I'm in a vBulletin state of mind!!!

[f150guy]

Hi all,

Long time lurker (relatively speaking) and now vBulletin customer! After getting no response in a 72+ hour period from Infopop's support folks (my UBB was down after an Apache upgrade, total losses estimated at $2,500) I decided to take the matter into my own hands and upgrade to vBulletin.

Here is some feedback:

1) Installation was a breeze (after I got PHP functioning correctly)
2) The UBB data import took just over 2.5 hours, encompassing 59 forums, 5926 users, 1892 threads and 158,046 posts on my PII400, 256MB RAM dedicated server.
3) Performance is SSSSLLLOOOOWWWWWW ... anyone have any tips? All configurations are default, out of the box.
4) John, feel free to add me the list of satisfied users (and the front page of your site, if you'd like)

I am guessing that I rank among the larger vB users now!

Thanks for a great, easy to use product...now if I can get the performance and SSI issues taken care of...

Steve Eppinger
F-150 Online
http://www.f150online.com/f150forums/index.php

[Brian]

Check the forums for MySQL settings to change. It sounds like you are using defaults which are causing the problems.

-Brian

[werehere]

How about posting phpinfo, and your mysql variables here for us to see. I also could not get into your forums, it was down so I will try later.

[wandrer]

Performance is SSSSLLLOOOOWWWWWW

For the rest of the $2,500 , you could buy another 256MB Ram to give you some additional playroom. Check out the performance tips on mysql.com for systems that have >256MB Ram.

[f150guy]

[PHP_3]

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
; Language Options ;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

engine = On ; enable PHP 3.0 parser
short_open_tag = On ; allow the <? tag. otherwise, only <?php and <script> tags are recognized.
asp_tags = Off ; allow ASP-style <% %> tags
precision = 14 ; number of significant digits displayed in floating point numbers
y2k_compliance = Off ; whether to be year 2000 compliant (will cause problems with non y2k compliant browsers)

; Safe Mode
safe_mode = Off
safe_mode_exec_dir =
safe_mode_allowed_env_vars = PHP_ ; Setting certain environment variables
; may be a potential security breach.
; This directive contains a comma-delimited
; list of prefixes. In Safe Mode, the
; user may only alter environment
; variables whose names begin with the
; prefixes supplied here.
; By default, users will only be able
; to set environment variables that begin
; with PHP_ (e.g. PHP_FOO=BAR).
; Note: If this directive is empty, PHP
; will let the user modify ANY environment
; variable!
safe_mode_protected_env_vars = LD_LIBRARY_PATH ; This directive contains a comma-
; delimited list of environment variables,
; that the end user won't be able to
; change using putenv().
; These variables will be protected
; even if safe_mode_allowed_env_vars is
; set to allow to change them.


; Colors for Syntax Highlighting mode. Anything that's acceptable in <font color=???> would work.
highlight.string = #DD0000
highlight.comment = #FF8000
highlight.keyword = #007700
highlight.bg = #FFFFFF
highlight.default = #0000BB
highlight.html = #000000


expose_php = On ; Decides whether PHP may expose the fact that it is installed on the
; server (e.g., by adding its signature to the Web server header).
; It is no security threat in any way, but it makes it possible
; to determine whether you use PHP on your server or not.

; charset = iso-8859-1 ; This sets the charset for the default text/html type served up by PHP

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
; Resource Limits ;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

max_execution_time = 30 ; Maximum execution time of each script, in seconds
memory_limit = 33000000 ; Maximum amount of memory a script may consume (8MB)


;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
; Error handling and logging ;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
; error_reporting is a bit-field. Add each number up to get desired error reporting level
; 1 = Normal errors
; 2 = Normal warnings
; 4 = Parser errors
; 8 = Notices - warnings you can ignore, but sometimes imply a bug (e.g., using an uninitialized variable)
error_reporting = 7
display_errors = On ; Print out errors (as a part of the HTML script)
log_errors = Off ; Log errors into a log file (server-specific log, stderr, or error_log (below))
track_errors = Off ; Store the last error/warning message in $php_errormsg (boolean)
;error_prepend_string = "<font color=ff0000>" ; string to output before an error message
;error_append_string = "</font>" ; string to output after an error message
;error_log = filename ; log errors to specified file
;error_log = syslog ; log errors to syslog (Event Log on NT, not valid in Windows 95)
warn_plus_overloading = Off ; warn if the + operator is used with strings


