Tcl in AOL Digital City
The Architecture of a Multithreaded High-Performance Web Site Jim Davidson America Online, Inc. February 16, 2000
Welcome To Digital City
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You Just
Included 48 dynamic template files Invoked over 5000 Tcl commands:
58 distinct C commands 67 distinct Tcl procs
Locked and unlocked over 800 mutexes Searched a database through a special Tcl proxy process interface Selected promos for over 10 advertising slots And much more all in under 150,000 microseconds (which is actually pretty fast)
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Overview
Digital City, an online service of America Online Inc., is powered by AOLserver, a dynamic, multithreaded Tcl application development platform This talk will describe AOLserver, multithreaded Tcl, and the Digital City web platform
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AOLserver and Multithreaded Tcl
AOLserver Background
AOLserver is a web application development environment used throughout AOL, e.g.:
Digital City, AOL.com, AOL Search, Shop@AOL, AOL.com/Netscape WebCenters, and many more...
AOLserver is based on NaviServer:
NaviServer was developed by NaviSoft, a small web startup company acquired by AOL in 1994 NaviServer included many novel features including support for NaviPress, an HTML editor/browser, and database integration
AOLserver is now in OpenSource, available for download at http://www.aolserver.com
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AOLserver Basics
AOLserver is a full featured, multithreaded web application development environment for Unix and NT In addition to static page serving and CGIs, AOLserver includes a rich and flexible C API for:
Dynamically loading user-written C modules (DLLs) Binding functions to arbitrary web requests SQL database services Cron-like background task scheduling Asynchronous socket callbacks And much more...
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AOLserver Tcl
However, the most useful aspect of AOLserver has always been its complete Tcl integration Tcl integration is not unique to AOLserver, other implementations include:
Apaches mod_tcl Binary Evolutions VelociGen Vignettes Story Server
Among other advantages, integrated Tcl generally provides higher performance than CGI-based solutions
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AOLserver Tcl Model
For AOLserver, the Tcl integration model is (in general) to provide a Tcl command interface to the underlying C API Tcl commands are available to:
Handle URL requests, query a database, send email, monitor the system, and much more
Lets take a look at a few examples...
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Example: CGI-style Request Procedures
ns_register_proc binds procs to arbitrary requests:
ns_register_proc GET /demo/time getTime
proc getTime {} { set headers [ns_conn headers] set browser [ns_set iget $headers User-Agent] set page <html><body>\n append page Time: [clock seconds]<br>\n append page Browser: $browser\n append page </body></html> ns_return 200 text/html $page }
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Example: Database Access
ns_db can be used to access an SQL database:
ns_register_proc GET /demo/movies getMovies
proc getMovies {} { set page <html><body>\nCurrent Movies:\n set db [ns_db gethandle moviedb] set row [ns_db select $db select * from movies] while {[ns_db getrow $db $row]} { append page [ns_set get $row movie]<br>\n } append page </body></html> ns_set free $row ns_db releasehandle $db ns_return 200 text/html $page }
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Example: Background Tasks
ns_schedule_proc can register a background script:
ns_schedule_proc 3600 hourlyCheck
proc hourlyCheck {} { set errors [ collect errors from log file ] if {$errors != } { ns_sendmail
[email protected] \
[email protected] \ Errors Encountered $errors } }
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Example: AOLserver Dynamic Pages
AOLservers most useful Tcl interface is ADP AOLserver Dynamic Pages Modeled on Microsoft IIS Active Server Pages, ADP:
Places the logic (Tcl) in the presentation (HTML) Provides easier learning curve for HTML developers Supports reuse through multiply included templates Is highly optimized through aggressive template and bytecode caching techniques
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Example: Simple ADP Template
Returning the time and browser is now a bit cleaner:
<%
set headers [ns_conn headers] set browser [ns_set iget $headers User-Agent] set time [clock seconds] %> <html><body> Time: <%= $time %> Browser: <%= $browser %> </body></html>
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Example: ADP Debugging
Another benefit of ADP is support for TclPro:
<html> <body> <% ns_adp_puts [ns_time]%> ...
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AOLserver Multithreaded Tcl
While AOLserver provides a powerful Tcl interface, whats really interesting is AOLservers use of multithreaded Tcl First, a quick multithreading review...
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What is Multithreading?
Multithreading is an environment where more than one thread of execution is active in a program:
Single threaded: Exclusive access to memory, files, etc.
Multithreaded: Simultaneous access to memory, files, etc.
memory, open files, etc.
memory, open files, etc.
