How many servers does WF need? Couple more quetions inside

11 years ago

First off, I have nothing to do with this site....

Does your version use a database, like oracle, mysql, etc... or is it flat files? at one point, the publicly only provided the flat file one, and that is a problem. If it is a database one, THAT is where most problems are likely to be.

This site obviously DOES have problems some times, and seems to be corrected by some routine that catches the problem. I have been on another big forum, and they ALSO crash from time to time. BOTH often state it is a database problem. That is not to say that databases are bad, only that they have to do a LOT and that means that a lot of problems will be THERE. Use this forum enough, and you'll see.

Steve

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Paul Silver

11 years ago

You should be running your own dedicated box at the very least.

Also, are you sure you performed the import function correctly?

I'd double check or try to reimport if I could, or you could leave the old forum intact for archival purposes and just have everyone re-register under the new software.

This should remedy any database issues you'd have from the import, since you'd essentially be starting from scratch.

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Lloyd Buchinski

11 years ago

This isn't about the servers, but there is another part to its performance.

This forum stuck with version 3.8.7, as did webhostingtalk.com, which is also in good shape. It seemed to be a wise move. The 4.xx versions have been out for about 2 years now, and they are not nearly as good. I use a large one just as a poster and is it ever balky and sluggish compared to this one.

A lot of large VB forums have been switching over to xenforo (.com), and the site has a nice collection of testimonials about how happy they are.

Here is a topic that talked about some of that, but not as it applied to this forum.

http://www.warriorforum.com/internet...ld-you-go.html

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Jesse L

11 years ago

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Paul Myers

11 years ago

Without getting into a lot of details...

Multiple chunks of Big Iron are needed to run this puppy, along with some custom coding and a couple of very talented dudes handling the tech.

The basic framework is vBulletin 3.8.x, with a lot of tweaks.

If you're having server issues, I can make a few suggestions. First, make sure you have a hot machine, and customize it for the resources vBulletin needs. Loading extra ram onto the machine will help, but not as much as you'd think by itself. You need to optimize it for heavy MySQL loads (lots of database calls), and increase the PHP memory allocation.

Basic stuff for this sort of thing, but it's easily screwed up if your tech staff doesn't understand the configuration issues. You want to go to the vBulletin forums and look for someone with experience in optimizing a machine specifically for version 4.x.

Paul

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Jesse L

11 years ago

Originally Posted by Paul Myers

Without getting into a lot of details...

Multiple chunks of Big Iron are needed to run this puppy, along with some custom coding and a couple of very talented dudes handling the tech.

The basic framework is vBulletin 3.8.x, with a lot of tweaks.

If you're having server issues, I can make a few suggestions. First, make sure you have a hot machine, and customize it for the resources vBulletin needs. Loading extra ram onto the machine will help, but not as much as you'd think by itself. You need to optimize it for heavy MySQL loads (lots of database calls), and increase the PHP memory allocation.

Basic stuff for this sort of thing, but it's easily screwed up if your tech staff doesn't understand the configuration issues. You want to go to the vBulletin forums and look for someone with experience in optimizing a machine specifically for version 4.x.

Paul

What the hell are you doing up so late, Paul? Bored?

With today's tech no more than 2 machines should be needed for handling a very large traffic load with a fail over for DB... I expereinced a traffic load growth awhile back and learned the hard way it is your database queriies that are the culprit and not the load handling of php translation. One bad query can bring down your entire system... thus, the place to start is by examining the load on your DB server, even if the program comes from a known source. There are tools to do this. There are also people to do this for you... If you are hitting that degree of traffic then you can afford and should afford the people to do this for you.

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cayne

11 years ago

Originally Posted by Paul Myers

Without getting into a lot of details...

Multiple chunks of Big Iron are needed to run this puppy, along with some custom coding and a couple of very talented dudes handling the tech.

The basic framework is vBulletin 3.8.x, with a lot of tweaks.

If you're having server issues, I can make a few suggestions. First, make sure you have a hot machine, and customize it for the resources vBulletin needs. Loading extra ram onto the machine will help, but not as much as you'd think by itself. You need to optimize it for heavy MySQL loads (lots of database calls), and increase the PHP memory allocation.

