Server Type

Published by: anonym 2008-11-18

Hi,

Just wondering what type of server is required to run a board like this with over 500 users utilizing at the same time?

Hello,

That was informative. Server is as copied from ISP site:
AMD Sempron 2800+ 64-bit
512MB RAM
40GB ultra fast hard drive

Virtual Server Type C - EsoSoft Corporation::
Virtual Server Type C. Features. Server. Platform. 1.2 GB disk space. FreeBSD 4.4 UNIX O/S iManager and ACE server administration utilities
http://www.esosoft.com/virtualserver/products/typec.htmlHOME

So by comparison to your recommendation for a dual processor and 2GB ram, this is really under powered? I have about 2000 members. Maximum user shown to be online (within 15 minutes) was about 50.

Thanks.

can you post all info asked at http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=70117 for your current server/forum activity ? as 50 users should be fine for your current server easily

hard to say as we don't know what that 500 vB users entail...

there's a few things to note:

1. vB user online concurrently is based on default 15 min or 900 second cookie time out and is different from mysql concurrent connections ( max_connections/max_used_connections limit)

2. vB currently only can use mysql as a backend but later there will be ports to sybase and postgresql way after vB 3.x has been publicly released

3. MySQL regardless of forum software, provided it has the right hardware and mysql, php and apache configuration is good for theoretically 1000 - 1500 and even 4,000 mysql concurrent connections (4,000 with the mysql staticly compiled rpm binaries)

4. this means you can have 1000 vB users online displayed but they actually can use 200 - 700 concurrent mysql max connections since vB shows those 1000 vB users over 15 mins / 900s and not the exact same second, you can have any combination

i.e.

300 members + 700 guests = 1000 vb users online past 15 min, with only 300 - 500 mysql concurrent connections in use

or

500 members + 500 guests = 1000 vb users online past 15min, with 500 - 800 mysql concurrent connections in use

both examples show 1,000 vb users online past 15mins but the latter example could place more load on the server due to more mysql concurrent connection usage

5. hardware isn't the only aspect which determines vB performance, you have to have apache, php and mysql configured optimally - left unoptimised especially mysql's configuration, then even the most powerful hardware will not perform well

6. if you set your vB timeout cookie higher than default 15 mins, you will show more vB users online - so set timeout cookie in vB admin panel to 30 mins, then the vB user online display will show users on in the past 30 mins thereby inflating the vB user online display - generally the higher the cookie timeout, the higher the vB users online to mysql concurrent connections ratio

So that 500 users could be 10 members and 490 guests over 15min cookie timeout which would be very lightly loaded compared to 480members and 20 gusts at 15min cookie timeout - meaning more likely to be hitting 150-300+ mysql concurrent connections and needing a much more powerful server than the latter example.

Do you currently have a vB forum running ? if so info asked at http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=70117 would help us recommend you a server.. if not and it's a new start up and you have confidence your forum will grow to 500+ vB users quickly, i'd start with minimum dual p4 2.8ghz xeon with 2GB ram and SCSI disks (important). Normally, it would probably take a new forum start up 3-9 months to grow to that size, so maybe start with a lower spec'd server like P4 3.2GHZ 800FSB, 1GB ram and SATA drives for first 6-12 months or until you grow to need an upgrade to better servers.