Performance Optimisation

[Intex]

I've noticed over time, even without the addition of additional mods, that our website has become increasingly unresponsive to general page requests. It's not related to the physical hardware or bandwidth as it produces the same results when executed on the LAN where the server sits.

Can someone point me in the right direction to a thread which outlines the basic steps to take to improve vB performance. Maybe the general ways to optmiise the database, check for errors etc. Can I check for areas where load seems to be increasing based upon specific parts of the DB / pages being processed (maybe a debug mode)?

Any help appreciated.

Thanks

[Pebbled]

Do you have a large number of visitors or posts? If this is the case it may speed up if you turn the stats off.

[Brad]

You'll find that many times this may be caused by php/mysql or other software installed on the server. You should try making a post in this forum and reading some of the threads, they will help you improve preformance greatly.

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=14

Within vBulletin itself you can do many things that will help out. Turn off options you don't need, don't install modifications you don't need. If you are on 3.5 use mySQL FULLTEXT searching rather then using the default option that builds a searchindex in a new table.

You should also catch any un-cached templates as they add extra queries. Don't install server intensive plug-ins/hacks/phpinclude modifications that will be called on every page, if you community is large you might want to overlook them all togther if they are begin called on a highly requested page.

[Intex]

The board has very light usage (no more than about 15 concurrent users at any one time). Thanks for the tip on the forum. I'll be sure to check it out.