[JDEV] Request for comments on system using jabber

[Thomas Charron]

From: Jens Alfke
Subject: Re: [JDEV] Request for comments on system using jabber
On Thursday, May 24, 2001, at 10:23 AM, Todd Bradley wrote:
Jabberbot's roster on Jabber.com is about 10 times the size of the next
largest user's roster.  Whenever Jabberbot tries to log in now, it causes
all kinds of server mayhem because every presence change causes the server
to go read and parse rosters of everyone in Jabberbot's roster.  This, and
the subsequent traffic backups, crash the server at Jabber.com
I don't mean to sound snotty, but: This demonstrates a
performance/scalability issue with the server (not to mention an outright
bug if it actually crashes), not a reason not to use presence for this
purpose.
How large is that roster? If Jabber isn't scalable to this level, it may not
yet be ready for widespread use. (Consider a mail server that crashed if you
tried to send a message to more than 100 people at a time.) There is a very,
very large degree of interest in the industry right now for exactly these
sorts of IM bots.

    One needs to also note that Jabber.com is run off of their code, I'd
imagine the Jabber commercial server.  I have to assume it's that, becouse
I've tested users with hundreds of users in it's 'roster', and had no
problem beyond the server wanting to kick my rear when I was disconnecting
and reconnecting every few seconds due to a script error.  Bear in mind,
this was on a P133 with 32 megs of ram, my 'beat it to death' machine.