Concerns about VBSEO server usage on largeish forums...

[darkhorse]

ok guys, well I have a very itchy trigger finger with regards to buying VBSEO.
I have been mulling it over for some time but have held out due to hearing about high resource demands from the software...

Can anyone offer any info that will help me come to a decision?

I have a dedicated server with 8gb ram, quad core 2.8 ghz processor iirc.

My forums have almost 100,000 members, and the most users I have had online at one time is about 5,000.

Im concerned that vbseo might knock my server out..!!

please advise

[Brian Cummiskey]

In general, servers that are running good before vbseo can handle vbseo. If you're running over 1 load levels already, it will probably spike you.
If you run apache in cgi mode instead of DSO, it will probably spike you.
5000 at once with 8gb of ram seems VERY low to me. I generally recommend 8gb for 500-1000 at once most the time, not 5-10 times that number.
Running stuff like xcache and using a CDN to offload static requests also helps a lot.

Ultimately, it's a case-by-case basis and there's no set answer of what exactly will happen until it does.

If it can't be run successfully on your site, we do offer a refund within 30 days. We;ll do the best we can to assist you, but keep in mind that we are a software company, not server experts.

[darkhorse]

In general, servers that are running good before vbseo can handle vbseo. If you're running over 1 load levels already, it will probably spike you.
If you run apache in cgi mode instead of DSO, it will probably spike you.
5000 at once with 8gb of ram seems VERY low to me. I generally recommend 8gb for 500-1000 at once most the time, not 5-10 times that number.
Running stuff like xcache and using a CDN to offload static requests also helps a lot.

Ultimately, it's a case-by-case basis and there's no set answer of what exactly will happen until it does.

If it can't be run successfully on your site, we do offer a refund within 30 days. We;ll do the best we can to assist you, but keep in mind that we are a software company, not server experts.

thanks. I can add more memory. and may have to do that if it does struggle.

[darkhorse]

I checked and the server load averages at 2.01
Do I need to add more memory then before installing vbseo? The forum runs perfectly for most of the time in its current setup (greater than 99% uptime)

[Brian Cummiskey]

2 is a bit high IMO. I like to keep my server around .5 for normal traffic levels. If you have the resources, I would suggest adding a bit to it, yes. also consider setting up xcache.

[darkhorse]

2 is a bit high IMO. I like to keep my server around .5 for normal traffic levels. If you have the resources, I would suggest adding a bit to it, yes. also consider setting up xcache.

thanks. Well, I discovered that cookies were being kept alive for something like 6 hours...so once I fixed the setting it showed the users online was about half the amount showing with the false stats!
I also found that php was not setup efficiently, so I managed to get average load down to about 0.9.
I have since purchased and installed vbseo and it has saved my site because after an upgrade to vb4 all my old URLs were lost from a free seo mod for vb.
Consequently my traffic dropped from 12,000 uniques per day in google analytics, to within a week, 2,000 uniques per day!! I also lost lots of pages from the index.

After we set vbseo up and configured it to rewrite the old urls and 301 other stuff, google has shown us lots of love and we now have 400,000 pages indexed in less than 10 days.... our traffic has also nearly got back to where it was and is going up each day....

I am going to setup xcache as well.
Server load peaks at about 1.6 in the evenings, and I think I will add some more memory for good measure, but the site is running very nicely at the minute..

I love vbseo!!!

[Brian Cummiskey]

Great news! xcache will knock a bit of load off. Using a CDN to off load static content helps a lot as well.