Forum slows down

[ZeroShiki]

Hi!

I'm sorta new to this thing and I'm only helping some friends out.

We've got a small private board with around  50 members. The thing is, at certain times of the day, we all get together and comment on a certain event as its happening. So, you have 30 something people repeatedly hitting refresh and posting comments. It slows the site down significantly.

My question is whether SMF has anything to do with the slowdown or is it mostly a host thing?

Thanks in advance!

[[Unknown]]

It's probably a host thing.  Upload the attached file to your site and give us a link, and we can tell you more.

-[Unknown]

[ZeroShiki]

Whoops. Someone from my board posted here.

She uploaded the status.php

hxxp:www.whiteyouhuckleberry.com/status.php [nonactive]

[CallieK]

The host is Phenominet.

[[Unknown]]

Load averages are good, cpu is fine... memory usage is atrocius.  MySQL is very much not configured properly.  You're also on MySQL 3.23.x!

MySQL 3.23.x is very old - from 2003.  Since most people even reasonably concerned about speed use MySQL 4.0 or 4.1 (both stable, both newer than what you have), SMF has been of course optimized for 4.0.

While your forum still should be able to handle 50 users, there are some things that just won't work as well in 3.23.x, and this is unavoidable.  I strongly suggest you ask your host to: (it's okay if you don't know what an "RPM" is, they should.)

• Upgrade MySQL to a release MySQL AB considers stable, such as 4.0.  On Redhat, it's as easy as installing an RPM.
  
• Optimize MySQL's settings.  The box clearly doesn't have enough memory, but a table_cache of 128 would help a lot and use little ram.
  
• Check to see what is using up all of the ram - swap usage shouldn't be at 50%, usually.
  
• Install an accelerator/bytecode cacher, such as Turck MMCache, eAccelerator, Zend Optimizer, or ZPS.  There are RPMs for these too.
  
  If it seems slow after this, or they are not willing to make any changes to your server, please take a look at the status.php page when the site seems slow, and post here what it says.
  
  By the by, you need to upgrade .
  
  -[Unknown]

[ZeroShiki]

Thanks!

We'll try that and see if it'll help.

[CallieK]

I try to upgrade, and when I do, it gives me a list of sucessful installed actions, then it says, "Some of the files this package needs to modify are not writable. This needs to be changed by logging into FTP and chmoding the files." and asks me for my FTP info. AFAIK everything is chmoded properly. I filled out the info and hit proceed, and it just brings me to the same page.

[CallieK]

This is what the host had to say:

Those are all excellent suggestions if you were a dedicated (or even
semi-dedicated) account.  Since you are a shared account, they don't
really apply.  One of the primary features of shared accounts is that
all
users get the same software, so we can't be upgrading to special
versions
just for one person.  Also, monopolizing a large section of memory for
one
person table cache wouldn't be fair to the remaining customers.  I can
enable eAccelerator though, as we have this installed.  The swap issue
sounds bad (to people who understand it) but actually it is almost all
used by software that is installed for customers but they aren't using
it. 
In this case, it is efficient to swap it out.  It is more obvious that
the
swap is being used efficiently when you realize that cache and buffers
are
taking up more memory is swapped out, but like I said, the swapped out
memory is stuff that should be on disk rather than real ram anyway.

If eAccelerator isn't speeding things up enough and you'd like to
discuss
other options (which may cost money) just let us know. Thanks!

Could someone translate? I think he's saying all they'll do is the eaccelerator?

[Ben_S]

Given that most sites these days make use of MySQL a shared hosting box should have it's MySQL config tweaked to give MySQL a good bit of memory.

Using MySQL 3.x is not a good idea since it is old, effectivly EOL and the MySQL people themselves recommend the use of 4.0.x.

Frankly, if I were you, I'd move hosts, the P3 1GHz was a great processor a few years back, unfortunatly time has moved on. 50 Members is nothing, but that server should handle it easy but clearly it's not. 1GB of swap usage is never good and that box has 4GB of ram so something is swallowing it up.

SMF is optimized for MySQL 4, it will run much better on a server with MySQL 4, ask them if theres any reason that they are using MySQL 3?

[CallieK]

Given that most sites these days make use of MySQL a shared hosting box should have it's MySQL config tweaked to give MySQL a good bit of memory.

Using MySQL 3.x is not a good idea since it is old, effectivly EOL and the MySQL people themselves recommend the use of 4.0.x.

Frankly, if I were you, I'd move hosts, the P3 1GHz was a great processor a few years back, unfortunatly time has moved on. 50 Members is nothing, but that server should handle it easy but clearly it's not. 1GB of swap usage is never good and that box has 4GB of ram so something is swallowing it up.

SMF is optimized for MySQL 4, it will run much better on a server with MySQL 4, ask them if theres any reason that they are using MySQL 3?

