Regular members will be aware that I have been doing battle with various IT issues over the past months. The membership problems caused by the wonderfully full-featured, but hopelessly unreliable, YourMembers plug-in were finally solved. The member content was moved to a new server and software provided by PKS Consulting which also provides a better platform for video and photos, being optimised for adult sites, and handles the subscriptions.
However, I have been plagued with slowness and outages on the WordPress front-end. Initially, a move to VPS from a shared server was called for but, before long, the cracks began to show. I was then persuaded that a Xen server would cure all my ills and have the site flying. Then, it was more RAM, a server upgrade, an NginX plugin but still performance issues persisted, even after moving 90% of the content off-site to the new members’ system. Meanwhile, I was being given little or no explanation for disks filling up, performance issues or suddenly finding I was locked out of my own server because I hadn’t been white-listed. Understandably, I was a little sceptical when they suggested a completely new set up with Nginx (which I was under the impression I had already but apparently it’s a ‘reverse proxy, not the real deal – like I know the difference!), Varnish and all manner of wizardry that seems totally mega-corporation level. After all, I am running only a fairly modest WordPress site on a server with a 6-core processor and 5Gb RAM already.
After a few harsh words, it seems there are volunteering to set up a new server with Nginx, PHP-FPM and Varnish, move my site over and run in parallel till I’m happy, all for free. From what I have gleaned from the forums, there is not a lot more that could be done. Such a configuration should handle anything you can throw at it since these systems can cope with 100’s of concurrent users. This is the sort of set up the serious players use, so I’m optimistic that this will prevent the site becoming a victim of its own success for quite some time.
Update:
I have been doing some reading up on the new configuration. It really does sound like this set up will be lightening fast! For what I understand, my present set up only uses one of the six processor cores and has very limited caching. What that means is the system has to do the equivalent of the boss asking his secretary for a file, so they find it in the filing cabinet and deliver it to his desk. This happens every time the boss needs to refer to a document in that file because it gets put back in the cabinet each time. That document is the page you requested on my site. This is very slow and tedious causing the secretary a lot of running around and filing. Caching is like a smart PA who knows that the boss is likely to refer back to a document, or one of his co-workers might need it shortly, so she keeps it out on the desk anticipating it will be needed again. Thus, it can be delivered much quicker with less running around. You’ll meet this bright and efficient secretary in the next week or two; this time, with 6-core processing power running slick software on a really grunty server and not hobbled like the character in the eponymous movie. My new configuration should shrug off a daily load equal to my total monthly traffic!