Dedicated server help

[nefarious]

We have just moved from a shared server to a dedicated server and server load hits about 5000% before the server needs rebooting. The hosting company are happy to sell us a larger server but they think our spec should be enough and to check here first.

I am waiting for some of the spec and reports from the hosters but this is what I can tell you:

vBulletin version 3.6.8
This is the only thing running on the server at present

Threads: 104,505
Posts: 1,116,685
Members: 29,253
We have anything between 100 and 1000 users on at any given time.

Current dedicated server:
# 2Ghz Celeron Processor
# 512MB Memory
# 40GB Hard Disk

Linux distro ubuntu6.06.3
PHP Version 5.1.2
MySQL 5.0.22
Server software: Apache/2.0.55 (Ubuntu) mod_ssl/2.0.55 OpenSSL/0.9.8a

The server load drops off the moment we shut the forums.

Do we need a beefier server or is vBulletin at fault?
Even when we have 20-30 users online the server hits 700% load...

[nefarious]

Here are the server questions back from the hosters:

1. Is this on dedicated or shared virual server. If shared, how many
sites share this server (ask web host if needed)

Decicated server running 1 site

2. your server specs. For example:

cpu speed/type single or dual cpus): dual p3 1ghz
how much memory installed: 512mb ram
hard drive type/configuration: 60GB EIDE non raid
linux distributor or windows version: ubuntu
apache/IIS version: apache 1.3.33
PHP version: php 4.3.11
MySQL version: mysql 4.0.25

3. what version of vB are you running ?

3.6.8

4. if you use mysql 4.x instead of mysql 3.23.x, do you have any innodb
type databases/tables on your server ?

no

5. if possible how mysql was compiled/installed

not possible

6. your top stats

top - 15:38:50 up 1:31, 0 users, load average: 0.09, 0.07, 0.05
Tasks: 119 total, 1 running, 115 sleeping, 0 stopped, 3 zombie
Cpu(s): 7.0% us, 1.5% sy, 0.0% ni, 90.3% id, 1.1% wa, 0.0% hi, 0.1% si
Mem: 449760k total, 426052k used, 23708k free, 21044k buffers
Swap: 2097136k total, 128k used, 2097008k free, 284608k cached


7. your mysql configuration variables located at /etc/my.cnf or
c:\my.cnf or my.ini so post the contents inside of my.cnf (minus any
passwords of course).

#
# The MySQL database server configuration file.
#
# You can copy this to one of:
# - "/etc/mysql/my.cnf" to set global options,
# - "/var/lib/mysql/my.cnf" to set server-specific options or
# - "~/.my.cnf" to set user-specific options.
#
# One can use all long options that the program supports.
# Run program with --help to get a list of available options and with
# --print-defaults to see which it would actually understand and use.
#
# For explanations see
# http://dev.mysql.com/doc/mysql/en/server-system-variables.html

# This will be passed to all mysql clients
# It has been reported that passwords should be enclosed with ticks/quotes
# escpecially if they contain "#" chars...
# Remember to edit /etc/mysql/debian.cnf when changing the socket location.
[client]
port = 3306
socket = /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock

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

# This was formally known as [safe_mysqld]. Both versions are currently parsed.
[mysqld_safe]
socket = /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock
nice = 0

[mysqld]
#
# * Basic Settings
#
user = mysql
pid-file = /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.pid
socket = /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock
port = 3306
basedir = /usr
datadir = /var/lib/mysql
tmpdir = /tmp
language = /usr/share/mysql/english
max_connections = 350
skip-external-locking
#
# For compatibility to other Debian packages that still use
# libmysqlclient10 and libmysqlclient12.
old_passwords = 1
#
# Instead of skip-networking the default is now to listen only on
# localhost which is more compatible and is not less secure.
# bind-address = 127.0.0.1
#
# * Fine Tuning
#
key_buffer = 16M
max_allowed_packet = 16M
thread_stack = 128K
#
# * Query Cache Configuration
#
query_cache_limit = 1048576
query_cache_size = 16777216
query_cache_type = 1
#
# * Logging and Replication
#
# Both location gets rotated by the cronjob.
# Be aware that this log type is a performance killer.
#log = /var/log/mysql.log
#log = /var/log/mysql/mysql.log
#
# Error logging goes to syslog. This is a Debian improvement :)
#
# Here you can see queries with especially long duration
#log-slow-queries = /var/log/mysql/mysql-slow.log
#
# The following can be used as easy to replay backup logs or for replication.
#server-id = 1
log-bin = /var/log/mysql/mysql-bin.log
expire-logs-days = 20
max_binlog_size = 104857600
#binlog-do-db = include_database_name
#binlog-ignore-db = include_database_name
#
# * BerkeleyDB
#
# According to an MySQL employee the use of BerkeleyDB is now discouraged
# and support for it will probably cease in the next versions.
skip-bdb
#
# * InnoDB
#
# InnoDB is enabled by default with a 10MB datafile in /var/lib/mysql/.
# Read the manual for more InnoDB related options. There are many!
#
# * Security Features
#
# Read the manual, too, if you want chroot!
# chroot = /var/lib/mysql/
#
# If you want to enable SSL support (recommended) read the manual or my
# HOWTO in /usr/share/doc/mysql-server/SSL-MINI-HOWTO.txt.gz
# ssl-ca=/etc/mysql/cacert.pem
# ssl-cert=/etc/mysql/server-cert.pem
# ssl-key=/etc/mysql/server-key.pem



