Some more info:
-connecting to 60+ clients each night. This number will rise to 500+ over the next year.
-from each client we download 10-500 files of XML data. Some of it is encrypted but most is straight-up XML.
-each file ranges from 0.1Kb to 50Mb
-from each client we get 1-10 different types of data. Each data type goes into 1 or more tables across several databases.
-all databases are running on one machine. All parsing is done on one machine.
-each file is copied from a remote-client to our MP box. Its then parsed and moved to a backup area.


Any IO wait issues will be on the client side. Each is connected to the net via a linksys router into a standard cable modem. The upload speed is throttled by the provider.

The (highly simplified) LAN diagram is:
clients -> MP box that does the copy and parse -> DB box. The DB box is not 'exposed' to the outside.

From what Im reading so far it sounds like I could / should break out the copy process into > 1 thread. I can also thread the DBD section but I shouldn't share the same connection handle. Each thread should create / delete its own DBD connection.

Accurate?

Are there any 'rules-of-thumb' for the number of concurrent processes I should create? Im assuming (naively) that RH Enterprise will task-swap them appropriately. For an 8-way box maybe I should start with 4 concurrent procs and see how it handles it?

In reply to Re^2: Threading - getting better use of my MP box by ethrbunny
in thread Threading - getting better use of my MP box by ethrbunny

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.