Basic Plone system resources

To run Plone web site you need

* Some kind of machine (preferably Unix server, Windows works too) which is connected to Internet 24/7

* Ability to run arbitary daemon (background) processes on the server
* Ability to open arbitary ports. Zope wants to open its own port for incoming requests.
* Shell account for installing Plone + Zope and running control software

One could say that you need server root privileges to run Plone, though it’s technically possible without root privileges if the web hosting provider co-operates with you. Also, Plone gulps quite much RAM memory. Read more about it below. You might want to use virtual server, real server or Zope specific host company to run Plone web site, since most low end web hosting solutions don’t provide enough flexibility to run Plone. Google for “plone hosting” or “zope hosting”. One example company providing resourceful Zope hosting in Europe is Nidelven IT.

Plone performance measuring and caching

Plone doesn’t use any CPU when no pages are being loaded (in idle state).

When a page is being loaded, CPU usage maxes out to 100% per thread.

Because Plone CPU usage varies with the load, it’s useful to requets per seconds metric instead of CPU usage % to measure how much load the system can take.

Caching

Caching means that instead of regenerating the web page for each individual request, an old copy is kept lying around in memory/on disk and is served for consequent requests. Since the same once generated data is recycled, we improve performance by not going a long process of fetching data from a database, fitting it into page templates and finally converting to HTML.

Without caching, Plone is not suitable for heavy traffic sites (more than few visitors per minute).

Static caching

Here I use term ‘static caching’ for a method where the whole site is kept in the cache and real-time modified content is available for certain users only. This method is suitable for company web pages and other, closed, non-interactive content.

Pros

* Very easy to set-up
* Very efficient

Cons

* The site cannot have dynamic content (e.g. discussion) or other content which anyone could update

The easiest way to do static caching is to put a front end server at the front of Plone. The front end server takes all requests and caches them over a certain time period until it fetches new content from the server.

The most popular ways are using Apache web server’s mod_proxy module and Squid proxy.

With Apache 2 caching site content using mod_proxy, speed increase drastically (x 100). This is because pages are served directly from memory cache, instead of being regenerated each time a request is made. You should find plenty of tutorials from plone.org/documentation and Google how to put Apache 2 to the front of Zope to cache requets.

Also, Apache’s mod_deflate plug-in can used to GZip compress HTML, JS and CSS code before sending it over the wire. Most of desktop web browsers support GZip’ed content. This decreases bandwidth requirements, since HTML and other text based content compresses well.

Dynamic caching

Plone 2.5 ships with an add-on product called Cache Fu. Cache Fu allows fine tuned control of caching

* Caching only static items with a front end cache (Apache/Squid)
* Increasing Zope database performance by tuning internal database object caches
* Setting HTTP headers so that user web browsers itself cache the content propeply

Pros

* Propeply set up Cache Fu ensures that live content is always up-to-date (thus, the name dynamic caching), but static content is served at the maximum possible speed

Cons

* Setting up Cache Fu needs insight to HTTP request mechanisms and Plone internals

For more information see the documentation supplied with Cache Fu.

Note that Zope doesn’t reserve all memory on boot up. You need to browse around the site to make page loads and you can see memory usage increasing (until every page is load).

Spikes and Python memory management

When you upload a big content object (e.g. a high resolution image) Python memory usage spikes up since Python needs to allocate memory for processing the image. This image might not never freed back to the system and thus task manager utilities like top report Python to plenty of memory. However, this memory is not actively used and it’s swapped out. Read more about Python memory allocation.

Zope packing

Zope database stores information for all object revisions (each edit, delete) for undoing changes. Unless you want to have ability to track down each change, you can pack Zope database now and then to decrease it’s size. It can be done via Zope management interface control panel.

Source :

• Community web portals
• Discussion sites
• Corporate web sites
• Intranet applications
• Personal web sites or blogs
• Aficionado sites
• E-commerce applications
• Resource directories
• Social Networking sites

Drupal is ready to go from the moment you download it. It even has an easy-to-use web installer! The built-in functionality, combined with dozens of freely available add-on modules, will enable features such as:

• Content Management Systems
• Blogs
• Collaborative authoring environments
• Forums
• Peer-to-peer networking
• Newsletters
• Podcasting
• Picture galleries
• File uploads and downloads and much more.

Drupal is open-source software distributed under the GPL (“GNU General Public License”) and is maintained and developed by a community of thousands of users and developers. If you like what Drupal promises for you, please work with us to expand and refine Drupal to suit your specific needs.

General features

• Collaborative Book – Our unique collaborative book feature lets you setup a “book” and then authorize other individuals to contribute content.detailed information
• Friendly URLs – Drupal uses Apache’s mod_rewrite to enable customizable URLs that are both user and search engine friendly.
• Modules – The Drupal community has contributed many modules which provide functionality that extend Drupal core.detailed information
• Online help – Like many Open Source projects, we can’t say that our online help is perfect but have built a robust online help system built into the core help text. Available to you on your own site.detailed information
• Open source – The source code of Drupal is freely available under the terms of the GNU General Public License 2 (GPL). Unlike proprietary blogging or content management systems, Drupal’s feature set is fully available to extend or customize as needed.detailed information
• Personalization – A robust personalization environment is at the core of Drupal. Both the content and the presentation can be individualized based on user-defined preferences.
• Role based permission system – Drupal administrators don’t have to tediously setup permissions for each user. Instead, they assign permissions to roles and then group like users into a role group.screenshot . detailed information
• Searching – All content in Drupal is fully indexed and searchable at all times if you take advantage of the built in search module.

