Ruby isn't the issue here - most of the hardware spend (tiny as it is) went toward master and slave databases. Our database isn't huge, but it isn't small either. The working set doesn't fit in 32 GB of memory - lots of memory and fast disks are critical (even with caching and all that) and that takes 2 non-cheap servers.
As far as the platform goes - list of technologies aside, I wouldn't agree that it is complex. I also wouldn't trade some of these pieces (Sphinx and HAProxy, in particular) for anything.
I worked on Java web apps for 8 years before starting Ravelry and I definitely don't regret choosing Ruby for this project :) Did I have to buy 1 more server than I would have had to with Java? Yeah, I think so. ...but the trade-off was definitely worth it.
Ruby isn't the issue here - most of the hardware spend (tiny as it is) went toward master and slave databases. Our database isn't huge, but it isn't small either. The working set doesn't fit in 32 GB of memory - lots of memory and fast disks are critical (even with caching and all that) and that takes 2 non-cheap servers.
7 machines is getting into part-time sysadmin territory.
My estimate of peak load was somewhat generous in averaging it across only 5 hours -- could you elaborate on the actual peak load?
I'm surprised that something that's orders of magnitude slower than the alternatives isn't at least part of the issue, given the amount of front-end stack required, hired employees, and 3 6-core (6?) 40 GB front-end webservers required for 10 million hits/day.
I worked on Java web apps for 8 years before starting Ravelry and I definitely don't regret choosing Ruby for this project :) Did I have to buy 1 more server than I would have had to with Java? Yeah, I think so. ...but the trade-off was definitely worth it.
The JVM truly doesn't require Java, Spring, or J2EE, and it's an incredibly impressive piece of technology to just discard.
"..given the amount of front-end stack required, hired employees, and 3 6-core (6?) 40 GB front-end webservers"
Could you have misread the article?
We have one developer/sysadmin (myself, and I'm pretty much half-time on the development work and no-time on the sysadmin work) and the 6 processors/40 GB RAM is the total amount of app server resources across all machines.
I am a big fan of the JVM and I don't want to get into an argument about language productivity, but since I believe that I have saved a lot of time (and therefore, money) with Ruby, I don't really see the ~$5,000 spent on app servers over 2 years as an issue.
Comments
urk - this story keeps coming back to HN.
Ruby isn't the issue here - most of the hardware spend (tiny as it is) went toward master and slave databases. Our database isn't huge, but it isn't small either. The working set doesn't fit in 32 GB of memory - lots of memory and fast disks are critical (even with caching and all that) and that takes 2 non-cheap servers.
As far as the platform goes - list of technologies aside, I wouldn't agree that it is complex. I also wouldn't trade some of these pieces (Sphinx and HAProxy, in particular) for anything.
I worked on Java web apps for 8 years before starting Ravelry and I definitely don't regret choosing Ruby for this project :) Did I have to buy 1 more server than I would have had to with Java? Yeah, I think so. ...but the trade-off was definitely worth it.
Ruby isn't the issue here - most of the hardware spend (tiny as it is) went toward master and slave databases. Our database isn't huge, but it isn't small either. The working set doesn't fit in 32 GB of memory - lots of memory and fast disks are critical (even with caching and all that) and that takes 2 non-cheap servers.
7 machines is getting into part-time sysadmin territory.
My estimate of peak load was somewhat generous in averaging it across only 5 hours -- could you elaborate on the actual peak load?
I'm surprised that something that's orders of magnitude slower than the alternatives isn't at least part of the issue, given the amount of front-end stack required, hired employees, and 3 6-core (6?) 40 GB front-end webservers required for 10 million hits/day.
I worked on Java web apps for 8 years before starting Ravelry and I definitely don't regret choosing Ruby for this project :) Did I have to buy 1 more server than I would have had to with Java? Yeah, I think so. ...but the trade-off was definitely worth it.
The JVM truly doesn't require Java, Spring, or J2EE, and it's an incredibly impressive piece of technology to just discard.
"..given the amount of front-end stack required, hired employees, and 3 6-core (6?) 40 GB front-end webservers"
Could you have misread the article?
We have one developer/sysadmin (myself, and I'm pretty much half-time on the development work and no-time on the sysadmin work) and the 6 processors/40 GB RAM is the total amount of app server resources across all machines.
I am a big fan of the JVM and I don't want to get into an argument about language productivity, but since I believe that I have saved a lot of time (and therefore, money) with Ruby, I don't really see the ~$5,000 spent on app servers over 2 years as an issue.