Board Optimization - [DBTech] vB Optimise 2.0.1 (Lite)

vB Optimise Lite

The newly revamped vB Optimise was created for vBulletin 4, but has now been made compatible for vBulletin 3.8. In this release I have re-coded vB Optimise from the gound and focused stability over features, you'll notice Phrase Caching and vBAdvanced Integration have bit the dust, this is to maintain a sync state between this version and the vBulletin 4 release.

Professional version & feature list available @ www.DragonByte-Tech.com/forum
Priority support for Lite version is handled at the Developers Website.


What does it do?

vB Optimise is intended to optimise vBulletin software by integrating several PHP "cachers" and handling data before vBulletin. This works by encountering and handling data prior to vBulletin in order to skip the arbitary execution that would be more server intensive.

Real-Life Statistics

We've teamed up with some Big Forums to show you the impact of vB Optimise, you can view this public chart which shows both our statistics and theirs:

View Public vB Optimise Resource Statistics

Features

• Supported Extensions
  • APC
  • eAccelerator
  • Memcache
  • XCache
  • WinCache
  • Filecache
• Style Cacher
  Caches style data to globally reduce a query within all vBulletin forum-based pages.
• Template Cacher
  Caches template data to globally reduce a query within all vBulletin forum-based pages.
• Datastore Cacher
  Forces custom datastore items from modifications (including those from vB's blogs) to use your configured Datastore Cache method instead of being forced into the database. This reduces page queries by where affected.
• vB CMS Template Caching
  (Automatic) Corrects many uncached templates within vB CMS to reduce upto 20+ queries on CMS pages (number varies based on content).
• Optimal Settings Check
  Provides a quick interface to identify possible settings which can be changed on your forum for further optimisation.
• Self-System Tester
  Provides a relatively straight-forward system check to ensure your vB Optimise installation works fully.
• Automatic Cache Flusher
  Automatically flushes cache within the Admin CP based on specific triggers to make sure content does not remain stale on your forum.
• XCache Authentification
  Supports XCache Admin Authentification by allowing you specify the username/password in a configuration if needs be.

Features - Pro

• Notices Cacher
  Caches users dismissed notices to reduce a near-global query within all vBulletin forum-based pages.
• Showgroups Cacher
  Caches the showgroups query which becomes more intensive as your user-base grows.
• Forum Display Query Enhancement
  Enhances a stock vBulletin query within Forum Display to speed up the page.
• Forum Home WOL Cache
  Caches Forum Home "Who's Online" to remove an intensive query and allow larger sites to display this data without impact.
• vB Cache Override (Feature not available on vBulletin 3)
  Ability to override vBulletins new built-in database cacher for the CMS / Forum Sidebar Blocks to remove anything from 1 to 20+ queries based on your content.
• Full Guest Caching
  Ability to cache entire pages and serve them saving not only hundreds of queries but upto 90% of CPU processing towards Guests.
• Statistical Resource Savings
  Ability to see just exactly how many queries per day vB Optimise has saved your database. You'll be surprised at the numbers.
• Forum Resource Statistic
  Shows off vB Optimise resource saving statistics directly within forumhome statistics.
• ....and more!

Release Notes

If you've used vB Optimise before you'll be aware the previous version had phrase caching, however this caused complications with the way phrases are used within vBulletin so it has not been ported over at this time.


Available Translations
v1.6.0 French - Thanks to finereader

Change Log

[>>] Version 2.0.1
New launch for vB 3.8

[>>] Version 1.6.1
Automatic Cache Flusher has additional parameters to make sure no data is stale
Resolved Bug: Potential PHP error when using eAccelerator which cannot flush within Admin CP on certain actions

[>>] Version 1.6.0
New OpCode Cacher Support: WinCache

[>>] Version 1.5.0
Resolved Bug: Style cache may have fetched ID 0 instead of correct file
Resolved Bug: Filecache permissions may not have worked
Optimisation: Re-wrote some base code to enhance operations.

[>>] Version 1.0.1
Added XCache Authentification Support
Added Filecache Support

Support

Priority support will be handled at DBTech.

FAQ

Q: I have WinCache installed, but vB Optimise tells me it's not?
A: WinCache only introduced OpCode support in version 1.1, if you're using version 1.0.x you will need to upgrade.