Thanks for your help

Is there anywhere that is somewhat comparable? We're paying 50/year for space and domain. We wouldn't mind switching domain names, and we could use that one for something else.

Also just how difficult is it to move an entire forum to a new place?

[Furvert]

http://furvert.net/smf/status.php

this looks really bad?

Opened vs. Open tables:
(table_cache)    215806.4277 (should be <= 80)

and others are outside the range it specifies.
Do I have a problem?

Thanks for any help

[Ben_S]

I couldn't recommend a host from personal experience as it's been a while since I used shared hosting, however if I were in the market for a host, it probably go for someone who has supported the community here by way of an ad campaign, such as Charlottezweb, Rochen or Dean Solutions (there are probably more but I can't think of them at the moment).

Moving server is fairly easy, see http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=15252.0

@Furvert, it could probably do with some tweaking, most hosts run things with the default config which is pretty poor, if your forum is slow, it may be worthwhile asking your host to tweak things a bit.

[JayBachatero]

I'm kind of illiterate when it comes to server stuff so i don't know if this is good or bad can some one analyze it http://www.kevmundial.com/status.php

[Furvert]

Thanks
Yes my forum is sometimes slow but I have always assumed it depended on other loads on my server.
I average about 2-3 gigs a week on my main website, 150000 server requests/2000 page views a week where SMF says 20000 page views a month and scores about 140000 server requests a month. Bandwidth used is approximately 1.3 gigs in 3 months which sounds high but is likely correct due to images. I have thousands viewing the main site and only a couple hundred so far on the forum. I had thousands on my yahoo group but they havent joined the forum yet.

I changed to SMF1.1B3P mostly for thumbnails to reduce image loads when someone reviews post replies.

I have not approached my 100gigs/month limit so I am not too worried.

So if you think I need to ask the host to tweak something, I will need to know what to ask them.
I suspect alot of things are shared, so likely they will dislike the request, thus best to have a very good reason to ask them.

Thanks for the help

[Ben_S]

I suspect alot of things are shared, so likely they will dislike the request, thus best to have a very good reason to ask them.

It will help everyone on the server and as your servers MySQL is fairly heavilly used 70 odd queries / sec, it will help everyone and generally reduce server load if done properly.

[Furvert]

Thanks
So they need to adjust setting om MySQL
Do you know what they need to change?

http://furvert.net/smf/phpinfo.php

Shows some of the info on it, it shows Client API version 3.23.49 which is old I think from post above.
So do they need upgrade or tweaks?

Thanks for any help
My first forum view today took many seconds to show, I will turn on the render timer

edit-timer says .2 to 2 seconds on some pages, home runs .5-1 sec but it takes alot longer than reported so rest must be download time. Odd I am on 5meg cable so something must be goofy on that.

[[Unknown]]

http://furvert.net/smf/phpinfo.php

Shows some of the info on it, it shows Client API version 3.23.49 which is old I think from post above.
So do they need upgrade or tweaks?

That looks okay, but no optimizer/accelerator.

http://www.kevmundial.com/status.php

Horrible load averages.

-[Unknown]

[Nitro]

good thing i found this thread, well i was trying to figure out what is the problem with my forum.
can someone tell me if my stats look good:
http://mypowerforum.com/bb/status.php
i just took a look and i saw many <should be... so i am thinking this is not good, so what is your recommendation? thank you so mcuh!

[[Unknown]]

Memory usage is bad.  Load averages aren't available... cpu usage is too good to be true, must be a virtual-private server or something.

Your table_cache is way too low, I suggest 256 or 512.  Your key buffer is small, but there's not much ram available.  Your thread_cache_size should be at least 8.

Doesn't look like you're using an accelerator like eAccelerator...

-[Unknown]

[Nitro]

i am using a shared hosting.
i will pass this along my host, i assume they are the ones who can change the table_cache to 512 and the thread_cache_size, is that right?

thank you [Unknown]!

[Fiery]

Hey, I thought I would jump in on all the fun:

http://www.ndbison.com/status.php?mysql_info=1

Memory usage 98%...

...Did I pick a crappy host, based on my stats?

