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Anonymous
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Hello, we are having problems with our message boards being very very slow after the upgrade to 6.04e (UNIX/Linux). We currently have UBB installed on a PII 400 with 1/2 Gig of Ram. Most of our customers attempting to post or read posts are thinking that the page is erroring out.

We heard that performance was a bit slower in 6.04e and also heard that after the pages cache, performance should become better. However, we are experiencing EXCRUCIATINGLY slow performance right now. By the way, the load was also extremely high on the box itself, sometimes using up to 80% of the processor.

Is there anything immediate we can do? Will splitting up our larger message boards into smaller ones help? How big should we let our message boards grow before splitting them up / archiving them / deleting them?

Also - would it be possible to get some stats on some of Infopops customers using UBB, ie. what kind of machines people are using, how big a "heavily trafficed message board" actually is, and what kind of load these customers are dealing with using UBB?

Any assistance would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Anonymous
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The UBB is an EXTREMELY I/O dependant program - well over two thirds of the performance problems that people encounter involve the system being unable to get data to the UBB fast enough. (The other third is mainly lack of memory and CPU power)

For extremely high traffic, we generally advise people to switch to OpenTopic, as it can handle the traffic far better than UBB ever can. In extreme cases, it can be less expensive.

If you wish to continue to run UBB, that system will not be up to the job. I would probably advise at least a P3-800. The memory's fine. Ensure you're using SCSI disks - a RAID if possible.

This particular board is running on a P3-600 with half a gig of memory and a SCSI RAID. The server barely knows anything's here. I can't recall more than one instance when the load's been over .5. We get about half a million pageviews a month.

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Well, I experienced the same thing. Looks like the minimum requirements of UBB 6.04e are much higher than v5.4.7. The system is experiencing loads over 5 at the lowest time. Why is everything routed through a single .cgi now? It seems like the move away from .html files prolly contributes to this increased requirement.

Anyway, is there a way to revert back to v5.4.7?

m.

ps you should clearly state that the minimum system requirements to run UBB 6 are greater than v5.4.7 and warn people against upgrading. I heard it was slower in some tasks, but this now a huge problem. I don't quite know how to downgrade.

pss i what possible case would OpenTopic be less expensive than UBB? I cannot figure out any possible scenario.

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Quote
Originally posted by mkbhatia:
[qb]

pss i what possible case would OpenTopic be less expensive than UBB? I cannot figure out any possible scenario.

[ 06-03-2001: Message edited by: mkbhatia ][/qb]
When you don't have to pay any consultants to fix UBB every time it goes down.

Anonymous
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If you're going to end up paying four figures for a dedicated server just to host a Perl script, THAT is when OpenTopic is going to be less expensive. <img src="https://www.ubbcentral.com/boards/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

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Downgrading to UBB5.47e The maxmemfields setting has to be bumped up to 30 or so.

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I am having roughly the same problem, only I think I get the prize for most over-used board!

I am currently running a dell 1400 server with dual 667s and half gig of memory. It is on a software raid array running RedHat 7.0 though.

I have over 7000 very active members and generate about 6,000,000 page views a month. (about 25-50K new post a week)

Well this is causing the server some serious problems. I'm seeing a constant load of about 5-15 with the search function disabled, with it enabled the load spikes up to about 30-60.

The server was previously running 5.47 and had a load of about 3-5 before the upgrade. How can the new code have this much more overhead?

Basically I need suggestions. Short of moving to a quad processor, which I obviously can't afford.

Please help... I need some ideas here.

EDIT: I just reread you post and you stated that I/O was the largest problem... how much of a performance increase would I get from using a hardware raid rather than a software? Becuase $1000 for a raid card sounds a whole lot better then buying a quad server.

-Nick http://www.i-club.com/

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Software RAID is a mistake, MAJORLY - the things spontaneously corrupt themselves even WITHOUT a UBB. <img src="https://www.ubbcentral.com/boards/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> Use a real live SCSI RAID...

Anonymous
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Thanks Charles.

I just hope this will help take care of some, of not the majority, of the load.

One last question... Do you think the load issue is because the SW RAID is fighting with UBB for reading and writing time, or processor time? Or a combination of the two?

-Nick

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Lots of traffic + slow I/O == Big problems, nuff said.

If the UBB and the software RAID were trying to compete for time, that would certainly explain part of the problem.

Oh, and those had better be SCSI disks, not IDE... Even an IDE RAID isn't good enough.

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Yes the are SCSI Charles... I was crazy, not insane when I bought the system! <img src="https://www.ubbcentral.com/boards/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> Thanks for caring though.

I'll be dropping in a hardware raid card ASAP. I just hope that does the trick.

-Nick

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Quote
Originally posted by Charles Capps:
[qb]If you're going to end up paying four figures for a dedicated server just to host a Perl script, THAT is when OpenTopic is going to be less expensive. <img src="https://www.ubbcentral.com/boards/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> [/qb]
Uh, I am currently paying for two servers to host UBB boards. I have had several extended conversations with folks at InfoPop about Open Topic. And it is not cheaper. Not by a long, long shot.

Anonymous
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We've recently revamped our pricing plans just a bit... <img src="https://www.ubbcentral.com/boards/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

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Quote
Originally posted by Charles Capps:
[qb]We've recently revamped our pricing plans just a bit... <img src="https://www.ubbcentral.com/boards/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> [/qb]
Not to belabor the point, but for 5 million page views a month (which is not that much), you're looking at $12,500 a month. In reality, the majority of sites can sell only a fraction of that ad capacity, so the ad revenues on that kind of traffic are typically only a small fraction of that amount.

I have no grudge against InfoPop and wish them well. I just think (and have set forth detailed and respectful defenses on my position on the OT forum) that OpenTopic is not a viable alternative for the great majority of ad based web sites.

Anonymous
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Can does not mean always, unfortunately. I personally know of many people who have 1-2 million pageviews a month who are shelling out massive money for dedicated servers and their UBBs. 5 million, though, is rather expensive... Anyway, this is PIT, not quite the place to discuss pricing. <img src="https://www.ubbcentral.com/boards/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> Closing this thread due to getting way off topic.


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