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I am planning some database experiments with busy forums, starting of course with the busiest of them all downsizer.net.
I have been logging database queries and seeing some long query times These are not really explainable by lack of server power, but are fairly explainable by the fact that with the MyISAM table types used on all the forums, a write to a table locks the entire table, so if as you might imagine on a busy forum topic views are accumulating at a ferocious rate, then the topics table may be pretty much under constant lock, queuing up loads of requests both to read and write it. Almost no amount of hardware may compensate for this.
There is another table type that can be used InnoDB tables that only do row level blocking on a write. Of course these types of tables are not without their downsides as well, so it will be interesting to see the results.
No immediate ill effects at least with one table changed.
The downsizer forum is about 3x busier than any myff site and so the issues that are becoming urgent there have no need to be rushed elsewhere. We can take it slowly and measure effects. _________________ Family Friendly Shareware | | Web Design/Services | Free Forums
It cannot be denied that there is a distinct speed improvement.
It also makes in plainer that this is all about table locking, unless you are running a very big and very busy forum there would be minimal improvements and overall things would probably slow down as the existing tables are also very to read and use a lot less system resources.
For example I really doubt the size and activity on the support forum would make it a candidate.
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These are not really explainable by lack of server power, but are fairly explainable by the fact that with the MyISAM table types used on all the forums, a write to a table locks the entire table, so if as you might imagine on a busy forum topic views are accumulating at a ferocious rate, then the topics table may be pretty much under constant lock, queuing up loads of requests both to read and write it. Almost no amount of hardware may compensate for this.
and so the issues that are becoming urgent there have no need to be rushed elsewhere. We can take it slowly and measure effects.