;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
; Data Handling ;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
magic_quotes_gpc = Off ; magic quotes for incoming GET/POST/Cookie data
magic_quotes_runtime= Off ; magic quotes for runtime-generated data, e.g. data from SQL, from exec(), etc.
magic_quotes_sybase = Off ; Use Sybase-style magic quotes (escape ' with '' instead of \')
track_vars = On ; enable $HTTP_GET_VARS[], $HTTP_POST_VARS[] and $HTTP_COOKIE_VARS[] arrays
; automatically add files before or after any PHP 3.0 document
auto_prepend_file =
auto_append_file =


;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
; Paths and Directories ;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
include_path = ; UNIX: "/path1:/path2" Windows: "\path1;\path2"
doc_root = ; the root of the php pages, used only if nonempty
user_dir = ; the directory under which php opens the script using /~username, used only if nonempty
;upload_tmp_dir = ; temporary directory for HTTP uploaded files (will use system default if not specified)
upload_max_filesize = 2097152 ; 2 Meg default limit on file uploads
extension_dir = ./ ; directory in which the loadable extensions (modules) reside


;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
; Dynamic Extensions ;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
; if you wish to have an extension loaded automaticly, use the
; following syntax: extension=modulename.extension
; for example, on windows,
; extension=msql.dll
; or under UNIX,
; extension=msql.so
; Note that it should be the name of the module only, no directory information
; needs to go here. Specify the location of the extension with the extension_dir directive above.


;Windows Extensions
;extension=php3_mysql.dll
;extension=php3_calendar.dll
;extension=php3_dbase.dll
;extension=php3_gd.dll
;extension=php3_dbm.dll
;extension=php3_mssql.dll
;extension=php3_zlib.dll
;extension=php3_filepro.dll
;extension=php3_imap4r1.dll
;extension=php3_ldap.dll
;extension=php3_crypt.dll
;extension=php3_msql2.dll
;extension=php3_odbc.dll

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
; Module Settings ;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

[Syslog]
define_syslog_variables = Off ; Whether or not to define the various syslog variables,
; e.g. $LOG_PID, $LOG_CRON, etc. Turning it off is a
; good idea performance-wise. In runtime, you can define
; these variables by calling define_syslog_variables()


[mail function]
SMTP = localhost ;for win32 only
sendmail_from = me@localhost.com ;for win32 only
sendmail_path = ;for unix only, may supply arguments as well (default is sendmail -t)

[Debugger]
debugger.host = localhost
debugger.port = 7869
debugger.enabled = False

[Logging]
; These configuration directives are used by the example logging mechanism.
; See examples/README.logging for more explanation.
;logging.method = db
;logging.directory = /path/to/log/directory

[SQL]
sql.safe_mode = Off

[ODBC]
;uodbc.default_db = Not yet implemented
;uodbc.default_user = Not yet implemented
;uodbc.default_pw = Not yet implemented
uodbc.allow_persistent = On ; allow or prevent persistent links
uodbc.max_persistent = -1 ; maximum number of persistent links. -1 means no limit
uodbc.max_links = -1 ; maximum number of links (persistent+non persistent). -1 means no limit
uodbc.defaultlrl = 4096 ; Handling of LONG fields. Returns number of bytes to variables, 0 means passthru
uodbc.defaultbinmode = 1 ; Handling of binary data. 0 means passthru, 1 return as is, 2 convert to char
; See the documentation on odbc_binmode and odbc_longreadlen for an explanation of uodbc.defaultlrl
; and uodbc.defaultbinmode

[MySQL]
mysql.allow_persistent = On ; allow or prevent persistent link
mysql.max_persistent = -1 ; maximum number of persistent links. -1 means no limit
mysql.max_links = -1 ; maximum number of links (persistent+non persistent). -1 means no limit
mysql.default_port = ; default port number for mysql_connect(). If unset,
; mysql_connect() will use the $MYSQL_TCP_PORT, or the mysql-tcp
; entry in /etc/services, or the compile-time defined MYSQL_PORT
; (in that order). Win32 will only look at MYSQL_PORT.
mysql.default_host = ; default host for mysql_connect() (doesn't apply in safe mode)
mysql.default_user = ; default user for mysql_connect() (doesn't apply in safe mode)
mysql.default_password = ; default password for mysql_connect() (doesn't apply in safe mode)
; Note that this is generally a *bad* idea to store passwords
; in this file. *Any* user with PHP access can run
; 'echo cfg_get_var("mysql.default_password")' and reveal that
; password! And of course, any users with read access to this
; file will be able to reveal the password as well.