Basic stuff for this sort of thing, but it's easily screwed up if your tech staff doesn't understand the configuration issues. You want to go to the vBulletin forums and look for someone with experience in optimizing a machine specifically for version 4.x.

Paul

Thanks for you reply (and everybody else's too).
I'm running the forum on three dedicated servers: 2 x Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU L5520 @ 2.27GHz, one with 24GB ram, the other two with 12GB. We tried out 48GB of RAM, but that didn't change much.

I think it's way more about optimizing the setup than anything else. Have these tweaks been made by your hosting company (which one do you use btw) or some external dudes?

And yeah, I've heard only bad things about the 4.x version. Most big sites still use 3.8 - but I was afraid of possible security issues in the old version, that's why we switched to 4.x some time ago. But ever since the performance have been pretty bad.

Originally Posted by Jesse L

There are also people to do this for you... If you are hitting that degree of traffic then you can afford and should afford the people to do this for you.

You're absolutely right. I don't know a thing about servers and all my stuff is fully managed. But when it comes to vB you need some people with detailed knowledge and I haven't found them yet.

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seasoned

11 years ago

Originally Posted by cayne

Thanks for you reply (and everybody else's too).
I'm running the forum on three dedicated servers: 2 x Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU L5520 @ 2.27GHz, one with 24GB ram, the other two with 12GB. We tried out 48GB of RAM, but that didn't change much.

I think it's way more about optimizing the setup than anything else. Have these tweaks been made by your hosting company (which one do you use btw) or some external dudes?

And yeah, I've heard only bad things about the 4.x version. Most big sites still use 3.8 - but I was afraid of possible security issues in the old version, that's why we switched to 4.x some time ago. But ever since the performance have been pretty bad.

You're absolutely right. I don't know a thing about servers and all my stuff is fully managed. But when it comes to vB you need some people with detailed knowledge and I haven't found them yet.

Well, as I said, and paul myers alluded to, the DATABASE can be a big concern. Ironically, increasing the number of servers for the client software(the forum in this case) has an ADVERSE impact as well. Locking and connection problems are multiplied in the database.
So you should weight things there. You should only add servers when the other servers are maxed out and their processing is slow. Of course, if you only have one server, that is hard to determne, since database problems can cause a lot of it also.

So don't forget the database piece, especially since everything funnels into that. These problems will show up as slow response, database corruption, locking or transaction issues(including "deadlocks"), query delays, and broken or not enough database connections, etc.... And with multiple systems for forums, you probably want the database running alone on ITS own system.

BTW people writing software that don't consider the database can make even minor changes that can bring a database to its knees. Sometimes that won't be noticed until you hit a certain limit in a certain area.

Steve

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Paul Myers 11 years ago

I think it's way more about optimizing the setup than anything else. Have these tweaks been made by your hosting company (which one do you use btw) or some external dudes?

Allen has someone who handles this stuff for him. Most hosting companies won't do it at all, and the ones who will usually require specific instructions on what you want changed.

Keep those instructions if you go that route. It's not unusual for an update from a host to reset configurations to their defaults.

I recommend looking through the vBulletin forums for someone with experience at this. And, if possible, do a fallback to 3.8.x.

Paul
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Ken Strong 11 years ago

Originally Posted by Paul Myers

Without getting into a lot of details...

Multiple chunks of Big Iron are needed to run this puppy

We want details -- how many hamsters, and how many wheels?
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- WillR 11 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by Ken Strong
  
  We want details -- how many hamsters, and how many wheels?
  
  and what cheese are they fed?
  
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- Paul Myers 11 years ago
  
  Ken,
  
  We want details -- how many hamsters, and how many wheels?
  
  42.
  
  Paul
  
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George Wright

11 years ago

Now you guys are just trying to be funny.

The truth is, for those who want to get serious for a while, my Droid Rezound is the only server used for the Warrior Forum. I forgot to charge it a week ago and the whole forum was down for a few minutes until I plugged it in.

You all better hope I pay my Verizon bill.

George Wright

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How many servers does WF need? Couple more quetions inside

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