How many addons are too much, with relation to performance deterioration in Xenforo?

Learner

Member
I am running my forum with around 15 people, (staff ) setting up addons, styles etc..
I sometimes face around 2 to 3 second page generation time.. :( I don't know why??
Is there a decrease in performance of Xenforo if too many addons are installed?
how can one know what addons will or not affect the performance?

I also reached resource limit of my shared hosting account many times with so low users.. I checked in cPanel resource usage and it says that max entry point load was achieved many times !
and max number of php and other scripts limit had been crossed.

here are the screenshots.

cpanel1.webp
cPanel2.webp
 
How many addons do you have installed?

I don't think the amount of addons determines your resource use, but rather how often they are used and how they are coded. My rule of thumb is to keep the addons below 10 installed, but that is just my personal, arbitrary limit.
 
I have 786 MB hard allocated. that is not being used more than 10 to 15%
the stats are what the cPanel resource usage is showing me.
you need more ram

edit: something is wrong with those stats , 0K used ?


I have 22 addons currently installed.
will my posting the debug file results help in understanding my problem?
How many addons do you have installed?

I don't think the amount of addons determines your resource use, but rather how often they are used and how they are coded. My rule of thumb is to keep the addons below 10 installed, but that is just my personal, arbitrary limit.
 
I am not sure, I am not that proficient, maybe someone else can make sense of it though.

As you have the time frames where the resources are being most intensive, you can try to cross reference that with other logs and see what might have caused it. An easy way to check if the addons are causing it, is to disable them all, have it running for a while and then check the log. Then you can enable them one by one, to see which one(s) are causing the spikes.

You might also need to upgrade your hosting package or switch to a different host.
 
I am running my forum with around 15 people, (staff ) setting up addons, styles etc..
I sometimes face around 2 to 3 second page generation time.. :( I don't know why??

Setting up add-ons and importing styles is a very resource intensive process.

Trying to use the forum while this is taking place will usually result in massive load times - if the pages even load at all.

Could it be you're experiencing these slow downs while styles and add-ons are being installed?

Also, you're on shared hosting. You may very well be experiencing slow downs as a result of higher loads on other sites sharing your hosting. The truth is, your host cares very little about the performance you're going to experience. They're just concerned about as making as much money as possible from each server they have by cramming as many customers as possible onto one box.

Shared hosting can work, but there's good and bad shared hosts. Which is yours, and what package are you on? Have you considered a VPS solution instead?
 
Yes I have come to know that while addons and plugins are being setup, there will be problems.
I am experiencing these slowdowns when no addons are being installed.. but the second point that you made mybe true..
Now the server doesn't remain slow always, I get .02 to .07 load times too major part of the day !! and night.
this trouble is intermittent but very irrittating, the hosting I am using is of a known person and a company so if I can figure out that they are at fault then I can go and ask them with those proofs.
I am hosted on Wipl.in shared business plan !
Setting up add-ons and importing styles is a very resource intensive process.

Trying to use the forum while this is taking place will usually result in massive load times - if the pages even load at all.

Could it be you're experiencing these slow downs while styles and add-ons are being installed?

Also, you're on shared hosting. You may very well be experiencing slow downs as a result of higher loads on other sites sharing your hosting. The truth is, your host cares very little about the performance you're going to experience. They're just concerned about as making as much money as possible from each server they have by cramming as many customers as possible onto one box.

Shared hosting can work, but there's good and bad shared hosts. Which is yours, and what package are you on? Have you considered a VPS solution instead?
 
Unfortunately proving they're at fault is difficult but the very fact that the problem is intermittent and is occurring whilst your server is pretty much idle suggests that it's the hosting at fault.
 
Yes I hope that is true, but as you can see from the screenshot images of my cPanel resource manager that the mCPU or the cpu cycles allocated to my hosting account do increase to 100%, now what I don't understand is that why this happens at some times only !!
maybe someone would see the debug file that I have saved and attached ( I have 3 more of them ) and advise me !!

Unfortunately proving they're at fault is difficult but the very fact that the problem is intermittent and is occurring whilst your server is pretty much idle suggests that it's the hosting at fault.
 
Ok, fair point.

I've just looked at the debug output, and I have to say, I'm no particular expert at debugging or what a lot of this stuff means.

But looking at that particular one, the page took nearly a whole second to load.

Then it breaks it down further... and this seems to have taken the bulk of that time:

Code:
    Select TypeTableTypePossible KeysKeyKey LenRefRowsExtra
    SIMPLEthreadALLPRIMARY,node_id_last_post_date,node_id_sticky_last_post_date120Using where
    SIMPLEusereq_refPRIMARYPRIMARY4raidcom_raid1db.thread.user_id1 
    SIMPLEnodeeq_refPRIMARYPRIMARY4raidcom_raid1db.thread.node_id1 
    SIMPLEthread_readeq_refuser_id_thread_id,thread_iduser_id_thread_id8const,raidcom_raid1db.thread.thread_id1 
    SIMPLEforum_readeq_refuser_id_node_id,node_iduser_id_node_id8const,raidcom_raid1db.thread.node_id1 
    SIMPLEthread_user_posteq_refPRIMARY,user_idPRIMARY8raidcom_raid1db.thread.thread_id,const1 
    SIMPLEpermissioneq_refPRIMARYPRIMARY85const,const,raidcom_raid1db.node.node_id1 
    SIMPLEposteq_refPRIMARYPRIMARY4raidcom_raid1db.thread.first_post_id1 
 
    UPDATE `xf_session` SET `expiry_date` = ? WHERE (session_id = 'fdd69f4bc1a03fc70464d1c7804d002a')
 
    Params: 1338973031
    Run Time: 0.905546

Post your others up, let's see if it's the same thing each time. I have no idea what the above means, but if it is the same every time it might help us identify where the problem is.
 
