Decreasing server load....

This isn't so much of a vbseo issue as it is just a general performance issue. My host (Pair) recently disabled my forum because it was putting undue stress on the server. I am using the High Volume package, where I believe my server has 4-5 other domains on it as well.

Does anyone have any tips to reduce the server load? When I talked to Pair customer support they actually told me not to upgrade to a dedicated server, but instead block bots from crawling useless content. I would assume this would mean member profiles, but he wasn't over specific. He said it wasn't an issue with the database, which was my first assumption. Any recommendations that will help performance while not causing a negative effect on the site?

Was the performance issue attributed to excessive bot crawling, or just due to actual user activity?

This is the first report I recall of Pair shutting down a forum. I have heard this of others, but not Pair until now.

I would assume that our actual content will still outweigh the low value stuff like member profile pages, etc., so I'm not sure how much of an improvement you would expect just from doing something like that.

Is your site still down, or they disabled it only temporarily?

Find out from them if they know for certain the load only rose to unacceptable levels when the bots were heavily crawling your site.

You might also consider the following:
vBSEO Optimization Tips

Side note: I already have CSS files stored in local files, attachments stored in files, and had updating thread views instantly turned off.

Things I just added:
I place this code in my robots.txt:
User-agent: *
Disallow: /forums/admincp/
Disallow: /forums/clientscript/
Disallow: /forums/cpstyles/
Disallow: /forums/customavatars/
Disallow: /forums/customprofilepics/
Disallow: /forums/images/
Disallow: /forums/modcp/
Disallow: /forums/ajax.php
Disallow: /forums/attachment.php
Disallow: /forums/calendar.php
Disallow: /forums/cron.php
Disallow: /forums/editpost.php
Disallow: /forums/global.php
Disallow: /forums/image.php
Disallow: /forums/inlinemod.php
Disallow: /forums/joinrequests.php
Disallow: /forums/login.php
Disallow: /forums/member.php
Disallow: /forums/memberlist.php
Disallow: /forums/misc.php
Disallow: /forums/moderator.php
Disallow: /forums/newattachment.php
Disallow: /forums/newreply.php
Disallow: /forums/newthread.php
Disallow: /forums/online.php
Disallow: /forums/poll.php
Disallow: /forums/postings.php
Disallow: /forums/printthread.php
Disallow: /forums/private.php
Disallow: /forums/profile.php
Disallow: /forums/register.php
Disallow: /forums/report.php
Disallow: /forums/reputation.php
Disallow: /forums/search.php
Disallow: /forums/sendmessage.php
Disallow: /forums/showgroups.php
Disallow: /forums/subscription.php
Disallow: /forums/threadrate.php
Disallow: /forums/usercp.php
Disallow: /forums/usernote.php

Disabled showing logged in Users to guest
Disabled showing thread subscriptions

Thanks for the reply. They disabled it only temporarily, and sent me a email notifying me up a script that was causing excessive server load (which was the forum). I was able to re-enable it when I received the email, and customer support said it was related to 'bot' crawling. I was a bit disgruntled, so I didn't stay on the phone long. I will call/email
them back asking for a bit more details.

Also worth noting is that I am happy with Pair, and I understand their reasoning for disabling the script. Ill take a look at the vbseo optimization tips and see if I can reduce it a bit further.

I also moved my avatars and profile pics to file storage. Is this a relatively good idea?

For almost cases: yes.

To be specific: It depends, if your Hoster has a dedicated DB Server on which your DB is or if it is on localhost, which is your webslave.
It will take off some load on the DB Server.

I believe the DB is hosted on another server, but I am not 100% certain.

its probably yahoo... their slurp is going nuts lately.

try adding

User-agent: Slurp
Crawl-delay: 60


to your robots file

Originally Posted by thealpha

I also moved my avatars and profile pics to file storage. Is this a relatively good idea?

Yes, it allows you to avoid DB queries and even running an additional PHP script. Physical files are normally processed faster and with less resources involved.