Why is the site always slow?

Stereodude · Apr 5, 2009

Am I the only one who finds SF slow? It seems like no matter from where or when I get on the site it's very frequently quite sluggish to respond. Today seems even worse than normal.

As an example of what I'm talking about it can take anywhere from 5 to 10's of seconds after I click a link before anything happens.

Edit: Now after posting this the site is nice and quick

jtr1962 · Apr 5, 2009

I've been experiencing the same thing for a long time but ironically today everything appears fast. :scratch:

ddrueding · Apr 5, 2009

Typically it is a bit slower than others, but reasonable (1-2 seconds). Just now it was timing out on me.

Edit: Right now it is quick.

P5-133XL · Apr 5, 2009

Sometimes the site is very bad (typically at night): I think that's when they do backups. You can tell when it is at its worst when there are lots of double posts. Most of the time it is sluggish, but acceptable. Right now it is quick. The pattern has been that way for years.

LunarMist · Apr 5, 2009

It is practically hopeless today.

This is the first day I've had functioning internet for a while, yet it has been lousy for a few weeks. I think Doug is working on another IP.

ddrueding · Apr 5, 2009

Right now it is kicking butt for me (18:39PST)

LunarMist · Apr 5, 2009

Sure, it is fine at the moment. The slowdowns are intermittent and always seem to occur when I am trying to reply to a thread. Very annoying.

Handruin · Apr 6, 2009

I need to figure out how to get the new site up and going. I think it's going to mean some downtime for a day or two when I do the switch.

ddrueding · Apr 6, 2009

I don't know if I can hold my breath that long!

timwhit · Apr 6, 2009

Handruin said:
I need to figure out how to get the new site up and going. I think it's going to mean some downtime for a day or two when I do the switch.

Can we access the new site through an IP address or something during that time?

Handruin · Apr 6, 2009

I'll see if it's possible. I tried a few things last night and when I try connecting via IP, it gets redirected to the domain name which obviously doesn't help if propagation hasn't yet occurred.

All the accounts I have are already copied to the new server with the bulk of their data. The issue with the downtime is getting the changes moved over and then changing my name servers to point to the new hosting provider.

timwhit · Apr 6, 2009

Handruin said:
I'll see if it's possible. I tried a few things last night and when I try connecting via IP, it gets redirected to the domain name which obviously doesn't help if propagation hasn't yet occurred.

All the accounts I have are already copied to the new server with the bulk of their data. The issue with the downtime is getting the changes moved over and then changing my name servers to point to the new hosting provider.

I think downtime will be necessary to move all the data, but once that is done, the major delay will be waiting for the DNS records to update. If you schedule the downtime for the data move and then tell us when we can connect via IP it will probably work, as long as it doesn't try to forward us back to the domain.

We could also update our HOSTS file to point storageforum.net at the new IP, then forwarding wouldn't break anything.

ddrueding · Apr 6, 2009

I know that a DNS change can take 48 hours to replicate globally, but I typically see the results within hours. You could make it even faster by changing the TTL of the DNS entries.

Handruin · Apr 7, 2009

Just to keep you guys up to date, I'm planning for the end of this month to make our transition to the new server.

timwhit · Apr 7, 2009

Handruin said:
Just to keep you guys up to date, I'm planning for the end of this month to make our transition to the new server.

Awesome. Thanks Doug.

timwhit · Apr 10, 2009

The board is extremely slow right now. About 3-4 minutes for a page to load.

LunarMist · Jun 22, 2010

This site is slow for me now, but other sites are not. Am I the only one?

Stereodude · Jun 22, 2010

It's seemed a little slow at times recently, but seems ok now.

ddrueding · Jun 22, 2010

It has taken a hit in the last week or so. Not nearly as bad as it used to be, but I'm actually seeing pages load now.

BingBangBop · Jun 22, 2010

I haven't seen any slowdowns recently.

Handruin · Jun 22, 2010

I think the drive ran out of space. I'll clean it up tonight. If it still seems slow, I'll reboot the system.

LunarMist · Jun 23, 2010

The slowdowns are intermittent and not nearly as severe as those last year. However, I thought it best to comment now before the situation deteriorates. The new host has been great overall.

