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I cannot believe that Which directory hierarchy will be the best/fastest? just got closed as "duplicate" of Can you help me with my capacity planning?. I hope the reason is not that the moderator has written the highest ranking answer to the question...

The questioner has asked a specific question, not broad like the other one. And I cannot see how the answers of the first question are of any use to the questioner (except for "use benchmarks").

I admit I am not really neutral as I just had put a lot of effort in answering the new question.

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    The Q&A was written as dupe target for the many capacity planning questions we get, as such the answer was made CW and attracts no reputation for it's author.
    – user9517
    May 29, 2013 at 17:41
  • Capacity and Performance are pretty darn close to the same thing to me. Perhaps it would help if you explained specifically why you think they're "seriously" different. (downvote is not mine)
    – Chris S
    May 29, 2013 at 17:41
  • @lain I did not intend to indicate that the mod wanted to get more reputation. I can understand that one's own answers are more on one's mind. May 29, 2013 at 17:45
  • @ChrisS This is not "capacity planning" vs. "performance planning". If that was the only difference then I would be with you. The questioner asks a very specific software question whereas the other question and their answers are both very broad and about hardware. The main point is: I don't see how the other answers help the questioner in any way. May 29, 2013 at 17:58
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    See, the problem I have with questions like this, is they're largely subjective. Only the OP can know whether their system is performing as they'd like, and only they can accurately devise benchmarks to prove it either does or doesn't meet their needs. From a generalistic point of view, it's effectively the same as the capacity planning canonical question, but I suspect, from the OP's POV, they're looking for something decidedly more specific. However, without vastly more information, it's difficult to answer in a way that'll meet expectations across the board. May 29, 2013 at 21:33

2 Answers 2

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Yes. Seriously.

As I indicated in my comment the way to determine what directory hierarchy will be "fastest" is to perform performance tests on various configurations, and select the optimal one.

The canonical capacity planning question has information on how to do such benchmarking (and we generally assume our users are smart enough to make changes based on those results).

The difference in specificity is why I left a comment on the question suggesting they investigate the cause of the poor performance more thoroughly - this could be expanded into a longer answer if we knew where the bottleneck was, but without benchmarks and a better idea of what's causing the slowdown I think it's pretty tough to give useful advice beyond "Run some benchmarks".


That said, if you can make a sound case for why Gibson's question is different enough that it is not a duplicate (such that it convinces either one of the moderators or 5 voting users that the question should be reopened) please do so - If you can give a better answer to this question than the generic "go benchmark" I've got no problem reopening it.

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  • The answers to the canonical question do not add anything useful to the comment you made. Or do they in your opinion? If so: What? I would agree with you on "without benchmarks and a better idea of what's causing the slowdown I think it's pretty tough to give useful advice" (at least if "useful" is understood as "specific") but my impression of this site is that in such a case comments are used to get this information from the questioner and not that the question is closed, referring him to a thread that does not even cover this aspect. May 29, 2013 at 18:03
  • @HaukeLaging the capacity planning question (and associated website-speficic question linked at the top) gives advice on how to do benchmarking - presumably Gibson can change, benchmark, and iterate until acceptable performance is achieved. None of that is material to what I believe is your point though - You think the questions are substantially different. If you can tell me how you would answer this question differently (i.e. with something better/more specific than "Do some benchmarks and tune accordingly. Here's a link that talks about doing benchmarks") I'll reopen it.
    – voretaq7
    May 29, 2013 at 18:16
  • Have you read my answer to the question? I gave some hints what to change. May 29, 2013 at 18:24
  • @HaukeLaging actually I didn't even notice your answer (my cached copy of the question didn't have it) - I'm not sure I agree with your assessment, but that is a different enough angle that it probably merits the question remaining open and I've reopened it accordingly.
    – voretaq7
    May 29, 2013 at 18:31
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The question should be closed as too localized. The Can you help me with my capacity planning? was created to give some general advice about benchmarking and planning as an alternative to close questions as too localized.

As you mentioned in your answer, there is simply no good simple answer.

About the only thing you can say is 'it depends', or tell the person the general process for how to test and find the solution themself.

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