We are looking to move a very active forum to a different platform. It is currently running phpBB3 and has several hundred active users and even though we have a dedicated server it moves pretty slowly. We are considering trying a move to the SMF platform to see if that improves performance any.

Thoughts? We considered vBulletin, but it is somewhat cost prohibitive for our purposes... but is an option down the line if SMF doesn't work out for us.

Database is under 1GB

Chances are your MySQL is slowing things down - how much ram is in the server?

With that many active users changing forum software isn't likely to make much of a difference as far as performance since MySQL is probably choking out/slowing down.

My advice would be to run a server with 2+ GB RAM (4gb recommended) and then to highly optimize MySQL to use more RAM for caches instead of making it read the DB files every query and key lookups etc...

Optimizing MySQL for a busy forum can make a night-and-day type of difference if you know what you are doing.

SMF is definitely the better CMS in my opinion - I've used it for a very long time years ago before moving onto vBulletin. but vBulletin is a hell of a lot better than SMF - I still use it after so many years and it feels great.

So upgrading from phpbb3 to SMF would be good (opinion), although vBulletin is even better - if the forum is worth keeping, you should consider investing the money - the license doesn't cost that much if you go with the owned license (we've been using it for a few years now and the overall monthly cost is pretty low than if we bought a yearly license)

vBulletin is going to be better than both SMF and phpBB3 (it is after all, pay ware).

MikeDVB is correct though. With that many active users, it's MySQL that's causing the bottle neck. You could attempt to optimise MySQL (if it's a managed server, ask your provider). Here ("http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/optimization.html) is the page for optimisation on the MySQL website.

What are the specs of your server? It might be worth upgrading them or using two different servers for your MySQL and Web/Mail services.

Duron 1300
512MB RAM

It's just hard to justify upgrading.. The site really really well until about a month ago, then it started to drag.. we think it's probably all the hackery and modification done to the forum software.

It's an unmanaged server and that link made my head spin a bit.

Wow, that's old. Get a Atom with 2GB of RAM from HoneLive(http://honelive.com). Your speed will improve a great bit

The best forum cms is PHPBB2. Most mods, easy edit..

phpbb3 is far better than SMF>.. Try optimizing your DB

@ caesar1cz

phpbb2 has gaping security holes that will not be fixed since the software is no longer actively supported.

OP:

Have you considered implementing advertising (like Google AdSense) in to your forum? This would be a good way to raise the money to purchase a vBulletin license (and maybe a little left over!).

vBulletin really is worth the money and is far more powerful and customizable than the free options. Installing themes and modifications with vBulletin is also much easier and straight forward (especially modifications).

You also receive excellent, concise support directly from vBulletin instead of relying on other users of the software or coders/"official" support people for the free options who may only be around every so-often and might not be able to give you the assistance you need.

In short - you get what you pay for. The owned license for vBulletin isn't *terribly* expensive. Maybe you could even start a fund-raising drive with your current members, I did something similar to this a couple of years back and had the necessary money in a little over a week. If your users are really in for the advancement of the board then they probably won't mind coming up with $10 or $15 (even $5) to help support.

well there was already a donation drive for the server and that atom server is about double what's paid now... but I agree, there's a good chance that is what's causing it.

Duron 1300
512MB RAM

It's just hard to justify upgrading.. The site really really well until about a month ago, then it started to drag.. we think it's probably all the hackery and modification done to the forum software.

It's an unmanaged server and that link made my head spin a bit.

Remove the modifications that you don't need or have little benefit on your community, or outsource them to another server. They will be causing massive problems for the server load as a lot of them aren't coded to the same standard as the forum software and often are very inefficient.

However, I would say that upgrading your server would be a very good idea. 512mb of RAM is practically nothing for a web server and the CPU is quite old and not very fast. If you want your community to thrive, I would suggest you upgrade your server. In fact, you can get VPSes with better specifications than that now.

Am I correct in assuming that you have 100-200 concurrent connections (as in people online at once) or 100-200 active users over the entire day?

Total posts 411043 | Total topics 21870 | Total members 2870 |

In total there are 30 users online :: 24 registered, 0 hidden and 6 guests (based on users active over the past 5 minutes)
Most users ever online was 136 on Thu Dec 18, 2008 11:33 pm

512MB Ram is *WAY* too small for a forum of your size especially if you don't want MySQL to drag in my experiences.

Upgrade to 1gb+ (preferrably 2gb+) and you should be good to go for a while.

