PassionFord Downtime and performance.
26-05-2005, 09:22 AM
#1
PassionFord Downtime and performance.
You will naturally have noticed some performance problems lately and for this inconvenience we duly apologise and hope you can bear with us whilst we resolve them. 
However,
For the technical amongst you, heres a quick rundown of whats happening so far....
Petrucci codes new features as i request them and has been doing since we started, and they then go into what you might call a test period to see how you like them and importantly, how they affect the server and its code... these include:
The mouseover effect. (Lets you preview post)
The faster posting screen. (Cut by a good few seconds)
Watched topics. (A personal list)
The games room.
Gold membership scheme.
View posters per topic.
Siggy control. (Needed to control sizes etc)
Individual view siggys and avatars (In your profile section)
No Swear limits.
Lower flood control.
Online offline view under avatar.
Real time big image resizing. (Remember the old stretched screens?)
PM's opening in new screens instead of one your using.
And many many more i cant think of from top of my head....
Now all of these take time and labour to do, and he has come good with all of them, but what we have to consider are the technicalities of all these and what affect they have on a database and MySQL system.
Petrucci has narrowed down the cause of the speed problems to MySQL Searches and database access problems. Anyone in IT will be able to test how many hops to the PF server and also how fast the server responds, and they can independantly confirm that our hardware is NOT at fault.
What it appears is happening is that each of these features has added load to the already taxed search software code and taken it to the point that the searches are overloading the software whish was never designed for loads as heavy as this in teh first place. ("Remember, view posts since last visit" is a search, as is "watched topics" and "View your own posts", each feature asks a database search to view what youve requested
)
Some tech info from Pet for the techheads that i dont understand:
Our server receives 57 MySQL requests per second AVERAGE (!!!), and at least 4 of those requests are called "heavy ones" (that means they are opening each time 207878 lines of code and browsing thru tables that are at least 200 Megs each.) For those that don't understand very well all this stuff, try opening 4 text files at the same time that are 200 megs each one during 10 seconds on your home PC, and you'll understand how powerful our hardware actually is.
Our database is over 800mb and contans 1500000 posts approximately. Not simple to search through for anything..lol
Basically what Petrucci and I are asking is that you bear with us, Petrucci will fix it, even if it means a compromise is reached in teh meantime, so please no more topics asking "Where is XYZ feature? I cant find it..blah blah" but feel free to inform us of any problems you come across as always. Thanks for taking teh time to read this.
Finally...
Im sure your all finding the performance ok again now the search features have been removed temporarily.
However,
For the technical amongst you, heres a quick rundown of whats happening so far....
Petrucci codes new features as i request them and has been doing since we started, and they then go into what you might call a test period to see how you like them and importantly, how they affect the server and its code... these include:
The mouseover effect. (Lets you preview post)
The faster posting screen. (Cut by a good few seconds)
Watched topics. (A personal list)
The games room.
Gold membership scheme.
View posters per topic.
Siggy control. (Needed to control sizes etc)
Individual view siggys and avatars (In your profile section)
No Swear limits.
Lower flood control.
Online offline view under avatar.
Real time big image resizing. (Remember the old stretched screens?)
PM's opening in new screens instead of one your using.
And many many more i cant think of from top of my head....
Now all of these take time and labour to do, and he has come good with all of them, but what we have to consider are the technicalities of all these and what affect they have on a database and MySQL system.
Petrucci has narrowed down the cause of the speed problems to MySQL Searches and database access problems. Anyone in IT will be able to test how many hops to the PF server and also how fast the server responds, and they can independantly confirm that our hardware is NOT at fault.
What it appears is happening is that each of these features has added load to the already taxed search software code and taken it to the point that the searches are overloading the software whish was never designed for loads as heavy as this in teh first place. ("Remember, view posts since last visit" is a search, as is "watched topics" and "View your own posts", each feature asks a database search to view what youve requested
)Some tech info from Pet for the techheads that i dont understand:
Our server receives 57 MySQL requests per second AVERAGE (!!!), and at least 4 of those requests are called "heavy ones" (that means they are opening each time 207878 lines of code and browsing thru tables that are at least 200 Megs each.) For those that don't understand very well all this stuff, try opening 4 text files at the same time that are 200 megs each one during 10 seconds on your home PC, and you'll understand how powerful our hardware actually is.
Our database is over 800mb and contans 1500000 posts approximately. Not simple to search through for anything..lol
Basically what Petrucci and I are asking is that you bear with us, Petrucci will fix it, even if it means a compromise is reached in teh meantime, so please no more topics asking "Where is XYZ feature? I cant find it..blah blah" but feel free to inform us of any problems you come across as always. Thanks for taking teh time to read this.
Finally...
Im sure your all finding the performance ok again now the search features have been removed temporarily.
26-05-2005, 11:22 AM
#6
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one thing though, when you hover over a post and the little box comes up with the first few lines or so and goes off after a few seconds, can you make that stay till you move away of click on that post?
If ya get what i mean
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26-05-2005, 10:40 PM
#12
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hope the nobjockeys who are twistin about it read this 
keep up the good work lads, we know you are doin your best petrucci and thats good enough for anyone so a big 
to all the twisty barstads
keep up the good work lads, we know you are doin your best petrucci and thats good enough for anyone so a big to all the twisty barstads
26-05-2005, 11:01 PM
#13
Jeebus
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I hope it is all sorted soon, the site is awesome most of the time, and the fact that it is so good when it works is what makes people get annoyed when it doesn't work - they come to rely on it in a way!
02-06-2005, 11:58 AM
#19
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Just a suggestion peeps.....
If you do get problems, can I suggest you report them in a respectful way..... no headbanging, angry icons etc. Not that any of this is meant, but believe me when you sweating you arse off trying to sort issues out, the last thing you want to see is that.
We are also experiencing speed issues on ScoobyNet which I am trying to get to the bottom of, so I can appreciate only too well the frustration of Pet & Stu.
Regards,
Shaun.
If you do get problems, can I suggest you report them in a respectful way..... no headbanging, angry icons etc. Not that any of this is meant, but believe me when you sweating you arse off trying to sort issues out, the last thing you want to see is that.
We are also experiencing speed issues on ScoobyNet which I am trying to get to the bottom of, so I can appreciate only too well the frustration of Pet & Stu.
Regards,
Shaun.
11-06-2005, 03:37 PM
#26
you gotta do what a mans gotta do. behind the scenes of a web youwould not belive as stu, petrucci and shaun have said and i wil back them up on this. so many mitigating factors.................
01-08-2005, 08:02 PM
#34
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Seems to have slowed down here, aswell......ping responses are normal (in fact, 30ms to somewhere outside of the UK is pretty impressive), but there's a pause of anything up to 10 seconds before any traffic starts moving and the page loads. I can flick to another window, click on a link, and the page is loaded, come back to this window and it's just starting to move. Once it starts, however, it's the usual lightning-quick......it's just that pause at the start.
01-08-2005, 09:15 PM
#35
20K+ Super Poster.
still slow 
its wither the SQL server overloaded, or the web server isnt processing enopugh concorrent connections.
only pet can tell us tho
its wither the SQL server overloaded, or the web server isnt processing enopugh concorrent connections.
only pet can tell us tho
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