA compatible controller: S3 Inc. ViRGE/DX or /GX (rev 01)
0000:00:0b.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10)
0000:00:0c.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10)

Maybe it has something todo with my netfilter kernel configuration. Do these settings slow down networking:?

cat /usr/src/linux/.config | grep CONFIG_IP_NF

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CONFIG_IP_NF_CONNTRACK=y
# CONFIG_IP_NF_CT_ACCT is not set
# CONFIG_IP_NF_CONNTRACK_MARK is not set
# CONFIG_IP_NF_CT_PROTO_SCTP is not set
# CONFIG_IP_NF_FTP is not set
# CONFIG_IP_NF_IRC is not set
# CONFIG_IP_NF_TFTP is not set
# CONFIG_IP_NF_AMANDA is not set
CONFIG_IP_NF_QUEUE=y
CONFIG_IP_NF_IPTABLES=y
CONFIG_IP_NF_MATCH_LIMIT=y
CONFIG_IP_NF_MATCH_IPRANGE=y
CONFIG_IP_NF_MATCH_MAC=y
CONFIG_IP_NF_MATCH_PKTTYPE=y
CONFIG_IP_NF_MATCH_MARK=y
CONFIG_IP_NF_MATCH_MULTIPORT=y
CONFIG_IP_NF_MATCH_TOS=y
CONFIG_IP_NF_MATCH_RECENT=y
CONFIG_IP_NF_MATCH_ECN=y
CONFIG_IP_NF_MATCH_DSCP=y
CONFIG_IP_NF_MATCH_AH_ESP=y
CONFIG_IP_NF_MATCH_LENGTH=y
CONFIG_IP_NF_MATCH_TTL=y
CONFIG_IP_NF_MATCH_TCPMSS=y
CONFIG_IP_NF_MATCH_HELPER=y
CONFIG_IP_NF_MATCH_STATE=y
CONFIG_IP_NF_MATCH_CONNTRACK=y
CONFIG_IP_NF_MATCH_OWNER=y
# CONFIG_IP_NF_MATCH_ADDRTYPE is not set
# CONFIG_IP_NF_MATCH_REALM is not set
# CONFIG_IP_NF_MATCH_SCTP is not set
# CONFIG_IP_NF_MATCH_COMMENT is not set
# CONFIG_IP_NF_MATCH_HASHLIMIT is not set
CONFIG_IP_NF_FILTER=y
CONFIG_IP_NF_TARGET_REJECT=y
CONFIG_IP_NF_TARGET_LOG=y
CONFIG_IP_NF_TARGET_ULOG=y
CONFIG_IP_NF_TARGET_TCPMSS=y
CONFIG_IP_NF_NAT=y
CONFIG_IP_NF_NAT_NEEDED=y
CONFIG_IP_NF_TARGET_MASQUERADE=y
CONFIG_IP_NF_TARGET_REDIRECT=y
CONFIG_IP_NF_TARGET_NETMAP=y
CONFIG_IP_NF_TARGET_SAME=y
# CONFIG_IP_NF_NAT_SNMP_BASIC is not set
CONFIG_IP_NF_MANGLE=y
CONFIG_IP_NF_TARGET_TOS=y
CONFIG_IP_NF_TARGET_ECN=y
CONFIG_IP_NF_TARGET_DSCP=y
CONFIG_IP_NF_TARGET_MARK=y
CONFIG_IP_NF_TARGET_CLASSIFY=y
CONFIG_IP_NF_RAW=y
CONFIG_IP_NF_TARGET_NOTRACK=y
CONFIG_IP_NF_ARPTABLES=y
CONFIG_IP_NF_ARPFILTER=y
CONFIG_IP_NF_ARP_MANGLE=y

fangorn · Post by **fangorn** » Wed Aug 24, 2005 8:09 am

Yea, I would say to run a kernel-2.6.x and latest Apache and latest iptables and running DNS services and a samba server 32 MB RAM seem a little low for me

For the processor it should be less a problem.

nxsty · Post by **nxsty** » Wed Aug 24, 2005 10:52 am

Is DMA enabled? Check with hdparm /dev/hdX .

bassvandijk · Post by **bassvandijk** » Wed Aug 24, 2005 11:59 am

Yes DMA is enabled:

hdparm /dev/hda

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/dev/hda:
 multcount    = 16 (on)
 IO_support   =  0 (default 16-bit)
 unmaskirq    =  0 (off)
 using_dma    =  1 (on)
 keepsettings =  0 (off)
 readonly     =  0 (off)
 readahead    = 256 (on)
 geometry     = 13328/15/63, sectors = 6448619520, start = 0

I checked my internet speed this morning by downloading a large file and now my speed was suddently the normal ~500Kb/s down.

I don't know what caused the previous slowdown but it seems to work for now.

Thanks for your replies.

nephros · Post by **nephros** » Wed Aug 24, 2005 4:03 pm

That hardware should be enough for most loads you will be able to generate (just don't get linked to from slashdot, or the GWN or something

)

One thought though: You wouldn't have ISA Network card(s) in the box? If so, replace them with PCI ones if you can, depending on the hardware and driver, ISA NICs can hog a boxes resources under very high network load, like transferring huge files over Samba.

bassvandijk · Post by **bassvandijk** » Wed Aug 24, 2005 4:43 pm

nephros wrote:You wouldn't have ISA Network card(s) in the box?

No, I fortunately have PCI NICs. Thanks for the advice dough.

VoVaN · Post by **VoVaN** » Fri Aug 26, 2005 3:49 pm

Also, when I'm logged in my server via SSH and I'm also downloading, I can hardly type in any characters and my download speeds gets practically zero (it even stalls sometimes).

Try using http://lartc.org/wondershaper/... works perfectly for me

Headrush · Post by **Headrush** » Fri Aug 26, 2005 4:21 pm

bassvandijk wrote:Yes DMA is enabled:

hdparm /dev/hda
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/dev/hda:
 multcount    = 16 (on)
 IO_support   =  0 (default 16-bit)
 unmaskirq    =  0 (off)
 using_dma    =  1 (on)
 keepsettings =  0 (off)
 readonly     =  0 (off)
 readahead    = 256 (on)
 geometry     = 13328/15/63, sectors = 6448619520, start = 0
I checked my internet speed this morning by downloading a large file and now my speed was suddently the normal ~500Kb/s down.

I don't know what caused the previous slowdown but it seems to work for now.

Thanks for your replies.

If your drive supports it, 32 bit transfer might help also.

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hdparm -c1 /dev/hda

I would also try bumping up the RAM.

kaven · Post by **kaven** » Sun Oct 23, 2005 4:32 am

some cheap Ethernet card need use more cpu and delay transfer.
I think 3c905 or other good Ethernet card will make some better.