Capacity/traffic question

jharmer · Post by **jharmer** » Mon Apr 08, 2002 7:11 pm

What kind of traffic do you all do, on a daily basis, say in # of posts, and # of page views?

I'm considering using phpBB to replace our webX messageboards for some of the CNN properties (NASCAR, CNN, CNNSI, HBO, etc.) but I need to make sure it can handle the kind of traffic we have gotten.

I think some of our busy days have been like 200,000 page views, and around 8,000 posts.

We're thinking of implementing phpBB with a seperate, robust Oracle server, and maybe Sun Netra T1's as page servers. Does anyone here have any idea if that'll be able to handle that level of traffic?

What about load balancing a number of servers? Is that difficult?

romutis · Post by **romutis** » Mon Apr 08, 2002 7:45 pm

jharmer wrote: I think some of our busy days have been like 200,000 page views, and around 8,000 posts.

We're thinking of implementing phpBB with a seperate, robust Oracle server, and maybe Sun Netra T1's as page servers. Does anyone here have any idea if that'll be able to handle that level of traffic?

What about load balancing a number of servers? Is that difficult?

Implementation of phpBB2 on several webservers with on DB-server - isn't a problem. Oracle allows you to have concurrent connections from different web-servers to one DB. And also 200,000 pageviews - is nothing for robust Oracle Server. (We have project with 1DB (in cluster), 14 webservers and 6 mln. pageviews a day)

I don't know about behavior of PHP-part of phpBB but Oracle DB layer looks hmmm... quiet unoptimized...

Everything comes with default values... Default values are good for small board but for your project...

So, if you are going to implement phpBB2/Oracle - you must redisign Oracle definitions in oracle_schema.sql for your requirements.

Brewjah · Post by **Brewjah** » Mon Apr 08, 2002 7:47 pm

it should handle anything that your server and net lines can handle..

if youre getting that many hits a day.. on your current server.. and its handling well it should be able to handle phpBB its just basically all depending on the applications being used.. your DBase.. your connectivity.. ive had around 2000+ hits on a p200 cable box in about 2 or 3 days that im currently using for testing and learning purposes.. i know this doesnt seem like alot compared to 200,000 that youre getting but.. take a look at the stats here.. theyre doing alright.. it all depends on how you config your servers and dbase for how it handles its loads..

- Brew

nagasea · Post by **nagasea** » Tue Apr 09, 2002 12:26 am

mine is using 2-3 gigabyte of bandwith per day.
and it's keep growing and growing.

ffeingol · Post by **ffeingol** » Tue Apr 09, 2002 2:31 am

jharmer,

Contact me offline (PM, E-Mail, ICQ etc.) and I can give you a few more details, but. ..

In round numbers, this site has been doing 110K+ page views per day. I don't have a count on the number of posts. It's running on a P3 750 mhz box, 1/2 gig memory. Our backend is MySQL.

If we can do it on our (limited) hardware, I'm sure you can make it work

.

Frank

romutis · Post by **romutis** » Tue Apr 09, 2002 6:47 am

OK, once again... You guys discuss just PHP performance but the problem isn't in PHP, problem is Oracle.

jharmer in his original post said about Oracle as DB for his board. I'm sure that his board will be dead in 1 month due to unoptimal configuration of Oracle schema.

Maximium number of extents for table/index is 505 - with his 8000 posts/day - he'll reach this value very fast.
Maximum tablespace size is 100M - it's too small for active board.
PCTINCREASE = 50 - fragmentation of linear growing objects (tables/indexes) - will be <beep> <beep> and <beep>.
PCTUSED = 40 - it mean that tablespace will be huge but almost empty.
Undefined initial/next extents for objects.
All objects in one tablespace - performance will be just a dream.
Not tuned "indexes using".

Other 1000 reasons are skipped...

And i can repeat : He can use phpBB2/Oracle board - but he has to reconfigure Oracle part of phpBB2!

sj26 · Post by **sj26** » Tue Apr 09, 2002 7:16 am

Well, maybe we need to get some good, experienced oracle people to redesign the oracle schema (hint, hint!

)

romutis · Post by **romutis** » Tue Apr 09, 2002 7:29 am

sj26 wrote: Well, maybe we need to get some good, experienced oracle people to redesign the oracle schema

I could do it (as soon as i work as Senior Oracle DBA for last 3 years), but...

For 99% of phpBB/Oracle boards - these parameters are more or less OK (10 registered users, 5 posts/day ).
For serious projects - Oracle schema must be reconfigured from the default one anyway. At least physical location of objects.

P.S. Message size is limited by 2K now for Oracle configuration.

ffeingol · Post by **ffeingol** » Tue Apr 09, 2002 11:20 am

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but if you check the supported RDBMS's under Features, you'll notice that Oracle is not supported. The schema and DB layer shipped with 2.0, but it's not supported.

I also have to agree with romutis. I've been a relational DBA for 10 years now. Most vendors (I'll call the phpBB group a vendor in this case) ship their schema etc. with very default settings. The DBA's/IT group then has to review this default installation and make modifications that make sense in their environment.

Frank

romutis · Post by **romutis** » Tue Apr 09, 2002 6:45 pm

ffeingol wrote: I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but if you check the supported RDBMS's under Features, you'll notice that Oracle is not supported. The schema and DB layer shipped with 2.0, but it's not supported.

But may be we can make a "light tuning" for Oracle - at least to avoid default values for Oracle objects created for phpBB?

After that Oracle can be included in the list of DBs supprted officially (with NOTE: "please, put correctly datafile and don't forget to make your own fine-tuning as soon as you will need it"). IMHO, this will be enough for distribution of phpBB with Oracle DB layer.

jharmer · Post by **jharmer** » Wed Apr 17, 2002 8:08 pm

Thanks for the info, folks.

We have a couple of good Oracle DBA's here that will be able to tune that part of the equation. I wasn't as worried about that, due to our existing infrastructure. PHP will be new to the organization, and I just wanted to make sure it would work. I guess we'll find out the hard way

Thanks again. I'll be back with updates, if you're interested.

vhm3 · Post by **vhm3** » Mon Apr 22, 2002 9:18 pm

I'm also considering this. I have a few very large clients, whom I administer their Web Crossing installations. What I am looking to do, is to not only move them away from it, but also import the data, usernames, etc into the phpBB environment. Anyone know if this is possible?

I'm still in the planning stages of this right now, and not ready yet to make a pitch to the customer.

Thank you,

Chip