Tips: database on seperate dedicated server
 

What are some server and vb configuration tips for those of us that have a forum database on its own seperate server?

Most important tip - use the internal network IP address to connect to the db server rather than the external web IP - this will save you bandwidth since internal network traffic usually is free.

Ok. I ask this because I think my setup was not done correctly. Pages are taking twice as long to be generated since switching to a setup that has the db on one dedicated box and the php files on the other. It was set up using the hosthame "mydb.myserver.com" instead of "localhost" in the vb config and not using an ip and pages are taking looong to generate and load.

Is this related to what you mention about ip?

Mmm... instead of hostname, use the internal IP address. Your hostname may be linked to your external IP which may explain the slowness.

Actually it's much more than the fact it is free. Running that connection on your public address OR on the same NIC card will choke your boards. I know of one case where a lot of time was put into figuring out what was wrong with a particular board and as soon as they switched to a second NIC for the private traffic all their load problems dissapeared.

An internal IP looks like this, generally:

192.168.X.X

Fill in "X" with a number.

I would also recommend using a gigabit switch and gigabit ethernet cards.

You will also want to make sure that this is not a hardware issue between the server that your vb site resides on and your database server. For example a switch with a misconfigured port speed or hub between both servers make sure that the connectin between both servers is not bottle-necked or saturated with traffic.

Yep, if possible have a seperate nic on the web and db server, link them directly, configure a private address on each, and use those addresses.

what do you mean private traffic?

Private traffic would be the traffic in between the web server or servers and the database server. Public traffic would be your users coming in to the web server.