Thanks

Code Select Expand


Server Status
Basic Information
August 11, 2005, 01:26:33 AM
Operating System: CentOS release 4.1 (Final)
Processor: AMD Opteron(tm) Processor 248 (2193.210MHz)
Load averages: 3.37, 3.27, 3.17
Current processes: 328 (314 sleeping, 6 running, 8 zombie)
Processes by CPU: mysqld (48) 6.2%, [php] (8) 4.0%, rsync (3) 2.1%, perl (11) 0.6%
Memory usage: 98.743% (4008624k / 4059672k)
Swap: 0.062% (648k / 1052248k)
MySQL Statistics
MySQL 4.0.x
Connections per second: 3.2137
Kilobytes received per second: 32.5408
Kilobytes sent per second: 8.1403
Queries per second: 178.7545
Percentage of slow queries: 0
Opened vs. Open tables:
(table_cache) 38.8112 (should be <= 80)
Table cache usage:
(table_cache) 1 (should be >= 0.5 and <= 0.9)
Key buffer read hit rate:
(key_buffer_size) 0.0015 (should be <= 0.01)
Key buffer write hit rate:
(key_buffer_size) 0.2401 (should be <= 0.5)
Thread cache hit rate:
(thread_cache_size) 0.0001 (should be <= 0.05)
Thread cache usage:
(thread_cache_size) 0.2578 (should be >= 0.8 and <= 0.9)
Temporary table disk usage:
(tmp_table_size) 0.4467 (should be <= 0.5)
Sort merge pass rate:
(sort_buffer) 0 (should be <= 0.001)
Query cache enabled:
(query_cache_type) 1 (should be >= 1 and <= 1)
Query cache miss rate:
(query_cache_limit) 0.2069 (should be <= 0.1)
Query cache prune rate:
(query_cache_size) 0.2262 (should be <= 0.05)

MySQL status
Aborted_clients: 954
Aborted_connects: 88
Bytes_received: 4247997752
Bytes_sent: 1062667354
Com_admin_commands: 273294
Com_alter_table: 87
Com_analyze: 0
Com_backup_table: 0
Com_begin: 718
Com_change_db: 4239552
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Com_check: 445
Com_commit: 718
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Com_create_function: 0
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Com_create_table: 4083
Com_delete: 2044293
Com_delete_multi: 0
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Com_drop_table: 132
Com_flush: 1584
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Com_ha_read: 0
Com_insert: 1538059
Com_insert_select: 1891
Com_kill: 0
Com_load: 0
Com_load_master_data: 0
Com_load_master_table: 0
Com_lock_tables: 10087
Com_optimize: 1569
Com_purge: 0
Com_rename_table: 1
Com_repair: 31
Com_replace: 14333
Com_replace_select: 0
Com_reset: 0
Com_restore_table: 0
Com_revoke: 0
Com_rollback: 0
Com_savepoint: 0
Com_select: 2944107
Com_set_option: 80713
Com_show_binlog_events: 0
Com_show_binlogs: 96
Com_show_create: 23919
Com_show_databases: 2050
Com_show_fields: 21452
Com_show_grants: 2001
Com_show_keys: 680
Com_show_logs: 0
Com_show_master_status: 0
Com_show_new_master: 0
Com_show_open_tables: 0
Com_show_processlist: 6013
Com_show_slave_hosts: 0
Com_show_slave_status: 0
Com_show_status: 5596
Com_show_innodb_status: 0
Com_show_tables: 90744
Com_show_variables: 6656
Com_slave_start: 0
Com_slave_stop: 0
Com_truncate: 1
Com_unlock_tables: 10087
Com_update: 673412
Com_update_multi: 3407
Connections: 409694
Created_tmp_disk_tables: 153450
Created_tmp_tables: 343539
Created_tmp_files: 141
Delayed_insert_threads: 1
Delayed_writes: 454056
Delayed_errors: 0
Flush_commands: 1
Handler_commit: 0
Handler_delete: 1424303
Handler_read_first: 805691
Handler_read_key: 54781359
Handler_read_next: 127552881
Handler_read_prev: 837710
Handler_read_rnd: 11956886
Handler_read_rnd_next: 2737475035
Handler_rollback: 18
Handler_update: 20332243
Handler_write: 15221470
Key_blocks_used: 233650
Key_read_requests: 151748102
Key_reads: 223139
Key_write_requests: 19328111
Key_writes: 4640890
Max_used_connections: 36
Not_flushed_key_blocks: 0
Not_flushed_delayed_rows: 0
Open_tables: 1536
Open_files: 2990
Open_streams: 0
Opened_tables: 59614
Questions: 22788344
Qcache_queries_in_cache: 12659
Qcache_inserts: 2332129
Qcache_hits: 10647678
Qcache_lowmem_prunes: 666005
Qcache_not_cached: 609176
Qcache_free_memory: 12587192
Qcache_free_blocks: 4036
Qcache_total_blocks: 30474
Rpl_status: NULL
Select_full_join: 35551
Select_full_range_join: 3720
Select_range: 91512
Select_range_check: 46
Select_scan: 518737
Slave_open_temp_tables: 0
Slave_running: OFF
Slow_launch_threads: 0
Slow_queries: 73
Sort_merge_passes: 5
Sort_range: 156833
Sort_rows: 26898717
Sort_scan: 387536
Table_locks_immediate: 8435713
Table_locks_waited: 25688
Threads_cached: 33
Threads_created: 37
Threads_connected: 5
Threads_running: 1
Uptime: 127484

