Server requirements - Modx running like a dog

77 Posts

scarfy96 Reply #1, 18 years, 4 months ago

OK redeployed our site to Modx and absolutely love it.

That is until it went live and then it just died. Server struggling under the load.

We are running on a linux VM apache server with 3x 2.2Ghz processors and 6Gb of RAM. We are running PHP 5.2 and mySQL. Server is managed under a Plesk interface.

The server also runs forum software - UBB.Threads and a couple of other low bandwidth flat html domains (very low bandwidth). We use open ads for our ad delivery and geodesic for our classifieds. That means there are 4 main SQL databases chugging away.

When we first went live we only had 2.2Ghz single processor and 2 GB of RAM. Within an hour the site had ground to a halt. That is when we reconfigured the VM and fired it back up with 3 x 2.2 Ghz processors and 6 Gb RAM and it went quite smoothly for about 48 hours.

Then on Monday about midday after there had been no admin activity on the site for 2 hours it suddenly spiked in load. Load averages climbed over 80 and the SQL server couldn’t get a connection. Throwing more resources at it helped a bit but not much, SQL still races away and can’t get a connection.

Traffic wise we do about 200,000 page views per day.

The site is just constantly timing out - although it will probably be fine for you guys when you get on in the morning it will be the middle of the night here and you will be the only ones on it and it will probably load fine.

http://ski.com.au

Where should I be looking? What config should I be considering? Any suggestions?

Oh flat html from another site on that server loads fine:
http://www.freshasfresh.com

386 Posts

therebechips Reply #2, 18 years, 4 months ago

Both links are loading slowish for me - 9:38 am UK. Sorry I don’t know much about load balancing, but could it be unrelated to mysql and a general server issue?

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dev_cw Reply #3, 18 years, 4 months ago

Loading fine for me. Make sure that the db is optimized.

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Sylvaticus Reply #4, 18 years, 4 months ago

No problems with loadingtime from Svalbard.

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Jay Gilmore Reply #5, 18 years, 4 months ago

When looking at the file sizes using Firebug in Firefox you have more than 140K of JS loads alone granted some of that is jQuery but with all the JS in the body the browser won’t render until it is done loading all the JS.

The page is heavy at nearly half a meg. That’s not a website that’s an app. Personally, I’d try to create a single php script to gather the external JS calls to a static file using a cron or something and include it vs making 15 seperate js file requests. If someone tried to check your site using dialup they’d need to wait nearly 7 minutes for this page to load.

I would agree with ganeshXL and look at optimization best practices.

This BTW has 0 to do with MODx and 100% do with design of site.

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cipa Reply #6, 18 years, 4 months ago

try this for your jquery

http://ajaxian.com/archives/announcing-ajax-libraries-api-speed-up-your-ajax-apps-with-googles-infrastructure

and try to group your js files into 1 file

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jusmeig Reply #7, 18 years, 4 months ago

77 Posts

scarfy96 Reply #8, 18 years, 4 months ago

Many of the js are being removed as I no longer need them with modx, most of the images are loaded via the css and once loaded once make the rest of the pages render fast.

In development the site rendered much faster than many other sites, including this one here. That is on a slow DSL connection.

I am not interested in page optimisation here (not here, I will be optimising the page but that is not what this question is about).

Page load times went from a couple of seconds (yes < 2 seconds once you have loaded the first page so have the css and most of those image calls cached) to well over a minute. The problem was around regular "could not connect to database" errors etc.

If I turn my site off via the manager interface then it speeds back up, no more database errors and everything is sweet. Put a few thousand people on the site and it returns to a crawl. At the moment it is fast here, loaded for me on a 512 DSL connection in <4 seconds but it is prior to 7am here at the moment and site traffic is very low. In 2 hours time, 9am everyone in the office logs on to check our (lack of) snow conditions and half of them will get time out errors.

THIS is what I am asking about.

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Ryan Thrash Reply #9, 18 years, 4 months ago

What version of MODx and what resources are you running? What is showing up n your error log?

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77 Posts

scarfy96 Reply #10, 18 years, 4 months ago

Modx version: 0.9.6.1p2

System events show this error:

PHP error debug
  Error: 	mysql_pconnect() [function.mysql-pconnect]: Too many connections	 
  Error type/ Nr.: 	Warning - 2	 
  File: 	/var/www/vhosts/ski.com.au/httpdocs/manager/includes/extenders/dbapi.mysql.class.inc.php	 
  Line: 	87	 
  Line 87 source: 	if (!$this->conn = ($persist ? mysql_pconnect($host, $uid, $pwd) : mysql_connect($host, $uid, $pwd, true))) {	 
 
Parser timing
  MySQL: 	0.0047 s	(27 Requests)
  PHP: 	0.5781 s	 
  Total: 	0.5829 s

If I run the modx database connection info I get figures like:
* [^qt^] - Query Time : 0.002 s
* [^q^] - Query Count : 27
* [^p^] - Parse Time : 0.345 s
* [^t^] - Total Time : 0.347 s
* [^s^] - Source : DB or Cache : database

Naturally that varies a bit depending on which page.

My suspicion is that it is the connection TO mysql that is the problem. It is taking a long time to connect to the mysql but once there it is fast. I have determined this since my first post here.

Reason is that ALL mysql domains on this server are also slow (eg http://forums.ski.com.au or http://marketplace.ski.com.au) but my Lyris list server which is on postgre is lightning fast and it is on the same VM box.

So perhaps my original post was harsh but at the time that seemed to be the case. Modx is probably fine but it is the connection to mysql that seems shocking.