SP Performance??

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I don't mind a bit of slow performance, I can live with it, but SP is taking at least 30+ seconds to load a page, often a minute a more. What gives? Hosting issues, or is it my machine?

 

I don't seem to be having any speed issues on my work laptop right now, maybe it's your machine Barms.

 

Been slow for me too.

 

I have noticed it a couple of times as well. Getting to this thread from the main page took a good minute. I had a similar experience posting in a user group.

 

I'm currently bickering with my ISP as my internet hasn't been 100% since I moved in and has suddenly got worse the past month or so, but I haven't really noticed any particular slowness in Sorcerers - though this particular thread took longer than I expected to load

[Edit]

Damnit Barms, now the whole site is lagging!

 

Is there a hint, like we need a new server, in your words?

 

I guess that we do not dare to look at a new server money wise?

 

I thought Barmy was going to do a performance for us. Disappointed.

 

Might you consider adding an additional server? Instead of just replacing, a second web server that is load balanced with the first would require less down time and add some redundancy. With load balancing you wouldn't be required to scrap the existing server, and the new server wouldn't necessarily need to be an uber-powerful system. Another server that matches current specs that's handling half the load would effectively double capacity.

This may still be cost prohibitive (without know the details of how SP manages its hosting) but I thought I'd throw it out there just the same.

 

I'm not familiar with those hosting providers, but I know that many of them don't support more advanced multi-server configuration anyway.

If you ever do feel like the prices are getting too costly, you might consider a cloud solution in the future, rather than leasing a server. Terremark/Verizon has what seems to be a strong public cloud environment out of Amsterdam that has reasonable prices (better than Amazon EC2 in my experience). You could easily dial up 2 or 3 VMs there, with a couple serving as web servers and perhaps another serving as your backend database. They may not offer load balancing services though, but since you host several websites you could simply run certain websites on 1 webserver and others on the other. Depending on the size of your VMs you might pay anywhere from $50 - 100 a month per VM for smaller ones (maybe less), or up too a few hundred per month for fairly powerful ones (2VPU, 8GB RAM ~100GB storage). You can certainly get more powerful VMs, which of course you have to pay for.

I have no idea if this would be a better price point for you. This also requires a fair knowledge of server configuration, as they provide the VMs, but you need to set up the web servers, databases, etc. Here's more info if you're interested. You can do a live chat with them to get questions answered and even have them provide pricing.

http://vcloudexpress.terremark.com/pricing.aspx

 

I guess there's an issue with the term "cloud" in general. It's one of the most over-used terms in networking right now, as everyone wants to say they have a cloud offering even if they actually don't. And there are so many applications and working definitions of the term cloud that it can really get... err, cloudy.

From a server hosting perspective, I define a cloud as an environment where virtual servers can be brought online with absolutely no concern or consideration on the part of a consumer for the physical hardware behind it all. Terremark has such a cloud, as does Amazon (Elastic Compute Cloud), IBM, Microsoft (Azure, though this sort of its own animal) and a few others.

Server clouds allow consumers to pay only when their servers are in use, usually on an hourly basis, bring up as many VMs as needed on an on demand basis, and terminate them on an on demand basis.

Anyhow, yes it certainly could be that this model is more expensive for what you're doing. In certain scenarios that I deal with I find it to be a huge money saver, and the flexibility and lack of capital costs are hard to beat. Just thought I'd throw it out there, for what it's worth.

 

I do not seem to able to access SP from home anymore. My internet is fine, all other sites work but SP doesn't work at all. Has it been down during the mornings and evenings? I can use it from work, slowly but it loads.

 

That won't be SP. What browser are you using? Try clearing temporary internet files & cookies.

 

I will, I use firefox at home and IE at work.