In computing, a server is a computer program or device that shares or distributes data, information or resources among multiple clients.
For a server to be relevant there should be a corresponding client(s). Servers provide several functionalities often called “services” among multiple clients. The structure built to make the system manifest is called “the client-server model”. We have several types of servers in computer technology, for instance; email server, application server, proxy server, policy server, virtual server, blade server, file server among several others. The server we are going to look into is the “Web server”.
A web server is also known as “Internet Server”. A Web server is a dedicated computer software that serves requested HTML pages or files. In a layman understanding, a web server is a channel that produces any content that can be found through the Internet. The software you use in accessing the required contents is called the “Client”. On your computer or smart device, your Web or Internet browser you used in browsing and downloading is the client to the server. Web server always responds to requests and delivers the content of the page to the user. This is made possible because every computer or device that connects to the internet has a unique identity number, called “Internet Protocol address
What is Server Overload?
Server overload is a situation whereby a Web server becomes irresponsive, making the client to freeze or wait long standby to retrieve information. Majority of the web server program available have defined load limits as it can only handle a limited number of concurrent client connections usually between 2 and 80,000, by default between 500 and 1,000 per IP address (and TCP port) simultaneously. As the traffic increases, so does the chance of having a server load increases. A Web server can serve only a certain maximum number of requests per second (RPS) or queries per second (QPS) depending on its own settings, HTTP request type, either the content is static or dynamic, or the content is cached.
How to prevent Server Overload?
Do you own a big company and your website is getting popular day by day? Your website is expected to generate a lot of traffic as people are trooping into your website flooding your server. Your Website tends to crash eventually if proper precaution is not taken. To prevent server overload, the options below are required to be taken into consideration.
- You can avoid server overload by segmenting how you get your traffic. If your company needed to send resources to a multitude of clients, sending them once can crash your server, you can avoid server crash by segmenting the number of the recipient and send the resources in batches.
- At times if your server is working well, it tends to accept all requests it can, and as a result, it exhausts its RAM. Subsequently, it slows down the resources and may eventually halt the service. To relief your server and preventing it from overload or server crash, you may set the web server limits on the limited number of concurrent connection. For instance, if you notice 10,000 concurrent connections may crash your website, you may decide to limit concurrent connection to the first 6,000. So other requests after the 6,000 will not be granted as it will just be displaying error on the page. However, it may look like a server crash but in reality, it is not but just a temporary restriction to prevent server crash.
How to Fix Server Overload?
- If your website is using a shared hosting account which offers a few hundred concurrent connections at a time, you are required to switch from the shared hosting account to a virtual private server (VPS) which can offer thousands of concurrent connections.
- If you are still having a problem with Virtual Private Service (VPS), you may switch to a hosting that supports cloud hosting. A cloud hosting account enables you to get access to a lot of different level of resources.
- Another option to fix a server overload is by switching on/off the Web server access intermittently as this will prevent the site from future congestion. This will deny users access for some while and come back to air after decongestion is done. For instance, a web service company can decide to set a 15mins on/off on some websites that are always flooded with traffic. On the page, it always shows “Site Busy” or “busy signal”.
In conclusion, server overload is a practical issue which we all tend to have experienced before as web users. If you are intending to create a website for your SME, or company and you need a professional advice of which kind of Web you should utilize and how you can avoid future perils on your prospective website, you can consult e-brand promotions. E-brand promotion is a reputable world-class Web design company that offer professional services like, Web design, Web maintenance, advisory services among others. Their office is located at Suite B57, EFAB Mall, Ahmadu Bello Way, Area 11, Garki, Abuja. Email:sales@ebrandpromotion.com. Contact Number: 2349034244099.
Have a question about your web design project? Call E-Brand Promotion and our web development team will help you every step of the way from conceptualizing the idea to design and full implementation.
