Back to the Cal Poly Home Page Starting on Sunday, November 16, 1997, through Wednesday, November 19, 1997, Systems Acceptance Testing was performed on the Central UNIX General Session Server. This testing was performed to test the Session Server (the system where users actually login named "polylog1"), under actual load conditions at the hardware specification the vendor originally recommended in response to Cal Poly's RFP (Request for Proposal) for the Central UNIX replacement systems.
Other systems such as OpenMail/OpenTime, the system Fileserver, and UNIX Mail Server remained configured as they had been. These other systems were, at the worst, marginally effected by the tests.
The original specification was for an HP-9000 K-420 with two PA-7200 CPUs and 2 GigaBytes (GB) of Memory to support 1000 concurrent user sessions. The current configuration of the General Session Server is four PA-7200 CPUs and 2 GB of memory.
Over a period of four days, the General Session Server was tested with two, three, and four CPUs. Prior to the test, the machine had been running with four PA-7200 CPUs and it now continues to run with four CPUs in this post-test period.
Rules for conducting the tests were based on peak user response time:
The events during the tests are as follows:
| Date | Event |
| Sunday, November 16, 1997 at 6:30AM | The General Session Server rebooted with two PA-7200 CPUs configured. |
| Monday, November 17, 1997 at 11:30AM | The system went outside acceptable testing parameters (40 times normal user response time) and was scheduled to be rebooted. |
| Monday, November 17, 1997 at 12:42PM | The General Session Server rebooted with three PA-7200 CPUs configured. |
| Tuesday, November 18, 1997 at 3:00 PM | The first test of two CPUs is repeated to eliminate the possibility that Monday's results were an anomaly. System scheduled to be reboot with two CPUs the next morning. |
| Wednesday, November 19, 1997 at 6:23AM | The General Session Server rebooted with two PA-7200 CPUs configured. |
| Wednesday, November 19, 1997 at 11:00AM | The system went outside acceptable testing parameters (40 times normal user response time) and was scheduled to be rebooted. |
| Wednesday, November 19, 1997 at 12:21PM | The General Session Server rebooted with four PA-7200 CPUs configured and continues to run under this configuration. |
During the test periods, Information Technology Services (ITS) staff took measurements of response times for various commands as well as system loads and other system parameters. The basic conclusion drawn from the resulting information were:
Results of the tests are being forwarded to Hewlett-Packard for comment.
This Systems Acceptance Testing was designed by ITS staff, provided for review to Hewlett-Packard, and approved by Cal Poly ITS management and the Instructional Advisory Committee on Computing prior to its implementation. Users were not informed of the testing to prevent biasing the results of the test by users avoiding the system during the test period.
Revised by: George Westlund (gwestlun@calpoly.edu)