Handruin · Jun 24, 2010

After 735 days of uptime, I decided to restart the entire server. The site seems to be running ok from what I can tell. Let me know if you notice problems again.

ddrueding · Jun 24, 2010

That is a healthy time between reboots. Not a record, but well above average certainly.

LunarMist · Jun 25, 2010

ddrueding said:
That is a healthy time between reboots. Not a record, but well above average certainly.

It has been nearly two years already since the new host was implemented? Wow. :cyclopsani:

timwhit · Jun 25, 2010

LunarMist said:
It has been nearly two years already since the new host was implemented? Wow. :cyclopsani:

No. I believe Doug had the new host for quite some time before moving SF onto it.

Stereodude · Jun 25, 2010

The site seems lightning fast since that reboot. :thumbright:

LunarMist · Jun 25, 2010

:bravo:It is back to normal. Great.

Handruin · Jun 25, 2010

timwhit said:
No. I believe Doug had the new host for quite some time before moving SF onto it.

I did have it for a while, you're correct. I procrastinated the move for far too long.

CityK · Jun 26, 2010

wow! For over a year and a half (maybe more), the site has been dog ass slow for me* (just getting to the site would take ~10s). Now its back to how it used to be, and as fast as all other sites. Note to Doug: reboot server more frequently.

* I really don't understand the expression "dog ass slow", given most dogs I've ever encountered are several times faster then myself

LunarMist · Jun 26, 2010

I only noticed the slowdown a week or so ago.

Handruin · Jun 26, 2010

Wow, I'm really surprised that the reboot fixed that issue for you. Let me know if it happens again and I'll reboot.

timwhit · Jun 26, 2010

Rather than restarting the whole server you might try restarting Apache using a cronjob. Apache is designed to be restarted quickly and frequently.

timwhit · Jun 26, 2010

You can also try setting MaxRequestsPerChild to a lower value in httpd.conf to configure how long httpd will allow each child thread to run before recycling.

LunarMist · Jun 26, 2010

timwhit said:
No. I believe Doug had the new host for quite some time before moving SF onto it.

10.5 mo. if I calculated correctly. :study:

Handruin · Jun 27, 2010

timwhit said:
Rather than restarting the whole server you might try restarting Apache using a cronjob. Apache is designed to be restarted quickly and frequently.

I have restarted apache several times since we've been on this server. That has fixed a few issues we've seen during that time. I checked to see what the value was for MaxRequestsPerChild and I couldn't find it defined within the httpd.conf, so I'm assuming that means apache uses the default value of 1000.

CityK · Jun 29, 2010

ugh ... seems to have slowed down a far bit again -- took about 10s again just to get on the site...first couple of page loads were also slow ... though, the last couple of page loads have been fine :dunno:

Handruin · Jun 29, 2010

Think it has anything to do with DNS resolution? Can you try accessing via IP and see if this does anything different:

http://67.222.3.121/~handruin

I can try rebooting again to see if it fixes the issue. I'm not seeing any slowdown from my location like you've describe.

CityK · Jun 29, 2010

Handruin said:
Think it has anything to do with DNS resolution?

Well, that's what I was thinking for the past year or so, but once you rebooted the server, it became a speed demon again. I just don't know how highly coincidental the two events could be.

I'm not seeing any slowdown from my location like you've describe.

yep, no one seemed to report the same problem I had been observing over that year and a half, so I was thinking that it was simply DNS related ... but, now wondering if there is more to it then that.

Can you try accessing via IP and see if this does anything different:

http://67.222.3.121/~handruin

yes, I will test it out over a couple of days.

I can try rebooting again to see if it fixes the issue.

Meh..if we can't figure it out easily enough, I wouldn't want you to spend any much time on it ... I'll just suffer with the lag/wait .... woe is me

ale: ... but I'm sure I'll get over it :grin:

timwhit · Jun 29, 2010

Handruin said:
Think it has anything to do with DNS resolution? Can you try accessing via IP and see if this does anything different:

http://67.222.3.121/~handruin

I can try rebooting again to see if it fixes the issue. I'm not seeing any slowdown from my location like you've describe.

I just got redirected back to storageforum.net when I went to that URL. Try this instead: http://67.222.3.121/~handruin/forum/

Why is the site always slow?

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