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What Youll Want to Know
Posix Threads (pthreads): A well considered threading API used as the model for Tcl 8.2 and AOLserver 3.0 Basic thread primitives:
Creating and joining (waiting for) threads Mutexes (or locks) to protect shared data Condition variables to signal and synchronize threads Thread local storage to maintain per-thread data which can not be passed directly between functions
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What You Can Generally Ignore
Win32 Threads: Posix threads, some would say, are a more useful framework for server applications Higher level objects and interfaces you can generally ignored because theyre normally a bad idea:
Read/Write locks Critical Sections (or recursive mutexes) Semaphores Thread Priorities and Scheduling Thread Cancellation and Exception Handling
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Why Are Threads Good?
For some problems, threads can increase throughput by running simultaneously on separate CPUs For some problems, threads can provide faster access to expensive shared resources (e.g., a large cache) For some problems, threads can provide a simpler programming environment than event-driven models
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Example: Event-Driven vs Thread I/O
I/O bound apps are sometimes easier with threads:
proc my.thread {host} { set sock [socket $host 80] puts $sock "GET /index.html\r\n" flush $sock read $sock close $sock } foreach host {host1 host2 host3 host4} { lappend tids [ns_thread begin my.thread $host"] } foreach tid $tids { ns_thread wait $tid } global done count proc my.read {sock} { global done count read $sock if [eof $sock] { close $sock if {[incr count -1] == 0} { set done 1 } } } proc my.write {sock} { puts $sock "GET /index.html\r\n" flush $sock fileevent $sock readable "my.read $sock" } set count 0 foreach host { host1 host2 host3 host4} { incr count set sock [socket -async $host 80] fconfigure $sock -blocking off fileevent $sock writable "my.write $sock" } vwait done
Threads Events
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Why Threads May Be Bad
Check Johns old presentation on why threads might not be a good idea:
What's Wrong With Threads?
casual all programmers wizards
Why Threads Are A Bad Idea (for most purposes)
John Ousterhout Sun Microsystems Laboratories
[email protected] http://www.sunlabs.com/~ouster
u u
Visual Basic programmers C programmers Why Threads Are Hard C++ programmers Synchronization: Threads programmers Must coordinate access to shared data with locks. Too hard for most programmers to use. Forget a Why Threads Are Hard, cont'd lock? Corrupted data.
u
Even for experts,Deadlock: u development is painful. u Hard to debug: data dependencies, timing dependencies. Circular dependencies among locks. u Threads break abstraction: can't design Each process waits for some other process: system modules independently. 28, 1995, slide 5 Why Thre ads Are A Bad Idea September hangs. u Callbacks don't work with locks. thread 1 lock A T1 lock T2 deadlock! B thread 2 T1
calls Module A deadlock! September 28, 1995, slide 6 Module B sleep wakeup Module B callbacks T2
September 28, 1995, slide 7
Module A
Why Thre ads Are A Bad Idea
Why Thre ads Are A Bad Idea
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Multithreaded Tcl
For better or worse, Tcl was not designed with thread support in mind as the single threaded, event-driven model served most purposes well (e.g., Tk) However, the code was well implemented so that adding thread support was not entirely impossible Lets look at what was done in Tcl 8.2 to support threads...
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Multithreaded Tcl - Mutex Protection
First, various shared data had to be protected with mutexes, e.g., from tclUtil.c:
void Tcl_PrintDouble(interp, value, dst) { char *p, c; Tcl_UniChar ch; Tcl_MutexLock(&precisionMutex); sprintf(dst, precisionFormat, value); Tcl_MutexUnlock(&precisionMutex); ...
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Multithreaded Tcl - Thread Local Storage
Next, various global data had to be moved to thread local storage, e.g., from tclIO.c:
void Tcl_SetStdChannel(channel, type) { ThreadSpecificData *tsdPtr = TCL_TSD_INIT(&dataKey); switch (type) { case TCL_STDIN: tsdPtr->stdinInitialized = 1; tsdPtr->stdinChannel = channel; break; ...
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Multithreaded Tcl - Event Loop
Finally, the event loop was modified so each thread maintains a (seemingly) independent event loop
Threads interested in file events: Other Threads
1. Threads sends files to watch to Notifier and enters condition wait...
3) Notifier wakes up individual threads when file of interest is ready Select Loop
2. Notifier watches files for all threads with single select() loop
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Tcl 8.2 Multithreading Issues
Although Tcl 8.2 is a huge step forward, it still has some issues:
No commands to create, join, or synchronize threads No commands to share resources (e.g., variables, open files) Some code is not yet entirely thread safe (e.g., glob) The event-loop and memory allocator may be bottlenecks Installations normally default to not compiling with threads
Happily, AOLserver has addressed these issues...
