Ideal Specs

[white_2kgt]

What would be the ideal server specs for a vb Forum with this kind of activity?

1M+ post (~3 years old)
1,700 Members
700 Active members
30+ New members/month

We are currently on a dedicated server but are seeing slow down when search is on. What kind of hardware would a site like this run best on? Assume it is the only thing on the server.

If you need any other info let me know.

Thanks

[eva2000]

would be best to provide info asked at http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=70117 for current server which shows a more true picture of your forum/server activity and usage

[white_2kgt]

Ok. I'll get that info for you. In the interm if I were to upgrade which would I be better off with?

1) Dual Intel XEON 2.8GHz w/ 1GB ram and 2 80GB HDs
or
2) 2 Seperate servers each with 1 Pentium 4 2.8 GHz, 1GB ram and 1 80GB hd's? Figure I could run apache on one and mysql on the other.

I can get both setups for about the same price from the same host.

thanks,
chad

[Zachery]

Hmm, you need more ram either way. However current stats would be good as george stated.

A dual xeon with that sort of horse power is missing its most important aspect, its ram.

You could give me a Quad Dual Core Opteron server and if it had 512mb of ram what good would it do me?

[white_2kgt]

Hmm, you need more ram either way. However current stats would be good as george stated.

A dual xeon with that sort of horse power is missing its most important aspect, its ram.

You could give me a Quad Dual Core Opteron server and if it had 512mb of ram what good would it do me?

Hum, well they each had 1GB. What should they have 2GB? With the seperate systems I'd have a total of 2GB, just 1GB in each system. Seems like a better deal to get 2 seperate servers.

[white_2kgt]

would be best to provide info asked at http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=70117 for current server which shows a more true picture of your forum/server activity and usage

Thanks,

1. Dedicated, 1 other low volume php/mysql site running on server
2. Intel Celron 2.0GHz
512 MB Ram
1x80GB IDE
RedHat 9
Apache 1.3.33
php 4.3.11
mysql max-5.0.20a
3. N/A
4. Mysql was installed from the download on mysql.org
5.

22:46:13 up 6:37, 1 user, load average: 0.05, 0.12, 0.15
76 processes: 75 sleeping, 1 running, 0 zombie, 0 stopped
CPU states: 14.1% user 2.0% system 0.0% nice 0.0% iowait 83.7% idle
Mem: 512084k av, 487488k used, 24596k free, 0k shrd, 17072k buff
326420k actv, 61136k in_d, 50620k in_c
Swap: 1052248k av, 150768k used, 901480k free 253156k cached

6.

[client]
port = 3306
socket = /tmp/mysql.sock
[mysqld]
port = 3306
socket = /tmp/mysql.sock
old_passwords
skip-locking
skip-innodb
max_connections = 400
key_buffer = 16M
myisam_sort_buffer_size = 64M
join_buffer_size = 1M
read_buffer_size = 1M
sort_buffer_size = 2M
table_cache = 1024
thread_cache_size = 64
wait_timeout = 1800
connect_timeout = 10
tmp_table_size = 32M
read_rnd_buffer_size = 524288
bulk_insert_buffer_size = 8M
max_allowed_packet = 16M
max_connect_errors = 10
query_cache_limit = 1M
query_cache_size = 16M
query_cache_type = 1
query_prealloc_size = 16384
query_alloc_block_size = 16384
#log-bin
#server-id = 1
[mysqld_safe]
open_files_limit = 8192
[mysqldump]
quick
max_allowed_packet = 16M
[mysql]
no-auto-rehash
# Remove the next comment character if you are not familiar with SQL
#safe-updates
[isamchk]
key_buffer = 20M
sort_buffer_size = 20M
read_buffer = 2M
write_buffer = 2M
[myisamchk]
key_buffer = 20M
sort_buffer_size = 20M
read_buffer = 2M
write_buffer = 2M
[mysqlhotcopy]
interactive-timeout

7.

