[Been Told]

Hi there,
I'm currently running a vB and a couple of WordPress blogs on my Bluehost.com Shared Hosting account.
I am always getting error messages telling me that my account has exceeded its CPU Quota. And I know there are many others at Bluehost with the same problem.
So now I've been getting tipps to (amongst other things) either switch to phpbb (LOL), get a better Shared Hosting host or get a vServer.
I've never had a vServer before so I'm not sure which would be the best host for me.
My forum (which causes all the CPU Exceeded errors) has about 900 members with about 150 members, 400 guests and about 70-100 search bots visiting daily. At peak times I have about 35-50 people on my forum.

Cost is also a factor for me, though I do understand that sometimes you have to spend a lot to get good quality. But since I do not put ads on my forum (and I don't want/plan to), I appreciate good prices.

Anyway, if more information is needed, please let me know. I'm thankful for any useful tips.

[AirborneKim]

Generally, once you're reaching and exceeding 50 users (actual members, not bots) online at once, it's time to start thinking about a VPS to ensure you do not run in to such errors.

Bots really don't do too much other than browse your forums and index data. The real load comes from what your members are doing.

Do you have any hacks, plugins or other code modifications installed? There's really no need to downgrade to phpBB unless you simply cannot afford a VPS at this time, however, you may have a few options.

Have you optimized vBulletin as much as possible to try and decrease the load? If not, perhaps this is something you should look into. Cut off the un-needed options.

If you need help, feel free to PM me and I will be more than happy to look over your configuration for you and see what I can do to further help you with your current situation and possibly, save you some money .

[BENSTER]

Bluehost owns monstorhost.com I believe - and probably gatorhost as well. They all have that "Cpu exceeded thing" and I was hitting it quite often. My DB is over 200 megs yet there are only about a dozen active members at any one time, and 30 to 50 pages being hit by Search bots at a time.

When I'd search for new post, I'd see return times of .1 to .3 seconds. After following the optimization thread here, My search time are returned in .01 usually. Since following these steps, the only time I exceed is when I log in through SSH and do a mysqldump. I didn't follow every single suggestion, but I did remove my CSS from the DB to a file, and removed the Drop down menu navigation.


Follow these directions: [How-To] Optimize vBulletin To Reduce Your Server Load

I'm running the VBarcade mod on my forum and have quite a few high scores in my legacy post bit. I recently realized when using a Smart phone to surf my forums, I download 3 megs per page depending on how many post, signatures, and Arcade scores are displayed. It's really a different issue (bandwith vs MySQL usage) but I thought I'd throw it out there.


I'm on my 5th shared hosting company in 3 years, and I'm shooting for the cheapest C-panel host I can find. They generally start out good, then as they fill up a server, I start experiencing slow downs. This "exceeded CPU" is the most annoying when it's never been a problem elsewhere.

[Been Told]

Hi Kim,
some interesting points...
Plugins - yeah, I certainly have "a few". The major ones being ibProArcade, Blogs, Chatbox, vBArticles and then some smaller ones.
But the thing is, I'd rather pay more than switch any of these off. My members have gotten used to the features and I don't want to take them away.
Also I like having them. *g*
I take it, with that sort of outlook there's not much I can do to optimize my vB?

As for the overview of my configuration - I'm sort of extremely careful (maybe even paranoid) about giving anyone admin access (I even had to think long and hard before granting vBulletin.com staff admin access because of a problem I had) - plus my forum is all in German. But if you can give me some advice without having to get into my admin section, I'll be happy to PM you my forum's address.

@BENSTER
Wow, thanks for the info. I'm checking out that thread right now.

[AirborneKim]

Sure thing, I understand . Shoot me the URL and I'll look over things. I can normally tell what needs to be done by loading the pages. If they load slow, I can normally identify why without having to really look deep within.

As for the plugin installs, the shoutbox is probably one of your main concerns. There have been reports all over about problems with shoutbox like scripts, so chances are, that is one of the culprits causing a bit of CPU load .

I know you don't want to remove features, however, why not let your members know that you're testing a few things and deactivate it for 24-48 hours and see if you're still getting the messages. If you are, perhaps you're one of the lucky ones and the shoutbox isn't causing any problems.

As for the URL above about optimizing vBulletin, take note of what is said. It provides some good information.

Again, feel free to PM me the URL and I'll be glad to look at it for you!

[BENSTER]

Oh yeah, I forgot about the shoutbox. That is one of the most favorite things on the boards, and the public cries when I mention stopping it. I'm using the Flat File version of the shoutbox to reduce server load.

[Been Told]

I'll PM you the URL, Kim, thanks.
As for the shoutbox - it's a flatfile AJAX version and for moderators and admins only. So normal members don't see it.
However, when I did change this from all members to mods only, I did not notice any decrease in CPU messages.
I also disabled all stats programms running on Bluehost (which I've heard cause a lot of server load too), but no change.

[hitboy]

I would go for a VPS they arent that expensive also large hosts like bluehost are generally not good as they overload there servers like crazy!!! a good vps host I have used over a year is knownhost.com

[Been Told]

Thanks hitboy, I'll keep that in mind. I think I've found a host I'm gonna give a try and see how it goes. Expect full reports here.

[hitboy]

ya no problem just helping out i remember when I knew nothing about web hosting hehe