MySQL variables
back_log: 50
basedir: /
binlog_cache_size: 32768
bulk_insert_buffer_size: 8388608
character_set: latin1
character_sets: latin1 big5 czech euc_kr gb2312 gbk latin1_de sjis tis620 ujis dec8 dos german1 hp8 koi8_ru latin2 swe7 usa7 cp1251 danish hebrew win1251 estonia hungarian koi8_ukr win1251ukr greek win1250 croat cp1257 latin5
concurrent_insert: ON
connect_timeout: 10
convert_character_set:
datadir: /var/lib/mysql/
default_week_format: 0
delay_key_write: ON
delayed_insert_limit: 100
delayed_insert_timeout: 300
delayed_queue_size: 1000
flush: OFF
flush_time: 0
ft_boolean_syntax: + -><()~*:""&|
ft_min_word_len: 4
ft_max_word_len: 254
ft_max_word_len_for_sort: 20
ft_stopword_file: (built-in)
have_bdb: NO
have_crypt: YES
have_innodb: YES
have_isam: YES
have_raid: NO
have_symlink: YES
have_openssl: NO
have_query_cache: YES
init_file:
innodb_additional_mem_pool_size: 1048576
innodb_autoextend_increment: 8
innodb_buffer_pool_size: 8388608
innodb_data_file_path: ibdata1:10M:autoextend
innodb_data_home_dir:
innodb_file_io_threads: 4
innodb_force_recovery: 0
innodb_thread_concurrency: 8
innodb_flush_log_at_trx_commit: 1
innodb_fast_shutdown: ON
innodb_flush_method:
innodb_lock_wait_timeout: 50
innodb_log_arch_dir: ./
innodb_log_archive: OFF
innodb_log_buffer_size: 1048576
innodb_log_file_size: 5242880
innodb_log_files_in_group: 2
innodb_log_group_home_dir: ./
innodb_mirrored_log_groups: 1
innodb_max_dirty_pages_pct: 90
innodb_max_purge_lag: 0
innodb_table_locks: ON
interactive_timeout: 100
join_buffer_size: 1044480
key_buffer_size: 262144000
language: /usr/share/mysql/english/
large_files_support: ON
license: GPL
local_infile: ON
locked_in_memory: OFF
log: OFF
log_update: OFF
log_bin: OFF
log_slave_updates: OFF
log_slow_queries: ON
log_warnings: 1
long_query_time: 2
low_priority_updates: OFF
lower_case_file_system: OFF
lower_case_table_names: 0
max_allowed_packet: 33553408
max_binlog_cache_size: 4294967295
max_binlog_size: 1073741824
max_connections: 600
max_connect_errors: 10
max_delayed_threads: 20
max_insert_delayed_threads: 20
max_heap_table_size: 16777216
max_join_size: 18446744073709551615
max_relay_log_size: 0
max_seeks_for_key: 4294967295
max_sort_length: 1024
max_user_connections: 30
max_tmp_tables: 32
max_write_lock_count: 4294967295
myisam_max_extra_sort_file_size: 268435456
myisam_max_sort_file_size: 9223372036854775807
myisam_repair_threads: 1
myisam_recover_options: OFF
myisam_sort_buffer_size: 67108864
net_buffer_length: 16384
net_read_timeout: 30
net_retry_count: 10
net_write_timeout: 60
new: OFF
open_files_limit: 10000
pid_file: /var/lib/mysql/box28.bluehost.com.pid
log_error:
port: 3306
protocol_version: 10
query_alloc_block_size: 8192
query_cache_limit: 1048576
query_cache_size: 33554432
query_cache_type: ON
query_cache_wlock_invalidate: OFF
query_prealloc_size: 8192
range_alloc_block_size: 2048
read_buffer_size: 1044480
read_only: OFF
read_rnd_buffer_size: 1044480
rpl_recovery_rank: 0
server_id: 0
slave_net_timeout: 3600
skip_external_locking: ON
skip_networking: OFF
skip_show_database: OFF
slow_launch_time: 2
socket: /var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock
sort_buffer_size: 1048568
sql_mode: 0
table_cache: 1536
table_type: MYISAM
thread_cache_size: 128
thread_stack: 196608
tx_isolation: REPEATABLE-READ
timezone: MDT
tmp_table_size: 33554432
tmpdir: /tmp/
transaction_alloc_block_size: 8192
transaction_prealloc_size: 4096
version: 4.0.24-standard-log
version_comment: Official MySQL RPM
version_compile_os: unknown-linux-gnu
wait_timeout: 100



[Ben_S]

*nix fills the memory for fun, the swap value is the one to look at.

Looks fairly decent to me, query_cache could maybe do with a bit of a tweak, but on the whole, it looks good, and is certainly a nice server.

[FTF]

Hi there

Im in the process of moving server and domain but while that goes through I am interested in knowing if there is a reason why at times my forum at the below address is really unreliable in terms of posts timing out when you submit and trying to view posts but timing out and sometimes very slow loading times.