It's just hard to justify upgrading.. The site really really well until about a month ago, then it started to drag.. we think it's probably all the hackery and modification done to the forum software.

Cutting a long story short, if your local team is trying to modify the forum software code that handles database operations, then that is where you have to look at. Database code written by inexperienced programmers will look great with 100,200 or 300 records and the like. When the data size increases, code that was working may not work.

So I would strongly suggest looking into this issue. Else, you are unnecessarily troubling the hardware, networking and other IT gurus.

Do not change hw, networking stuff without analyzing this. Not to undermine anyone, but someone suggested atom above. I am telling if an atom can do your stuff, a 386, if not 8088 or 8086 can do your job. I bet it.

We are considering the move because of all of the modification to the forum code. It's not easily removed and some of the features that it was hacked to run are native in SMF

take a dedicated server for three months. port your entire site there and test it parallelly. Make it a beta test. If it is a database programming issue (meaning scaleability issue) improving hardware is only a short term step. that hw will also outgrow the poor coding of the system, and you will come back to square one.

smf has and easier admin panel to use in my opinion....

Before making a switch, try optimizing and repairing the database. The software should not make much of a difference on speed.

I do however prefer SMF over PHPBB. There are a lot of great mods for SMF and it is easier to work with as far as installing mods, templates, upgrades, and other customization.

Well I'm finishing up trying to clone the existing template from phpBB3 to SMF on a separate install. We're going to install it on the server this weekend and convert the database it seems and let a few of the regular users help us find problems

Hope all goes well. pl post back your observations even if it is in a nutshell form.

conversion taking forever.. half a million posts, lol

phpbb3 > smf any day.

conversion taking forever.. half a million posts, lol


Generally the larger the board, The longer the conversion will take. ;)

I know you dont want to godown the Vb ruote, but please re think.. for the cost of a vb license you will have much more stability, much more reliability and above all it looks 10x more professional that any other forum software on the market.

You will also gain access top 1000s of modifications hacks and mods that are pre approved.

If your forum is generateing revenue and there is a lot of users dont waste another day and get vb loaded asap.

Thanks
Martyn

I know you dont want to godown the Vb ruote, but please re think.. for the cost of a vb license you will have much more stability, much more reliability and above all it looks 10x more professional that any other forum software on the market.
For a Free Forum - MyBB is quite a beauty in herself. I used it back in the day before upgrading to vBulletin and I had no issues with it what-so-ever!

That is my personal preference, I suppose vBulletin seems mroe a delight but paid versions are not always as great as they appear.

In the forum spectrum, I always reccomend a paid forum software solution. vBulletin and Invision Power Board a leaps and bounds better than it's open source counter parts.

I have been running a forum on Invision Power Board since the 1.0.0 versions, I recommend it 100%. So far we are a few hundred away from 50,000 members, so it must be running well.

In the forum spectrum, I always reccomend a paid forum software solution. vBulletin and Invision Power Board a leaps and bounds better than it's open source counter parts.

I have been running a forum on Invision Power Board since the 1.0.0 versions, I recommend it 100%. So far we are a few hundred away from 50,000 members, so it must be running well.


I totally understand and to a point agree, Though look how easily they are nulled and are widespread, Every bit of software is prone to it's own flaws so I do not see how paid ones are better over free alternatives like phpBB and MyBB.

Paid versions of vBulletin and IPB seem to have more going for them but lets not forget that FREE boards are just as great. ;)

I totally understand and to a point agree, Though look how easily they are nulled and are widespread, Every bit of software is prone to it's own flaws so I do not see how paid ones are better over free alternatives like phpBB and MyBB.

Paid versions of vBulletin and IPB seem to have more going for them but lets not forget that FREE boards are just as great. ;)

Now wait a minute, just because paid stuff gets nulled for pirates, doesn't mean its horrible. Don't forget MyBB was using vBulletin's code for a bit and had to change it ;) phpBB is ok for startup but when you get big, a paid solution will be the answer.

How many times does this get asked?

Free: SMF > MyBB > phpBB

Commercial: vBulletin > IPB

Now wait a minute, just because paid stuff gets nulled for pirates,.
I suppose that is why I use it?
I have used phpBB 3, MyBB, vBulletin and IPB and they have all been great. I am not knocking a paid version at all but free alternatives are just as good as the paid versions if you cannot afford them.