[mSQL]
msql.allow_persistent = On ; allow or prevent persistent link
msql.max_persistent = -1 ; maximum number of persistent links. -1 means no limit
msql.max_links = -1 ; maximum number of links (persistent+non persistent). -1 means no limit

[PostgresSQL]
pgsql.allow_persistent = On ; allow or prevent persistent link
pgsql.max_persistent = -1 ; maximum number of persistent links. -1 means no limit
pgsql.max_links = -1 ; maximum number of links (persistent+non persistent). -1 means no limit

[Sybase]
sybase.allow_persistent = On ; allow or prevent persistent link
sybase.max_persistent = -1 ; maximum number of persistent links. -1 means no limit
sybase.max_links = -1 ; maximum number of links (persistent+non persistent). -1 means no limit
;sybase.interface_file = "/usr/sybase/interfaces"
sybase.min_error_severity = 10 ; minimum error severity to display
sybase.min_message_severity = 10 ; minimum message severity to display
sybase.compatability_mode = Off ; compatability mode with earlier versions of PHP 3.0.
; If on, this will cause PHP to automatically assign types to results
; according to their Sybase type, instead of treating them all as
; strings. This compatability mode will probably not stay around
; forever, so try applying whatever necessary changes to your code,
; and turn it off.

[Sybase-CT]
sybct.allow_persistent = On ; allow or prevent persistent link
sybct.max_persistent = -1 ; maximum number of persistent links. -1 means no limit
sybct.max_links = -1 ; maximum number of links (persistent+non persistent). -1 means no limit
sybct.min_server_severity = 10 ; minimum server message severity to display
sybct.min_client_severity = 10 ; minimum client message severity to display

[bcmath]
bcmath.scale = 0 ; number of decimal digits for all bcmath functions

[browscap]
;browscap = extra/browscap.ini

[image]
;ps.default_encoding = "/etc/t1lib/enc/IsoLatin1.enc" ; default character encoding vector for PostScript Type1 fonts

[Informix]
ifx.default_host = ; default host for ifx_connect() (doesn't apply in safe mode)
ifx.default_user = ; default user for ifx_connect() (doesn't apply in safe mode)
ifx.default_password = ; default password for ifx_connect() (doesn't apply in safe mode)
ifx.allow_persistent = On ; allow or prevent persistent link
ifx.max_persistent = -1 ; maximum number of persistent links. -1 means no limit
ifx.max_links = -1 ; maximum number of links (persistent+non persistent). -1 means no limit
ifx.textasvarchar = 0 ; if set on, select statements return the contents of a text blob instead of it's id
ifx.byteasvarchar = 0 ; if set on, select statements return the contents of a byte blob instead of it's id
ifx.charasvarchar = 0 ; trailing blanks are stripped from fixed-length char columns. May help the life
; of Informix SE users.
ifx.blobinfile = 0 ; if set on, the contents of text&byte blobs are dumped to a file instead of
; keeping them in memory
ifx.nullformat = 0 ; NULL's are returned as empty strings, unless this is set to 1. In that case,
; NULL's are returned as string 'NULL'.

[f150guy]

# Example mysql config file.
# You can copy this to one of:
# /etc/my.cnf to set global options,
# mysql-data-dir/my.cnf to set server-specific options (in this
# installation this directory is /var/lib/mysql) or
# ~/.my.cnf to set user-specific options.
#
# One can use all long options that the program supports.
# Run the program with --help to get a list of available options

# This will be passed to all mysql clients
[client]
#password = my_password
port = 3306
socket = /var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock

# Here is entries for some specific programs
# The following values assume you have at least 32M ram

# The MySQL server
[mysqld]
port = 3306
socket = /var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock
skip-locking
set-variable = key_buffer=16M
set-variable = max_allowed_packet=1M
set-variable = thread_stack=128K
# Start logging
log

[mysqldump]
quick
set-variable = max_allowed_packet=16M

[mysql]
no-auto-rehash

[isamchk]
set-variable = key_buffer=16M

[UserName]

Hi Steve -
I am using the my.cnf file that Shaman posted a little while back and I have had ZERO problems. My board is not as big as yours and I'm using a dual P500 with 500meg of ram, so your results may vary, but here's the link to the my.cnf file:
http://vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=1067

[Martin]

I would also strongly recommend upgrading to PHP 4.0.0 with Zend. That will increase your performance quite a bit.

[Menno]

I think I need a new server...
*stares at his P75/16MB internet/test-webserver*

[John]

A couple of thoughts on those things there:

I may be mistaken, but are you running a Windows operating system. Needless to say, performance would be MILES (kilometers?) better with PHP as an Apache module on *nix.

Also, I would recommend upgrading to PHP4 if at all possible.

John