[Icecast] Server Requirements

[davidhooper at tiscali.co.uk]

Hi Mike,

Thanks for your fast and informative responce.

>> I'm looking to stream a large amount of conncurrent connects and want
to
>> use icecast probably on a CentOS base. The bandwidth requirements are
over
>> 60 Mbps before any overheads, I'm looking at using some Dell SC1425 machines
>> but am not sure how many I'd need, I'd appreciated hearing your experiences
>> and suggestions.
>>
>> I need to be able to stream the following simultaneous connections
>>
>> 700 * 64k
>> 255 * 128k
>
>That's closer to 80 Mbps than 60.
>
>>
>> Probably MP3 and also the following Ogg:
>> 1 * 32
>> 6 * 24
>
>Encoding on the server? Or elsewhere?

The encoding will be done client side, oddcast or SAM.

>If you're encoding on the server, you'll want to double-check that the
>cpu won't get saturated. I expect that'll be fine, though, with a
>single machine. If the SC1425 is dual cpu or dual core (I can't
>remember), then you'll certainly be fine.

I was thinking along the lines of Dual 2.8 Zeons in the 1425, although if
I was using two machines for loadbalancing I could stick to just 1 CPU in
each.

>As for the bandwidth, a single server is more than capable of pushing
>80 Mbps. I'd look at multiple servers once you go above about 300-400
>Mbps (though realistically, you probably won't run into problems until
>700+, you want a substantial amount of headroom).
>
>Of course, you might want more than a single server for redundancy.

I had redundancy in mind, but wasn't sure a single server could manage such
outputs, so two 1425s loadbalancing the streams would do this job comfortably?

Now to worry about getting  a low latency 80M connection or two 40M's If
I use round robin dns for connections I could have the servers in geographically
separate locations, right?

>Mike

Thanks again Mike,

David.

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