+---------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| Variable_name | Value |
+---------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| auto_increment_increment | 1 |
| auto_increment_offset | 1 |
| automatic_sp_privileges | ON |
| back_log | 50 |
| basedir | /usr/local/mysql-max-5.0.20a-linux-i686/ |
| bdb_cache_size | 8388600 |
| bdb_home | /usr/local/mysql/data/ |
| bdb_log_buffer_size | 524288 |
| bdb_logdir | |
| bdb_max_lock | 10000 |
| bdb_shared_data | OFF |
| bdb_tmpdir | /tmp/ |
| binlog_cache_size | 32768 |
| bulk_insert_buffer_size | 8388608 |
| character_set_client | latin1 |
| character_set_connection | latin1 |
| character_set_database | latin1 |
| character_set_filesystem | binary |
| character_set_results | latin1 |
| character_set_server | latin1 |
| character_set_system | utf8 |
| character_sets_dir | /usr/local/mysql-max-5.0.20a-linux-i686/share/mysql/charsets/ |
| collation_connection | latin1_swedish_ci |
| collation_database | latin1_swedish_ci |
| collation_server | latin1_swedish_ci |
| completion_type | 0 |
| concurrent_insert | 1 |
| connect_timeout | 10 |
| datadir | /usr/local/mysql/data/ |
| date_format | %Y-%m-%d |
| datetime_format | %Y-%m-%d %H:%i:%s |
| default_week_format | 0 |
| delay_key_write | ON |
| delayed_insert_limit | 100 |
| delayed_insert_timeout | 300 |
| delayed_queue_size | 1000 |
| div_precision_increment | 4 |
| engine_condition_pushdown | OFF |
| expire_logs_days | 0 |
| flush | OFF |
| flush_time | 0 |
| ft_boolean_syntax | + -><()~*:""&| |
| ft_max_word_len | 84 |
| ft_min_word_len | 4 |
| ft_query_expansion_limit | 20 |
| ft_stopword_file | (built-in) |
| group_concat_max_len | 1024 |
| have_archive | YES |
| have_bdb | YES |
| have_blackhole_engine | YES |
| have_compress | YES |
| have_crypt | YES |
| have_csv | YES |
| have_example_engine | YES |
| have_federated_engine | YES |
| have_geometry | YES |
| have_innodb | DISABLED |
| have_isam | NO |
| have_ndbcluster | DISABLED |
| have_openssl | DISABLED |
| have_query_cache | YES |
| have_raid | NO |
| have_rtree_keys | YES |
| have_symlink | YES |
| init_connect | |
| init_file | |
| init_slave | |
| innodb_additional_mem_pool_size | 1048576 |
| innodb_autoextend_increment | 8 |
| innodb_buffer_pool_awe_mem_mb | 0 |
| innodb_buffer_pool_size | 8388608 |
| innodb_checksums | ON |
| innodb_commit_concurrency | 0 |
| innodb_concurrency_tickets | 500 |
| innodb_data_file_path | |
| innodb_data_home_dir | |
| innodb_doublewrite | ON |
| innodb_fast_shutdown | 1 |
| innodb_file_io_threads | 4 |
| innodb_file_per_table | OFF |
| innodb_flush_log_at_trx_commit | 1 |
| innodb_flush_method | |
| innodb_force_recovery | 0 |
| innodb_lock_wait_timeout | 50 |
| innodb_locks_unsafe_for_binlog | OFF |
| innodb_log_arch_dir | |
| innodb_log_archive | OFF |
| innodb_log_buffer_size | 1048576 |
| innodb_log_file_size | 5242880 |
| innodb_log_files_in_group | 2 |
| innodb_log_group_home_dir | |
| innodb_max_dirty_pages_pct | 90 |
| innodb_max_purge_lag | 0 |
| innodb_mirrored_log_groups | 1 |
| innodb_open_files | 300 |
| innodb_support_xa | ON |
| innodb_sync_spin_loops | 20 |
| innodb_table_locks | ON |
| innodb_thread_concurrency | 0 |
| innodb_thread_sleep_delay | 10000 |
| interactive_timeout | 28800 |
| join_buffer_size | 1044480 |
| key_buffer_size | 16777216 |
| key_cache_age_threshold | 300 |
| key_cache_block_size | 1024 |
| key_cache_division_limit | 100 |
| language | /usr/local/mysql-max-5.0.20a-linux-i686/share/mysql/english/ |
| large_files_support | ON |
| large_page_size | 0 |
| large_pages | OFF |
| license | GPL |
| local_infile | ON |
| locked_in_memory | OFF |
| log | OFF |