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AOLserver Multithreaded Tcl
AOLserver extends and patches Tcl 8.2 with:
Commands for creating, joining, and synchronizing threads Commands for sharing variables (files are harder) A zippy cool replacement for the memory allocator Compile time patches for thread unsafe routines (e.g, -Dreaddir=ns_readdir)
In addition, AOLserver addresses a basic problem of multithreaded Tcl - nearly seamless multithreaded interpreter initialization
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Multithreaded Tcl Interp Initialization
Problem: Interps created throughout the lifetime of a a multithreaded application which include (almost) the same state (commands, procedures, etc.) One solution could be the package interface of Tcl 8.2 for lazy, per-interp initialization
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AOLserver Tcl Interp Initialization
However, because it pre-dates 8.2, AOLserver has instead used three different initialization solutions:
A pool of pre-initialized interps Direct linking of select parts of the interp structure Cloning of a single master interp for later interps
Lets take a look at each solution...
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First Solution: Interp Pools
AOLserver 2.0 used a pool of pre-initialized interps:
At startup, interps were initialized and place in the pool Threads would allocate interps from the pool when needed
Thread requiring an interp
Thread allocates interp from pool C
Thread returns interp when done C A B C
Interp Pool
Interp Pool
Interp Pool
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First Solution: Interp Pools
Results of pooling:
Limited locking and high performance Possibility for threads to backup waiting for interps Sharing variables required a command interface (ns_var) Special APIs to initialize interps at startup were weird (and unfortunately persist to this day)
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Second Solution: Direct Sharing
AOLserver 2.1 attempted a share everything model by simply linking sharable parts of the interp structure:
At startup a single master interp was created and initialized Later threads would create half interps with links to master interp structures (e.g., command and global variable tables)
Master Interp initialized at startup Additional threads would create half interps
Command Table C Variable Table V
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Second Solution: Direct Sharing
Direct Sharing Results:
Dynamic update trivial and instant Unfortunate sharing of some global variables, (e.g., errorInfo) Necessary locking resulted in severe lock contention Extent of the modifications to the Tcl 7.4 source code made upgrades to Tcl 7.5, let alone 8.x, very difficult
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Latest Solution: Interp Cloning
AOLserver 3.0 introduced an interp cloning model:
At startup, a single master interp is used for initialization After startup, new interps are created and then updated by copying commands and procs from the master
Complete interps for other threads
Master interp initialized at startup
Command Table C C Variable Table V Commands, etc. copied from master V C V
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Latest Solution: Interp Cloning
Results of interp cloning:
Limited locking and high performance Shared variables again requires a command interface (nsv) Consistent with Tcl 8.2 model of interp(s) bound to threads Implementation requires no code change to the Tcl 8.2 source, easing forward migration
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AOLserver Multithreaded Tcl Examples
While the implementation of multithreaded Tcl is somewhat complicated and goofy, its use is still pretty straightforward Lets look at some examples...
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Example - Creating Threads
Threads can be created and joined with ns_thread:
proc my.thread {host} { open socket, fetch page } foreach host {host1 host2 host3 host4} { lappend tids [ns_thread begin my.thread $host"] } foreach tid $tids {ns_thread wait $tid}
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Example - Sharing Memory
Data can be shared with nsv variables:
proc my.thread {host} { nsv_set pages $host [ open socket, fetch page ] } foreach host {host1 host2 host3 host4} { lappend tids [ns_thread begin my.thread $host"] } foreach tid $tids {ns_thread wait $tid} foreach host {host1 host2 host3 host4} { data available via [nsv_get pages $host] }
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Example - Simple Cache
nsv and ns_mutex can implement a simple cache:
proc cache.get {key} { set lock [nsv_get cache lock] ns_mutex lock $lock if ![nsv_exists cache value,$key] { nsv_set cache $key [ fetch data for $key ] } set value [nsv_get cache $key] ns_mutex unlock $lock return $value }
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Example - Real Cache
Unfortunately, a real cache is generally more complicated, requiring the ns_cond command as well:
proc cache.get {key} { set lock [nsv_get cache lock]; set cond [nsv_get cache cond] ns_mutex lock $lock if ![nsv_exists cache $key] { nsv_set cache $key ns_mutex unlock $lock set value [ fetch data for $key ] ns_mutex lock $lock nsv_set cache $key $value ns_cond broadcast $cond } else { while {[set value [nsv_get cache $key]] == } { ns_cond wait $cond $lock } } ns_mutex unlock $lock return $value } 2/16/2000 Tcl in AOL Digital City 41
Putting AOLserver To Use
While AOLserver is a powerful and flexible platform, by itself its not a solution for any interesting web sites Instead, web sites must generally extend AOLserver with functionality to support specific needs The Digital City web platform is an example of putting AOLserver to use for a custom service solution
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The Digital City Platform
What is Digital City?
