how many servers does stack run on? [duplicate]

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Which tools and technologies are used to build the Stack Exchange Network? (1 answer)

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i just wanted to know how many servers Stack Overflow runs on, with 240,000 users on the site, im thinking they have 1,000 of servers? but i wondered if you guys knew

Answer 1

That would be one server for each 240 people.. It's a bit overkill don't you think?

Servers can handle several connections per second; I'm not sure about the stack overflow architecture, but I work for a website where we have a bit over 11 million pageviews per month, and we have only 4 servers: two web servers for dynamic files, one for static files, and one db server.

• getaway: oh thanks you just made my day, i wanted to create a website thats going to have hopefully a lot of users, and im only running two servers, one for the web, one for database server. can i just ask you if needed to put static content, shall i put it in the web server or the db server, and where would i put the memcached memory! if that makes sense
• ChristopheD: If I were you i'd worry about the site (and content) first (and worry about scalability when you need it ;-)
• getaway: but im so obsessed with performance, i would rather have an ugly site with high performance, then a good loking one, really, and this is just my uni project so its not something sireous, its more to do with learning at the momment

Answer 2

That's also slightly outdated information. That is discussing The OR datacenter we are moving out of.

In the new DC we are running:

• 10 Window 2008 Webservers on Dell R610's
• 2 windows DB servers on Dell R710s
• 2 HA Proxy load balencers
• A pair of Dell Servers Running Ubuntu acting as routers.
• A few backend management server - backup, monitoring, etc.

If your are interesting in our infrastructure Kyle and I talk about it on The serverfault blog

Answer 3

Lots of useful information (and links) can be found in this elaborate answer.

ThinkServer RS110 1U - web tier (x6 - two host Stack Overflow)
ThinkServer RD120 2U - database tier (x2 - one primary, one backup)

So that's 8 instead of 1000. You might have overestimated (a bit).

• getaway: wow thats amazing, and stackoverflow has high traffic
• uɐɯsO uɐɥʇɐN: @getaway - Well, that goes to show just how powerful a well-managed set of servers can be.
• Zoredache: @George Edison, I suspect the way the software was designed is just as important is the server management.
• uɐɯsO uɐɥʇɐN: @Zoredache: For sure.
• robinmau: a good sense , i think !