I don't agree with you, ATH-Sean, there a very large difference between phpBB and vBulletin ! A very large one so i will not go to say that paid are as good as free forums ;)

I don't agree with you, ATH-Sean, there a very large difference between phpBB and vBulletin ! A very large one so i will not go to say that paid are as good as free forums ;)


You can surely disagree with me, I am not fussed by it.. I am speaking from my own opinion and all I am saying and from my testing I find both Free and Paid to be as good as each other.

Merely in the Paid version, I do not need everything that is being offered in the package..

I thinks phpbb3 is fully supported and its comes with the version php5.

I would say stick to phpbb3 and change your dedicated server as it may be the main reason for slow speed.

I like MyBB, its clean and fast. I like the look of AEF just not played around with it much. FUDForum also looks intresting.

Your favourite Forum is usually like your favourite music, not everyone will agree, but really its about what you like :)

well SMF is running and the flood gates have been opened. Re editing usergroups and board permissions one by one sucks.

SMF is great little biased though. It is very easy to customize I have found. It is easy to base entire sites off of SMF using it's core.

Use a difference web-server, for example lighttpd or nginx, use PHP as Fast-CGI with an opcode optimizer, for example x-cache.

phpBB 3.0.6 will support x-cache so expect a big difference with these steps.

Seems to be weathering the storm of excited users without any falter. Finding some minor issues as we go along, but nothing too big.

smf has and easier admin panel to use in my opinion....

True
I don't agree with you, ATH-Sean, there a very large difference between phpBB and vBulletin ! A very large one so i will not go to say that paid are as good as free forums ;)

Agreed. VB is easier than phpbb3..)

Agreed. VB is easier than phpbb3..)
In some respects I would disagree. If someone is moving from phpBB3 (example) to vBulletin who has never had any education with the prgram would find it quite difficult (vice-versa).

Just my points!

PHPBB I am using it since 2006 - I have good relation with the support team. and The software itself is Great.

The biggest Forum in the world use PHPBB.

About SMF I see all the Free hosting companies and young guys (under 16) going for it ? Maybe it's easy to install and configure.

I can't imagine myself using VB or SMF someday.

I'm one of really impressed persons of VBulletin forum, it allows many plug-ins and make your forum very professional looking.

I totally understand and to a point agree, Though look how easily they are nulled and are widespread, Every bit of software is prone to it's own flaws so I do not see how paid ones are better over free alternatives like phpBB and MyBB.

Paid versions of vBulletin and IPB seem to have more going for them but lets not forget that FREE boards are just as great. ;)

Paid software has more options, vB and IPB have a lot more features in comparison to any free boards. I have used phpBB, MyBB, SMF and SimpleBoards on the free side, and have found them to lack a lot of the features I am used to using when it comes to running a forum.

I would, without a doubt spend the extra money for a paid solution after running my forum, we went from IPB v1, which was free when we started, and switched to phpBB, once we grew over 1,000 members, phpBB just sucked. So we invested in IPB, and noticed the features they offer are far more robust.

Paid software has more options, vB and IPB have a lot more features in comparison to any free boards. I have used phpBB, MyBB, SMF and SimpleBoards on the free side, and have found them to lack a lot of the features I am used to using when it comes to running a forum.

I would, without a doubt spend the extra money for a paid solution after running my forum, we went from IPB v1, which was free when we started, and switched to phpBB, once we grew over 1,000 members, phpBB just sucked. So we invested in IPB, and noticed the features they offer are far more robust.
:) Only stating my thoughts and opinions of Free and Paid Versions. Nothing too much meant by it. I am saying aswell that even in the paid versions I do not tend to use many of their options!

-Sean

It's working great for us so far.. people just complaining about the theme colors and whatnot so far.. it's a light text on dark background theme so...

Vbulletin is the best paid forum software, but if you need a free forum software I would recommend Phpbb.

What is the website for your forum?

http://www.sixthsphere.com

Page created in 0.428 seconds with 12 queries.

Index on phpbb3 was taking much, much longer to load.. so far I'm impressed.

Some users unhappy with change, but they will adjust once we have the template modified.

Glad to hear it's working for you. I just got this: Better yet, "Page created in 0.297 seconds with 11 queries." on your forum.

I have several SMF forums and they're pretty good. I actually prefer MyBB but they can't seem to get their SMF - MyBB converter to work properly so I'm sticking with SMF.:rolleyes:

I would recommend phpbb3 as most of the plugins/modules are easily available and free to use. The administration panel is user friendly.

It's been a couple months almost and it's been great. We made some significant modification to cater to the users and everything has worked out so far.