| log_bin | OFF |
| log_bin_trust_function_creators | OFF |
| log_error | |
| log_slave_updates | OFF |
| log_slow_queries | OFF |
| log_warnings | 1 |
| long_query_time | 10 |
| low_priority_updates | OFF |
| lower_case_file_system | OFF |
| lower_case_table_names | 0 |
| max_allowed_packet | 16776192 |
| max_binlog_cache_size | 4294967295 |
| max_binlog_size | 1073741824 |
| max_connect_errors | 10 |
| max_connections | 400 |
| max_delayed_threads | 20 |
| max_error_count | 64 |
| max_heap_table_size | 16777216 |
| max_insert_delayed_threads | 20 |
| max_join_size | 18446744073709551615 |
| max_length_for_sort_data | 1024 |
| max_relay_log_size | 0 |
| max_seeks_for_key | 4294967295 |
| max_sort_length | 1024 |
| max_sp_recursion_depth | 0 |
| max_tmp_tables | 32 |
| max_user_connections | 0 |
| max_write_lock_count | 4294967295 |
| multi_range_count | 256 |
| myisam_data_pointer_size | 6 |
| myisam_max_sort_file_size | 2147483647 |
| myisam_recover_options | OFF |
| myisam_repair_threads | 1 |
| myisam_sort_buffer_size | 67108864 |
| myisam_stats_method | nulls_unequal |
| ndb_autoincrement_prefetch_sz | 32 |
| ndb_force_send | ON |
| ndb_use_exact_count | ON |
| ndb_use_transactions | OFF |
| ndb_cache_check_time | 0 |
| net_buffer_length | 16384 |
| net_read_timeout | 30 |
| net_retry_count | 10 |
| net_write_timeout | 60 |
| new | OFF |
| old_passwords | ON |
| open_files_limit | 2458 |
| optimizer_prune_level | 1 |
| optimizer_search_depth | 62 |
| pid_file | /usr/local/mysql/data/www.racersden.net.pid |
| port | 3306 |
| preload_buffer_size | 32768 |
| protocol_version | 10 |
| query_alloc_block_size | 16384 |
| query_cache_limit | 1048576 |
| query_cache_min_res_unit | 4096 |
| query_cache_size | 16777216 |
| query_cache_type | ON |
| query_cache_wlock_invalidate | OFF |
| query_prealloc_size | 16384 |
| range_alloc_block_size | 2048 |
| read_buffer_size | 1044480 |
| read_only | OFF |
| read_rnd_buffer_size | 520192 |
| relay_log_purge | ON |
| relay_log_space_limit | 0 |
| rpl_recovery_rank | 0 |
| secure_auth | OFF |
| server_id | 0 |
| skip_external_locking | ON |
| skip_networking | OFF |
| skip_show_database | OFF |
| slave_compressed_protocol | OFF |
| slave_load_tmpdir | /tmp/ |
| slave_net_timeout | 3600 |
| slave_skip_errors | OFF |
| slave_transaction_retries | 10 |
| slow_launch_time | 2 |
| socket | /tmp/mysql.sock |
| sort_buffer_size | 2097144 |
| sql_mode | |
| sql_notes | OFF |
| sql_warnings | OFF |
| storage_engine | MyISAM |
| sync_binlog | 0 |
| sync_frm | ON |
| sync_replication | 0 |
| sync_replication_slave_id | 0 |
| sync_replication_timeout | 10 |
| system_time_zone | CDT |
| table_cache | 1024 |
| table_lock_wait_timeout | 50 |
| table_type | MyISAM |
| thread_cache_size | 64 |
| thread_stack | 126976 |
| time_format | %H:%i:%s |
| time_zone | SYSTEM |
| timed_mutexes | OFF |
| tmp_table_size | 33554432 |
| tmpdir | |
| transaction_alloc_block_size | 8192 |
| transaction_prealloc_size | 4096 |
| tx_isolation | REPEATABLE-READ |
| updatable_views_with_limit | YES |
| version | 5.0.20a-max |
| version_bdb | Sleepycat Software: Berkeley DB 4.1.24: (April 18, 2006) |
| version_comment | MySQL Community Edition - Experimental (GPL) |
| version_compile_machine | i686 |
| version_compile_os | pc-linux-gnu |
| wait_timeout | 1800 |
+---------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------+
+-----------------------------------+------------+
| Variable_name | Value |
+-----------------------------------+------------+
| Aborted_clients | 0 |
| Aborted_connects | 0 |
| Binlog_cache_disk_use | 0 |
| Binlog_cache_use | 0 |
| Bytes_received | 57606539 |
