vBShoutbox overloading the server

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iNF3RN0

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Hi,
I have a dedcated quadcore Xeon Server with 4GB of ram and currently I am running only one forum on this machine! I am monitoring the server since last few days, vbshoutbox is overloading the MySQL hence increasing the load on the server! my server load average shoot to 6+ when 9 users doing chatting and yesterday when 15-16 members were chatting on the shoutbox is just brought down the whole server on the knees by increasing the load average to 40 which just made my site slow as hell.

As soon as I disabled the vshoutbox product the load average comes down to the normal 1.X to 2.x within seconds. I don't know why shoutbox query mysql server so brutely :S is there any optimization tip available? I am also using the vboptimize pro too along with Xcache.

Thanks,
 
Hi Deceptor,

I am not seeing any AOP option or anything like that which can turn it on/off! I am using vbshoutbox 5.2.1, I have these settings set (for optimization) as follow:

(Pro) Deep Logging: No
Shoutbox Optimisation: use file system
Shoutbox Refresh Speed: 5
(Pro) Shoutbox Refresh Speed - Idle: 5
Minimum Time Between Shouts: 3
 
Can you please try enabling the Slow Query Log and attach its results here after it's slowed down your site?
 
IS there any option to limit the number of users in the shoutbox? or disable the mysql updates? like for example most chat scripts don't make query with the mysql server on every submit/shout etc?? I do have mytop installed on the server It's not showing any slow query but whenever the number of users on the shoutbox increase by 11+ it just make the serverload go sky high :S
 
iNF3RN0 said:
IS there any option to limit the number of users in the shoutbox? or disable the mysql updates? like for example most chat scripts don't make query with the mysql server on every submit/shout etc?? I do have mytop installed on the server It's not showing any slow query but whenever the number of users on the shoutbox increase by 11+ it just make the serverload go sky high :S
Click to expand...

Do you have the shoutbox viewable for guests? That can be a huge impact. Try disabling that if you have it on, It should make a huge difference =)

Theres an optimisation update coming for the shoutbox the first half of next month, but we'll try to get things working as smoothly as possible for you until then obviously =)

Cosmic
 
Just to add to it, I've been having this problem REALLY bad too. Especially now that it's summer and I can't keep people -out- of the shoutbox.

I've got it turned off for guests, plus only visible on a separate page, tweaked the refresh settings, etc... But we get near that 10 active people mark and BOOM everything explodes until I turn off the shoutbox and let the database chill out for a second. Which really sucks, cause we use the shoutbox religiously for plotting and scheming!

I hope those optimizations are coming soon. Maybe with a limit too on how many people can be posting in it at once?
 
Hopefully they'll work as intended, it's kind of hard to do seeing as we don't have a very active shoutbox to test the fixes on :p


But we'll do our best ^^
 
I'm seeing things really start to slow down at around 10 users too.. running the old inferno shoutbox we often hit 30-40 with no problems..

It all seem CPU related - Server load skyrockets, but SQL isn't showing any slow queries...

I have Munin installed if you'd like to take a look, and happy to run any test/queries you like..

Cheers,
Dave
 
I see many other users also having the similar problem, I monitored the shoutbox many times and still whenever it hits the 10+ users limit it just shoot the server load average to 300% :S I have mytop installed on the server, it's not showing any slow queries but yes using the "top -c" command, I can see that mysql is taking 200% of the CPU :S as soon as I turn off shoutbox everything backs to normal.
 
You've downloaded the latest version? That seems to of fixed the issue for everyone so far. If anything, I'd reDL the latest version listed (regardless of version number) again and install it over the top.
 
^ hmm, currently I am running vbshoutbox pro 5.3, I will update to 5.3.1 shortly and will post here if again face the load issue :) thank for your reply mate.
 
Last night I upgraded the shoutbox to 5.3.1 version, but I just notice that few mins ago when there where 8 users in the shoutbox the server load average becomes 7.xx to 8.xx, as soon as I turned off the shoutbox the load average comes back to 2.xx (which is an average for my forum with 180 members online in peak time) :S
 
Hmm, what specifications is your server? Is it shared,VPS or dedicated?

Do you have the shoutbox set to auto idle so all 180 users aren't using up load?

what is your idle timeout set to?

Do you have the shoutbox turned on for guests?

What is your refresh rate set to?

It's likely just a case of having the options configured in a way your server is unable to handle =)

If you can give me that info i should be able to give you some settings to try changing to resolve it.
 
Cosmic said:
Hmm, what specifications is your server? Is it shared,VPS or dedicated?

Do you have the shoutbox set to auto idle so all 180 users aren't using up load?

what is your idle timeout set to?

Do you have the shoutbox turned on for guests?

What is your refresh rate set to?

It's likely just a case of having the options configured in a way your server is unable to handle =)

If you can give me that info i should be able to give you some settings to try changing to resolve it.
Click to expand...

Hello Cosmic, thanks for your reply..here's the information:

1 - It's a dedicated server with only one main website hosted on it i-e my forum (vb 4.0.6), the server specs are as follow:

- Intel Xeon x3430 quadcore (2.4GHz + 8MB cache)
- 4GB DDR3 ECC Ram
- CentOS 5 (64bit)
- MySQL v5.0.91
- Apache v2.2.15

2 - Idle Timeout = 180
- Shoutbox Refresh Speed = 7
- Shoutbox Refresh Speed - Idle = 5

3 - Shoutbox is on for guest

4 - As I said above, the refresh speed is set to 7.

I also have vboptimized pro installed on the forum.
 
What you want to do is turn on auto idle and see how that affects load.

If the load is still too high turn off guest viewing of shoutbox

With auto idle off all of your 180 or so users AND your guests are all using resources. By turning on auto idle only people actually using the shoutbox will be utilising resources, and by disabling it for guests it stops guests using your resources as well.

If you do these two things you should also be able to raise your idle timeout so that people can use the shoutbox more fluidly since only the people participating will be using up resources.
 
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