Second keynote on my master's thesis. It's a state of the art review.

1. Scaling Rails
a system-wide approach to performance optimization
Exploratory Case Study: http://escolinhas.pt
February 2010
FEUP

2. < Problem >
2 Scaling Rails: a system-wide approach to performance optimization

3. Web 2.0
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4. Better web
Better tools
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5. Ruby on Rails
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6. Popularity brings USERS
USERS need scalability
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7. Rails doesn’t scale
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8. Twitter
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9. 9 Scaling Rails: a system-wide approach to performance optimization

10. Twitter abandoning Rails?
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11. “FWIW: Twitter currently has no plans to
abandon RoR. Lots of our code is not in
RoR, already, though. Maybe that's why
people are confused.”
- Evan Williams, Twitter CEO
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12. YellowPages
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13. More users?
“Just throw hardware at it.”
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14. Rails doesn’t scale
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15. Hulu
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16. Scribd
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17. They scaled
They gave keynotes on
HOW
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18. What’s missing here?
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19. No general approaches to scaling
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20. Problem Overview
20 Scaling Rails: a system-wide approach to performance optimization

21. < Problem Overview >
Rails doesn’t scale?
Twitter
YellowPages
Rails doesn’t scale?
Hulu
Scribd
General approaches to scaling?
21 Scaling Rails: a system-wide approach to performance optimization

22. < Motivation >
22 Scaling Rails: a system-wide approach to performance optimization

23. WEB
WEB
WEB
WEB
WEB
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24. USERS
USERS
USERS
USERS
USERS
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25. IMPORTANCE
IMPORTANCE
IMPORTANCE
IMPORTANCE
IMPORTANCE
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26. Better web
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27. Better tools
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28. UX involves reasonable response
times and service uptime
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29. Most recent tools are great
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30. “Ruby on Rails is a breakthrough in lowering the
barriers of entry to programming. Powerful web
applications that formerly might have taken
weeks or months to develop can be produced in
a matter of days.”
- Tim O'Reilly, Founder of O'Reilly Media
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31. Everything can be improved
There is no perfect tool
There are always pitfalls
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32. What’s really motivating?
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33. Fixing pitfalls on great tools
Improving UX for everyone
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34. Motivation Overview
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35. < Motivation Overview >
Web keeps growing
More users, importance
Web 2.0
User Experience
Also dependant on:
Response times and availability
Recent tools are great
There are always pitfalls
Fixing pitfalls on great tools
Improving UX for everyone
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36. < Goals >
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37. What about scaling?
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38. Everything is easy
Scaling should also be easy
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39. Creation of
39 Scaling Rails: a system-wide approach to performance optimization

40. Guidelines and conventions
for high performance
Rails applications
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41. Optimal Rails-oriented
configurations for every involved
component
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42. Patches to improve the
components performance from a
Rails-perspective
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43. Objectives Overview
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44. < Objectives Overview >
Scaling should be easy
Creation of:
Generic guidelines and conventions
Optimal configurations
Patches for all components
All from a performance-oriented philosophy centered
in Ruby on Rails!
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45. < State of the Art >
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46. < Operating Systems >
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47. Most used OS in servers: Linux
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48. BSD faster than Linux
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49. Linux faster than BSD
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50. Linux Ruby 1.8 2x faster
than Windows Ruby 1.8
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51. Linux Ruby 1.9 70% faster
than Windows Ruby 1.9
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52. Rails widely deployed in Linux
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53. < Ruby >
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54. Ruby 1.8 is the most widely used
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55. JRuby is the fastest implementation
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56. Ruby 1.8 will soon be outdated
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57. Ruby 1.9 will soon be outdated
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58. Ruby 1.9 has only one interpreter
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59. Ruby MRI 1.9
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60. Ruby MRI 1.9
Rails bottleneck: GC
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61. < Web servers >
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62. Webrick
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63. Webrick
Pioneer, slow
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64. Mongrel
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65. Mongrel
Much faster, excellent HTML parser
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66. Thin
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67. Thin
Mongrel’s HTML parser
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68. Thin
New I/O back-end: EventMachine
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69. Thin
Faster than those before
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70. Passenger
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71. Passenger
Not self-contained
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72. Passenger
Module for Apache/Nginx
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73. Passenger
Good performance, great at scaling
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74. Thin is the fastest
Passenger scales better
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75. < Database >
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76. MySQL
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77. PostgreSQL
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78. MySQL is faster and more popular
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79. Schema-less databases
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80. Schema-less databases
Said to have better performance than SQL
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81. MongoDB
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82. CouchDB
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83. Benchmarks are scarce
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84. Major improvement in all DB:
Caching, caching, caching!
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85. < Rails >
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86. Rails 2.3
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87. Many performance pitfalls
improved in Rails 3
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88. Rails 3
Beta release in February
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89. Immediate need: form helpers, i18n
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90. < Application >
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91. Porting to Ruby 1.9 (from 1.8)
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92. Porting to Rails 3 (from 2.3)
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93. Check code for common pitfalls
Eager loading
Fetching records in batches
Database Indexes
Caching
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94. < Methodology >
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95. State of the Art narrows options down
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96. Benchmarking
Controlled tests to choose the best
software for each component
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97. Tweaking
Try out different configurations and
architectures
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98. Testing
Measuring of results, finding bottlenecks
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99. Developing
Improving over bottlenecks
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100. Benchmarking
Tweaking
Testing
Developing
and
Improving
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101. Recipe: repeat for all components
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102. Rails perspective!
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103. Escolinhas
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104. 104 Scaling Rails: a system-wide approach to performance optimization

105. Butterfly Effect
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106. 106 Scaling Rails: a system-wide approach to performance optimization

107. Consider sensitive dependencies
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108. < Work schedule >
108 Scaling Rails: a system-wide approach to performance optimization

109. 109 Scaling Rails: a system-wide approach to performance optimization

110. Activity Start Date Duration (weeks)
OS testing and choosing 15/02/2010 1
OS kernel testing and tuning 22/02/2010 1
Web server testing and bottleneck research 01/03/2010 1
Web server bottleneck improvements 08/03/2010 1
Ruby interpreter testing and bottleneck research 15/03/2010 1
Ruby interpreter bottleneck improvements 22/03/2010 1.5
DB testing and bottleneck research 31/03/2010 1
DB bottleneck improvements 07/04/2010 1
Rails bottleneck research 14/04/2010 1
Rails bottleneck improvements 21/04/2010 2.5
Escolinhas analysis and bottleneck research 10/05/2010 1
Escolinhas improvements 07/05/2010 3
Writing of dissertation report 07/06/2010 4
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111. < Thank you >
http://snaprails.tumblr.com
Gonçalo S. Silva
Advisor: Ademar Aguiar
http://goncalossilva.com
http://twitter.com/goncalossilva