Digital City is a local entertainment and information guide available through many brands:
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The Digital City Challenge
Digital City presents some interesting technical challenges:
High performance database-driven apps (e.g., MovieGuide) Re-usable interactivity features (e.g, comment boards) Complex advertising features and management tools Rapid application development
Digital City also inherits AOLs media-company legacy of continuous, instant editorial content publishing
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And Digital City Must Scale
Digital City must support huge traffic from AOL, for example, from the Welcome Screen of death:
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The Digital City Architecture
To address these challenges, Digital City maintains a complex, multi-server architecture:
1 Web Page
Title Blah, Blah, Blah
Art01
Editor -request s update page -c ompletes form -s ubmit s update
Update Form
Title
Art02
Text Blurb Blah, Blah, Blah Browse
Front End
Publish
Member
Switch
Front End
Pub
Editor
Member -request s http://home.digitalci ty.com -Swi tch distributes reques t -Front End returns page with updated components
Front End
Poll
SOB/NCB 3 Front End Server -request s update from SOB server -c ac hes updated content
Pub Server -Adds image to Art servers -Updates SOB server -Sends cache flush notic e t o Front End servers
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Digital City Servers
Servers at Digital City all share a common AOLserver core and set of extensions:
APPLICATIONS ADP PAGES APPLICATION TCL PROCS DCI TCL PROCS NCB ROSETTA POLL PROXY ART SOB NCF DCI Module NV NT
RPC
AOLserver OS (SUN, IRIX, LINUX)
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Some Numbers...
The Digital City platform currently comprises:
6000+ ADP templates with 170,000+ lines of HTML and Tcl 100,000+ lines of Tcl in an additional 800+ library files 3,000+ Tcl procs and 450+ C functions, of which about 280 implement Tcl commands Multiple SQL/PLS databases with collectively over 1M records
All of which must daily:
Handle millions of page views Process 100,000+ database record updates Publish and index 7,000+ new articles Accumulate over 3gigs of log data
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Examples
Seems like theres probably not enough time to look at all that! So, lets take a look at three interesting examples:
NV: Network shared variable arrays Proxy: Tcl proxy process interface Sob: Small Object server
NCB ROSETTA
POLL
NV
PROXY
ART
SOB NCF
RPC
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Example: NV
NV (Network Variable) is an extension of the nsv shared variable interface in AOLserver:
A client (e.g., front end server) can request streaming updates from a backend server Client variable interface remains the same
NV is useful for several applications, e.g.:
Sport scores: Continuous updates, streamed incrementally Movies Top 10: Recurring bulk-updates of aggregated data Meta data: Occasional updates of data which must be consistent on all client, e.g., list of known cities
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Example: NV
1. Front end serveres connect to Pub for scores nv array Pub 2. Sports scores sent continuously to Pub by provider in weird format
3. Pub reformats as nv array and streams updates to connected clients
4. Tcl templates access scores nv array without regard to underlying network updates: <html> Current Scores: <%= [nv.get scores current] %> ...
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Example: Proxy
The proxy interface is a modified Tcl-shell capable of communicating via pipes with AOLserver:
Processes are forked on demand and maintained in a pool Pools are initialized with application-specific startup scripts, e.g., open a particular PLS database
The proxy interface is used for several purposes:
Isolation of code which is not thread safe Evaluation of code which fiddles with env, e.g., env(TZ) A light wait process to fork background process (forking a 500meg AOLserver can be problematic)
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Example: Proxy
2. Scripts sent to proxy with proxy.send: <html> Search Results: <% set script pls.search $query foreach doc [proxy.send db $script] { ns_adp_puts [putheadline $doc] } %> ... Proxy Shell
1. At startup, pool is initialized with init script, e.g., open db
AOLserver Process
4. Proxy results available in AOLserver interp->result
3. Script evaluated in proxy, results returned through pipe
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Example: Sob
Sob (Small Object) is a highly optimized client/server interface:
Access through pools of persistent socket connections Aggressive caching and optimized I/O
Sob is a critical platform component used for:
Dynamic publishing of editorial content Storage of meta data for various service areas Comment board fetch and post
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Example: Sob
1. Editor uses Pub tool to send article to SOB
2. Member requests article; template ignores complexity and simply executes: <html> Article: <%= [nsob.get articleid] %> ...