| Bytes_sent | 3640188742 |
| Com_admin_commands | 0 |
| Com_alter_db | 0 |
| Com_alter_table | 0 |
| Com_analyze | 0 |
| Com_backup_table | 0 |
| Com_begin | 0 |
| Com_change_db | 35685 |
| Com_change_master | 0 |
| Com_check | 0 |
| Com_checksum | 0 |
| Com_commit | 0 |
| Com_create_db | 0 |
| Com_create_function | 0 |
| Com_create_index | 0 |
| Com_create_table | 0 |
| Com_dealloc_sql | 0 |
| Com_delete | 1584 |
| Com_delete_multi | 0 |
| Com_do | 0 |
| Com_drop_db | 0 |
| Com_drop_function | 0 |
| Com_drop_index | 0 |
| Com_drop_table | 0 |
| Com_drop_user | 0 |
| Com_execute_sql | 0 |
| Com_flush | 0 |
| Com_grant | 0 |
| Com_ha_close | 0 |
| Com_ha_open | 0 |
| Com_ha_read | 0 |
| Com_help | 0 |
| Com_insert | 5481 |
| Com_insert_select | 237 |
| Com_kill | 0 |
| Com_load | 0 |
| Com_load_master_data | 0 |
| Com_load_master_table | 0 |
| Com_lock_tables | 2 |
| Com_optimize | 1 |
| Com_preload_keys | 0 |
| Com_prepare_sql | 0 |
| Com_purge | 0 |
| Com_purge_before_date | 0 |
| Com_rename_table | 0 |
| Com_repair | 0 |
| Com_replace | 528 |
| Com_replace_select | 0 |
| Com_reset | 0 |
| Com_restore_table | 0 |
| Com_revoke | 0 |
| Com_revoke_all | 0 |
| Com_rollback | 0 |
| Com_savepoint | 0 |
| Com_select | 61049 |
| Com_set_option | 60 |
| Com_show_binlog_events | 0 |
| Com_show_binlogs | 0 |
| Com_show_charsets | 0 |
| Com_show_collations | 0 |
| Com_show_column_types | 0 |
| Com_show_create_db | 0 |
| Com_show_create_table | 22 |
| Com_show_databases | 1 |
| Com_show_errors | 0 |
| Com_show_fields | 22 |
| Com_show_grants | 0 |
| Com_show_innodb_status | 0 |
| Com_show_keys | 0 |
| Com_show_logs | 0 |
| Com_show_master_status | 0 |
| Com_show_ndb_status | 0 |
| Com_show_new_master | 0 |
| Com_show_open_tables | 0 |
| Com_show_privileges | 0 |
| Com_show_processlist | 0 |
| Com_show_slave_hosts | 0 |
| Com_show_slave_status | 0 |
| Com_show_status | 4 |
| Com_show_storage_engines | 0 |
| Com_show_tables | 4 |
| Com_show_triggers | 21 |
| Com_show_variables | 14 |
| Com_show_warnings | 0 |
| Com_slave_start | 0 |
| Com_slave_stop | 0 |
| Com_stmt_close | 0 |
| Com_stmt_execute | 0 |
| Com_stmt_fetch | 0 |
| Com_stmt_prepare | 0 |
| Com_stmt_reset | 0 |
| Com_stmt_send_long_data | 0 |
| Com_truncate | 0 |
| Com_unlock_tables | 1 |
| Com_update | 27506 |
| Com_update_multi | 0 |
| Com_xa_commit | 0 |
| Com_xa_end | 0 |
| Com_xa_prepare | 0 |
| Com_xa_recover | 0 |
| Com_xa_rollback | 0 |
| Com_xa_start | 0 |
| Compression | OFF |
| Connections | 35507 |
| Created_tmp_disk_tables | 163 |
| Created_tmp_files | 6 |
| Created_tmp_tables | 7184 |
| Delayed_errors | 0 |
| Delayed_insert_threads | 0 |
| Delayed_writes | 0 |
| Flush_commands | 1 |
| Handler_commit | 0 |
| Handler_delete | 2363 |
| Handler_discover | 0 |
| Handler_prepare | 0 |
| Handler_read_first | 23983 |
| Handler_read_key | 1241955 |
| Handler_read_next | 8133438 |
| Handler_read_prev | 58433 |
| Handler_read_rnd | 455848 |
| Handler_read_rnd_next | 9129515 |
| Handler_rollback | 0 |
| Handler_savepoint | 0 |
| Handler_savepoint_rollback | 0 |
| Handler_update | 30244 |
| Handler_write | 414993 |
| Innodb_buffer_pool_pages_data | 0 |
| Innodb_buffer_pool_pages_dirty | 0 |
| Innodb_buffer_pool_pages_flushed | 0 |
| Innodb_buffer_pool_pages_free | 0 |
| Innodb_buffer_pool_pages_latched | 0 |
| Innodb_buffer_pool_pages_misc | 0 |
| Innodb_buffer_pool_pages_total | 0 |
| Innodb_buffer_pool_read_ahead_rnd | 0 |
| Innodb_buffer_pool_read_ahead_seq | 0 |
| Innodb_buffer_pool_read_requests | 0 |
| Innodb_buffer_pool_reads | 0 |
| Innodb_buffer_pool_wait_free | 0 |
| Innodb_buffer_pool_write_requests | 0 |
| Innodb_data_fsyncs | 0 |
