Dedicated Database Server

[doug]

As many of you have noticed, as the site grows it also slows..
To fix this we've offloaded the mysqld (database server) to a second server..
So far it seems much faster and snappier, we'll see how it handles primetime.

[Pa. Patriot]

Bravo. Does seem quicker.
We're lucky to have such competent folks behind the switch here

[ham385]

Time to build that Tier 4 datacenter...

Thank you for this site/forum, I enjoy it very much.

[andrewjs18]

could cut costs by dumping v bulletin and go to mybb *free*. =P I manage 2-3 mybb boards and it's awesome and its comparable to v bulletin.

[schr8er2000]

I noticed the other nite it was rather BUSY.... but still workable... but this really does seem to be much faster in response...

EXCELENT JOB......................AGAIN......

This is still the best forum I have been on.... keep it going guys... GREAT STUFF

[Kaos]

Originally Posted by andrewjs18

could cut costs by dumping v bulletin and go to mybb *free*. =P I manage 2-3 mybb boards and it's awesome and its comparable to v bulletin.

porting the data would be a pain, phpbb would likely be a better candidate if they were looking for another alternative as far as customization goes though you really can't beat vbulletin as far ease of use and deploying updates.

[doug]

vBulletin is the best forum software available, and the PAFOA already bought the lifetime license. We will not be migrating to anything else. The cost of vB was never the issue anyway.
The PAFOA forums are getting pretty big, and there are other large websites on the servers which this forum coexists with. Sometimes there isn't enough CPU for everything that particular second.

At some point in the future, we will probably have an IT Fund raiser and buy the PAFOA some bitchin servers of it's own to dedicate to the task of running these forums.
We're seeing 40-50 new registrations a day, most of which post. Eventually it's going to get crazy insane, and we need to be ready for the reality of a few hundred thousand members on these boards in a couple years. The thought of that on my personal web servers makes me cringe.

Sites like THR which have 10x the traffic we do have STRIPPED down vBulletin installations. No rep, no stats, no fancy urls, no image hosting, no flashchat... minimal.
As we continue to grow, we very well may forced into similar compromises as we balance cool features against laggy load times. We've shut a few things off temporarily to help during heavy load.

It's quite possible that we will roll out optional 'premium membership' subscriptions on the forums when we switch over to PAFOA owned dedicated servers. The boards will always remain open and free to use, but a paid membership would get you access to a VIP mini-forum area, and other cool stuff. This would help offset the bandwidth costs which PAFOA would begin to pay. Again, this would be optional and would probably come with a cool icon for your postbit. No idea on pricing, but it's won't be outrageous..

I'm glad to have helped start this board up with danp from the very beginning on my machines, and it's grown before my eyes into something that neither of us could have envisioned.

The reality is that we've created a monster, and it's going to outgrow my hosting capabilities at some point in the future. We need to be prepared BEFORE we get there.

Food for thought...

[Kaos]

The woes of scalability planning.
I would gladly pay for a premium membership though.

[BimmerJon]

Originally Posted by doug

vBulletin is the best forum software available, and the PAFOA already bought the lifetime license. We will not be migrating to anything else. The cost of vB was never the issue anyway.
The PAFOA forums are getting pretty big, and there are other large websites on the servers which this forum coexists with. Sometimes there isn't enough CPU for everything that particular second.

At some point in the future, we will probably have an IT Fund raiser and buy the PAFOA some bitchin servers of it's own to dedicate to the task of running these forums.
We're seeing 40-50 new registrations a day, most of which post. Eventually it's going to get crazy insane, and we need to be ready for the reality of a few hundred thousand members on these boards in a couple years. The thought of that on my personal web servers makes me cringe.

Sites like THR which have 10x the traffic we do have STRIPPED down vBulletin installations. No rep, no stats, no fancy urls, no image hosting, no flashchat... minimal.
As we continue to grow, we very well may forced into similar compromises as we balance cool features against laggy load times. We've shut a few things off temporarily to help during heavy load.

It's quite possible that we will roll out optional 'premium membership' subscriptions on the forums when we switch over to PAFOA owned dedicated servers. The boards will always remain open and free to use, but a paid membership would get you access to a VIP mini-forum area, and other cool stuff. This would help offset the bandwidth costs which PAFOA would begin to pay. Again, this would be optional and would probably come with a cool icon for your postbit. No idea on pricing, but it's won't be outrageous..

I'm glad to have helped start this board up with danp from the very beginning on my machines, and it's grown before my eyes into something that neither of us could have envisioned.

The reality is that we've created a monster, and it's going to outgrow my hosting capabilities at some point in the future. We need to be prepared BEFORE we get there.

Food for thought...

Just curious of what kinda hosting/servers/pipe you guys are using. Its my field and maybe I can lend a hand or help out some.

Like others have mentioned, the cost of VBulletin is pretty cheap, the real cost in running this forum comes in the form of webhosting costs.

Like I mentioned before, I run my own websites and moderate other forums which have VERY heavy traffic.

Dan/Doug, you ever think about getting some sponsors? Paid memberships for sponsors to sell their products on here. This site has TONS of potential and I don't know if you ever thought about it, but there are plenty of opportunities for you to pull in some $$$ to offset costs to run the site and fill your pockets some too.


Let me know if you ever wanna chat

[doug]

Originally Posted by BimmerJon

Just curious of what kinda hosting/servers/pipe you guys are using.

colocated/dell 1850 poweredge/more pipe than we could ever use..

Originally Posted by BimmerJon

Like others have mentioned, the cost of VBulletin is pretty cheap, the real cost in running this forum comes in the form of webhosting costs.

The PAFOA currently has no bandwidth costs, as my company hosts it for free.

Originally Posted by BimmerJon

Like I mentioned before, I run my own websites and moderate other forums which have VERY heavy traffic.

Care to provide some examples of the websites, and the VERY heavy traffic?

Originally Posted by BimmerJon

Dan/Doug, you ever think about getting some sponsors? Paid memberships for sponsors to sell their products on here. This site has TONS of potential and I don't know if you ever thought about it, but there are plenty of opportunities for you to pull in some $$$ to offset costs to run the site

We're aware of the potential, and we very well may do ar15.com style button ads. We don't want to get too commercial, as we're a NPO. We also want to remain free from corporate influence. We will likely end up with exactly what I posted earlier, paid membership for people who choose to subscribe, and button ads for companies.

Originally Posted by BimmerJon

and fill your pockets some too.

This site isn't about filling our pockets, it's about preserving the right to keep and bear arms.