The forum is a sub directory of my main website so would this affect performance? My new location will make the forum the principle aspect of the server so in the main directory,

Could someone take a look please

http://www.britains-tractors.co.uk/forum/status.php

Many thanks

Andy

[Ben_S]

No info about the server itself available, but the MySQL config doesn't look healthy.

The directory you put the board in will make no difference to performance.

[FTF]

Lycos is my hosting company - 20gb/month bandwidth with php/mysql up to date etc

How do I get info regarding the server?

and what treatment would there be to make it look healthier?

[Ben_S]

In all honesty, I doubt a large company like lycos will do anything to tweak things.

[[Unknown]]

*nix fills the memory for fun, the swap value is the one to look at.

Looks fairly decent to me, query_cache could maybe do with a bit of a tweak, but on the whole, it looks good, and is certainly a nice server.

Looks like they're running php as a CGI, though, without an accelerator.  It's drinking more ram because of that.

In all honesty, I doubt a large company like lycos will do anything to tweak things.

Sadly enough, yes.  Btcouk, you can show them the script and tell them it would be helpful to you if:

1. /proc were added to open_basedir; nothing in there will be writable, but it makes it possible to freeze things based on the load average much more efficiently than piping uptime (this is of course assuming the server is Linux.)
2. MySQL were configured to use ram more effectively.  Lycos should know how much ram is available, but increasing the table_cache just to 512 would probably make a very large difference - especially with 100 queries per second.
3. They upgraded MySQL.  The most recent release is 4.0.25, not 4.0.18 which is what they are running.  I worry other software is out of date too.

Without more information (from /proc, actually) there's not much else I can suggest.

-[Unknown]

[Fiery]

*nix fills the memory for fun, the swap value is the one to look at.

Looks fairly decent to me, query_cache could maybe do with a bit of a tweak, but on the whole, it looks good, and is certainly a nice server.

cool, thanks

[blunt]

Hi, all.

My forum has been running slow for a while, and I've noticed that when I try to optimize my databases in the admin panel of SMF, it only seems to do one table out of the 35.  Am I reading that right? 

Your database contains 35 tables.
Attempting to optimize your database...
Optimizing smf_log_online... 0.148438 kb optimized.

1 table(s) optimized.

Could this be something to do with how my permissions are set?  Most files seem to be set at 644 by default.  I've changed a few to 666, but I'm not really sure what I'm doing.  The forum has 69 members and has been running for about a year now, without many problems, so it can't be too drastically wrong.

BTW, I've uploaded the status.php file, and I'd be grateful if somebody would take a look and tell me if my hosts need another kick up the arse, please.  I'm coming up to renewal time, and if they aren't performing well, I think I might change.  Thanks.

http://www.cafedoom.com/forum/status.php

[[Unknown]]

Hi, all.

My forum has been running slow for a while, and I've noticed that when I try to optimize my databases in the admin panel of SMF, it only seems to do one table out of the 35.  Am I reading that right?

That's nothing to worry about.  Actually, more tables are being optimized than that, but it's listing the ones which change in size.

You'd probably see a good benefit from upgrading to SMF 1.0.5.  But, from the looks of it, you're on shared hosting... and the server isn't exactly well-configured, but it's okay.

Are you having performance problems?  With a forum that size, I wouldn't expect them.

-[Unknown]

[blunt]

Thanks, Unknown

But yes, I'm having problems still.  Tonight, I couldn't get into my forum at all, at first.  Did a tracert, and that got through fine, but the forum wouldn't show, even from inside cPanel.  I optimized the MySql database, and that didn't make any difference.  Then I used the ssi-examples to find a recent post, clicked on it, and I was in.  Went to the admin panel and optimized straight away, and it seems to be OK now, but it quite often displays slowly - it takes quite a while for all the images to load.  There's only about 6000 posts on the forum, so I can't imagine it's anything to do with size.

I'm reluctant to upgrade, because I'm worried the Helios theme won't work properly with it, or I'll get some other type of problem that I won't know how to fix  

If you think it'll be OK, I'll give it a try.

[[Unknown]]

Your forum loads okay for me.  But, I'd still have to recommend you upgrade.  I should note that the Helios theme is available for the latest stable and beta versions, as far as I know - and may even be improved since the version you are using.

Anyway, to the server, I suggest you look at the status.php when your forum is slow.  Important things to look at:

Load averages:     1.08, 1.50, 1.73

That should, if possible, always be lower than the number of processors (virtual or otherwise) on your server.  Assuming it's 2, then anything under 2.00 can be considered healthy.  Still, those are higher than I like to see.  If these numbers are very high, it's likely your forum won't load at all.

