site slow, need help on finding problem..

[Paprika]

Hi,

The subject line pretty much sums up my major problem. My site has been intermittently slow (somtimes slow, sometimes not) for... like since I can remember. my site isn't that big.

Sometimes for me it takes forever to load a vbulletin page, or even the main page of the site. I thought I had found the problem (a mysql-intensive script), removed it, improved things quite a bit, but there is still a long way to go!

Many site users report the same exact things.
"The site is sloowww" ...
"It wasn't slow yesterday but it is today" ...
"Today it's really fast, but last week I was having problems pulling up pages".

Its fustrating becase this is a VPS, and although I know how to use Cpanel, WHM is really big and I am not sure what I could do to speed up my website or to even begin to locate any potential problems.

My site is basically Joomla CMS, vBulletin BBS and 4images image gallery. The later two use a common user database. My current mysql usage is 327.55MB in total. Apache 1.3.34, PHP 4.4.1 and MySQL 4.1.19-standard. Powered by WHM/Cpanel & Virtuozzo.

What should I do? Where can I start? Where can I look?

Please and thank you for your time and help (in advance)!!

[webignition]

I can't say what might be causing the intermittent slowness and in order for anyone to be able to you're going to have to do a bit of investigation.

For the time being, simply record information concerning the slowness and over time you may be able to spot some patterns which might then suggest some possible causes. Every time you notice the site is being slow, record:

- the time the slowness occurs
- the server load at the time
- the apache load at the time
- your browser
- your OS
- your location

In general, I can suggest a couple of options that might help.

Firstly, mod_gzip will cause Apache to compress documents before they are sent to the client browser. This is generally good for decreasing page load times.

Secondly, you may want to look into installing one of many PHP accelerators. Such programs work by caching compiled scripts so as to speed up PHP execution.

Thirdly, do a spot of research into MySQL optimisation. MySQL can be configured for optimum performance under certain conditions and since your site focuses round a number of databases this may help. This type of optimisation would be with respect to the MySQL configuration. You should also try and optimise the tables themselves - phpMyAdmin provides some tools for this.

[Paprika]

- the time the slowness occurs
- the server load at the time
- the apache load at the time
- your browser
- your OS
- your location
.

Well.. as far as apache load.. how can I discover the Apache load? I know i can see the server load by going into SSH and using the [B]top /B] command.

Also, does anyone know of possibly a program or service I can use to automate the monitoring of my site/server for me? I've seen free programs that periodically check sites for you to make sure there online and alert you if they go down but I think I need something more.. something can can tell me how long it takes the pages to load each time and maybe more... ???

[jayh38]

You can find alot of those utilities built in whm.
For example: under server status > apache status

Look at the legend at the bottom of the page.

[angelina_holy]

There are many moniteting sites that will help you check the speed of the site

http://www.montastic.com/
http://alertra.com/
http://pureprivacy.com/

The reason your site is slow intermittenlty may be because of server load or the network problem at that time , or cache problem


Try clearing the ip tables on the server at root :
command :iptables -f
DO you have a dedicated server ? you can check the server status in WHM . if there is load , try restarting services like httpd restart, pop restart , exim restart from your whm and then check .

[Paprika]

Well hey people, I'm back...

I've been keeping a log like you said I should, and this is what I've gotten so far:
I took down the server load from the top command via SSH, the load averages from vBulletin, and the number of users online. I see a trend in the site slowing down around noon. You guys see ANYTHING?

Great Being the Best.
Bad Being the Worst.

