Performance problems after update

[ThomasSch]

I understand, don't worry. We will migrate to either phpBB or Discourse.

[Sylv1]

I feel that the key is your database is not on the same server than the vb code

[ThomasSch]

That might be true. But how would you ever scale from a private hobby project to a professional site if that's a requirement? I always use separate database clusters and a dynamic set of web nodes behind a load balancer for my projects. vBulletin is the only piece of (commercial) software that I came across in recent years which wasn't built with scaling in mind. Therefore - ditch and replace. I won't get rid of reasonable architecture to accommodate some specific software.

[Mark.B]

One thing that doesn't seem to have been mentioned, is what the purpose of the upgrade is.
With an established forum with five million posts, you need to have very clear reasons why you want to upgrade (or switch software).

What features do you need that are in vB5 but not in vB4?
What is broken in vB4 that requires an upgrade to vB5?

If vB4 is working then there's no pressing reason to upgrade.

[Wayne Luke]

I feel that the key is your database is not on the same server than the vb code

The database for this site is not on a the same server as Apache and PHP. We use multiple web servers attached to a single MySQL Database.