performance testing

[wandrer]

Ok, seeing as how I don't have a licensed copy of the vbulletin software to test myself, anyone want to offer their site for me to test ?

Just got done testing UBB 5.4x with posting 60,000 topics spread over 9 forums. Would like to do the same to vbulletin (actually, was requested to do it by one of our clients).

Here's what I wrote in the scriptkeeper.com forum:

Using a script to post as fast as possible 60,000 topics spread over 9 forums. (the same script with minor modifications that was used to post 1,000 times in the chit-chat forum)

Graphed 5K posts at a time (average).




Greatest jump was between 10K and 15K posts. None of the posts had replies. Email me at wandrer@glcomputers.com if you would like more information.

Full sized picture can be seen here - http://www.glcomputers.com/Wandrer/images/ubb-test-60Kposts.gif

[Menno]

neat :D

[James]

Hi Wandrer,

It sounds a pretty good idea... we'd be happy to install another version of the software on this server for your to torture test :)

Please let me know your thoughts.

All the best,

James

[wandrer]

what caused me to think about this was when I was around the 850-950 mark on the chitchat forum, it took about 20-25 seconds (average) to post a reply. For PHP/Mysql, that normally means that something is wrong. John said that they were having problems with mysql, hopefully not caused by me - but then again, I was running 5 scripts at one time - each trying to post replies as fast as possible.

So, anyone got a copy of vbulletin lying around or just set one up and want to test its speed ?

[wandrer]

we'd be happy to install another version of the software on this server for your to torture test

Awesome ! Would my posting to it cause any problems with this site ? Don't want to do anything to harm this site, but adding a few thousand posts to a mysql database in a short time (even if it was a separate mysql database than this one) might slow everything down...

[James]

Well, we won't know what effect it'll have on the server until we try it ;)

I think the problems we were having with MySQL yesterday were caused by the server being overloaded sending email notification responses for your 1000 posts -- to me :)

Anyway, I'll get the system set up and post back here when we're ready to go.

All the best,

James

[wandrer]

sending email notification responses for your 1000 posts -- to me

How many emails did you get ? Sorry for the emails though... Is this site on a dedicated system (processor/ram) ?

[James]

Don't worry - I only got about 800 emails! ;)

The forums are on a dedicated server:
- Pentium III 500Mhz
- 256 Mb Ram

This server hosts the vBulletin site, as well as the high traffic VB-World forums over at:
http://forums.vb-world.net

All the best,

James

[James]

Right - I've finished setting up a new copy of vBulletin here:
http://www.vbulletin.com/testforum/index.php

Please let me know if you need more forums, categories, etc. I'm looking forward to seeing the results :)

All the best,

James

[wandrer]

just got the stats for the first 10000 posts...

< check out http://www.glcomputers.com/Wandrer/forums/ for the latest stats >

[Edited by wandrer on 04-26-2000 at 06:32 PM]

[wandrer]

1-15000 posts averages

< check out http://www.glcomputers.com/Wandrer/forums/ for the latest stats >

[Edited by wandrer on 04-26-2000 at 06:32 PM]

[wandrer]

For those needing a graph...



Large version can be found here - http://www.glcomputers.com/Wandrer/images/ubb-vs-vbulletin.gif

[Menno]

I think it's safe to say vB is faster, but is it fast enough in comparison? (cgi-php/mySQL)

[wandrer]

seconds to process a post for vbulletin

< check out http://www.glcomputers.com/Wandrer/forums/ for the latest stats >

[Edited by wandrer on 04-26-2000 at 06:33 PM]

[wandrer]

John/James,

Completed 120,000 postings to the test forum. Could you please send me the mysql dump of the testforum database for all the forums. Can you email me a ZIP file of the dump (or email me the location for me to download it) to wandrer@glcomputers.com .

The UBB test still has around 40,000 posts to go and then I will do up graphs for vbulletin and ubb for the posting times.

[stv]

I just tried to search in the test forum here:

http://www.vbulletin.com/testforum/search.php

for 'how' and i got "There seems to have been a slight problem with the database. Please try again by pressing the refresh button in your browser." Even after repeatedly trying...

Steve

[wandrer]

I noticed that also when I got over the 80K posts. Maybe there is a problem in the search program ?

BTW: Everyone, take a look at the graphs of the 120K posting times for vbulletin - they can be seen at the following address:

http://www.glcomputers.com/wandrer/forums/

[Brian]

Graphs look cool, I would suggest that you make both in the same unit's though as right now vbulletin is much faster but it looks slower from the graph unless you see the units are different.

-Brian

[wandrer]

Completed the posting test. New Comparison graphs can be seen at http://www.glcomputers.com/Wandrer/forums/

On to the 'real-world' testing...

[werehere]

I guess it is nothing that I was not expecting to see, since this is MySQL driven it had to exceed the UBB.

Nice layout to see the difference though:)

[cheeky]

I'm not fortunate enough to be in area that supports DSL and I know that there are currently still a lot of lame 56k modem users out there (me included), but wouldn't this DSL speed and similar fast connections remove any comparison tests in relatively similar products?

[cheeky]

the speed of the vBoard is pretty smooth and those graphs are pretty tasty - nice job.

Q: is the vBoard "flushed" ?

[wandrer]

but wouldn't this DSL speed and similar fast connections remove any comparison tests in relatively similar products?

A DSL or Cable modem doesn't make your connection 'faster', instead it gives you more 'bandwidth'. The amount of time it takes me to connect to a site is the same if you have a DSL or a 28.8 modem. The only difference is the bandwidth that I can download at one time versus a 28.8.

It takes me ~130ms to connect to vbulletin.com . It takes me ~1-5ms to connect to the webserver running on my own computer.



Q: is the vBoard "flushed" ?

Huh ?

[cheeky]

thanks for clarifying my rushed response.

in which case, doesn't the increase in bandwidth remove the requirements of speed tests with the differences being so relatively marginal?

"flushing"
- your not an active server pages guy, huh?

it's a simple technique for emptying the browser buffers and displaying rendered HTML as the page is being processed.

- it gives the illusion of a fast very page load.

eg: I could have started typing this reply whilst the remainder of the page was being loaded, rather than faced with a white screen!

"flushing"!

[Edited by cheeky on 04-30-2000 at 02:19 AM]

[Menno]

I guess that clears it up....

[bbyrd]

here is where a mysql board written in perl is located http://beta.ub2k.com/MySQL/UltraBoard.cgi