How to optimize for a beginner

[wmvaux]

Hi,

I am running a vbulletin forum and the memory and cpu go up too often for my liking at the moment. It gets to the stage where error messages appear like the following

Internal Server Error

The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.

Please contact the server administrator, [email protected] and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might have done that may have caused the error.

More information about this error may be available in the server error log.

Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.

I've reported it to my host and they return by saying...
"I have checked and found that your site is uses more memory. Memory Usage --> 1,048,576 / 1,048,576 KB

You will need to contact your web developer and ask to optimize your site in order to resolve this issue."

The problem is I'm the developer and I don't know how to optimize or check to see if things need to be optimized.

What are the basic steps to test for optimization? Where do I go and what do I do?

 

[Infopro]

Do you have custom addons installed on this forum, like a chatbox for example?

 

[wmvaux]

Yes I do have a chatbox and other add ons

 

[Infopro]

If your forum is out of date, or those addons are out of date and not secure, or optimized properly, you could have this sort of issue.

For a beginner as you state, the easiest suggestion I could give you would be to disable all custom addons, and custom theme if you use one. All of them. Now run the forum for 24 hours or more and see if you see this sort of behavior.

Might be no help at all, but it can't hurt to try, and easy to do.

 

[wmvaux]

I can try some of those things you suggested, but can I do some tests on mysql to see if that shows up anything.

I would like to know if there is a command or something I can run to see what it shows. I don't know how to go about that, like where I do it from and what I do.

 

[Infopro]

If it's your chatbox eating up memory, disabling it or updating it to newer code might be the easy way to go.

As far as running some command, as the Website owner you wouldn't have access to do this I don't think.

 

[wmvaux]

I can't get on the site to disable the chatbox or other add ons as the memory is running at 100%

I have access to everything. Is there something in cpanel to get a report of mysql?

 

[Infopro]

No. Your Hosting Provider would be of more use there. You can get to your files via cPanel File Manager though I would think. That is unless your account was suspended. Navigate to your forums includes/ directory and locate the config.php file, open to edit.

At top find this:

<?php

Just below that, add this and save file:

// Setting the below to 1, will disable all hooks.
define('DISABLE_HOOKS',1);

(Set to 0 to enable hooks)

The forum will still operate, only no addons will be working.

 

[skyman2610]

You can get to your files via cPanel File Manager though I would think. Yes and I do have a chatbox and other addons

 

[robb3369]

Like infopro said, disable all the hooks and see if your memory usage goes down... I've also found that if you are pulling in RSS feeds from other sites, they also have a tendency to also chew up a lot of resources.

 

[wmvaux]

I am using CloudFlare and used the Optimize Website under Software/Services under cpanel which seems to have helped a lot.

 

[livelovesurveys]

Infopro, That worked for me. Thankyou!