Server Load Averages 1.29  0.36  0.14 | 15 Users Online (6 members and 9 guests) | GOOD | 12:21PM
load average: 0.14, 0.08, 0.01 | Server Load Averages 0.29  0.11  0.02 | 15 Users Online (10 members and 5 guests) | GOOD | 2:31PM
load average: 0.03, 0.03, 0.00 | Server Load Averages 0.46  0.13  0.03 | 18 Users Online (7 members and 11 guests) | Great| 2:46PM
load average: 0.42, 0.18, 0.17 | Server Load Averages 0.76  0.31  0.21 | 7 Users Online (6 members and 1 guests) | Okay.. | 2:06 AM
Server Load Averages 2.57  2.10  1.16 | 9 Users Online (7 members and 2 guests) | BAD - SSH ACCESS DENIED | 11:31 AM 
Server Load Averages 1.51  1.66  1.43 | 12 Users Online (6 members and 6 guests) | NOT TOO GOOD | 11:53 AM
load average: 2.82, 2.10, 2.88 | Server Load Averages 3.41  2.52  2.79 | 13 Users Online (10 members and 3 guests) | BAD | 12:00PM
load average: 0.70, 1.33, 1.80 | 1.79  1.71  1.97 | 10 Users Online (7 members and 3 guests) | OKAY | 12:28PM
load average: 0.36, 0.22, 0.36 | 0.50  0.25  0.37 | 16 Users Online (11 members and 5 guests) | FINE | 12:58PM
 load average: 0.62, 0.52, 0.39 | .78  0.56  0.40 | 5 Users Online (4 members and 1 guests) | NOT SO GOOD | 10:58 PM
load average: 2.49, 1.74, 1.04 | 2.18  1.78  1.20 | 9 Users Online (4 members and 5 guests) | POOR | 12:13 PM EST
 load average: 0.80, 0.22, 0.07 | 0.60  0.24  0.08 | 15 Users Online (6 members and 9 guests) | NOT TOOOO BAD | 9:36 AM
load average: 0.08, 0.04, 0.15 | 0.19  0.07  0.16 | 9 Users Online (4 members and 5 guests) | OKAY | 2:18PM EST
 load average: 0.19, 0.17, 0.07 | 0.37  0.21  0.08 | 11 Users Online (6 members and 5 guests) | GOOD | 11:19 AM
load average: 0.53, 0.20, 0.12 |0.60  0.26  0.14 | 15 Users Online (12 members and 3 guests) | OKAY | 2:25 PM

[Paprika]

could I get some help please?

[Infopro]

Optimized the database recently? That may help in some small way.
Over at vbulletin.com you'll find many threads on server optimization. I believe there's even a forum just for that with many suggestions.
Maybe the server you're on is a dog. It happens.

[Paprika]

Maybe the server you're on is a dog. It happens.

That could very well be the problem;I do believe the server is runnong on dual 800Mhz Opterons 242's if /proc/cpuinfo reports correctly... not sure if thats good or not in the server arena being that its dual.


But anyway I'm back at the same issue/problem even after trying a series of configuration optimizations reccomended to me by a senior member over at vbulletin.com; I need to make sure I cover ALL of my bases before I try to ask my host for help with this problem because I know it could be a pain in the arse to diagnose.

Attached is the email I was going to send them but I decided to wait on. So if anyone wants to glance at it, it basically tells whats been happening and what I've done to try to fix the issue.

ALSO, In WHM I ran "Scan for Trojan Horses" it found 18 POSSIBLE Trojans Detected..., they're listed below.. are they actually security concerns or what?:

Possible Trojan - /usr/bin/pod2man
Possible Trojan - /usr/bin/pod2usage
Possible Trojan - /usr/bin/podchecker
Possible Trojan - /usr/bin/podselect
Possible Trojan - /usr/bin/pstruct
Possible Trojan - /usr/bin/splain
Possible Trojan - /usr/bin/xsubpp
Possible Trojan - /usr/bin/animate
Possible Trojan - /usr/bin/composite
Possible Trojan - /usr/bin/conjure
Possible Trojan - /usr/bin/convert
Possible Trojan - /usr/bin/display
Possible Trojan - /usr/bin/identify
Possible Trojan - /usr/bin/import
Possible Trojan - /usr/bin/mogrify
Possible Trojan - /usr/bin/montage
Possible Trojan - /usr/bin/dbiprof
Possible Trojan - /usr/bin/curl