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Yeah Mike, it is very fast. Looks like my subscription is paying off 
Army.ca Status- The History of Outages & Dark Days
- Thread starter Mike Bobbitt
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You bet! Thanks for making it possible.
M
mudrecceman
Guest
I am really noticing a difference tonight Mike...
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Same here.
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No, it was the site... I thought that with all this new memory I could increase our mail server capabilities... I increased them too far and... we ran out of memory again.
I've scaled things back, hopefully it won't happen any more.
I've scaled things back, hopefully it won't happen any more.
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Well, as you may have noticed, we have not been without some slowdowns lately. I've been watching, and so far there are 2 causes:
1. We still run out of memory. It happens a lot less frequently now, but it's still happening. We have the option of adding another Gb of RAM to alleviate this problem. As of today, we have the cash on hand to do so (thank you subscribers!)
2. Now that we have more memory, the CPU is having trouble keeping up at times.
I'm still weighing the options, but I thought I'd give you an update on why adding the RAM didn't completely resolve the problem. As always, thanks for your patience.
Cheers
Mike
1. We still run out of memory. It happens a lot less frequently now, but it's still happening. We have the option of adding another Gb of RAM to alleviate this problem. As of today, we have the cash on hand to do so (thank you subscribers!)
2. Now that we have more memory, the CPU is having trouble keeping up at times.
I'm still weighing the options, but I thought I'd give you an update on why adding the RAM didn't completely resolve the problem. As always, thanks for your patience.
Cheers
Mike
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What "back-office" is the site running? Oracle? Access? Proprietary?
There may be (relatively inexpensive) software solutions available, as compared to (relatively expensive) hardware solutions.
GAP made a good point - the less processing each post needs to go through will reduce the hardware cost (and site-speed cost).
There may be (relatively inexpensive) software solutions available, as compared to (relatively expensive) hardware solutions.
GAP made a good point - the less processing each post needs to go through will reduce the hardware cost (and site-speed cost).
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We're running Fedora Linux with apache and MySQL. That's all free. 
It's also quite robust, so it can handle anything we throw at it, when configured properly. The problem is we're now throwing more at the hardware than it can handle.
There isn't much I can do on a per post basis to ease the load. There are certain tables/fields that need to be updated, and short of dropping post counts or not tracking topic views, I don't think there are any real optimizations to be had. I could disable search (which *does* put a load on the server) but that seems like a big step in the wrong direction.
It's also quite robust, so it can handle anything we throw at it, when configured properly. The problem is we're now throwing more at the hardware than it can handle.There isn't much I can do on a per post basis to ease the load. There are certain tables/fields that need to be updated, and short of dropping post counts or not tracking topic views, I don't think there are any real optimizations to be had. I could disable search (which *does* put a load on the server) but that seems like a big step in the wrong direction.
How much resources does it take to keep people logged in? I think you mentioned that if they are not active they go to standby, or something, but does keeping them logged in use a lot of memory? just some random thoughts. Hitting the exact configuration is like hoping to win the lottery...
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Mike Bobbitt said:We're running Fedora Linux with apache and MySQL. That's all free.
All fine packages - and able to handle the load. Let me ask some questions of some people I know (I can run circles around a lot of folks when it comes to DBMS theory - but I'm not an "expert" on those particular platforms).
GAP makes an intelligent point (once again) - what IS the cost of users not logging off?? I know I have a habit of leaving a Tab with Army.ca running - I pop back in once in a while and punch the "Show unread posts since last visit" link. Am I (unintentionally, for sure) robbing the site of some processing power? Perhaps an automatic log-out of inactive users (say after 5 or 10 minutes of inactivity) may help a bit (although the processing time to track them makes this solution counter-intuitive - on the surface, at least).
I'm sure you've thought of all of this Mike - but sometimes a fresh set of eyes sees things from a different angle.
Roy
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Hi Roy/GAP,
Good thoughts, but when you're not browsing the site, no additional resources are consumed if you're logged in vs. logged out. I believe the real issue is we've just hit capacity. We've had the same server for 3 (?) years now and in that time our usage has really taken off. If you look at the statistics graphs, they are a steady upward climb.
I appreciate the brainstorming but I don't think there is anything an individual user can do, we're just become too big for our britches in a sense. I just have to figure out the cheapest way to keep us in the race for as long as possible. Adding the Gb of RAM helped, but now we're bumping up against other limits. I have to decide whether it's better to piecemeal more RAM and a better CPU together or save up for something more robust.
Anyone know where I can get a good deal on server grade hardware?
Good thoughts, but when you're not browsing the site, no additional resources are consumed if you're logged in vs. logged out. I believe the real issue is we've just hit capacity. We've had the same server for 3 (?) years now and in that time our usage has really taken off. If you look at the statistics graphs, they are a steady upward climb.
I appreciate the brainstorming but I don't think there is anything an individual user can do, we're just become too big for our britches in a sense. I just have to figure out the cheapest way to keep us in the race for as long as possible. Adding the Gb of RAM helped, but now we're bumping up against other limits. I have to decide whether it's better to piecemeal more RAM and a better CPU together or save up for something more robust.
Anyone know where I can get a good deal on server grade hardware?
- Reaction score
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- 1,210
I should also point out that this is not an attempt to push our technical problems down to the membership. I'm really just thinking out loud here, tapping into the good ideas of the community to help steer things along. I'm not trying to get anyone to loosen their purse strings. If that day comes, I'll come right out and ask.
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Now if I could Mike, what do I get?Mike Bobbitt said:Anyone know where I can get a good deal on server grade hardware?
M
mudrecceman
Guest
Mike Bobbitt said:Hi Roy/GAP,
Good thoughts, but when you're not browsing the site, no additional resources are consumed if you're logged in vs. logged out. I believe the real issue is we've just hit capacity. We've had the same server for 3 (?) years now and in that time our usage has really taken off. If you look at the statistics graphs, they are a steady upward climb.
I appreciate the brainstorming but I don't think there is anything an individual user can do, we're just become too big for our britches in a sense. I just have to figure out the cheapest way to keep us in the race for as long as possible. Adding the Gb of RAM helped, but now we're bumping up against other limits. I have to decide whether it's better to piecemeal more RAM and a better CPU together or save up for something more robust.
Anyone know where I can get a good deal on server grade hardware?
Mike,
What are the guts you are running with now?
I have a friend who always seems to be able to find stuff for me when I ask, if I knew what you were running your svr with now as a benchmark, I could see if he knows anywhere to stir up a svr and rough $$ for it. (you can PM me the specs if that works for you).
No promises but the few times I have hit him with a "where can I" he has always found what I need...
MRM
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