Q: I'm using the XCache method, flushing doesn't work?
A: If you have XCache authentification, turn the admin option on within vB Optimise Settings, then edit ./vboptimise/config.php and specify your XCache username/password. Alternatively you can disable XCache authentification within php.ini:

xcache.admin.enable_auth = Off

Q: I have eAccelerator installed, but vB Optimise tells me it's not?
A: eAccelerator does not provide the caching extension by default, you will need to recompile PHP with additional flags. For more information read eAccelerator documentation located here: http://eaccelerator.net/wiki/CompileConfiguration (Specifically look at: with-eaccelerator-shared-memory)

[dtv100]

Originally Posted by Deceptor

dtv100 - I have considered this, but it may be unsecure. That said, I can place it in the next version purely as being optional

can i pm you for topic relate to security and my site with this hack ?

[tmc]

Originally Posted by Deceptor

tmc - While I agree it could be holidays, the templates query is the largest query vB executes, so I would expect some impact. In anycase, it'd be nice to see the results over a longer period

Well, I'm sure most showthread queries surpass the template queries in size.. Although I agree it's a most ridiculous way to use the "V" in "MVC" so I hope that changes in 4.0. I'm hoping for something like CodeIgniter where we get a Views folder with all the template files. (And of course the means in default vBulletin to cache these.)

I can't think of a better word.... but would it be better for "latency" if we were to only use the Xcache VAR cache for this modification, and tell vBulletin to use nothing but Memcached? (Meaning: So not everything is trying to use the same cache at once)

I was a little foggy on that anyway, because I'm aware that Memcached is capable of a lot more than just caching vB's Datastore, but it seems that if you don't configure vBulletin to use Memcached for the Datastore, then Memcached won't bother caching any other objects into memory, such as query results, etc.

So I guess we can't pick and choose, huh?

I guess I'd be fine with that anyway... This mod = Xcache's var cache, vBulletin = Memcached

[Deceptor]

tmc - This mod can already use XCache while vBulletin uses Memcache, unless I'm missing your point?

dvt100 - The security flaw would be, any other administrator would be able to see your XCache password, and while the only threat would be if you had the XCache page which required user/pass, they could login. Nothing more or less, as far as I know.

[dtv100]

Originally Posted by Deceptor

tmc - This mod can already use XCache while vBulletin uses Memcache, unless I'm missing your point?

dvt100 - The security flaw would be, any other administrator would be able to see your XCache password, and while the only threat would be if you had the XCache page which required user/pass, they could login. Nothing more or less, as far as I know.

ok thanks i glad this wont affect me at all .would be nice if next update can have my request as optional thanks.

[tmc]

Originally Posted by Deceptor

tmc - This mod can already use XCache while vBulletin uses Memcache, unless I'm missing your point?

Yeah, a little bit. haha.

It's fine, though. I can't really state it any better. I'll just have to mosy on over to vB dot com and ask them if I can use Xcache for the Datastore, but still have Memcached do all the non-Datastore object caching. Meaning: Memcached can do LOTS more than store the measly 1MB of Datastore data, but I think vBulletin forces me into using Memcached for BOTH or not at all.

I just figured since you poked your head around inside all the vB internals you may already know the answer.

[Deceptor]

The only thing vBulletin caches on its own using any cacher is the datastore, unless you're referring to other things vBulletin caches aside from the datastore? Sorry I'm not getting your point

[tpearl5]

Originally Posted by tmc

While I'd say this is certainly fantastic.... could it be the holidays, mostly? You should see a relative decrease in all traffic, CPU and RAM utilization, and so forth if that were the case.

I just can't imagine disabling 2-3 global queries has such a large impact... Esp w/ one of them being such a small query.. (The style one)

Of course if it continually stays that low, good work Deceptor!!

Like I said, data is similar from last week. Keep in mind that this is the amount of data being passed between two servers and not from server to user. The decrease in data transferred to users is minimal.

[ThorstenA]

After installing and using Filecache as only method I can use, FORUMHOME is around 30% slower than without installing this mod even if there are 3 queries less. Could there be something I did wrong?

[Deceptor]

ThrostenA - Filecache is not the best, and if your servers harddrives aren't that fast you'll notice slower page generation times. Try use a difference cache method, XCache seems to have the best results. If you're unsure how to install the extensions, ask your host for assistance

[Jim O]

Hi Deceptor,

I'm using version 1.3.2 of the mod on a 3.7.4 board with vBSEO installed. It installed easily and evidently correctly. I can see that it is cutting down on the db queries as billed and caching some of the data. I am using XCache and enabled that feature. I can see from the XCache admin panel that the mod is accessing the variable cache. I am getting warnings for many of the template entries (eg vbactivecache_template_xxxxxx) as follows:

Warning: htmlspecialchars() expects parameter 1 to be string, array given in /path/to/xcache/admin/edit.tpl.php on line 4

The cache in such cases appears to be empty.

Any ideas on why this is happening and if there is an effect?