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1.6 Million IP Connections on FreeBSD
An anonymous reader writes "FreeBSD developer Terry Lambert, in a recent posting to the 'freebsd-hackers' mailing list, mentioned that he'd tuned a FreeBSD 4.4 box with 4GB of RAM to achieve 1,603,127 simultaneous IP connections, and goes on to say: 'As far as I know, I hold the single machine connection record for an x86 box.' This is an impressive achievement any way you look at it (though it begs the question of whether or not the box had any resources left to actually do anything with those connections...), and it speaks well of both FreeBSD's capabilities and Terry's skills and knowledge. I'm curious, though, if anyone has approached, matched, or exceeded that number elsewhere?"
Next article please
OMG BIG PENIS ATE MY SOUP
*BSD handles 1.6 million connections without dying.
It doen NOT beg any damn question. The claim may suggest a question, or raise a question or perhaps.
Does any-fucking-body know the meaning of "begging the question"? I don't believe I've heard correct use of the phrase even once in the past year.
</peeve>
my webhosting box does twice that during peak hours, but then i'm hosting free porn so it doesn't count ;)
I was seriously considering using BSD based on this awesome stat, but the illeteracy displayed by this improper useage of "begs the question" has changed my mind.
Nah, just kidding.
Post the address of that box here. We'll give it a real stress test.
I can't say that I don't give a fuck. I've just run out of fuck to give.
"What kind of artist are you?"
"I'm a 'Prior Artist'."
What has been tested is simply the number of concurrent connections. More practical would be simple retrieving of say 1kb data from a database and printing it out on a very simple HTML, and checking the maximum number of THESE connections. In effect trying to really httpblast DDoS style the FreeBSD with sheer number of connections. The box will have to be massive with 4GB RAM at least (we're testing OS here not hardware) and the connection maybe (multiple?) gigabit ethernet. The result would theoretically be lower than 1.6 million but we need to show FreeBSD can scale in practical tests like these. Results from a test like that will have the power to change vendors' minds from trying to run IIS and MS SQL for a high volume site.
"Give orange me give eat orange me eat orange give me eat orange give me you." -Nim Chimpsky
One more crippling bombshell hit the already beleaguered *BSD community when IDC confirmed that *BSD market share has dropped yet again, now down to less than a fraction of 1 percent of all servers. Coming on the heels of a recent Netcraft survey which plainly states that *BSD has lost more market share, this news serves to reinforce what we've known all along. *BSD is collapsing in complete disarray, as fittingly exemplified by failing dead last in the recent Sys Admin comprehensive networking test.
You don't need to be a Kreskin to predict *BSD's future. The hand writing is on the wall: *BSD faces a bleak future. In fact there won't be any future at all for *BSD because *BSD is dying. Things are looking very bad for *BSD. As many of us are already aware, *BSD continues to lose market share. Red ink flows like a river of blood.
FreeBSD is the most endangered of them all, having lost 93% of its core developers. The sudden and unpleasant departures of long time FreeBSD developers Jordan Hubbard and Mike Smith only serve to underscore the point more clearly. There can no longer be any doubt: FreeBSD is dying.
Let's keep to the facts and look at the numbers.
OpenBSD leader Theo states that there are 7000 users of OpenBSD. How many users of NetBSD are there? Let's see. The number of OpenBSD versus NetBSD posts on Usenet is roughly in ratio of 5 to 1. Therefore there are about 7000/5 = 1400 NetBSD users. BSD/OS posts on Usenet are about half of the volume of NetBSD posts. Therefore there are about 700 users of BSD/OS. A recent article put FreeBSD at about 80 percent of the *BSD market. Therefore there are (7000+1400+700)*4 = 36400 FreeBSD users. This is consistent with the number of FreeBSD Usenet posts.
Due to the troubles of Walnut Creek, abysmal sales and so on, FreeBSD went out of business and was taken over by BSDI who sell another troubled OS. Now BSDI is also dead, its corpse turned over to yet another charnel house.
