Many Forums, One Domain, Server Resources, Which Way?

loophole

Member
Hello,

I have been asking myself this question. I want to use one domain to run forums targeting different countries.

What would be the best way to go about it?

Set countries as folders in CPanel and install XF in each folder?

Eg:
www*domain*com/country1/
www*domain*com/country2/
www*domain*com/country3/
... etc

Or install XF at the root (ie, www*domain*com) and designate countries as forums within XF?

What are the pros and cons of each configuration?

---

And I keep seeing talk of "XF use of server resources" here and there. What are the server resources being referred to?

Can someone please list the server resources I should be worried about when using XF in descending order (ie, most important resources at the top, and least important at the bottom). And a brief mention (or URL to more details) of what settings to pay attention to in XF to monitor and/or optimize the use of each resource.

Thanks
 
Set countries as folders in CPanel and install XF in each folder?

Eg:
www*domain*com/country1/
www*domain*com/country2/
www*domain*com/country3/
... etc

You would need a lot of licences! Doing it the other way you would need one.
 
Putting each license in a different directory is a nightmare scenario. You would need:

1. many XF licenses
2. insanely more work to install/upgrade/skin/edit/customize all those different forums

The other way is the only way. :)
 
If you do want to run multiple country-specific forums under a single domain, you'd be better off using sub-domains, e.g.;

unitedstates.domain.com
unitedkingdom.domain.com
france.domain.com
australia.domain.com
etc.

Each sub-domain can be a separate "site" on your web server with its own file structure so you can install an instance of XF on each separate one, but you'd need a license for each one and you'd need to do any updates/changes multiple times.

The key advantage of doing it this way is you can custom skin each instance around the country audience you're aiming at.

I do this with my web directory:

Main directory - http://www.qango.com/ - path on server: /home/xxxxxx/public_html
Help section - http://help.qango.com/ - path on server: /home/xxxxxx/public_html/help
Site info - http://info.qango.com/ - path on server: /home/xxxxxx/public_html/info

Then Apache is configured to point each sub-domain at the respective path on the server.


Cheers,
Shaun :D
 
Thanx for the answers folks.

Now about resources, what are the key resources that can limit XF performance (especially fast loading) as the number of users increase?

That's really down to your web server and how it's configured; there are lots of different web server, database, and OS combinations.

XF is very well optimised out of the box, and there are additional things you can do such as file and Opcode caching on your server to speed it up (there are posts here on the XF community forum that will help you do that).

What are your current server specs?

Cheers,
Shaun :D
 
That's really down to your web server and how it's configured; there are lots of different web server, database, and OS combinations.

XF is very well optimised out of the box, and there are additional things you can do such as file and Opcode caching on your server to speed it up (there are posts here on the XF community forum that will help you do that).

What are your current server specs?

Cheers,
Shaun :D

GeeksChat,

Server specifications are as follows:

Hosting package UL50
Server Name cx06
cPanel Version 11.30.1 (build 4)
Theme x3
Apache version 2.2.17
PHP version 5.2.15
MySQL version 5.0.92-community
Architecture x86_64
Operating system linux
 
GeeksChat,

Server specifications are as follows:

Hosting package UL50
Server Name cx06
cPanel Version 11.30.1 (build 4)
Theme x3
Apache version 2.2.17
PHP version 5.2.15
MySQL version 5.0.92-community
Architecture x86_64
Operating system linux
That doesn't help that much, amount of RAM and CPU would make things much easier for everyone to help ;).
 
It's shared

Hmm, my suggestion for multiple installs probably wouldn't work very well in a shared server environment, so a single install might be best to start with. Those server specs look fine and providing your host doesn't share it with too many sites, and you don't go too mad installing lots and lots of add-ons or "heavy" skins, then I'm sure you'll find XF runs plenty fast enough for your needs.

Cheers,
Shaun :D
 
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