RC Server too busy...

[NH_Reef]

Just hanging this out there.
The RC server is always "too busy" and lately the search engine always gets disabled because of the server being "too busy".
IMEO, it would seem as though we have either hardware or IP provider (bandwidth) issues. I know I'm not the only person who does this for a living around here so I was wondering if, along with myself, others in the RC community would be willing to cough up some support and maybe some small donations to get the RC Web Server some "More Power". With the number of members here, kicking in a dollar or two from everyone would go really far.
Hey, we all get a lot of help here one way or another, so why not help out and give a little back! People in the business like myself could provide support with hardware/software/networking as well as being able to get great pricing on servers, routers, fire walls etc. I tried e-mailing the webmaster a while ago to casually ask what he thought the basic problem was but didn't get a reply.
What do you all think.

[crescent1]

well you need to make a donation to reef central and become a supporter.
if we all did it, we mite not have this problem.

[Dan Boardman]

I can pitch - I work for a very large reseller and could probably get some hardware at cost - also could/would donote some cashola

Let's get going!!!

[Lionfish01]

I want to support RC but don't have paypal or checks.

[rbaker]

Dan Boardman,

[welcome]

Glad to have you aboard... :D

Ryan

[TippyToeX]

Lionfish01- You can PM a Mod or admin for the address to send money to (I am sure they will take cashiers checks or money orders).

[chaseracing]

Originally posted by crescent1
well you need to make a donation to reef central and become a supporter.
if we all did it, we mite not have this problem.

My thoughts exactly!

-=E=-

[bphelps]

Becoming a contributing member only cost you 0.15208333333333333333333333333333 a day!!!!!

[Nanook]

[moved]

[mrrrkva]

Where can I donate, looked all over and trying to contribute.

[TippyToeX]

mrrrkva- To donate click here (https://www.paypal.com/subscriptions/business=webmaster%40reefcentral.com&item_name=Reef+Central+Contributing+Membership&no_note=1&currency_code=USD&a3=24.00&p3=1&t3=Y&src=1&sra=1) :)

[z28pwr]

As stated above there are always around 1000 users logged in if everyone donates 3 dollars that would buy a dual 2.8 GHZ Dell PowerEdge 2650 with a gig of ram and Raid 5 .

[bphelps]

Can I set it up?

[lduncan]

Originally posted by z28pwr
As stated above there are always around 1000 users logged in if everyone donates 3 dollars that would buy a dual 2.8 GHZ Dell PowerEdge 2650 with a gig of ram and Raid 5 .


How about a Apple G5 dual 2 GHz maxed out with 8 gig of RAM, that could really speed up the database searches, as a lot of it could be stored in RAM for fast access. Maybe add a fast disk subsystem, such as a RAID 5 array.

And for anyone who doubts, the Mac's speed and cost take a look here:

http://www.top500.org

The number 3 fastest supercomputer is made up of these machines. Blowing all the competition out of the water cost wise, coming in at only $5.2 mil (The Earth Simulator was up around $350 mil!)

The mac really is a viable option, it runs a from unix (free BSD based).

Layton

[Anemone]

Folks, the issues you've brought up have been discussed (and over discussed) in this forum. A search of the past 30 days or so will bring you loads of information on why this isn't just a hardware issue, or a bandwidth issue, or a software issue...but a major collision of the three and a BB that is far more popular than the software (without significant tweaks) was designed to handle. Thankfully, we have a volunteer tweaker or two (now, why didn't that sound right? :D ).

Theoretically, the hardware should handle the load (it's high-end stuff), and the bandwidth is incredible (and expensive), and the software is being continually adjusted to handle the strain...but the job that could easily be done by full-time paid employees (notice I say more than one) is being done by folks who have real jobs...the hours they put in are monumental, and the tweaks they've devised are pretty ingenious.

A year ago the board would come to a crashing halt around 500 members. The major upgrades in equipment, bandwidth, and software should have taken us much further, but we average more than double that number now (and one of the earlier threads has some numbers about the number of hits/data searches the site has per second, and it's pretty phenomenal).

Anyways, more changes/upgrades are in the works, and the simple answer is, there is no simple answer (ie, buying the most expensive , top-end box isn't going to solve all our problems).

As always, we appreciate your patience.

FWIW,
Kevin

[NH_Reef]

Guess I was unaware of the what exactly a contributing member
was and how it worked. I will be donating today. On the other hand, I am also willing to help the situation. If the RC members who, like I, have real jobs, need assitance or are having specific "tweaking" issues, I'm sure we have the brain power here to overcome the issues. This of course is assuming that all the hardware and bandwidth can truly take the hits the system gets plus of course keeping growth in mind. If it is hardware, I'm sure like myself, there are other engineers here that can get awesome deals on real hardware. Not Dell or gateway stuff, but real servers and are quite familial with MS, Unix, Oracle and Linix as well as fire walls and load balancing their IIS applications.
So, just trying to help here and thank you to my fellow software jockys who are already donating their time to help remedy the situation.

[NH_Reef]

Happy for becomming an RC contributor......

