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Experimenting to fix slow forum.

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Basil

Basil

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I know the forum has been periodically slow from time to time and I've been trying to figure out why. This afternoon I came home for lunch and found I could not access the forum at all. I called my host and they said it looked as if I was getting MySQL (database) "Out of Memory" errors, which may have been causing the forum to hang.

As an experiment, I have set Flood Control enabled and equal to 20 seconds. What this means basically is that If you post a message or reply you will have to wait at least 20 seconds before posting again. For most people this should not be a big problem. I'm hoping it will lessen teh load on the memory and maybe things will run smoother. Otherwise I may be looking at yet another server upgrade.

Basil
 
it has been about the same here. works well in the afternoon till i go to bed( early) LOL. but from 3 AM or so trying to get here is like looking for a polarbear in a snowstorm, it just aint happening.....



mark
 
Same thing here, Mark. I look forward to my 5 AM fix, but it's become nearly impossible. I can't get on at work anymore, due to the company firewall, so I'm dead in the water until I get home.
Basil, it appears that we're a victim of our own success!!
Jeff
 
Well, lets see what happens tonight/tomorrow AM. I only just set the Flood control today thinking that might help keep the memory usage under control. No promises, but keeping my fingers crossed.

Basil
 
Hi Bas,
I don't know much about your system, but how does low memory keep me from accessing the forum for several hours at a time? Been happening pretty regularly lately. What happens to get it restarted, reset? My browser says "connecting to BCF" & then just sits there. I try again in 20 minutes & the same thing.
D
 
Well, it’s only a theory anyway, but my forum uses a database program called "MySQL" to store all the forum information (forums, posts, replies, member info, etc). Anytime the forum does anything (people reading posts, making posts, viewing pictures, etc) it requires a certain amount of memory. If the MySQL server is trying to perform a function (like retrieving a post for example) and it runs out of memory (because maybe several other people are trying to do things on the forum at the same time) then the MySQL may “crash”. When I was having trouble loading the site earlier today I called my provider and they said that my server was showing a “MySQL Out of Memory” error. Like I said, its only a hunch, but time will tell.

Basil
 
It's incredibly slow right now. I'm clicking a link, then going to another browser for a couple minutes while I wait for the page to load. It loads quickl enough, but takes forever and a day to actually come up.
 
"Bad Response from Server" messages again this morning. Same behavior as the past 3 or 4 days. It worked after 10 attempts in a 1/2 hour period. In that time I used 9 other sites with no problems.

Again, not complaining, just providing feedback.
 
Yesterday it took something like 17-18 minutes just for the forum to come up. This morning it was about 30 seconds. I'll check again later, maybe it helped!
 
Yes, its been real slow at times...

but I tell myself, good things come to those who wait... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif
 
i saw a 550+ sec load time the other morning....lol


mark
 
The only time it's been slow for me is just the initial entrance page... not too bad the past day, but before that it might take 30+ seconds or just server timeout... Once I'm in, the rest has been considerable faster.

Here's my uneducated evaluation... Entrance page takes forever (sometimes)
Forum list page takes about half that time once I'm in.
and looking at threads in one forum or the other is nearly imperceptible - almost immediate. (the little timer at the bottom of the page is in the .1 or less range)

But... Today, I've not had any speed relted problems at all getting in, or on any of the pages I've visited.
 
It also seems to slow down and sometimes even stop between 11:30 and midnight most nights, lasting until morning.

I agree that the entrance and forum list page are both far slower than most. But that makes sense because there is a bit of "figuring out" to do before those pages can be displayed. It isn't a simple data transfer like clicking a post.
 
Bas, here's another clue that might reinforce the thought that the problem is around delays with the SQL database: it takes a little while to bring up the initial "britishcarforum.com" page (assuming I get on that way), but it usually takes forever to get into the forum itself. 1-5 minutes is "fast" for me, but its taken as long as 15-20 minutes, and sometimes not at all.

Today I had another huge delay getting to the forum itself so I loaded up another browser that has never been logged into BCF and it went to the forum quick as can be (15-20 seconds, max). So, I went back to the original browser and "logged out" of BCF from the first page - then tried to get back on. It too went in quickly.

I have a feeling the software is trying to organize all the threads that I haven't read so the "5 (5)" type notations in the threads column can be displayed. When I log in as a "guest" it doesn't need to do that.

This might also explain why, once I get to the forum, everything runs smoothly - it doesn't have to go through that process again.

The next time I have a "forever" delay I'll try this again and see if there's any difference.
 
Scot, thanks for the insight. You may be onto something since the other day I had a "MqSQL Out of Memory" error. What is strange however is that this only seems to happen in the wee hours when there are not that many people online. At peak times (like 8-9PM Central) when there are dozens of folks online, things generally seem to run ok. I am going to take a look at my sql log files and see if I can find a clue there.

Basil

PS: By the way, it is not 7:30 AM and the thing seems to be running ok. This morning (earlier) I could not even get to the site. I rebooted my VPS and that still did not fix it - until now, after 7:30. I will keep this in mind tomorrow if the same problem happens I'll see if it gets better at a certain time - that will lead me to think that it could be some maintenance process they are running in the morings that might be dragging things down.
 
Re: UPDATE

Well, it does seem that I am getting Out of Memory Errors. The good news is, they are moving me to a new (and they say much improved) server with a new OS and newer MySQL version. They are not 100 percent certain, but are "fairly certain" that this will cure the issues we have been having with the slow forum. Keep fingers and toes crossed.

Basil
 
Re: UPDATE

[ QUOTE ]
Well, it does seem that I am getting Out of Memory Errors. The good news is, they are moving me to a new ....

[/ QUOTE ]

So that's the explanation. I too am aging and getting out of memory errors more often now. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif

Good luck with the move....

And many thanks for all your work.
 
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