Why are my server loads so high =(

[Cold Steel]

I am running vB 3.0.1 on a server that only has two accounts on it. I am consistently getting loads in the 20-40 (sometimes 100+) range, even though my board only gets an average of 100 people online in a 24 hour period, and no more than 20 members on at once.

These are the hacks I have installed: http://www.asiansinc.com/hacks.html

Are any of them known for causing really high server loads? I searched these forums already, but didn't come up with any relevant results.

TIA!

[Modin]

how many queries are you running per page visit?

[Cold Steel]

index - 14
forumdisplay - 16
showthread - 14
usercp - 15
ushop - 8
arcade - 18
journal - 13
vbadvanced cmps - 25

Any others I should be listing?

[Modin]

hmm... those numbers look fine

is this a private server? if so, do you have anything else running on it like an eggdrop or something?

otherwise, what is that other account running

[Kaelon]

vBulletin 3 is a notorious ram eater. If you have less than 1 gigabyte of RAM, you're going to start noticing a higher load time (execution time will consequently increase due to a lack of resident available memory) as you exceed 100 concurrent users. Strangely enough, vBulletin 2 never encountered this sort of problem. I discussed the issue in detail on the vB.com forums if you're interested in seeing the official responses.

[wynode]

I'm just about to upgrade my phpbb forum to VB and noticed this thread. Reason being that I tried a few other CMS for my site and none worked out well because of the large queries they generated resulting in high server CPU usage (my host wasn't happy and shut down the site)>

I am about to change to VB3 and install one of the CMS mods and a gallery mod.

My question is, should I go with VB2 or stick with VB3? Its a very busy site with over 1900 membes and an average of 20-40 users online at a time. Are the queries/load on the server that bad?

[Reeve of shinra]

You should be fine with vb3.

[Kaelon]

With 20-40 users online at a time, I agree with Reeve of Shinra -- vBulletin 3 should run fine with you. However, you are right on the cusp of what a virtual server provider would consider "excessive CPU usage" (with around 30 people, CPU usage begins to reach monopolistic levels on most server configurations), so you may be asked to go to a dedicated server if you have not already. That said, the same situation would arise if you were using vBulletin 2.

vBulletin 2's superior resource management (largely because it has fewer features) of memory is more apparent on extremely large servers, but vBulletin 3 manages with better queries.