Pub 3. Clients checks for article in client cache and, if necessary, requests from server
SOB Server 4. SOB checks server cache and, if necessary, reads article from disk, and returns article to client
SOB Clients (Front end Server)
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Sob-Powered Publishing Tools
Whats useful about Sob is support for forms-based publishing of content independent of presentation:
SOB
Templates
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Extensions Working Together
The Digital City extensions provide a powerful set of interfaces and APIs for AOLserver However, theyre most useful when used together for a particular applications Lets take a look at MovieGuide as an example...
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MovieGuide
The Digital City MovieGuide provides our members:
Theater, movie, and show time listing Boards for members to provide ratings and reviews My Theaters personalization Top Ten listings by member views and clicks
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MovieGuide Features
Member Top Clicks (NV)
Movie Synopsis (Sob)
Member Ratings (Tally) Showtimes (PLS)
Movie / Theater Listing (PLS)
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MovieGuide Components
MovieGuide uses many of our platform extensions including:
Fast front end PLS search database through Tcl proxies Network tally system to record site activity NV to broadcast aggregation of site activity Sob for editorial content And much more
However, it didnt always work this way...
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MovieGuide 1.0
MovieGuide 1.0, launched summer 1997, utilized a straightforward SQL-based architecture to query listings and update Top-10s
Alamo Drafthouse, Regal Arbor 7... select movies where update views where Where is the English Patient showing?
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MovieGuide 1.0 Issues
While it provided a convenient data model, the SQLbased MovieGuide was a disaster:
Threads would quickly backup waiting for database handles Squid caching proxy servers rushed into production reduced the load, but broke the 100% dynamic page model Direct Top-10 updates from the front ends caused locking problems with concurrent backend publishing
A more dynamic model which could handle direct traffic was required...
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MovieGuide 2.0
MovieGuide 2.0, early 1998, utilized a new file-based caching mechanism and background Top-10 updates:
Access listings through cache Regal Arbor 7, Dobie 4... Where is Titanic showing? On cache miss, select movies where
Background Top-10: update views where update views where
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MovieGuide 2.0 Issues
Unfortunately, the Top-10 updates where still a problem and the cache didnt work so well:
90 80 70
Cache hit %
60 50 40 30 20 10 0
Increasing data combinations e.g., more cities, with more theaters, with more showtimes
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MovieGuide 3.0
Launched in mid-1998, MovieGuide 3.0 utilized a new fast PLS-based proxy database and a special network tally mechanism for Top-10s:
Proxy PLS Front End Proxy Switch PLS Front End Proxy PLS Front End Periodic Tally sweep and broadcast PLS Pub Proxy Sybase DB Asynchronous Tally messages
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MovieGuide 3.0 Success
The use of PLS provided excellent, direct search performance The network tally interface eliminated contention with backend publishing tasks and reduced front end load Improved performance and scalability of MovieGuide 3.0 allowed us to double our MovieGuide cities and add cool new features such as My Theaters
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Monitoring Performance
As demonstrated by the MovieGuide, one can easily fall into some deadly performance traps One of the first lesson learned by Digital City is to watch for trouble by monitoring whats happening under the covers Lets look at a few statistical interfaces...
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URL Stats
The ns_server urlstats provides timing statistics of individual URLs, a good first place to look for performance hotspots:
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Tcl Statistics
The ns_stats command returns the usage counts of individual commands, a great way to look for fat procedures which could be moved to C:
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Anything Specific to Multithreading?
A common technique when a bottleneck is discovered is to utilize some high speed cache However, in multithreaded processes, caches require mutex locks which can result in lock contention The ensure high hit rate and low contention:
Write proper cache code! Monitor hit rates and contention closely
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Cache Statistics
To monitor memory cache hit rate, use the ns_cache_stats command:
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Lock Contention
To monitor lock contention, use the ns_info locks command:
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Overall Performance
Finally, because multithreaded applications can be so unpredictable, be sure to track overall performance under actual load - Tk is a good choice:
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Wrap Up
Who Developed and Operates Digital City?
The Digital City Tech Team!
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Where To Get More Information
For more information on AOLserver and to download the AOLserver source visit: http://www.aolserver.com For information on the Tcl 8.x thread model and to download TclPro visit: http://www.scriptics.com For an excellent collection of tutorials and guides on AOLserver-based database-driven web sites visit: http://photo.net
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