All major surveys show that *BSD has steadily declined in market share. *BSD is very sick and its long term survival prospects are very dim. If *BSD is to survive at all it will be among OS dilettante dabblers. *BSD continues to decay. Nothing short of a miracle could save it at this point in time. For all practical purposes, *BSD is dead.
Fact: *BSD is dying
Maybe I've visited...
Attention Ladies!
Every 14th of February men get the chance to display their fondness for
their wife's or girlfriends by showering them with gifts, flowers,
dinner, shows and any other baubles that women find romantic.
Secret... guys feel left out. That's right... left out. There's no
special holiday for the ladies to show their appreciation for the men
in their lives. Men as a whole are either too proud or just too
embarrassed to admit it. Which is why a new holiday has been created.
March 20th is now officially "Steak and a Blow Job Day"
Simple, effective and self explanatory. This holiday has been created
so you ladies can have a day to show your man just how much you love
him. No cards, no flowers, no special nights on the town. The name of
the holiday explains it all... just a steak and a BJ. That's it. This
twin pairing of Valentine's Day and Steak and a Blow Job Day will usher
in a new age of love as men everywhere will try THAT much harder in
February to ensure a more memorable March! It's like a perpetual love
machine.
What are IP "Connections"? AFAIK, the transport layers can have connections, but not the network layer. IP has datagrams. I did RTFA, but there's not a whole lot of context in that message, and I was too lazy to go read the whole thread. Are they just talking about TCP connections, or what?
...to take on heavy server loads.
This is just something else Apple will steal from the BSD'ers.
1.6 million Intellectual Property, um, connections (=problems)? No wonder it's dying.
What did happen to the *BSD Box when reached the 1.6 millon of connections?, did he dyed?, did it just stoped accepting connections due low resources? why he wasn't able to pass the 1.6millon of IP connections when we can count as much 4294967296 differen IPs for a network?
C-x C-c
upper limit of addressable memory on fbsd is 4GB, so there's no point raising that aspect. No limit on swap though (2 x reachable(real) is recommended)
I would like to claim that I have the world record for a one minute load average on a FreeBSD machine.
http://gomerbud.com/daver/computing/top.asc
Any contenders?
Kan jeg få en pils, vær så snill?
I wonder if the 64-bit version of FreeBSD would be able to improve upon this, since it can access more memory.
Ouch! The truth hurts!
[ed. note: in the following text, former FreeBSD developer Mike Smith gives his reasons for abandoning FreeBSD]
When I stood for election to the FreeBSD core team nearly two years ago, many of you will recall that it was after a long series of debates during which I maintained that too much organisation, too many rules and too much formality would be a bad thing for the project.
Today, as I read the latest discussions on the future of the FreeBSD project, I see the same problem; a few new faces and many of the old going over the same tired arguments and suggesting variations on the same worthless schemes. Frankly I'm sick of it.
FreeBSD used to be fun. It used to be about doing things the right way. It used to be something that you could sink your teeth into when the mundane chores of programming for a living got you down. It was something cool and exciting; a way to spend your spare time on an endeavour you loved that was at the same time wholesome and worthwhile.
It's not anymore. It's about bylaws and committees and reports and milestones, telling others what to do and doing what you're told. It's about who can rant the longest or shout the loudest or mislead the most people into a bloc in order to legitimise doing what they think is best. Individuals notwithstanding, the project as a whole has lost track of where it's going, and has instead become obsessed with process and mechanics.
So I'm leaving core. I don't want to feel like I should be "doing something" about a project that has lost interest in having something done for it. I don't have the energy to fight what has clearly become a losing battle; I have a life to live and a job to keep, and I won't achieve any of the goals I personally consider worthwhile if I remain obligated to care for the project.
Discussion
I'm sure that I've offended some people already; I'm sure that by the time I'm done here, I'll have offended more. If you feel a need to play to the crowd in your replies rather than make a sincere effort to address the problems I'm discussing here, please do us the courtesy of playing your politics openly.
