server overload problem
 

I have a dual Xeon CPU 2.40GHz
2gb memory
and 120 gb EIDE HDD Hard Drive
and when my server have more then 50 people online get overload and crash .

my question is with this server I should be available to handle more people online or I need to add more memory to it ?

definitely way more.... in the hundreds

You should contact your host because that server can handle way more than 50 people online. If they don't find the problem, post a report on vBulletin.com forum.

is a dedicate server and I find it strange that I cant handle more and yes I have some hacks but not sure if that whats is doing this.

Page generated in 6.09360 seconds with 35 queries (1 queries for uncached templates) [Server Loads: 3.37 3.63 : 3.58]

jesus 35 queries ? that is not "some" hacks, that's modified out of control. Is that the forum index ?

FYI that server load isn't too high, how many users were online when you posted that ?

is was about 20 members.

I know I have hacks on my board but I was thinking a server like that should handle .

you got a link to your board ?

Not that high?? I have a server with similar specs and I start to gnaw my nails when the load hits 2 (Or I would do...1.5 is its max so far). The number of queries doesn't matter, its how long they take that does. 100 good queries beats 1 bad query any day.

Turn on debug mode and see if you can pinpoint the bottleneck.

you do know that for each processor / processor core present on the server, an acceptable load increment of 1.0 is normal load ?

So for a dual processor machine, normal load would be 2.0. Having a load of 3.X isn't bad, its bad if you have only 20 people online and 35 pathetic queries through badly coded mods taking the wind out of the server.

Make sure you have the right kernal loading up to handle dual processors. I once had a similar issue when I the linux kernal I had loading was for SINGLE only.

Where are you getting "normal" from? for each processor present on the server, a load of 1 is 100% usage.

I consider this neither normal nor acceptable, but maybe thats just me.

The lower the load numbers, it's always going to be better for server and performance. But - and this kinda contradicts what I have said before - server load numbers can end up being more confusing than anything. Regardless of server load, if the sites on the server perform flawlessly and don't appear to bogged down, then those numbers can mean nothing more the number of processes waiting to pass through the CPU and do not necessarily reflect how "loaded" the server is because the sites are performing flawlessly.

The reason I said "normal" load is that in my experience as a webhost, the performance drop when the load hits 1.0 (even on a single processor machine) is marginally insignificant to be worried about the server being "loaded" (other than the number 1.0).

I currently have my site hosted with bluehost (in the process of moving to another host). I too run a boat load of different mods on my site, but my server load is minimal:

CMPS [index.php]
Page generated in 0.55546904 seconds (62.32% PHP - 37.68% MySQL) with 42 queries
2.59 : 3.03 : 3.29

I still have problems with server overload though. I can't even run basic vbulletin scripts like rebuild post cache w/out running into a problem with Bluehost. For the most part, my site runs fairly fast, but I hope to make some changes (mainly the type of datastore used).

FORUM [index.php]
Page generated in 0.82686806 seconds (75.23% PHP - 24.77% MySQL) with 46 queries
3.52 : 3.06 : 3.22