[mysqldump]
quick
quote-names
max_allowed_packet = 16M

[mysql]
#no-auto-rehash # faster start of mysql but no tab completition

[isamchk]
key_buffer = 16M

#
# * NDB Cluster
#
# See /usr/share/doc/mysql-server-*/README.Debian for more information.
#
# The following configuration is read by the ndbd storage daemons,
# not from the ndb_mgmd management daemon.
#
# [MYSQL_CLUSTER]
# ndb-connectstring=127.0.0.1


8. MySQL stats from ssh telnet as root user type:

Uptime: 5355 Threads: 1 Questions: 21984 Slow queries: 0 Opens: 0 Flush
tables: 1 Open tables: 64 Queries per second avg: 4.105
mysqladmin Ver 8.41 Distrib 5.0.22, for pc-linux-gnu on i486
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 5.0.22-Debian_0ubuntu6.06.3-log
Protocol version 10
Connection Localhost via UNIX socket
UNIX socket /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock
Uptime: 1 hour 29 min 15 sec

Threads: 1 Questions: 21984 Slow queries: 0 Opens: 0 Flush tables: 1 Open
tables: 64 Queries per second avg: 4.105



9. is your vB the only thing on the server? or other scripts & sites
which utilise php and mysql?

vB is currently the only thing runinng.


10. how many average and max concurrent users on your vB forum ? and
what your cookie timeout is ?

Average 100 Max 1000
Session timeout 900


11. create a file named phpinfo.php and place this code in it and post
the url/link to it from your web site

PHP Code:
<?
phpinfo();
?>

http://www.volkszone.co.uk/phpinfo.php



12. if you run Apache and you have your own dedicated server or access
to your httpd.conf (apache configuration file) can you post the values
you have set for the following :

KeepAlive
MaxKeepAliveRequests
KeepAliveTimeout
MinSpareServers
MaxSpareServers
StartServers
MaxClients

AND Maxrequestsperchild value =


13. check to see if any files i.e. apache log files are hitting 2GB or
4GB max file size limits i.e. see if you have max file size exceeded
messages in apache error log

Non are


14. Post output from these 3 commands

uname -a
Linux ds4020 2.6.22-8-server #1 SMP Thu Jul 12 16:28:57 GMT 2007 i686 GNU/Linux

ulimit -aH
core file size (blocks, -c) unlimited
data seg size (kbytes, -d) unlimited
max nice (-e) 20
file size (blocks, -f) unlimited
pending signals (-i) unlimited
max locked memory (kbytes, -l) unlimited
max memory size (kbytes, -m) unlimited
open files (-n) 1024
pipe size (512 bytes, -p) 8
POSIX message queues (bytes, -q) unlimited
max rt priority (-r) unlimited
stack size (kbytes, -s) unlimited
cpu time (seconds, -t) unlimited
max user processes (-u) unlimited
virtual memory (kbytes, -v) unlimited
file locks (-x) unlimited


cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor : 0
vendor_id : GenuineIntel
cpu family : 15
model : 4
model name : Intel(R) Celeron(R) CPU 2.80GHz
stepping : 9
cpu MHz : 2800.491
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 pbe nx lm
constant_tsc up pni monitor ds_cpl tm2 cid cx16 xtpr lahf_lm
bogomips : 5605.88
clflush size : 64

[yellow_spider]

Is that you Simon ? :)

Cant really help with this (not my area!) , although your max memory (512mb) looks a little low for the ammount of users etc...

Good luck with getting this sorted anyway dude :cool:

[nefarious]

cheers dude...

[eva2000]

#8 question stats need more info as that's only the end part.. you can obtain that info in full also by following post #2 instructions at http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=70117