Table of Contents

Preface Part I. Preliminary Considerations 1. The Quick and the Dead Questions for the Browser Side Questions for the Server Side Key Recommendations 2. Web Site Architecture Trade-offs Elements Example Web Site Architectures Trends Sample Configurations Key Recommendations 3. Capacity Planning Do the Math . . . . But Trust Your Eyes More than the Math Questions to Ask How Much Bandwidth Do You Need? How Fast a Server Do You Need? How Much Memory Do You Need? Key Recommendations 4. Performance Monitoring Parameters of Performance Latency and Throughput Utilization Efficiency Monitoring Web Performance Using Perl Automatically Generating Monitoring Scripts Using Sprocket Using a Relational Database to Store and Retrieve Your Monitoring Data Monitoring Machine Utilization with rstat Monitoring Per-Process Statistics Generating Graphs from ps Data Monitoring Other Things Making a System Dashboard Web Page Key Recommendations 5. Load Testing Load Test Preparation Trade-offs with Load Testing Tools Writing Your Own Load Testing Tools Benchmark Specifications and Benchmark Tests Other Resources Key Recommendations 6. Performance Analysis Using analysis.cgi to Find a Bottleneck Snooping HTTP with Sprocket Look at Connections Log File Analysis Hits per Second A Few More Tips Key Recommendations 7. Reliability Typical Failures Dependencies Smoothing Outages Key Recommendations 8. Security HTTPS and SSL Firewalls Bastion Hosts chroot Key Recomendation 9. Case Studies Database Table Growing Without Limit Reverse DNS Lookups Slows Logging Kinked Cable Database Connection Pool Growth Limits Performance Key Recommendation 10. Principles and Patterns Principles of Performance Tuning Patterns of Performance Improvement Key Recommendations Part II. Tuning in Depth 11. Browsers How Browsers Work Types of Browsers The Perfect Browser Browser Speed Browser Tuning Tips Non-Browser Web Clients Key Recommendations 12. Client Operating System Microsoft Windows Macintosh Unix Key Recommendations 13. Client Hardware CPU RAM Cache Bus Disk Video BIOS Key Recommendations 14. Lines and Terminators Forwarding and Latency Your Modem, the Information Driveway ISDN Cable Modems xDSL Higher Capacity Lines Intranets Network Modeling Tools The Internet PTTs Key Recommendations 15. Network Protocols Power and Protocols Factors Affecting Network Protocol Performance The Protocols of the Web Key Recommendations 16. Server Hardware Box on a Wire Good I/O Multiple Busses Fast Disks Lots of Memory Scalability Network Interface Card Bus Memory RAM Characteristics CPU Symmetric Multiprocessing (SMP) Disk Activity and PID Key Recommendations 17. Server Operating System Unix and the Origin of the Web Unix Flavors System Calls Versus Library Calls Processes and the Kernel The Filesystem The Windowing System Versions and Patches Configurable OS Parameters Unix OS Monitoring Tools System Call Tracers Network Snooping Tools How Many Connections Can My Server Handle? How Many Processes Can My Server Handle? How Quickly Can My Server Fork New Processes? Unix Versus NT as the Web Server OS The Exokernel Key Recommendations 18. Server Software The Evolution of Web Servers System Calls Made by a Web Server How Servers Fail Configuring Apache and Netscape Web Servers Other Servers Missing Features Proxy Servers Hierarchical Caches Key Recommendations 19. Content Size Matters As Good As It Gets Caching and Differences HTML and Compression Performance Tips for HTML Authors The Document Object Model Graphics Audio Video Key Recommendations 20. Custom Applications Programmers CGI Programs CGI Internals and Performance Problems General CGI Tips CGI Language-Specific Optimization Tips Daemonize It CGI Database Access Performance Logging NSAPI and ISAPI DOM JSP, ASP, PHP Key Recommendations 21. Java Java Will Never Be Good Enough for GUI Applications Java Is Good Enough for the Server Side Performance Problems Intrinsic to Java Coding Tips Compilers Profile Your Code Decompilers OS-Level Profiling Tools JITs Static Compilers Virtual Machines Runtime Options Java Chips Java Benchmarks Web Sites with Java Performance Info Key Recommendations 22. Databases Do You Really Need a Relational Database? Performance Tips How Many Connections Can Your Database Handle? When the Database Is Overloaded Analysis Key Recommendations Appendix. Web Performance Product Lists and Reviews Index

About the Author

Patrick Killelea currently works for a major on-line brokerage, but he won't say which one. He spends his days writing monitoring and load testing tools, and proclaiming the web to the be the one true front end because of its simplicity, portability, and performance. He thinks Microsoft is not to be trusted with your back end. Patrick knows there are huge web performance improvements yet to be realized using the details of existing open protocols. He is a fan of T/TCP and hopes one day to set up a connection and deliver an entire web page all in a single packet. Patrick spends his evenings playing with his wife and kids, and is interested in etymologies, obscure religions, and pan-seared salmon with mixed greens and a nice merlot. He likes to get e-mail about web and Java performance issues. Please visit his web site at patrick.net.

Reviews

"This book still scores highly on the sections which are general in their scope, particularly the new chapters which have been written for this edition. The more specific sections feel dates, and are likely to further age extremely quickly. Overall the book is still a good source for advice on identifying performance bottlenecks and suggesting ways to tune the infrastructure to eliminate them." - Joel Smith, News@UKUUG, October 2002