INGO Site Performance

[Lars]

As some of you know INGunowners.com moved hosts last year sometime around October from A Small Orange, onto it's current host 1&1. We had a little over 1000 members registered at that time.

In the last 4 months we have more than doubled in size. Which is awesome growth for a web forum like this. However it came at a cost. A few times over the Christmas/New Years holiday the server fell on it's face. Also as the forum has continued to grow performance has suffered as searching the database for "New Posts" when there are over 200,000 post is obviously more difficult than when there are only 50,000 posts.

Over the last week I've broken out the big stick, and have spent some time tuning server parameters on the 1&1 server. Some of the tuning has lowered our bandwidth usage which hopefully means we can stay on this plan longer before having to upgrade to a higher level plan at 1&1. The rest of the tuning I've been working on should have improved performance some.

I don't think I'm done tweaking the server, but it's at a point I feel comfortable saying we've done something.

If you're at all curious what I've done. You can go

Here: Part 1: Tuning a 1&1 VPS to improve a vBulletin board. | W9ZEB Dot Org
and
Here: Part 2: Tuning a 1&1 VPS to improve a vBulletin board. | W9ZEB Dot Org
and
Here: Part 3: Tuning a 1&1 VPS to improve a vBulletin board. | W9ZEB Dot Org

To read in a bit more detail what chances have been made. With luck you've noticed the difference (primarily in how quickly the "new posts" link renders) I can't do anything to improve the speed at which off site images are served. However anything located on the INGO 1&1 server I can likely improve the performance of.

Enjoy.

 

[42769vette]

its good that we are growing so quick. i remember the christmas crashes but that was pre ingo addiction so it really was no big deal it would drive me nuts now. thanks for all the hard work w9zeb

 

[HICKMAN]

apache and mysql I assume?

Is the server running dedicated or sharing a box with others?

 

[Scutter01]

apache and mysql I assume?

Is the server running dedicated or sharing a box with others?

It's a Virtual Private Server, meaning it's running as its own isolated server, but virtualized on hardware with other servers.

 

[Lars]

apache and mysql I assume?

Is the server running dedicated or sharing a box with others?

It's a VPS currently, Apache 2.2, MySQL 5.0.x.
the VPS is quite a bit better than traditional "shared hosting" but not as good as a full dedicated server. We're not big enough for that yet.

 

[JByer323]

Oh look, computer tech geek people are making up words again!

Anything that makes this site run smoother/faster/better is alright with me, and I appreciate you guys all putting the effort into it. Even if you do make up words.

 

[Scutter01]

Oh look, computer tech geek people are making up words again!

The geeks shall inherit the Earth.

It's our payment for getting stuffed into lockers as kids.

 

[Lars]

The geeks shall inherit the Earth.

It's our payment for getting stuffed into lockers as kids.

+1

 

[indyjoe]

I haven't messed with vBulletin so I don't know how dynamic the CSS is, but over half the page bandwidth is CSS. If you can offload this to a static CSS file, you will reduce quite a bit of bandwidth. Obviously, reducing bandwidth doesn't really affect much if you are DB limited, but it will definitely help browsing speed on mobile devices.

 

[Lars]

I haven't messed with vBulletin so I don't know how dynamic the CSS is, but over half the page bandwidth is CSS. If you can offload this to a static CSS file, you will reduce quite a bit of bandwidth. Obviously, reducing bandwidth doesn't really affect much if you are DB limited, but it will definitely help browsing speed on mobile devices.

as it it, the .css file has an "Expires Header" attached to it. Also Apache is gzipping the file before sending it.

The only things hosted on the INGO vps that aren't getting expires headers, and gzipping are a few of the java scripts. and it's because of some extension strangeness. I'm still working on those.

If we were on nginx rather than apache we would already be done with everything but in depth MySQL server and Query tweaking.

 

[HICKMAN]

yeah, we're moving all of our stuff to ESX, virtualization rules

 

[Bill of Rights]

I don't pretend to understand even 10% of that. Regardless, thanks for all you're doing, Lars. It sounds like a hell of a job and that you're doing a hell of a job doing it.

Bill

 

[4sarge]

I hate to post this because of Murphy's law but Kudos to the Server Gods

 

[Bigum1969]

Sounds like a foreign language to me, but you have my sincere thanks for all the work it takes to keep INGO humming along.

 

[esrice]

A big +1 for Lars too for not charging his usual "billable hours".

 

[koenig clone]

i just wanted to tell you guys you are doing a great job. I love the site. I check in about every time i log on to my computer now. I have turned several people on the site also. keep it up. not tryin to kiss butt, just being honest.

 

[Lars]

A big +1 for Lars too for not charging his usual "billable hours".

I wish I was....... I'm going to be a dad soon..... Kids are expensive.

 

[HICKMAN]

I wish I was....... I'm going to be a dad soon..... Kids are expensive.

HAHAHA.... you don't even know...

Nothing more fun than being a parent though

 

[Goodcat]

Personally I've had nothing but trouble using 1 & 1. But that's just me. Make sure you are setting up outside analytics to verify their numbers if they are taking the site down or charging for overages. 1&1 has a nasty habit of inflating uniqe's and page hits