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MacRumors NEEDS better servers!!!

arn said:
Today was popular because lots of people wanted to read about Tiger. Tomorrow will likely be worse since everyone will want to read about the new computers released. ;)
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Wow. The "MacRumors god" has spoken. Tomorrow it is. ;) Woo, haha :)
 
I would just like to add my thoughts here, to my mind this is one (if not the) most active forum groups of all the main rumor sites, which I guess explains the load issue.

I can remember back to when I first started considering switching. I used this site for help and info before I purchased my first Mac. Like many people I lurked for a while before registering, but I have been a member here for a couple of years, not a frequent poster but have almost made it to 500 posts.

I honestly believe that the formula that we have really works and I don't think we should mess with it.

Arn appears to think that the server problems are fixed, so hopefully we don't want to place restrictions on possible future members.

just my thoughts anyway... Keep up the good work Arn, hopefully I will be buying my 4th Mac tomorrow :)
 
kingjr3 said:
Is it just me, or does anyone suspect that vBulletin may be to blame (as least in part). Searches shouldn't take a toll if properly designed and coded (aka cacheing and efficient indexing) - of course thats just one example - there are probably many more areas that could be improved for scalability.
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Not just you :) I don't have access to vB3, but based on vB2 there are a huge amount of queries that could be cached - user permissions, forum settings, user info etc. The problem is just that it's a one-size-fits-all solution, and so can't take advantage of things which could be run on dedicated servers (eg memcached for caching and Xapian for searching).

I'd really like to develop the forum software I wrote for one of my own sites to cope with some of these load issues, but too big a project for me at the moment.
 
James Craner said:
Arn appears to think that the server problems are fixed, so hopefully we don't want to place restrictions on possible future members.
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Thanks for your thoughts James. I actually think the server can be fixed... but is not fixed at the moment.

arn
 
Do you actually own the servers and colo them or do you go through for examplel, theplanet.com and rent them?

and yes i have found vB to be a bit server strenuous on searches (i own my own vB license)
 
eva01 said:
Do you actually own the servers and colo them or do you go through for examplel, theplanet.com and rent them?

and yes i have found vB to be a bit server strenuous on searches (i own my own vB license)
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they are rented.

arn
 
I just can't believe how many people are on at one time on this board. I go to other boards and it's like a ghost town by comparison or they don't even want to talk about tiger or anything else until long after it's out.
 
bobx2001 said:
how about you guys charge for people to have avatars? better than being forced to have 500!!! posts.
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I really don't like that idea. It took me, and I'm sure others along time to get to 500 posts, and when I did get there, having my own avatar made me feel good, because I earned it with for the most part well thought out posts. If you contribute you will be rewarded with an avatar eventually. It's also a level of distinction along side your number (ie., 6502, 68040)
 
Things seem a lot better today with all the traffic, 1500 people and no slow downs.....yet :)
 
MacNut said:
Things seem a lot better today with all the traffic, 1500 people and no slow downs.....yet :)
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we're still having intermittent problems...

still working on it...

arn
 
arn said:
we're still having intermittent problems...

still working on it...

arn
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It is a lot better then its been over the past few days so I give a good ole salute to Arn.
 
We run an ancient ATM network where I work, and internet access is so bad nowadays I can't tell which end the slowness comes from.

I'd definitely be interested in contributing when the time comes...MR has grown a lot in the past year and growth means more strain on the hardware.
 
leftbanke7 said:
I'm willing to pony up my old Beige G3 for the cause...lol.
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Thats awesome man! We'll be able to add approximately 10 more simultaneous users! WOW!

Anyways, Arn... you might have luck with your php running on one server and the database running on another (web server / database server setup). Then again, I'm sure you've already thought about all this stuff, and all of us bringing up stupid suggestions is just irritating.

Well, at least I'm not a hippocrit. I pay my dues. Its a great site, and I love bein' a member/demi-God of it. :)
 
wrc fan said:
I was just wondering if you had something like mmcache installed, and were using the mysql query cache to help speed up database queries? I know it's helped a lot on the sites I've worked on to have those set up.
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I do have mysql cache on. I don't have mmcache installed. I used to have phpa installed but that fell by the wayside at some point. I think my main issue is not enough ram and the need for faster HDs.

MacRumors used to run on one server. It was then split into one for the main site (macrumors.com) and one for the forums (forums.macrumors.com).

At this point, the forums are going to have to split over two servers. One for vbulletin and one dedicated for mysql. It's possible that the one server could handle both vbulletin and macrumors.com, but for growth purposes, I'll prob keep it on 3 servers.

arn
 
Man, how much are you spending on all this, if you're going to go to 3 servers?!?! That's crazy! I would think, though, since you say the problem is only ram and HDs, that one server would be perfectly fine for vbulletin and macrumors.com, specially if you re-enable phpa. And then get a nice quick db server. If you have to, you could always seperate them at a later time. (I'm just thinking about trying to keep the costs down. :) )
 
Just out of curiosity, what cost benefits does one get from renting servers rather than buying them? I am completely oblivious to all things concerning servers and the like so that's why I ask.
 
leftbanke7 said:
Just out of curiosity, what cost benefits does one get from renting servers rather than buying them? I am completely oblivious to all things concerning servers and the like so that's why I ask.
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The main advantage is the initial cost outlay, especially for powerful servers. You could be paying $3000 to buy the server outright, then pay monthly colocation fees, or just pay a higher monthly fee with no/little setup costs. Another advantage is that if anything breaks with the hardware, it is replaced free of charge.

The disadvantages are that you pay monthly for everything, so for example, instead of buying a 512MB dimm for $50 you will pay $20 extra every month. Also, if you are buying it you have full control over the specification, manufacturer and operating system, rather than picking from a set choice of configurations.
 
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