| Innodb_data_pending_fsyncs | 0 |
| Innodb_data_pending_reads | 0 |
| Innodb_data_pending_writes | 0 |
| Innodb_data_read | 0 |
| Innodb_data_reads | 0 |
| Innodb_data_writes | 0 |
| Innodb_data_written | 0 |
| Innodb_dblwr_pages_written | 0 |
| Innodb_dblwr_writes | 0 |
| Innodb_log_waits | 0 |
| Innodb_log_write_requests | 0 |
| Innodb_log_writes | 0 |
| Innodb_os_log_fsyncs | 0 |
| Innodb_os_log_pending_fsyncs | 0 |
| Innodb_os_log_pending_writes | 0 |
| Innodb_os_log_written | 0 |
| Innodb_page_size | 0 |
| Innodb_pages_created | 0 |
| Innodb_pages_read | 0 |
| Innodb_pages_written | 0 |
| Innodb_row_lock_current_waits | 0 |
| Innodb_row_lock_time | 0 |
| Innodb_row_lock_time_avg | 0 |
| Innodb_row_lock_time_max | 0 |
| Innodb_row_lock_waits | 0 |
| Innodb_rows_deleted | 0 |
| Innodb_rows_inserted | 0 |
| Innodb_rows_read | 0 |
| Innodb_rows_updated | 0 |
| Key_blocks_not_flushed | 0 |
| Key_blocks_unused | 7929 |
| Key_blocks_used | 6568 |
| Key_read_requests | 4571371 |
| Key_reads | 6615 |
| Key_write_requests | 16544 |
| Key_writes | 12558 |
| Last_query_cost | 0.000000 |
| Max_used_connections | 25 |
| Ndb_cluster_node_id | 0 |
| Ndb_connected_host | |
| Ndb_connected_port | 0 |
| Ndb_number_of_storage_nodes | 0 |
| Not_flushed_delayed_rows | 0 |
| Open_files | 424 |
| Open_streams | 0 |
| Open_tables | 262 |
| Opened_tables | 269 |
| Qcache_free_blocks | 432 |
| Qcache_free_memory | 7138208 |
| Qcache_hits | 93759 |
| Qcache_inserts | 60949 |
| Qcache_lowmem_prunes | 0 |
| Qcache_not_cached | 106 |
| Qcache_queries_in_cache | 2079 |
| Qcache_total_blocks | 4873 |
| Questions | 261511 |
| Rpl_status | NULL |
| Select_full_join | 66 |
| Select_full_range_join | 5 |
| Select_range | 11993 |
| Select_range_check | 0 |
| Select_scan | 10470 |
| Slave_open_temp_tables | 0 |
| Slave_retried_transactions | 0 |
| Slave_running | OFF |
| Slow_launch_threads | 0 |
| Slow_queries | 16 |
| Sort_merge_passes | 3 |
| Sort_range | 8107 |
| Sort_rows | 1655301 |
| Sort_scan | 9421 |
| Ssl_accept_renegotiates | 0 |
| Ssl_accepts | 0 |
| Ssl_callback_cache_hits | 0 |
| Ssl_cipher | |
| Ssl_cipher_list | |
| Ssl_client_connects | 0 |
| Ssl_connect_renegotiates | 0 |
| Ssl_ctx_verify_depth | 0 |
| Ssl_ctx_verify_mode | 0 |
| Ssl_default_timeout | 0 |
| Ssl_finished_accepts | 0 |
| Ssl_finished_connects | 0 |
| Ssl_session_cache_hits | 0 |
| Ssl_session_cache_misses | 0 |
| Ssl_session_cache_mode | NONE |
| Ssl_session_cache_overflows | 0 |
| Ssl_session_cache_size | 0 |
| Ssl_session_cache_timeouts | 0 |
| Ssl_sessions_reused | 0 |
| Ssl_used_session_cache_entries | 0 |
| Ssl_verify_depth | 0 |
| Ssl_verify_mode | 0 |
| Ssl_version | |
| Table_locks_immediate | 170844 |
| Table_locks_waited | 69 |
| Tc_log_max_pages_used | 0 |
| Tc_log_page_size | 0 |
| Tc_log_page_waits | 0 |
| Threads_cached | 24 |
| Threads_connected | 1 |
| Threads_created | 25 |
| Threads_running | 1 |
| Uptime | 21160 |
+-----------------------------------+------------+
Uptime: 21160 Threads: 1 Questions: 261512 Slow queries: 0 Opens: 0 Flush tables: 1 Open tables: 262 Queries per second avg: 12.359
mysqladmin Ver 8.41 Distrib 5.0.20a, for pc-linux-gnu on i686
Copyright (C) 2000 MySQL AB & MySQL Finland AB & TCX DataKonsult AB
This software comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY. This is free software,
and you are welcome to modify and redistribute it under the GPL license
Server version 5.0.20a-max
Protocol version 10
Connection Localhost via UNIX socket
UNIX socket /tmp/mysql.sock
Uptime: 5 hours 52 min 40 sec
Threads: 1 Questions: 261512 Slow queries: 0 Opens: 0 Flush tables: 1 Open tables: 262 Queries per second avg: 12.359

