Welcome to CF's new servers! :)

[Erwin]

Sorry, had to reset the webserver process again - no matter what I try, it's going to be slow. More hardware is needed.

 

[angelwind]

Sorry, had to reset the webserver process again - no matter what I try, it's going to be slow. More hardware is needed.

Ok Erwin...we know you are working at it.... (hugs)

 

[mesue]

Thank you Erwin !!!
I appreciate the work and long hours you put in to make this site better.
Get some rest, you should know better than to stress your self like that.
May God bless you richly

 

[Swart]

It should be faster now. But we will still need more webservers I think.

Try implementing a reverse proxy. I think you'd be surprised at the results you can get from them. I favour iChain as a reverse proxy because it is easily configured as an appliance and is quick to deploy, has a rich feature set and quite simply knocks the socks off all of its competitors in terms of performance. However it can be expensive. It's downside is that a separate LDAP authentication server is required even if you don't utilise authentication and licencing is as complex as it is with Citrix.

Cisco implement a very fast RP utilising L4 switching technology with a Cisco router running WCCP version 2 to stripe queries amongst multiple proxies and multiple web servers. Your service provider may offer this service if they use Cisco routers.

Apache can be configured as a RP and so can Squid.

Open Source RPs include Pound, Perlbal, HAProxy and LVS. Wikipedia use Perlbal tyo accelerate and load balance their webservers, however LVS is my OS favourite as it also incorporates High Availability into its feature set.

 

[faithopelove]

Thank you, erwin!

 

[breatheprayer]

actually, my pages are loading much slower...is anyone else experiencing this?
Thank you, Erwin, for your work and dedication.
God Bless You.

 

[Swart]

Sorry, had to reset the webserver process again - no matter what I try, it's going to be slow. More hardware is needed.

If you like I can runup a spare server I have here as a RP into CF so that you can test it for a few weeks and see if it fulfills your needs. It won't be a "fair" test as the servers won't be local, but at least you'd get a feel for how a RP works and can improve performance.

 

[Erwin]

I think I know the problem - we're running FreeBSD 6.0 - and only 4.x and 5.x support SMP kernels - so despite the fact that we have 4 CPUs per server, FreeBSD can only see 1 CPU... we'll have to fix this somehow... this means more downtime - probably downgrade to FreeBSD 5.x or call it a day and move to Centos... something that can support multiple processors.

 

[Erwin]

Actually FreeBSD 6.0 can use the SMP kernel - I don't think our host compiled the kernel with SMP - I'll get them to do it first before we look at more hardware.

 

[MeekOne]

I think I know the problem - we're running FreeBSD 6.0 - and only 4.x and 5.x support SMP kernels - so despite the fact that we have 4 CPUs per server, FreeBSD can only see 1 CPU... we'll have to fix this somehow... this means more downtime - probably downgrade to FreeBSD 5.x or call it a day and move to Centos... something that can support multiple processors.

Mega bite hugs to you Erwin for all that you do to make CF a great forum for the Lord's people! It seems like you have really went above and beyond, and know that you are truly appreciated from everyone here for doing what you do. Thank you for all the hard work you have put into this upgrade. Please take good care of yourself and get the sleep you need as well, we need you to be right as rain again.

 

[Swart]

Actually FreeBSD 6.0 can use the SMP kernel - I don't think our host compiled the kernel with SMP - I'll get them to do it first before we look at more hardware.

I was about to mention that...

I'm not a BSD Hack, but I would strongly recommend compiling the OS from source, if that option is available. Also using a better compiler than the standard gcc compiler can yield significant improvements in server performance.

 

[SoulFly51]

I take it there's a problem now? Everything is going reeeeeeeally slow.

 

[day2day]

I think I know the problem - we're running FreeBSD 6.0 - and only 4.x and 5.x support SMP kernels - so despite the fact that we have 4 CPUs per server, FreeBSD can only see 1 CPU... we'll have to fix this somehow... this means more downtime - probably downgrade to FreeBSD 5.x or call it a day and move to Centos... something that can support multiple processors.

Erwin it will all work out.
Thank you for all your hard work.
This is what they meant by patience is a virtue. ​

 

[CaDan]

Actually FreeBSD 6.0 can use the SMP kernel - I don't think our host compiled the kernel with SMP - I'll get them to do it first before we look at more hardware.

Get hold of Seebs. He's a BSD hacker.

 

[Timothy]

I think I know the problem - we're running FreeBSD 6.0 - and only 4.x and 5.x support SMP kernels - so despite the fact that we have 4 CPUs per server, FreeBSD can only see 1 CPU... we'll have to fix this somehow... this means more downtime - probably downgrade to FreeBSD 5.x or call it a day and move to Centos... something that can support multiple processors.

Sounds likely. We were given a wrong kernel on a server shift once (linux not BSD) which didn't have RAIDO compiled in... server tries to 'reconfigure' and we lost a whole lot of data. If you can compile the kernel yourself so you can hand-check every option, it's always safest.

 

[mikeyp]

ah the 4 v 1 processor problem... hope you get it sorted soon, but first, GET SOME SLEEP

php is a hungry beast at the best of times, very processor intensive... best of luck getting the webservers going erwin...

and to everyone else, patience please....

 

[dawiyd]

Sounds likely. We were given a wrong kernel on a server shift once (linux not BSD) which didn't have RAIDO compiled in... server tries to 'reconfigure' and we lost a whole lot of data. If you can compile the kernel yourself so you can hand-check every option, it's always safest.

But if you do check every option you would create a kernel with a large memory footprint, probably not the best thing for a server......or any pc in that case.

 

[XianSamurai]

If this has been addressed already, sorry. I haven't read through everything.

Are they still working on the new servers, because everytime I've tried coming to this site today, there is a HUGE lag. Everything is taking forever to load. (Which is why I'm not reading through this whole thread, it would take forever.)

 

[eladoni]

Thanks Erwin! :hu:g:

 

[Timothy]

But if you do check every option you would create a kernel with a large memory footprint, probably not the best thing for a server......or any pc in that case.

That's check as in 'make sure you've got the right ones' not as 'select'.

Timothy