I’ve heard in mentioned a few times that searching is a big part of the speed problem. I wonder if it would be possible to set up two servers, with one dedicated to handling searches and one simply handling normal posting. That way searches wouldn’t bog down the primary server.
Of course, I don’t know if this is technically feasible or not. But I picture the “search server” holding a mirror of the board, perhaps one day behind the primary server (I suspect most searches are not conducted for material posted the same day, as the current day’s discussions are going to be located on the front page of each forum). So clicking the “Search” link could automatically transfer the searcher over to the second server.
I vaguely recall this being discussed before, but I do not remember the outcome. Just a guess on my part, but I would suspect the vB software made this difficult or impossible to even contemplate.
I’ll inquire and see if I can get some information from a more knowledgeable source.
I think that what happens then, is that the mirroring process is even more of a pain in the gluteus than the searches were in the first place. Then again, it’s conceivable that this could somehow be worked into the daily backup…
My understanding was that people would have to pay or the SDMB would go away.
[post=4800777]Here’s what Ed said:[/post]
No guarantee of improved performance.
<aside>In the post, there’s also this: “Little Ed gets paid, believe it or not.” Why would Ed author a post and then refer to himself in the third person? Could Ed really be Cecil? (And don’t bother editing the post. I have screen captures and I saved the page. ) </aside>
Well, performance has been pretty good the last few days! I hope this keeps up. I’d also like the 1 hour daily maintenance outage at 3:30am Central time get reduced and or eliminated.
Trust me, you wouldn’t like for that to be eliminated. Mostly, that time is used for the daily backup, and every so often, things happen. Without that backup, a single glitch could spell the end of the board. With that backup, generally the worst that can happen is that we lose one day’s worth of posts.
But can’t the backup time be reduced? Or why can’t you do the backup live? On my WinXP system I do backups live using the Shadow Copy service which allows an open file to be backed up.
You cannot compare a home user system with Windows XP to a server running a message board for thousands of users, that’s apples and oranges!
Here’s what Jerry the Tech God says on the situation and mirroring search:
[[ I’m sure it’s technically feasible but it’s not something I’m capable of devoting resources to at this time. Increasing search performance by mirroring the MySQL databases and/or adding additional search servers would only exacerbate the bandwidth problems we are already having.
While I’m sure people are wondering what they are getting for their subscription the answer is they are getting the continued existence of the board. Improved board performance was not supposed to be promised as a result of subscriptions. It may have been speculated upon but to the best of my knowledge it was not promised when we devised the subscription plan.
What we did promise was the continued existence of the board in the general state it had existed prior to the implementation of the subscription plan. We are and will continue to deliver on that promise. ]]
Regardless of home vs. business, what I am talking about is concepts. It’s just a matter of scale. Of course, it also depends on what software you are running.
I don’t know if this has been addressed sometime in the past, but I’d be willing to wager that there are a good number of people with heavy duty tech expertise here who might be willing to volunteer to help out. Has TPTB every put out a call for volunteer help, seeing the “Jerry, the tech god” has too much other work to do?
) </aside>