What exactly is a big board?
 

Is there a specific definition that vbulletin.org uses for what exactly a big board is? Big-Boards.com says 500,000+ posts but I'm not sure if that is the standard definition.

We have about 5K members and 1.5mil posts and I don't really feel like we're a "big board", more medium sized when I compare our site to others that have 1,000+ concurrent users and 9MIL+ posts :D

<a href="http://www.big-boards.com/" target="_blank">http://www.big-boards.com/</a>

AH, come on Shazz, you did not even read her question... LOL

i suppose that a site with millions of posts are considered big... ;)

Yes, exaclty :)
Or are they called extra-big boards?

I saw a definition here somewhere that said a big-board (for the purposes of this forum) was a site that needed to deal with a bit more than a regular board had to - like has a couple of servers for the site, or has to use sphinx search, or has other issues that regular sites just don't have to deal with.

a "big board" is really a matter of opinion ;)
but as the OP said, big-boards considers a board with half a million post to be a "bb"

for the purposes of this forum, I think a big-board is simply a forum that is large enough that it requires special tweaking or considerations due to performance.

I would say guess that would be where a big-board has issues on a single dedicated server -- though i'm sure there are other considerations.

If you are on a VPS or shared account, besides the usual textbook recs, the next step is always going to be get a dedicated server. Once you outgrow that --- well then you have some special considerations to think of that aren't well documented from vbulletin itself. So you need this resource.

now, that's just from the technical standpoint. :)

arn

While we're on the topic of more than one server, can anyone tell me when it's usually time to utilize more than one server? I am a loooong way off from needing that type of solution, but I've always wondered at what point do you typically need to think about adding an additional server? Would it be several hundred concurrent users or would it be more like several thousand concurrents? And how exactly can you use two servers at once? You can't split up your forum between two different servers can you? :confused:

I am running (well doing tech. admin for) a board that each day has periods with over 2.000 concurrent users online. Still running it on a single machine (dedicated ofcourse), although it starts to hit the limits of a single machine. As i can still run it on a single machine, i consider it to be just a medium sized board.

I'm surprised you can run over 2000 concurrent users on a single machine. I guess you are running a relatively recent server. I feel like I had to move out of one server well before I hit 2000 concurrent users, but it was a few years ago I suppose, so older hardware.

I think the progression is typically:

1 server for php + mysql, but if you start running into problems you would split the services into one php server and one mysql server, and tend to bulk up the mysql server with faster hard drives, more ram.

From there, I think you can do a number of things, depending on your bottlenecks.

Add a PHP Cache
Move all static files/images off the php server
Move attachments to a separate server
Use something besides Apache
Split the PHP server into multiple php servers

arn

Not even the most sophisticated server according to todays standards. The server is now around 1.5 years old: 2xOpteron246/4G/4x36gigRaid10/240Gb (for backup)

We at 3D Realms got swamped when we released the DNF Teaser Trailer in December. We shattered our record for concurrent users then, at the peak, we had 3,145 on at the same time.

The server was hurting - but it didn't break. We have over half a million posts, and I think something like 12,000 users (although probably about 4 of those are "active").

Our forums are on their own box - we segregated out the www.3drealms.com part of our online presence to another box earlier in 2007.

I always considered our board somewhat large, but not "uber" large.

Personally, I consider the board size based on the number of servers used in the web cluster. IMO, a board who uses 2 servers (one web and one db) is an average sized board, not big. Once you start managing a vBulletin board that runs exclusively on 6 servers or more, yes... you can say you have something going on.

i am running a board with 2300 users at peaks and still on a single server but I believe we're reaching the limit any time soon...

Well, it's a pity, our board which is just a wee bit from entering top 100 at big-boards and will hit 9mln posts in a few days is a medium board then :) Seriously, if you don't count the slave backup/search server and the ad server, we still run on 2 servers, one web and one db. It's a different challenge, but challenge nevertheless.

We are 33 at Big-boards and running on 3 servers. I could shut down one of the web servers and it would run fine, I'm thinking about retasking it. The DB server is hooked up to a piece of an EMC SAN unit though...

Slightly OT - the Big-boards admin is MIA, isn't he? As far as I know, new sites haven't been added to that index in a long time, so those rankings aren't accurate. My site's at just under a million posts now, and I've been in the "queue" on there for months with no response.

alexi: One can count EMC SAN as another server :)

Chris: no he's not, have you seen the "fast forum review" section here: http://www.big-boards.com/submit/ ?

My database server was disk bound, it had 4 15k SAS drives in a RAID 10. I was going to install 2 drives mirrored for the operating system and then 6 drives in a Raid 10.
My host offered a 128 Gig segment on their SAN for about the same monthly payment.

alexi, out of curiosity, what's your post table size?

9.3 Gig

Hm, that quip wasn't there when I initially submitted my site. Good for him I guess for capitalizing on his laziness.

You can consider it a big board if you stay up half-to-all night dealing with issues, get 100's of emails a day asking for name changes, email changes, complaints about this, that, etc.. Basically, when your life revolves around your forum/s.. lol aka Big-PITA.. You are there.. ;)

We forbid name changes unless it's a safety issue! Too much to handle :)

We do as well, but considering what my forum deals with, they end up having justifiable excuses more often than not.. Of course, we keep a log of these changes so staff can keep up, especially if there have ever been any problems with the member.