FreeBSD Empresa performance

[benwalsh]

Can anyone explain the difference between the two versions of Empresa for FreeBSD (pthread) and what type of performance/reliability differences to expect? (we're running FreeBSD 6)

Thanks!

Ben

[Vic - WolfPaw Computers]

Empresa v4.1400 is still a viable product but will not permit running of Merchant 5.x stores and is limited to the MivaSQL (dbf) format databases.

While reliable, it is a bit slower.

Empresa v5.04 is the latest engine and is notably faster due to streamlined coding and functions. There are a number of added functions in the engine, noted performance increases and it can run any version of Merchant store.

It also supports both MivaSQL and MySQL backends. MySQL preferred and is much faster than the MivaSQL (dbf) format database.

Here are the 4.14 Release Notes (http://smallbusiness.miva.com/docs/empresa/RelNote4xx_cumulative.pdf)

And here are the v5.04 Release Notes (http://docs.smallbusiness.miva.com/en-US/merchant/5/help/empresa-devnotes.txt)

[benwalsh]

Thanks Vic.

My question is to the difference between the two Empresa 5.x FreeBSD variants (one pthread and the one without). Apparently this was to overcome FreeBSD's threading problems back in the 4.x days. Does anyone know which version works better on FreeBSD 6.x?

Ben

[Vic - WolfPaw Computers]

Thats what I get for scanning posts before coffee!

I missed that about the pthreading specific. Sorry about that...I wouldnt know, we run RedHat Enterprise here, no FreeBSD.

[mvmarkus]

Does anyone know which version works better on FreeBSD 6.x?

Ben

Hi Ben,

I can't say which one works better - but it is probably more important to keep in mind that some servers don't support pthreads (like for example Verio's VSDs (?)), so you have to choose the other version.

So it is less a question of "choice" but one of "requirement".

Markus

[benwalsh]

Hi Markus,

Good to hear from you! Thanks for replying.

We're running our own boxes, so I'm more wondering what the difference between the POSIX thread version and the other is. We can do it either way if I understand it correctly (?).

Ben

[mvmarkus]

Hi Ben,

If you can use Pthreads, I'd use those, because their purpose is improved performance through multithreadening. Here some info that show the possible gains:

http://www.llnl.gov/computing/tutorials/pthreads/#WhyPthreads

Obviously, a possible performance gain depends on many factors, and especially that the programs that run simultaneously are written in a way to support multiple parallel processes/threads.

Markus