server response

[mantis]

Sometimes it feels like the server is dead or really slow
although it indicates the presence of less than 20 users
you might wanna keep an eye on that in case there's a bottleneck or any other problem somewhere

[Bob Hubbard]

I'm aware of the problem, and will be announcing a solution shortly.

[mantis]

I'm aware of the problem, and will be announcing a solution shortly. thank you sir
I dont mean to intervene with your business but just wanted to draw attention (and yes, make sure the problem is not from my side hehe)

[Andrew Green]

The forum is powered by monkies. Everytime you request a page 1000 monkies go to work to put it together and send it too you. The monkies however got a union...

Bob's not saying anything so as not to tip them off, but let's just say once the next batch of bannana's arrives, things will be speedy again ;)

[OnlyAnEgg]

monkeys...heheh

I've gotten the occasional tcp error/timeout accessing the board. Typically it resolves in 5 mins or so. Occassionally slow, too, with low user numbers.

[Bob Hubbard]

MT's sharing rental space on another server. Lately, there have been some network issues and heavy loads on this server.

[Bester]

Aye Laddie, tis like wading through the haggis some days. Feed that hamster some high octane feed mon!

[Bob Hubbard]

Working on it...

[arnisador]

Pretty sluggish for me right now...is it just me?

[Bob Hubbard]

No, slugish for me to. I just did a dump of the database, so that may have caused a surge.

[Ceicei]

No, slugish for me to. I just did a dump of the database, so that may have caused a surge.
Ah! Thank you for the explanation. I had wondered what happened to MT a short while ago.

- Ceicei

[Bob Hubbard]

Things are going to get better....I'll have an announcement soon....

[Michael Billings]

Damn monkeys wading through haggis ... and you know what monkeys usually throw when they get mad? I rather have that than monkey haggis hit me. I think I need to go throw up now.

-Michael

[mj-hi-yah]

Damn monkeys wading through haggis ... and you know what monkeys usually throw when they get mad? I rather have that than monkey haggis hit me. I think I need to go throw up now.:barf:

-MichaelLike that?

[Gin-Gin]

Damn monkeys wading through haggis ... and you know what monkeys usually throw when they get mad? I rather have that than monkey haggis hit me. I think I need to go throw up now.

-MichaelEwww!! :barf: :lol:

[arnisador]

I've been getting timeouts all day as I try to load pages.

[Bob Hubbard]

Since moving to our own box, load on the site has gone up 25-50%.
MT is the only site on this server, so we're trying to optimize things a much as possible. Should hopefully smooth out shortly.

[CrankyDragon]

At work earlier today (29 Oct 05), I typed a long response to a post, hit submit, it sat for a while, then came up with DNS error could not find server. I hit back and all the text was gone from the edit box. I didnt have time to type it all over.

Then a few hours later, I did another reply (this one not so long, so nothing much lost) and it happended again.

I gave up replying all day.

HTH,
Andrew

[Bob Hubbard]

I'm looking into things. Found some info at vB's site that might help.

[Bob Hubbard]

I made 1 change. Am waiting on more info before doing more. Let me know if it's better/worse.

[arnisador]

Thanks for trying Kaith! I am still seeing some timeouts on MT but not having trouble elsewhere on the web.

[Bob Hubbard]

Well, some is better than alot.
I'm seeing a few 25 second page loads, most seem within 3-6 seconds.
I've split log processing into 2 batches as the log files get rather large transfering 3+ gigs a day.

[Bob Hubbard]

I'm going to do everything I can with this server. I can't afford to move to the next level up. This ones costing $255/month. Next server level is about $400/month.

[arnisador]

That's a lot of cash. Did you tell them that MartialTalk performs a great public service? Maybe they'll cut you a break. :D

By the way, you should be in bed by now.

[Bob Hubbard]

Hmm...I remember that 'sleep' concept. Been a while.

A site at our size/traffic should be on a different configuration (bit technical, involves 3 servers) thats, well, outside our budget at the moment. I keep playing the lottery though. :D

[Bob Hubbard]

ok, 4 outta 5 major optimizations are in place. Please let me know if things are better.

[Andrew Green]

Where is the speed lose?

I'm guessing database look ups?

or is it transfer.... Over half a mb on the main page gets displayed...

[Bob Hubbard]

Pretty much. We're doing about 80,000 pages and 3GB a day in traffic.
What we did so far is upgrade PHP, and put in a number of MySQL config changes, and a few other tweaks.

[Andrew Green]

pretty much which... database or transfer?

Huge database getting queried that much is gonna slow things, as is transferring that much data. Maybe reducing the amout of data that actually gets sent as well?

Or cutting back how many queries need to be run to display the slower pages? (Show less stuff) even the html file that gets created on the main forum page is 165kb, and that has to get rebuilt and resent everytime.... Sure raises pity for anyone still on dial up...

[Bob Hubbard]

Database look ups.
Apache is hardly ticking at the moment.
Main forum page is a little graphically heavy, as well as text heavy. About the only 'bloat' graohically are sponsor banners. Lose those, lose the site. The text I might be able to save a few kb on, but the cost would be indexability on search engines. I'll be doing a detailed analysis of the logs in a few days, and trying to do some load-balancing on the more intensive sections.

[bignick]

I just always go straight to the forum page

http://martialtalk.com/forum/index.php

Instead of navigating fromt he main page...probably saves some bandwidth...although that script i've got running that opens a new browser to the martial talk site every 30 seconds probably doesn't help.......

[arnisador]

I usually go through the main page first, but if I have trouble loading it I go to the forum page. I should probbaly do as you're doing.

[Andrew Green]

I just always go straight to the forum page

http://martialtalk.com/forum/index.php



That's the big one ;)

Other pages don't seem terribly slow, but loading up the main forum page always has some lag to it.

As for the MySQL, I'm assuming you've optimized all the tables? The server is stripped of all unneeded processes? (ex it isn't running "X" or anything else that shouldn't be there)

Maybe removing some of the unneeded queries, things like getting rid of the "Who's Online" on all pages except the "who's online" page.

If the banner ads are being pulled out of a database, or more likely the locations and links maybe get them out of there into a php file...

Damn... this thread probably has a high geekiness rating...

[Bob Hubbard]

Servers optimized for MT. Anything MT doesn't need, is being removed. :)

I streamlined a few of the queries as well. We lose alphabetical 'who's been here' listings, but I think we can live. :)

Banners are straight html links. I'm going to see if I can shrink a few kb out of the load size as well.

I'm still seeing an occational hiccup, but in the last 14 hours, there have only been 20 sql errors recorded, so, we're making progress.

:)

[bignick]

Damn... this thread probably has a high geekiness rating...

Maybe that should be a new board feature...check the geekiness rating of each thread before you click...

[Bob Hubbard]

Lol :D