Have you considered whether spikes in the use of your site may be respondible - you know, short periods of very high demand? Are you able to see an hour-by-hour log of traffic to the site?

Also check whether your site is being heavily spidered - I had an issue with the Chinese Baidu search engine spiders and when I blocked their IP addresses my server load reduced.

Ultimately, with add-ons, you've got to disable ALL of them - run it for a while - then enable them one-by-one until you hit the problem. Disable that last add-on again and see if things settle down? If they do, then you've found your culprit! (y)

Cheers,
Shaun :D
 
Yes I am posting all of them right now !!
I think different things are responsible each time.. but since early noon here.. everything is superb !
I disabled some plugins and the forum is butter smooth !!

I also know nothing of debug options but Jake ( our friendly spiderman ) told me to install debug and so I did..
Ok, fair point.

I've just looked at the debug output, and I have to say, I'm no particular expert at debugging or what a lot of this stuff means.

But looking at that particular one, the page took nearly a whole second to load.

Then it breaks it down further... and this seems to have taken the bulk of that time:

Code:
    Select TypeTableTypePossible KeysKeyKey LenRefRowsExtra
    SIMPLEthreadALLPRIMARY,node_id_last_post_date,node_id_sticky_last_post_date120Using where
    SIMPLEusereq_refPRIMARYPRIMARY4raidcom_raid1db.thread.user_id1
    SIMPLEnodeeq_refPRIMARYPRIMARY4raidcom_raid1db.thread.node_id1
    SIMPLEthread_readeq_refuser_id_thread_id,thread_iduser_id_thread_id8const,raidcom_raid1db.thread.thread_id1
    SIMPLEforum_readeq_refuser_id_node_id,node_iduser_id_node_id8const,raidcom_raid1db.thread.node_id1
    SIMPLEthread_user_posteq_refPRIMARY,user_idPRIMARY8raidcom_raid1db.thread.thread_id,const1
    SIMPLEpermissioneq_refPRIMARYPRIMARY85const,const,raidcom_raid1db.node.node_id1
    SIMPLEposteq_refPRIMARYPRIMARY4raidcom_raid1db.thread.first_post_id1
 
    UPDATE `xf_session` SET `expiry_date` = ? WHERE (session_id = 'fdd69f4bc1a03fc70464d1c7804d002a')
 
    Params: 1338973031
    Run Time: 0.905546

Post your others up, let's see if it's the same thing each time. I have no idea what the above means, but if it is the same every time it might help us identify where the problem is.




We are a closed staff section of 20 people, right now...
at one time there are not more than 10 people online and although they try to test the servers by putting too many demands as I have instructed them they know what they shouldn't do.
I disabled many of th eaddons, and things are now working fine !!
lets wait for that period of the day when that spike and errors happen !!
Have you considered whether spikes in the use of your site may be respondible - you know, short periods of very high demand? Are you able to see an hour-by-hour log of traffic to the site?

Also check whether your site is being heavily spidered - I had an issue with the Chinese Baidu search engine spiders and when I blocked their IP addresses my server load reduced.

Ultimately, with add-ons, you've got to disable ALL of them - run it for a while - then enable them one-by-one until you hit the problem. Disable that last add-on again and see if things settle down? If they do, then you've found your culprit! (y)

Cheers,
Shaun :D
 

Attachments

Yeah, that query Yorick pointed out is taking waaaaay too long:

Code:
    UPDATE `xf_session` SET `expiry_date` = ? WHERE (session_id = 'fdd69f4bc1a03fc70464d1c7804d002a')

    Params: 1338973031
    Run Time: 0.905546

A slow query like this is going to be a problem with the performance of your server. It is nothing to do with addons.

You say you are on shared hosting so there isn't much you can do other than contact your host. The MEM and MEP faults are no good. If your host can't increase your limits or otherwise address this performance problem then you will have to upgrade to a better server.
 
^^ You are right, but ever since this thread and my disabling some addons.. there were no errors like this.
But I now face another problem :(

When I want to make a thread in any forum which maybe in any category, then I start writing the thread title and bam !! there is a popup which says, index.php was not found on this server or location.

then I close that error and I can finish my thread and it comes up ( the error, I mean ) in regular intervals.. but the thread creatin goes on and it listed !! properly..
this error is only there in creating a thread... nowhere else.
 
I've just tried to get on the URL to your site (it was in the header of the PDFs you attached) and I see that you have a htaccess password set. This can occasionally cause problems such as the one you've just described. It probably can find index.php but it might be trying to access it without the necessary authentication resulting in it saying index.php was not found.

When we were setting up our site, I got fed up with htaccess passwords in the end. I still didn't want people seeing the progress being made on the site, so the board was turned off in the admin CP.
 
Yeah the htaccess thing is quite problematic with Chrome and maybe Firefox. You'll most likely find problems with uploading files while the password is enabled too.

It's almost not worth the hassle :)

Is the site performing better now add-ons have been disabled?

How many did you have installed and how many did you disable?

Now might be the time to start enabling them again. Maybe only one or two at a time. Between enabling add-ons give it a good few hours. If the problem occurs again you may have found an add-on that isn't performing great. If the problem doesn't occurs then enable some more add-ons.

My gut feeling is still your shared server being oversubscribed, though.
 
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