I have have gotten this message sent to me 2 to 3 times per week over the last 3 weeks. I am running a Raq 3 now.

Over the past fifteen minutes, the CPU has been heavily loaded.

This will result in noticible performace loss. Consider moving some of
the
services to other Cobalt servers, or reduce the complexity of the CGI
scripts running on the Cobalt server itself.

1 minute load average: 2.17
5 minute load average: 20.93
15 minute load average: 20.11


At what point should I consider moving to a more powerful server? Or are there other options to consider?

In my opinion, if this is just one site then you should consider a "real" server. But if this is the result of lots of sites i should just take a other raq3 and spread the load.

I put about 125 sites on 1 raq, and then start filling the next.

RaQ3 with how much ram running what type of site(s)..

Originally posted by Chicken
RaQ3 with how much ram running what type of site(s)..

The Raq only has 128mb of ram and only has 3 websites on it. However, only one site is heavily used witch runs a vbulletin message board which is extremly active.

I am not a techy, but will adding more ram make that big of a difference on the load that is put on the cpu?

Yes it would with a forum like vBulletin, and if the forum is busy, you should be running 512 in that machine, and once it hits the top, *then* it will be time to move the site (Max ram you can have in a RaQ is 512 - not one of the better points about the machines). Depending on how busy it is, that time may have already come, but 128 isn't really enough to determine that.

definately upgrade to 512mb ram. while, a faster cpu wouldn't hurt, i think more ram would definately help with using vbulliten.

maybe you could try tweaking mysql, php, and apache after upgrading your RAM but before you move to a raq4?

i have 1 site on a raq4i with 512mb ram. it's completely dynamic using php + mysql. i cut my 15 minute average during peak hours by almost half just by tweaking a base mysql pkg from cobalt...


this thread might help as well. look at the last post on the first page. it involves someone with a raq3 + vbulliten + 512mb ram

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=20454&highlight=tweak+mysql

let us(well me really) know what happens. i'd personlly like to know what happens if you tweak up the mysql, and if that helps...