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What kind of hardware does Slashdot run on?[Note: This writeup originally appeared as a Slashdot post. You can see the original post, complete with comments, here. ]At the request of countless users, we're happy to finally present a summary of the new setup over at Exodus. It's the result of over 6 months of work from a lot of people, so shout-outs to Adam, Kurt, and Scoop, Team P: Pudge, PatG & Pater for the code, and Martin, BSD-Pat, and Liz for getting the hardware and co-loc taken care of. The original version of this document was written by Andover.Net Alpha Geek Kurt Grey. The funny jokes are his. The stupid jokes are mine. The Backstory We realized soon that our setup at Digital Nation was very flawed. We were having great difficulty administering the machines and making changes. But the real problem was that all the SQL traffic was flowing over the same switch. The decision was made to move to Exodus to solve these problems, as well as to go to a provider that would allow us to scatter multiple data centers around the world when we were ready to do so. Meanwhile, Slashcode kicked and screamed its way to v1.0 at the iron fists of CaptTofu (Patrick Galbraith) and Pudge (Chris Nandor). The list of bug fixes stretches many miles, and the world rejoiced, although Slashdot itself continued to run the old code until we made the move. The Colocation Site Slashdot's new co-location site is now at Andover.Net's own (pinky finger to the mouth) $1 million dedicated data center at the Exodus network facility in Waltham, Mass, which has the added advantage of being less than a 30 minute drive for most of our network admins -- so they don't have to fly cross-country to install machines. We have some racks sitting at Exodus. All boxes are networked together through a Cisco 6509 with 2 MSFCs and a Cisco 3500 so we can rearrange our internal network topology just by reconfiguring the switch. Internet connectivity to/from the outside world all flows through an Arrowpoint CS-800 switch which acts as both a firewall load balancer for the front end Web servers. It also so happens that Arrowpoint shares the same office building with Andover.Net in Acton so whenever we need Arrowpoint tech support we just walk upstairs and talk to the engineers. The Hardware
The Software Slashdot itself is finally running the latest release of Slashcode (it was pretty amusing being out of date with our own code: for nearly a year the code release lagged behind Slashdot, but my, how the tables have turned). Slashcode itself is based on Apache, mod_perl and MySQL. The MySQL and Apache configs are still being tweaked -- part of the trick is to keep the MaxClients setting in httpd.conf on each web server low enough to not overwhelm the connection limits of database, which in turn depends on the process limits of the kernel, which can all be tweaked until a state of perfect zen balance has been achieved ... this is one of the trickier parts. Run 'ab' (the apache bench tool) with a few different settings, then tweak SQL a bit. Repeat. Tweak httpd a bit. Repeat. Drink coffee. Repeat until dead. And every time you add or change hardware, you start over! The AdFu ad system has been replaced with a small Apache module written in C for better performance, and that too will be open sourced When It's Ready (tm). This was done to make things consistent across all of Andover.Net (I personally prefer AdFu, but since I'm not the one who has to read the reports and maintain the list of ads, I don't really care what Slashdot runs). Fault tolerance was a big issue. We've started by load balancing anything that could easily be balanced, but balancing MySQL is harder. We're funding development efforts with the MySQL team to add database replication and rollback capabilities to MySQL (these improvements will of course be rolled into the normal MySQL release as well). We're also developing some in-house software (code named "Odyssey") that will keep each Slashdot box synchronized with a hot-spare box, so in case a box suddenly dies it will automatically be replaced with a hot-spare box -- kind of a RAID-for-servers solution (imagine... a Beowulf cluster of these? rimshot) Yes, it'll also be released as open source when it's functional. Security Measures The Matrix sits behind a firewalling BSD box and an Arrowpoint Load balancer. Each filters certain kinds of attacks and frees up the httpd boxes to concentrate on just serving httpd, and allows the dedicated hardware to do what it does best. All administrative access is made through a VPN (which is just another box). Hardware Details
Answered by: CmdrTaco
Why doesn't Slashdot display in Browser X?Ummm, I don't know? Slashdot has some pretty ancient and nasty HTML in it. It breaks some older browsers. Things work pretty well on lynx, w3m, Netscape 4.x+ and IE4.x+. It might work on other browsers. It might not. If you see a problem, feel free to mail us and let us know, but for the most part, if you can't tell us how to fix it, we won't. We don't have every browser running, and we're not psychic.Answered by: CmdrTaco
Where/Why do you use cookies?See this.Answered by: CmdrTaco
What kind of logging does Slashdot do with regard to its readers?We log the usual stuff (IP, page, time, user, page views, moderation, and comment posting, mainly). A few other odds and ends too, but mostly the data is used to make moderation possible. We keep the logs for 48 hours.Answered by: CmdrTaco
Can I have your poll scripts?The poll scripts are included with the Slashdot source code.Answered by: CmdrTaco
Can I import Slashdot headlines?Sure, be our guest. Please read 'Importing of Slashdot Headlines' before you begin.Answered by: Robo
Why are you generating so many pages dynamically?We're really not generating that many pages dynamically. The homepage, the section indexes, and the articles are all generated and stored for users as updates occur. These pages represent 50-60% of the site's total traffic. The only pages that are generated dynamically are the comments pages. These are dynamic for several reasons:
Answered by: CmdrTaco
What about the source code to this site?The source code is called Slash and it has been released under the GPL. It contains pretty much everything that you see on Slashdot, but cleaned up a bit for general purpose use. You can use it to create your own weblog. With features like an online story editor, mass moderation, customizable user preferences and oh-so-much more. It's a fun little adventure. However it's not for the faint of heart either; it's got bugs.To learn more about Slash check out Slashdot's 'code' page, or go directly to slashcode.com. Answered by: CmdrTaco
If you were just starting to code Slashdot.org today, what would you code the site in PHP or mod_perl?Perl.Answered by: CmdrTaco
Do you guys ever worry that some site might steal Slashcode and try and outdo Slashdot?Go for it.Answered by: CmdrTaco
How did it feel when you opensourced slashcode allowing people to tinker with your 'baby' as it were? Are you still involved with the process as much or is your time taken up by reading email and such?It was hard. People were mean about it. Attacked me personally. Insulted my code. I don't regret it, but a big company wouldn't take it. They'd say, "Forget this GPL thing." These guys are ungrateful jerks. I'm still involved, but less so. I still direct where the code goes and control the features that go in.Answered by: CmdrTaco
What's the biggest benefit to come out of the opening of Slash so far? Better efficiency? Tighter security?Yes. Both of these. Also, it's just cool when people submit patches.Answered by: CmdrTaco
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