[misskimi]

If you are going to buy server hardware then buy server hardware not some toy like a Dell or Mac, what a joke. Move up to a Proliant DL760 G2 with at least with 4 Xeon 2.8 gig processors and 4 gigs of Ram, or buy serveral DL360s, load balanced them with F5 or Cisco distributed web balancing. The bottleneck could be on the Disk I/Os, upgrade to an 6404 Array Controller with 256megs of cache, check the Nics, 100mbps is absolute minimum, team the nics to load balance the traffic. Check the swtich and Router you are connected to. These CoLos (Rackspace) throddle down the bandwidth on network throughput. I just built a Proliant DL760 G2 with 8 Xeon 2.8gig processors, 8 gigs of Ram, 6404 Array Controller w/ 256 megs cache, 4 10/100/1000 nics which are teamed, Rilo II and dual power supplies, the server rocks!!!

[NH_Reef]

Proliants kick butt....

[NH_Reef]

Proliants kick butt....

[samw]

Originally posted by misskimi
or buy serveral DL360s, load balanced them with F5 or Cisco distributed web balancing. The bottleneck could be on the Disk I/Os, upgrade to an 6404 Array Controller with 256megs of cache, check the Nics, 100mbps is absolute minimum, team the nics to load balance the traffic.


I agree. Load balancing makes sense to me. If the database server and disk/io is the bottleneck, loading balancing is effective, is cheap and is easy to upgrade in the future (just add another low cost server and keep your existing ones in use). It also provides redundancy (fail over).

We use Proliants too.

[musicsmaker]

Sun Enterprise

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3060085748&category=51239

[lduncan]

Originally posted by musicsmaker
Sun Enterprise

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3060085748&category=51239

Nah. I recon we could cripple this machine! :lolspin:

Layton

[NH_Reef]

Good one Iduncan..
I'd be real curious though as to what is set up for the RC server
hardware/software. I get on in the early morning and I have problems.

[Anemone]

Originally posted by NH_Reef
I get on in the early morning and I have problems.

System backup is early AM on the east coast. You may be running into this.

Kevin

[NH_Reef]

Actually, when a backup is in progress, you will get that as a message. Funniest thing just happened. I get an e-mail about a reply to this thread, RC Server Too Busy, and guess what,
when I click on the thread link from my e-mail, I get a message from RC saying "The Sever is Too Busy" !!!
Too Funny.
RC is busy but it's not the busiest. There has to be some basic
hardware/software or config issues here.
If the people in the know would post the issues, the other webmasters, Software and IT engineers on line here would gladly lend a hand. Heck, I even e-mail some people on RC to donate extra $$$ to help and didn't even get a reply from that.
Can't even give the money away..... ?????????
Can't say I'm not trying here...

[dkh0331]

Frankly I've not had a "The Server is Too Busy" message for a week or two now. I used to get several each day.

Good job to those "tweakers"!! At least IMPHO.

David

[samw]

I got one on first attempt this morning at work (10 am PST). Was going to do an ALT-print screen but didn't think I needed to.
:mixed: I don't think this problem is a bandwidth issue because the web server response was quick and in order to get the Server Busy webpage, a web server connection had to be successfully made. My browser client was able to hit the web server pretty quickly and easily. My guess (strictly a guess) is that the forum software was unable to get a DB connection because there were too many DB connections at the time.

[lduncan]

I think the problem here is that vbportal was never written with this type of load in mind. I guess an option is to migrate to another system. Well, maybe this is not really an option. I for one would not like to be responsible for such a large undertaking on such an active site! Probably not too many other voluteers either!

Layton

[NH_Reef]

I agree DKH...
As I said before, hats off to those who are in the trenches.
I just thought it a no-brainer to use all the free resources here.
There are lots of us here that do this as a real job. If this was happening on our corporate sites, heads would roll and the problem would be addressed asap.
Again, just trying to help out. 2 heads are better than one......

[mrrrkva]

I contributed the $24 and I dont see, the I support RC THing on my name. I used TippyToex link in the above replies. Did it go to the right place. Or do you need to do something else to get the "i support RC" album?

[NH_Reef]

Same here. I donated, no response.
Also tried giving more money, no response there either.
All this seems to fall on deaf ears. So much for trying to
give it one for the Gipper.....
Good thing this isn't a charity org......

[DJ88©]

Guys, as has been said in other threads,

If you donated and the icon hasn't appeared contact JohnL. As well if you used an email that is different from your RC email with paypal there will be difficulties matching your donated email with your RC email.

Thanks for donating it is appreciated :)

[NH_Reef]

I used my one and only e-mail.
I also had another RC e-mail given to me by a moderator in order
to donate extra $.
These routes seem to be quite fruitless.
No gripe here, just trying to help.

[burke031]

When i donated it took a couple of days before I saw the
I Support RC icon.

[dkh0331]

It took me about a week to get my icon - as Darren stated, just contact JohnL.

David

[NH_Reef]

I'm on two weeks now.
Well, at least they got the money. Maybe the can buy another Mb of RAM or something.