Douglas --
I am experiencing the exact same set of problems, except that I'm just
beginning to experience them, so I haven't done any real testing to get
to the specifics of what is going on and the exact performance
difference that I am experiencing between Solaris and Linux, however,
there is a noticable slowness even with a single connected client.
My setup is:
* Solaris 8
* All machines also on same 100MB Ethernet
* Standalone Tomcat
* Using our company's Sparc boxes (500Mhz Sparc) -- only have tried
these
* No performance difference amongst browsers (IE5, Netscape 4.7)
* Tried JDK 1.2.2 and 1.3, no difference
* Patched Solaris as recommended for Java setup, no difference
The only other problem that I have been encountering which you
apparently have not is that occasionally Tomcat will stop responding
altogehter, and Java will dump core. I have not been able to narrow this
down to a specific cause, but I'm working on that.
I too would rather just head back to Linux, which I'm more comfortable
with anyhow, but since my company sells Sparc/Solaris based server
appliances they seem to like Solaris. :)
Please, if you get any great answers that aren't posted to tomcat-dev
would you share them with me? I'd be glad to do the same.
Good Luck!
"Douglas E. Hornig" wrote:
>
> I posed this problem to the good folks on the users list. While they are a great
>bunch, and several offered some suggestions, I was unable to get any help from them
>so I'm trying the dev list now.
>
> The problem in a nutshell is that requests I make to tomcat running on a Solaris
>Sparc from a Windows client take at least 0.15 to 0.20 seconds. If I run tomcat on a
>Linux PC, or use a Linux PC as a client instead of Windows, the turnaround time is
>more like 0.01 seconds.
>
> Here are the particulars:
>
> * All machines are on the same 100Mbit ethernet.
> * Tomcat is running standalone.
> * I tried a couple of different Sparcs, a 420R and an Ultra 5, neither with any
>load. No difference.
> * I wrote a simple Java program to use as the test client so there are no browsers
>involved.
> * I tried various different Java VM releases on the Sparcs, 1.2.1 and 1.3.0 with no
>difference seen.
> * I tried a couple different PCs (NT4 and Win2000) and found the same results.
> * Other programmers here reported slowness using VisualBasic as the client instead
>of Java (that's how I got started investigating this). Java Web Server 2.0 also
>appeared to have the same problem as tomcat. I have not personally been able to
>verify these assertions.
> * The results seem very repeatable.
> * I used a generic tomcat 3.2.1 for the server and hit the
>examples/servlet/HelloWorldExample URL for these tests.
>
> This is a very serious problem for us. The above mentioned VB client that we're
>developing can make dozens of calls to the server per screen, so those 0.2 second
>delays add up. I like Linux a lot myself but the bosses here feel more comfortable
>with more traditional business models, and besides shouldn't Java run best on a Sparc
>with Solaris? I am perplexed as to what the problem is and would greatly appreciate
>any help or ideas I can get.
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> Douglas Hornig
> Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center
> Lebanon, NH
