
What is scalability? 11
Linear scalability
Perfect scalability — excluding cache initializations — is linear. Linear scalability, relative
to load, means that with fixed resources, performance decreases at a constant rate relative
to load increases. Linear scalability, relative to resources, means that with a constant load,
performance improves at a constant rate relative to additional resources.
Caching and resource management overhead affect an application server’s ability to
approach linear scalability. Caching allows processing and resources to be reused,
alleviating the need to reprocess pages or reallocate resources. Disregarding other
influences, efficient caching can result in superior linear application server scalability.
Resource management becomes more complicated as the quantity of resources increases.
The extra overhead for resource management, including resource reuse mechanisms,
reduces the ability of application servers to scale linearly relative to constraining
resources. For example, when a processor is added to a single processor server, the
operating system incurs extra overhead in synchronizing threads and resources across
processors to provide symmetric multiprocessing. Part of the additional processing power
that the second processor provides is used by the operating system to manage the
additional processor, and is not available to help scale the application servers.
It is important to note that application servers can scale relative to resources only when
the resource changes affect the constraining resources. For example, adding processor
resources to an application server that is constrained by network bandwidth would
provide, at best, minor performance improvements. When discussing linear scalability
relative to server resources, you should assume that it is relative to the constraining server
resources.
Understanding linear scalability in relation to your site’s performance is important
because it affects not only your application design and construction, but also indirectly
related concerns, such as capital equipment budgets.
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