Processes by CPU:     mysqld (19) 37.2%, httpd (80) 35.7%, exim (7) 7.0%, [kscand] (1) 1.5%, spamd (6) 1.3%

It looks like MySQL is eating the most CPU, although httpd is really drinking a lot too.  It's highly unlikely this is caused by your forum, but rather probably by another site hosted on the same server.  Exim is also taking its toll, which means someone is probably sending or receiving quite a few emails.

If your host has a lot of clients using PHP, they really should install an accelerator, like eAccelerator.  Without a phpinfo I can't tell if they have, but judging from httpd's cpu usage I'd assume not.  An accelerator/bytecode cacher will typically reduce both cpu and memory usage, as long as PHP is being used on the server.

Memory usage:      98.269% (2019800k / 2055376k)
Swap: 17.449% (356000k / 2040212k)

2 gigabytes of ram are being used on your server too.  Typically, you want swap usage to be below 10%.... so it looks like this server is being over-utilized.  However, the accelerator might improve things, in which case it might not be so bad.

As for your server's MySQL configuration, it has the following problems:

  - table_cache is a little too low.  I'd suggest trying something more like 1280 or perhaps 1536.
  - tmp_table_size is way too large.  Allowing 12 megs in memory per temporary table is asking to run out of memory.  I'd suggest trying to cut back to 8 or 10 megs - the reduction in swap usage would probably make it worth it.

-[Unknown]

[blunt]

The figures look even worse this morning (if I'm reading it right -

Load averages: 3.01, 3.32, 3.21
Current processes: 161 (154 sleeping, 7 running, 0 zombie)
Processes by CPU: mysqld (20) 32.7%, httpd (24) 19.4%, pkgacct (2) 4.9%, ps (1) 3.0%, cppop (4) 2.1%, [kscand] (1) 1.5%, spamd (6) 1.1% 
Memory usage: 98.124% (2016812k / 2055376k)
Swap: 19.696% (401836k / 2040212k) 

http://www.cafedoom.com/phpinfo.php they use Zend optimizer - is that the same type of thing as eAccelerator, or something completely different?

Many thanks for your detailed reply, Unknown.  I've had intermittent problems with slowness for months now, and with the site not loading at all sometimes.  Every time I contact the hosts (asmallorange.com) they're nice enough, and seem to try and help, but the problem still persists.  It could be that they've over sold the server space then?

I'll take your advice and check next time things slow down.  And I'll upgrade to the newer version of SMF.

Thanks again

[[Unknown]]

Processes by CPU: mysqld (20) 32.7%, httpd (24) 19.4%, pkgacct (2) 4.9%, ps (1) 3.0%, cppop (4) 2.1%, [kscand] (1) 1.5%, spamd (6) 1.1%

Looks like cPanel was making a backup (pkgacct.)

http://www.cafedoom.com/phpinfo.php they use Zend optimizer - is that the same type of thing as eAccelerator, or something completely different?

It's similar, but it's not as good.  Both softwares are free, but Zend has a paid version (Zend Platform now, I think) that actually does the bytecaching and other important parts of it.  The free Zend Optimizer doesn't do hardly as much, and doesn't really compare with eAccelerator.

I have seen a server running Zend Optimizer switch to eAccelerator (more than once, actually) and see a very noticeable performance improvement.

It could be that they've over sold the server space then?

It could be.  I'm not entirely sure, of course.

-[Unknown]

[RCC_SaMiaM]

I am having a slowdown that is a bit different.  It started today, the page will say done, but then about 5 seconds or so later the page will actually display.  It shows that it only took .2 seconds to create the page, but takes 5 seconds, sometimes more, to display it.

I had this problem before, but it went away.  I have several SMF installs on my dedicated server, but the forum for my main site is the only one this happens to.  All other installs work just fine.

http://ramchargercentral.com/boards/

[[Unknown]]

That's caused by this:

http://www.everywherechat.com/members.asp?room=RCC_Chat_Room

Which is taking quite a long time to load.

-[Unknown]

[RCC_SaMiaM]

Thanks

[blunt]

Processes by CPU: mysqld (20) 32.7%, httpd (24) 19.4%, pkgacct (2) 4.9%, ps (1) 3.0%, cppop (4) 2.1%, [kscand] (1) 1.5%, spamd (6) 1.1%

Looks like cPanel was making a backup (pkgacct.)

http://www.cafedoom.com/phpinfo.php they use Zend optimizer - is that the same type of thing as eAccelerator, or something completely different?

It's similar, but it's not as good.  Both softwares are free, but Zend has a paid version (Zend Platform now, I think) that actually does the bytecaching and other important parts of it.  The free Zend Optimizer doesn't do hardly as much, and doesn't really compare with eAccelerator.

I have seen a server running Zend Optimizer switch to eAccelerator (more than once, actually) and see a very noticeable performance improvement.

It could be that they've over sold the server space then?

It could be.  I'm not entirely sure, of course.