From a technical perspective, the project faces a set of challenges that significantly outstrips our ability to deliver. Some of the resources that we need to address these challenges are tied up in the fruitless metadiscussions that have raged since we made the mistake of electing officers. Others have left in disgust, or been driven out by the culture of abuse and distraction that has grown up since then. More may well remain available to recruitment, but while the project is busy infighting our chances for successful outreach are sorely diminished.
There's no simple solution to this. For the project to move forward, one or the other of the warring philosophies must win out; either the project returns to its laid-back roots and gets on with the work, or it transforms into a super-organised engineering project and executes a brilliant plan to deliver what, ultimately, we all know we want.
Whatever path is chosen, whatever balance is struck, the choosing and the striking are the important parts. The current indecision and endless conflict are incompatible with any sort of progress.
Trying to dissect the above is far beyond the scope of any parting shot, no matter how distended. All I can really ask of you all is to let go of the minutiae for a moment and take a look at the big picture. What is the ultimate goal here? How can we get there with as little overhead as possible? How would you like to be treated by your fellow travellers?
Shouts
To the Slashdot "BSD is dying" crowd - big deal. Death is part of the cycle; take a look at your soft, pallid bodies and consider that right this very moment, parts of you are dying. See? It's not so bad.
To the bulk of the FreeBSD committerbase and the developer community at large - keep your eyes on the real goals. It's when you get distracted by the politickers that they sideline you. The tireless work that you perform keeping the system clean and building is what provides the platform for the obsessives and the prima donnas to have their moments in the sun. In the end, we need you all; in order to go forwards we must first avoid going backwards.
To the paranoid conspiracy theorists - yes, I work for Apple too. No, my resignation wasn't on Steve's direct orders, or in any way related to work I'm doing, may do, may not do, or indeed what was in the tea I had at lunchtime today. It's about real problems that the project faces, real problems that the project has brought upon itself. You can't escape them by inventing excuses about outside influence, the problem stems from within.
To the politically obsessed - give it a break, if you can. No, the project isn't a lemonade stand anymore, but it's not a world-spanning corporate juggernaut either and some of the more grandiose visions going around are in need of a solid dose of reality. Keep it simple, stupid.
To the grandstanders, the prima donnas, and anyone that thinks that they can hold the project to ransom for their own agenda - give it a break, if you can. When the current core were elected, we took a conscious stand against vigorous sanctions, and some of you have exploited that. A new core is going to have to decide whether to repeat this mistake or get tough. I hope they learn from our errors.
Future
I started work on FreeBSD because it was fun. If I'm going to continue, it has to be fun again. There are things I still feel obligated to do, and with any luck I'll find the time to meet those obligations.
However I don't feel an obligation to get involved in the political mess the project is in right now. I tried, I burnt out. I don't feel that my efforts were worthwhile. So I won't be standing for election, I won't be shouting from the sidelines, and I probably won't vote in the next round of ballots.
You could say I'm packing up my toys. I'm not going home just yet, but I'm not going to play unless you can work out how to make the project somewhere fun to be again.
= Mike
--
Fact: FreeBSD is dying
http://www.soyouwanna.com/site/syws/logic/logic2.h tml
if anyone else uses that phrase wrong i'll have to shoot them. gah.
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur.
He did it on an isolated lab network when he was doing some custom FreeBSD hacking.
I know. I was there. And, to protect all involved, I will stay behind the AC moniker.
But assuming that meat is meant to be eaten is begging the question, as meat is defined as "[t]he edible flesh of animals, especially that of mammals as opposed to that of fish or poultry" (American Heritage Dictionary).
The given link for Terry's message seems to be broken.
Take this one
I know what TGP references for content, but what does that particular abbreviation stand for? Looking it up in google brings a lot of content links, but no definitions.
Personally, I would be very interested in seeing how well the machine in this record-setting example handles an attack of the type mentioned in the above referenced article.