8. There is 1 other site that uses php/mysql. It is very low volume compared to vB
9. Avg: 40 MAX: 100 Cookie Timeout: 900
10. http://www.racersden.net/forum/phpinfo.php
11.
KeepAlive On
MaxKeepAliveRequests 50
KeepAliveTimeout 15
MinSpareServers 10
MaxSpareServers 15
StartServers 20
MaxClients 150
MaxRequestsPerChild 0
12. 3.5.4
13. Apache Logs are rotated daily, no logs are that large
14.
uname -a
Linux www.racersden.net (http://www.racersden.net) 2.4.20-31.9 #1 Tue Apr 13 18:04:23 EDT 2004 i686 i686 i386

ulimit -aH
GNU/Linux
core file size (blocks, -c) unlimited
data seg size (kbytes, -d) unlimited
file size (blocks, -f) unlimited
max locked memory (kbytes, -l) unlimited
max memory size (kbytes, -m) unlimited
open files (-n) 1024
pipe size (512 bytes, -p) 8
stack size (kbytes, -s) unlimited
cpu time (seconds, -t) unlimited
max user processes (-u) 4082
virtual memory (kbytes, -v) unlimited


cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor : 0
vendor_id : GenuineIntel
cpu family : 15
model : 3
model name : Intel(R) Celeron(R) CPU 2.40GHz
stepping : 4
cpu MHz : 2400.168
cache size : 256 KB
fdiv_bug : no
hlt_bug : no
f00f_bug : no
coma_bug : no
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 5
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm
bogomips : 4784.12

[eva2000]

Yes definitely a celery cpu (celeron) is a very poor performer as a web serving cpu and for your large post table forum yes search will be severely hampered. Slow IDE disks would also contribute to the problem along with lack of memory which mysql thrives on.

Ideal server for you would Dual AMD64 Opteron 244-248 cpus with 2GB PC3200 Registered ECC memory minimum and fast 10k or even better 15k rpm scsi disks.

Opterons are way better in the performance to price ratio stakes compared to dual intel p4 xeon cpus if you read http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=160103 and http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=110116

Dual AMD64 Opteron 244-248 is equivalent to Dual P4 3.2-3.4Ghz Xeons at a fraction of the price of the xeon cpus!

[white_2kgt]

I'm getting a max connections exceeded about every 4-5 days now, anything I can do to trace down why this is happening or ways to fix it?

[eva2000]

is it a 'too many connections' message on vB forums (source code of page) ?

or

'maxclients exceeded' message in apache error log ?

Right after a 'too many connections' message, ssh telnet into your server and re-post output for

mysqladmin -u root -p var ext ver