-[Unknown]

Thanks again, Unknown.  I'll suggest they change over to eAccelerator.

BTW, the load averages are getting worse every time I look (up to 7/4/4 now)

Server Status
Basic Information
September 09, 2005, 03:08:54 PM
Operating System: Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES release 3 (Taroon Update 5) 
Processor: Intel® Xeon(TM) CPU 2.80GHz (2790.790MHz)
Load averages: 7.34, 4.95, 4.60
Current processes: 372 (365 sleeping, 7 running, 0 zombie)
Processes by CPU: httpd (201) 53.1%, mysqld (20) 37.1%, pkgacct (2) 9.8%, sh (2) 2.0%, [kscand] (1) 1.6%, spamd (6) 1.5% 
Memory usage: 99.092% (2036720k / 2055376k)
Swap: 36.232% (739216k / 2040212k)

[[Unknown]]

Hmm, pkgacct is still whirring away....

Anyway, I forgot to mention... the load averages are three numbers.  The first is a 1 minute average, the second a 5 minute average, and the third a 15 minute average.  Or at least, on Linux those are the times.

So, if you see something like "1, 5, 10" that means it's getting better.  If you see "10, 5, 1" it's getting worse... and so on.

-[Unknown]

[blunt]

I got this reply from their tech, this morning - (I showed them your suggested changes  )

Greetings,

Whe have found some high-impact torrent sites being hosted on here and suspended the account, which should free up some resources. As well we have tweaked the mysql settings as they suggested. We are however not in agreement with eaccelerator. While it may increase the speeds on a server for a while it's fundamental flaw is in the tremendous disk caching that it does to maintain faster speeds. On our shared hosting environment this would hit the point of diminishing returns in a few weeks and therefore cause more problems with server performance thay we again would have to take care of.

And holy ****** - look at the difference in the load averages today, plus swap, MySQL usage, etc.  -

Operating System: Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES release 3 (Taroon Update 5) 
Processor: Intel® Xeon(TM) CPU 2.80GHz (2790.790MHz)
Load averages: 0.66, 0.76, 0.78
Current processes: 175 (172 sleeping, 2 running, 1 zombie)
Processes by CPU: mysqld (20) 21.8%, httpd (35) 17.7%, [exim (1) 2.3%, (other) (49) 2.1%, [kscand] (1) 1.5%, exim (4) 1.1% 
Memory usage: 98.851% (2031760k / 2055376k)
Swap: 12.451% (254020k / 2040212k) 

Looks like it did the trick

Many thanks for your help with this, Unknown.  I wish I was hosting with you instead of them

[[Unknown]]

Well... Zend Optimizer recompiles it from disk every page view (and has been shown in many cases and under slashdotting to be less effective than eAccelerator.)  On the other hand, eAccelerator caches and saves it - and accesses that, yes.  If you run PHP as mod_php or similar, you can turn off disk completely (shm_only, etc.)

Anyway, I'm glad they identified the major problem and improved things for you.

-[Unknown]

[blunt]

Well, I spoke too soon, it seems

We've been down again twice (that I know of) since I last posted.  What do you make of this?

Server Status

Warning: mysql_query(): Too many connections in /home2/blunted/public_html/forum/status.php on line 468

Warning: mysql_query(): A link to the server could not be established in /home2/blunted/public_html/forum/status.php on line 468

Warning: mysql_fetch_row(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource in /home2/blunted/public_html/forum/status.php on line 469

Warning: mysql_free_result(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource in /home2/blunted/public_html/forum/status.php on line 470

Warning: mysql_query(): Too many connections in /home2/blunted/public_html/forum/status.php on line 473

Warning: mysql_query(): A link to the server could not be established in /home2/blunted/public_html/forum/status.php on line 473

Warning: mysql_query(): Too many connections in /home2/blunted/public_html/forum/status.php on line 483

Warning: mysql_query(): A link to the server could not be established in /home2/blunted/public_html/forum/status.php on line 483

Warning: mysql_query(): Too many connections in /home2/blunted/public_html/forum/status.php on line 497

Warning: mysql_query(): A link to the server could not be established in /home2/blunted/public_html/forum/status.php on line 497

Basic Information
September 12, 2005, 04:10:51 AM
Operating System: Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES release 3 (Taroon Update 5) 
Processor: Intel® Xeon(TM) CPU 2.80GHz (2790.790MHz)
Load averages: 3.79, 3.30, 1.94
Current processes: 439 (436 sleeping, 2 running, 1 zombie)
Processes by CPU: httpd (38) 14.7%, mysqld (261) 5.1%, updatedb (1) 3.0%, [kscand] (1) 1.5%, [exim (1) 1.1%, spamd (6) 1.3% 
Memory usage: 95.535% (1963608k / 2055376k)
Swap: 6.128% (125016k / 2040212k) 

MySQL Statistics
MySQL
Query cache enabled:
(query_cache_type)  0

That's from this morning's blackout.  There was only me connected to the forum at the time.

