published by Vekseid on Thu, 05/26/2011 - 08:15
A well-tuned my.cnf file can be the difference between a nicely purring database server and one that is crawling like frozen molasses. I present an annotated version of my own my.cnf file here for those interested in specific tuning suggestions for that file.
Do not blindly copy this code block into your my.cnf file - you need to set the path names appropriately for your needs, and in many cases, the default is just fine. On the other hand, I have divided my I/O load between two disk arrays, so I've changed the defaults some.
published by Vekseid on Sat, 06/12/2010 - 23:36
So, Elliquiy's Ajax Chat finally got the better of it, size wise, and nearly brought down the server while I watched. You might ask why I'm running what amounts to IRC on the web and I will probably respond to that in some future article. E's silliness is beside the point, here.
I've been discussing server specifications with my webhost, going over hard drives, RAID configurations, and so on, eventually expressing a desire for a battery-backed cache unit and asking about RAID 6.
published by Vekseid on Thu, 05/13/2010 - 22:41
This article is the first in a series for community owners who have outgrown a VPS or a larger shared hosting environment, and need their own server to handle similar load levels without running into bottlenecks, but want advice about what they need, from someone who has been there. Since both of my major communities are adult, I created this site in part to serve as a decidedly non-adult repository for presenting what I have learned.
For my own experience, I run two of the most active communities on the Internet - Elliquiy Adult Roleplaying Forums and the Blue Moon Sexual Role Playing Forum. The splash page of each forum does not involve anything racy, but the images and text inside of said forums might not be so gentle on the pure of mind - be forewarned.
As you take up more and more of your host's resources on a machine - whether high-end VPS or high-end shared - you are going to consume more and more of its I/O bandwidth. On a good host, this will typically be higher than what your first dedicated server would be - however, you are at the mercy of everyone else on the machine. And you will notice, repeatedly. When you or your host get fed up with this, it's time to move to a dedicated machine.