User management

User authentication – Users can register and authenticate locally or using an external authentication source like Jabber, Blogger, LiveJournal or another Drupal website. For use on an intranet, Drupal can integrate with an LDAP server.detailed information

Content management

• Polls – Drupal comes with a poll module which enables admins and/or users to create polls and show them on various pages.detailed information
• Templating – Drupal’s theme system separates content from presentation allowing you to control the look and feel of your Drupal site. Templates are created from standard HTML and PHP coding meaning that you don’t have to learn a proprietary templating language.detailed information
• Threaded comments – Drupal provides a powerful threaded comment model for enabling discussion on published content. Comments are hierarchical as in a newsgroup or forum.detailed information
• Version control – Drupal’s version control system tracks the details of content updates including who changed it, what was changed, the date and time of changes made to your content and more. Version control features provide an option to keep a comment log and enables you to roll-back content to an earlier version.screenshot

Blogging

• Blogger API support – The Blogger API allows your Drupal site to be updated by many different tools. This includes non-web browser based tools that provide a richer editing environment.detailed information
• Content syndication – Drupal exports your site’s content in RDF/RSS format for others to gather. This lets anyone with a News Aggregator browse your Drupal sites feeds.detailed information
• News aggregator – Drupal has a powerful built-in News Aggregator for reading and blogging news from other sites. The News Aggregator caches articles to your MySQL database and its caching time is user configurable.detailed information
• Permalinks – All content created in Drupal has a permanent link or “perma link” associated with it so people can link to it freely without fear of broken links.

Platform

• Apache or IIS, Unix / Linux / BSD / Solaris / Windows / Mac OS X support – Drupal was designed from the start to be multi-platform. Not only can you use it with either Apache or Microsoft IIS but we also have Drupal running on Linux, BSD, Solaris, Windows, and Mac OS X platforms.detailed information
• Database independence – While many of our users run Drupal with MySQL, we knew that MySQL wasn’t the solution for everyone. Drupal is built on top of a database abstraction layer that enables you to use Drupal with MySQL and PostgreSQL. Other SQL databases can be supported by writing a supporting database backend containing fourteen functions and creating a matching SQL database scheme.detailed information
• Multi-language – Drupal is designed to meet the requirements of an international audience and provides a full framework to create a multi-lingual website, blog, content management system or community application. All text can be translated using a graphical user interface, by importing existing translations, or by integrating with other translation tools such as the GNU gettext.detailed information

Administration and analysis

• Analysis, Tracking and Statistics – Drupal can print browser-based reports with information about referrals, content popularity and how visitors navigate your site.screenshot . detailed information
• Logging and Reporting – All important activities and system events are captured in an event log to be reviewed by an administrator at a later time.screenshot . detailed information
• Web based administration – Drupal can be administered entirely using a web browser, making it possible to access it from around the world and requires no additional software to be installed on your computer.screenshot

Community features

• Discussion forums – Full discussion forum features are built into Drupal to create lively, dynamic community sites.detailed information
  Performance and scalability

Caching – The caching mechanism eliminates database queries increasing performance and reducing the server’s load. Caching be tuned in real time and many high-traffic sites have performed very well under load.detailed information.

Other Information

• Initial release  January 2001 (2001-01)
• Latest release  6.8 / 11 December 2008; 10 days ago
• Written in  PHP
• OS  Cross-platform
• Type  Content management framework, Content management system, Community and Blog software
• License  GPL

Links

• Drupal News
• Download Drupal 6.8
• Download Drupal 5.14
• Visit drupal.org

Microsoft is making several announcements at the show, including new customer adoption for the Microsoft Interactive Media Manager (IMM) solution with Abertis Telecom; adoption of Microsoft Silverlight by European broadcasters and the upcoming inclusion of additional codecs such as H.264 and Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) in the Silverlight plug-in; and developments for the Microsoft Mediaroom Internet Protocol television (IPTV) and multimedia software platform including the Microsoft Mediaroom Advertising Platform (MAP), Mediaroom Migration Program and an interactive TV application developed by emuse technologies using British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) content, which will be demonstrated for the first time at the show.

“The industry is in a race to see who can deliver the most exciting experience and monetize multiple digital distribution channels, while still managing their content and business as efficiently and cost-effectively as possible,” said Gabriele Di Piazza, managing director for the Media and Entertainment Business in the Communications Sector at Microsoft. “As well as facing the unique challenges created by the ever-expanding worlds of digital media and the Internet, media and entertainment companies need to ensure that the basic but critical operations are efficiently supporting and providing useful insights into their core business, rather than draining time and resources away from it. That’s why companies in this industry are focusing on content and business management just as much as on content creation and delivery.”

