So I have a forum that gets decent traffic but.... 2-3 times per week has 2-3 hours where the traffic spikes so much the server gets sluggish and doesn't respond well. My server info: Processor: Dual Xeon 2.8GHZ HT EMT64 Memory: 4GB DDR Registered ECC Hd1: Dual 73GB SCSI / Hardware Raid 1 Hd2: 120GB 7200RPM SATA / 8MB Cache RemoteBackup: 50GB Remote Backup OS: Linux - CentOS 4 ControlPanel: CPanel / Web Host Manager Peak hours yesterday (my most visited site) hour - page views -- hits ---- BW 21 -- 26989 ------ 241199 -- 889.62 MB 22 -- 25163 ------ 207225 -- 803.43 MB We have already added some MYSQL optimization... Is there anything else I can do??? I expect the traffic to increase over the next few months. Any suggestions or advice would be helpful.
A server like that should not get bogged down with that little bit of traffic. You could always tweak apache. Is it the DB get sluggish or the site itself?
What kind of forum? vBulletin? If so, check out this DIY system to speed things up: http://forums.asmallorange.com/index.php?showtopic=268 I did many of those tips and it made a huge difference. I'm running a Celeron machine with 512mb ram and get 6500+ uniques per day and it was running 100% CPU all the time. Now the max is 50% on heavy days, which is a HUGE difference IMO.
I have a lot of those in place... I will look at adding the ones I don't have. The biggest problem I get is the visitors on two peak hours.