Slow VPS

_Ziggy_ · October 15, 2009, 04:03:55 PM

For a couple of weeks two of my forums are running on a VPS system.
The VPS has Xen, Hypervm and Interworx CP4.0 on board.

I am far from satisfied with the speed of the forums. What can I do to speed them up?
Here is my status.php: http://www.bluesforum.nl/status.php
The performance of the forums was really great on shared hosting, but after moving them to the VPS they slowed down.

I have checked the checklists for performance but I don't think it is right to make adjustments to the forums. They did well with the current settings on shared hosting so I think I have to do something with the VPS.

I am new to VPS so all tips are welcome.

H · October 15, 2009, 04:10:01 PM

You forum loaded within a reasonable speed for me.

What mods do you have installed?
Are reverse lookups enabled? (Admin area > Features and Options) If your VPS is taking a long while to do DNS lookups then the whole page will load slowly.

Have you looked at optimising tuning MySQL and Apache? You can find various guides for doing this

_Ziggy_ · October 15, 2009, 04:30:47 PM

On www.bluesforum.nl/smf I have installed Aeva and the modification to "irritate the lurkers with 0 posts".
Some of the ads are from OpenX (which is a disaster for the past few days), the rest directly from Google Adsense.

On www.bluesforum.com I have installed the Ad Management mod.

Reverse lookups are enabled, I will switch that off.

I haven't looked at MySQL and Apache. I will do that.

Something like that · October 16, 2009, 12:11:46 AM

You haven't tuned MySQL.

Set key_buffer_size = 64M in /etc/my.cnf and restart MySQL.

H · October 16, 2009, 01:28:53 PM

Aeva has been known to have some performance issues. You might also want to hardcode ads in index.template.php rather than using the ad management mod. It should save some queries

Joshua Dickerson · October 16, 2009, 01:53:00 PM

Install APC and enable variable caching.

_Ziggy_ · October 16, 2009, 01:55:33 PM

Quote from: Mark Rose on October 16, 2009, 12:11:46 AM
You haven't tuned MySQL.

Set key_buffer_size = 64M in /etc/my.cnf and restart MySQL.

I have added this to my.cnf and this has increased the performance.

On Bluesforum.com I will not reinstall ad management mod after the upgrade to RC2.
On Bluesforum.nl/smf I don't use ad management mod.

_Ziggy_ · October 16, 2009, 01:57:09 PM

Quote from: groundup on October 16, 2009, 01:53:00 PM
Install APC and enable variable caching.

I have been reading about that, but it is not clear to me how I can install APC.

Joshua Dickerson · October 16, 2009, 02:02:52 PM

Make sure you read the stickies in this board.

Do a search for "install APC" on this site. You should use a package if you can. It is easier.

_Ziggy_ · October 18, 2009, 01:41:25 PM

I have installed apc, but now my forums stopped running!!!

I have no idea what to do now.

http://www.bluesforum.nl/phpinfo.php
http://www.bluesforum.nl/status.php

_Ziggy_ · October 18, 2009, 02:06:52 PM

Quote from: Ziggy on October 18, 2009, 01:41:25 PM
I have installed apc, but now my forums stopped running!!!

I have no idea what to do now.

http://www.bluesforum.nl/phpinfo.php
http://www.bluesforum.nl/status.php

I solved this problem myself. I think I am getting better at this

I have apc installed now, I don't know if the configuration is ok?

Joshua Dickerson · October 18, 2009, 02:48:36 PM

Did you enable caching in SMF?

_Ziggy_ · October 18, 2009, 02:58:09 PM

Yes, I did. It is on level 1.

The server is a little bit faster, but it is not what I expected from reading in the topics here.

Joshua Dickerson · October 18, 2009, 03:02:13 PM

It's more about it's ability to handle load than speed. It will make it slightly faster but significantly more scalable.

_Ziggy_ · October 18, 2009, 03:21:44 PM

Quote from: groundup on October 18, 2009, 03:02:13 PM
...significantly more scalable.

I do not understand what you mean by "more scalable"?

Joshua Dickerson · October 18, 2009, 03:32:26 PM

Able to handle more users simultaneously.

_Ziggy_ · October 18, 2009, 04:28:28 PM

Ok, thank you.

I want to move this forum: http://www.forum.bluesharp.nl/ to my VPS as well.
Do you expect any problems with the server after moving it to the VPS?

Aleksi "Lex" Kilpinen · October 20, 2009, 07:59:25 AM

Hi Ziggy, Any updates on this?

_Ziggy_ · October 20, 2009, 09:24:58 AM

The VPS is doing well, but I am still looking for ways to improve it. I don't know if there are more ways to improve the server?

I would like to know if I have enough CPU to add www.bluesharp.nl to the VPS as well, because extra CPU costs twice the price of the shared hosting.

Joshua Dickerson · October 20, 2009, 10:12:17 AM

Your loads are low and that other forum seems to be slow. I'd say you can easily put that on your VPS.

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