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Thread: VBulletin and Dedi server?
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01-14-2014, 06:31 PM #1New Member
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VBulletin and Dedi server?
Hi all,
I've been sitting on a Hostgator (HG)dedi "elite" server for several years and am still having problems when I get 300+ users in my forum. The forum will start to run very slow, time out and then crash. HG's answer to this?
PHP script websites like vbulletin aren't typically meant for traffic like that.
I can't afford a bigger server and don't know what to do. Optimize my server? My VB is already optimized.
Any and all help would be appreciated.
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01-14-2014, 06:46 PM #2Junior Guru Wannabe
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Configure vBulletin with APC. (Refer to config.php file of vBulletin).
Replace MySQL with MariaDB. (I've done this and noticed a nice improvement.)
Configure PHP to handle more connections.
Cloudflare can minimize your HTML, JavaScript and CSS and caches your images.
Fine tine your settings, what time-out error are you receiving? What crashes?
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01-14-2014, 07:23 PM #3Radiant Troll
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Which version of Vb is it? If it's Vb4 or 5, it's time to ditch Vbulletin.
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It doesn't matter how much you claim how important your data is. If it's not backed up, it's not important.
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01-14-2014, 07:37 PM #4Web Hosting Master
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You could get a much better server for your money at another provider.
An Intel Xeon E3 would contain the same amount of cores and threads as your current, and an E3 are much faster than the 2.5GHz yours currently offers, this will increase speed. Also, having SSD rather than HDD would probably be beneficial also. A CDN will help, it will deliver images, taking the load off the server, so using CloudFlare would be a good option as well.
Oh, and my final suggestion, use LiteSpeed rather than Apache.
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01-14-2014, 07:44 PM #5New Member
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Thank you all for the input! I don't understand most of it, though I'm "server stupid".
The version is VB 4.2.2.
It appears I'm on Linux with PHP Version 5.3.21
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01-14-2014, 07:49 PM #6Web Hosting Master
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For $279 a month, you could find a significantly more powerful server. You might want to look at migrating to someone who will offer you something with SSDs, more RAM, and a newer processor.
Did HostGator migrate you to their EIG location? Edit: Can you ask HostGator what the cause of your problems are (CPU, RAM, HDD)?SiFuQi.net - Affordable Dedicated Servers in Los Angeles, California
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01-14-2014, 08:20 PM #7Web Hosting Evangelist
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Agreed.
Are you a comfortable sysadmin or do you need someone to do that kind of stuff for you? It may be time to start reaching out to a managed host that has a server in your price range, and ask them for migration assistance. WHT runs vBulletin, and it obviously has significantly more than 300+ users on at one time!█ GenesisAdaptive.com · IP Transit and Connectivity, Colocation, & Enterprise IT Services
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01-14-2014, 08:40 PM #8Web Hosting Master
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HI,
"Cloudflare can minimize your HTML, JavaScript and CSS and caches your images.
Just clarifying that we cache more than just images (would also include things like CSS, JavaScript, etc.).CloudFlare Community Evangelist
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01-14-2014, 08:47 PM #9Web Hosting Master
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Is that 300+ logged in forum members or 300+ online users? If it's logged in members, how many online users do you have?
Do you have any mods installed? You could try disabling them all to see if that sorts out the issue. If it does then you could disable them individually until you narrow it down to the problematic mod.
Offloading static files to a CDN could help as well. Or you might install Nginx on your server & serve the static files from that.
Another way to increase speed is to use a php accelerator / caching....john2k...
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01-14-2014, 09:27 PM #10
What are the specs of your current server and what are you paying? Ultimately this sounds more like a configuration issue on the server and any competent tech should be able to diagnose the issue. I would suggest that when you do get near 300 visitors on the forum raise a ticket with them so they can check it at that specific time and see whats happening. Thats really the best way to figure out what is causing the site/server to crash.
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01-14-2014, 09:29 PM #11The Linux Specialist
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I would recommend in getting litespeed first and configure it with XCache.
You will see the difference.
Specially 4 U
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01-15-2014, 02:51 AM #12WHT Addict
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How big is your database?
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01-15-2014, 07:11 AM #13Cable Director
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You say you've been sitting with them for several years.
Maybe it's time to change / upgrade hardware? Just a thought.
Off course it would be useful to first find the exact bottleneck and get new hardware based on that.» www.InstantDedicated.com - Online in no time
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01-15-2014, 12:59 PM #14New Member
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For $279 a month, you could find a significantly more powerful server.
Did HostGator migrate you to their EIG location? Edit: Can you ask HostGator what the cause of your problems are (CPU, RAM, HDD)?
"PHP script websites like vbulletin aren't typically meant for traffic like that."
Are you a comfortable sysadmin or do you need someone to do that kind of stuff for you?
Is that 300+ logged in forum members or 300+ online users? If it's logged in members, how many online users do you have?
Do you have any mods installed? You could try disabling them all to see if that sorts out the issue. If it does then you could disable them individually until you narrow it down to the problematic mod.