Digital media delivery requires media and entertainment companies to manage a variety of complex customer and partner engagements. Microsoft provides the tools to help them manage their assets across the many different facets of their business, including broadcast resources, licenses, program schedules and libraries; traditional and digital advertising; supply chain management; and customer relationship tracking.

Digital Content Creation and Management

Microsoft solutions enable media companies to create rich media content and, in doing so, to better manage production workflows across multiple systems and departments. Abertis Telecom S.A. and Microsoft are working together on the development of a new service for management and distribution of TV content over the Internet on Silverlight and Windows Presentation Foundation. This platform, created as an Abertis Telecom initiative, is specially created for management of distribution of digital terrestrial television channels and content over the Internet, with an innovative presentation environment. The Abertis Telecom service is utilizing Microsoft IMM as the backend workflow solution to acquire and manage digital content.

Digital Content Delivery and Monetization

Microsoft announced that Microsoft Silverlight, a cross-browser multiplatform plug-in for delivering media experiences and rich interactive applications on the Web, continues to gain momentum. Silverlight adoption by major media, broadcasting and content companies has continued to grow, including innovative new VOD offerings from TF1, RTL, France Television, iTV and MSN UK, and live and on-demand sports channels from L’EquipeTV and Setanta. Microsoft also will preview H.264 and AAC playback support in Silverlight, together with Microsoft Expression Encoder H.264 authoring and Windows Server 2008 for delivery.
“Using Silverlight, we are very excited to be able to offer the same advanced features and high-quality video to customers both on Windows and Mac browsers,” said Pierre Brossard, CEO of TF1. “Through visual and tactile navigation of content and playback in a Silverlight rich media environment, the TF1 Vision service will provide a true online interactive VOD experience available to the vast majority of broadband users. In addition, through Microsoft’s announced support for mp4 standard formats in Silverlight, we’ll be able to easily repurpose existing libraries of H.264 and AAC content and extend the future reach of our service to an ever-growing market of mp4-capable devices.”
Microsoft is also announcing developments for its Microsoft Mediaroom IPTV and multimedia platform including the following:

• Mediaroom Advertising Platform. This new adjunct offering lets service providers deploying Microsoft Mediaroom offer targeted, measurable and interactive advertising spots all from one comprehensive platform.
• Microsoft Mediaroom Migration Program. This new program helps IPTV operators migrate to Mediaroom from first-generation platforms.
• An interactive application developed by emuse technologies uses content from the BBC. IBC2008 is the platform for first public viewing of a new application that shows how the BBC’s original journalistic content, including news, sports and weather could look using the Mediaroom platform.

FAST, a Microsoft subsidiary, is demonstrating the flexible and scalable FAST Enterprise Search Platform (ESP), which allows organizations to create unique user experiences and change the way people interact with information by uncovering new revenue streams, improving business decisions and increasing productivity. FAST is working with the U.K. national news organization Times Online to index, search and ultimately monetize 200 years’ worth of The Times content online, from 1785 to 1985, including 20 million articles, photographs, advertisements and letters to the editor from such figures as Queen Victoria, Charles Darwin and Karl Marx. The system has a high-quality response time, aiming for two seconds per search, as well as the ability to completely re-index the archive within 24 hours to accommodate new content or topic structures.

Finally, following the release of the Windows Media Center TV Pack this summer, Microsoft is now announcing the delivery of a new worldwide platform for broadcast TV on the PC, Protected Broadcast Driver Architecture (PBDA), which enables the PC-TV hardware ecosystem to integrate virtually any free or premium TV service into Windows Media Center while satisfying the TV industry’s requirements for strong content protection for pay TV. Leading companies rallying behind PBDA at the show include AVerMedia Inc., Buffalo, Hauppauge Computer Works Inc., I-O Data Device Inc., NEC Electronics Corp., NXP Semiconductors and ViXS Systems Inc. Continuing to underscore Microsoft’s commitment to broadcast TV on the PC, Windows Media Center and Hauppauge also will demonstrate the U.K.’s first Freeview-certified PC tuner solution, which utilizes the new PBDA platform.

Microsoft at IBC2008

The Microsoft exhibit at IBC2008 will feature a full range of solutions from Microsoft and its partners, spanning content creation and management, media business management and monetization, and digital content delivery. Siemens IT Solutions and Services will demonstrate an industry-specific approach based on the Microsoft business intelligence (BI) platform, to provide a full view of the core creative and business control activities within a broadcast organization. S4M (Solutions for Media) will showcase its all-in-one broadcast management system based on Microsoft’s latest business management software, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009. In addition to those products and solutions, there will be demonstrations of Microsoft Expression Studio and Microsoft Atlas Publisher Suite, as well as offerings from partners including Avanade, focusing on a media supply chain management solution based on Microsoft Dynamics AX, Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Performance Point, and Conchango, (an EMC Corp. company) demonstrating an end-to-end video publishing platform combining different Microsoft technologies such as Silverlight and Internet Information Services (IIS). On the TXT Polymedia media stand, TXT will also demonstrate its Media in a Box solution, a new online video publishing solution based on the Microsoft technology platform.