Here's what I've been getting from their support people (from the last couple of days) -

Posted on 10 Sep 2005 11:57 AM

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As you can see, the CPU is being wiped out - httpd (11) 106.5% and there's a spike in the load averages, which looks like it's going to get worse.



Blunt
 
 
Posted on 10 Sep 2005 04:30 PM

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Is anybody there?


Victor T.

 
 
Posted on 11 Sep 2005 06:08 AM

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hello,

We have been having people attack the server on occasion. The server is up and running fine and I have been monitoring it for the past hour or so and it has been running at a normal load of around 1.5.

Please feel free to contact our technical support staff if you need any assistance.

Regards,
Victor



Blunt
 
 
Posted on 11 Sep 2005 05:32 PM

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi Victor

If the server is under dos attack, is there any way you can filter it? Any idea why it's happening?

It was down again, just now -

Basic Information
September 11, 2005, 05:27:18 PM
Operating System: Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES release 3 (Taroon Update 5)
Processor: Intel® Xeon(TM) CPU 2.80GHz (2790.790MHz)
Load averages: 8.92, 2.42, 1.64
Current processes: 153 (149 sleeping, 4 running, 0 zombie)
Processes by CPU: httpd (14) 106.0%, mysqld (19) 6.6%, perl (3) 3.6%, (other) (52) 2.5%, [kscand] (1) 1.5%
Memory usage: 60.801% (1249680k / 2055376k)
Swap: 13.924% (284072k / 2040212k)


Josh B.

 
 
Posted on 11 Sep 2005 08:40 PM

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hello,
We are still investigating this issue. I am also going to have our management review this. We will update you shortly.


Thanks,
Josh


Tim Dorr

 
 
Posted on 11 Sep 2005 10:08 PM

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi,

I'm not sure what Victor is saying about attacks on the server. It is under no such attack that I can see.

One user account is causing a high amount of load because of the script they are running on their site. I've modified it to remove this extra load and they should be dropping now. There was also a lot of stuck mail messages that can cause the load to go up slightly, and have cleared those out. You should see some improvment now.


-Tim Dorr
Owner/Manager
A Small Orange Software

Any idea what's going on?  I'm baffled.  (but it doesn't take much)

[[Unknown]]

I can tell you exactly what's going on.  First, I'll say that it was a convergence of likelyhoods....

So, the error message in question is here:
Warning: mysql_query(): Too many connections in /home2/blunted/public_html/forum/status.php on line 468

That means MySQL won't let SMF/status.php connect, because max_connections is set too low.  In other words, you've reached your max as far as concurrent users go.

This:
Processes by CPU: httpd (38) 14.7%, mysqld (261) 5.1%, updatedb (1) 3.0%, [kscand] (1) 1.5%, [exim (1) 1.1%, spamd (6) 1.3%

Means a few things.  One, exim seems to be a zombie.  Couldn't tell you why, but that's a bad thing.  Then, you have mysqld eating 261 processes.  That's also more-than-likely a bad thing.  You also have updatedb going, which makes it sound like the server was doing maintenance, etc. just now.  This may have been right after a server backup, etc.

(query_cache_type)  0

Means, obviously, that the query cache is disabled.  Couldn't tell you why, since the ram usage seems quite a lot better now.  Anyway, it seems enabled at the time of posting, although it's also full and dropping queries.  What's going on on that server?

-[Unknown]

[Bonk]

You seem to recommend running php as an apache module frequently. (I do, but don't like it).

I thought php was still not thread safe and therefore it should not be run as an apache module. (as php's documentation reccomends). I understood that the most stable way to run php is as a cgi on apache on a *nix. (my statically linked apache-php cgi on QNX at home was rock solid)

I had problems with our server hanging continually and had to tweak the apache mpm settings to stabilise apache somewhat. Now it hangs occasionally, but it is still an irritation.

# WinNT MPM
# ThreadsPerChild: constant number of worker threads in the server process
# MaxRequestsPerChild: maximum  number of requests a server process serves
<IfModule mpm_winnt.c>
Win32DisableAcceptEx
ThreadsPerChild 64
MaxRequestsPerChild  10000
</IfModule>

I did not choose the platform, but have to cope with it.

[[Unknown]]

If you run it with prefork/etc. it should be fine.  You'd be surprised just how many people run it as an Apache module - we do here.  It doesn't segfault.

There are still some issues, I understand, but I've seen it work well in threaded environments in production.

-[Unknown]

[Joshua Dickerson]

hmm.. I think it is recommended for certain version. Apache 2, and then some more recent 1 versions.

Those crazy numbers of mysqld processes might be caused by persistent connections that haven't died yet. Just a wild guess.