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Offloading static files to a CDN could help as well. Or you might install Nginx on your server & serve the static files from that. Another way to increase speed is to use a php accelerator / caching.
What are the specs of your current server and what are you paying?
Ultimately this sounds more like a configuration issue on the server and any competent tech should be able to diagnose the issue. I would suggest that when you do get near 300 visitors on the forum raise a ticket with them so they can check it at that specific time and see whats happening. Thats really the best way to figure out what is causing the site/server to crash.
How big is your database?
Maybe it's time to change / upgrade hardware?
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01-15-2014, 01:20 PM #15Web Hosting Master
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For $150, you can definitely get an E3-1230 with 16 - 32 GB of RAM and some small SSDs (one, maybe two). The problem is, you *realistically* won't be able to get a managed server with cPanel at this price. I think you're going to have to use two companies to do this. Get your server from one with cPanel and get management from someone cheap. A few places will manage a cPanel server for $30 a month. This isn't the greatest fix, but it definitely works for a lot of people.
The server itself should give you a considerable boost in performance, so you'll probably get to 300, but you're going to need optimizations based on your specific needs.Last edited by Steven F; 01-15-2014 at 01:22 PM. Reason: a word
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01-15-2014, 07:38 PM #16Junior Guru Wannabe
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I agree with previouos opinions: for 150 usd per month you cand find much better dedicated server (AND BETTER SUPPORT) than yours current.
Also solution like " Configure PHP to handle more connections" sounds logical. Some time ago I had a problem like your, with worpdress. At that time I just bought my first dedicated server, it was quite powerful, but my site with 1500 users per day was very slow.
And support configured PHP to handle more connections. After that I've got speedy WP-site instead of slow one
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01-16-2014, 03:25 PM #17New Member
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I agree, also, you can buy an un-managed dedicated server with Linux CentOS and buy and ask a cPanel provider (buycpanel dot com for example) to install it for free in your server, then you can manage it from the control panel, is not really different from HostGator IMHO.
Also write here the currently server specs from host gator (CPU, Ram, etc..) and remember to take a full backup of your forum data (FILES + DATABASE) before switch to another server.Last edited by k0le; 01-16-2014 at 03:32 PM.
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01-16-2014, 04:38 PM #18Junior Guru Wannabe
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Yep, making backup before migration to other server - first rule of any webmaster. Any problems? You can open your backup and fix situation.
Without backup you can lost all your sites at moment.
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01-16-2014, 04:43 PM #19
For $280/month you can get a much better server, with a faster processor, SSD drives, and just better overall server specs then what I can only imagine the older hardware you are running on now.
My suggestion would be either to ask HostGator to upgrade you to a newer server for free, and if they dont move to a provider that can offer a much better server and manage it for you. My guess is that with most providers you will see that you are still far under the $280 you are spending now.
That or go with an unmanaged server and get someone to manage it for you, however I tend to not recommend this as the third party management company will never have as much control over the server as the actual provider will. Best of luck with your search!█ SolaDrive - Enterprise Managed Server Solutions
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01-16-2014, 11:40 PM #20Web Hosting Master
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Essentially what it would do for your current situation is offload that work from your server. That way your server resources can be focused on doing other things faster.
I'm really starting to wonder if maybe your HDD simply is no longer up to the task. I run a vB almost as busy as yours (along with 4 other vB forums on the same server) and have found that putting MySQL on its own hard drive can help a lot. Offloading static images to a CDN as well. More RAM might be helpful as well.
Also... you mention that you've been running from your current server for a few years.... When was the last time your server was rebooted? Before you go doing that I would suggest you have a recent full backup downloaded or stored off server....john2k...
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01-17-2014, 10:55 AM #21Web Hosting Evangelist
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Yea, the first step I would take, is changing hosting company.
In the mean time, I would see if an opcode cache is enabled in php, VBulletin recommend Xcache, which I run on my server and it lowers load quite significantly and speeds the site up.
If you need a hand at all, I'll help you out, (for free!) I've run Vbulletin forums since 2002ish.
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01-18-2014, 01:49 PM #22Web Hosting Guru
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move to another provider(highly recommended). then you will have better service, cpu, ram, disk etc.
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01-19-2014, 08:19 AM #23Junior Guru Wannabe
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I also have a pretty big vBulletin forum and recently upgraded my server with an SSD, since then everything loads like 3x faster.
I'd recommend you to move to a new company. You can get a much better server for a lot less than what you're paying. If you ask me, I recommend Limestonenetworks, simply because I've been with them for over 4 years and they have been amazing ever since.
Also, if you will only host that one forum in the server, I don't really see the point of paying for cPanel. I myself am using a dedicated server with Webmin, apache, mysql and csf firewall on it. Webmin it's extremely easy to use and it has everything you need. I don't consider myself a linux pro, but installing the basic things to run your website and securing the server is no hard task at all.
Would be nice to know how large it's your database and the filesystem. Are you storing attachments in the database or fs?
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