Here is the SQL Error I get almost everytime I try and load the site now. Refreshing my browser seems to make it connect:

So far, I am thinking that we are dealing with an underpowered server for the load being put on it. The vast majority of times, everything is fine. However, the timeout error is an indication of a temporary crunch load that the server simply could not process in time.

The database error logs do not show anything out of the ordinary.

Still, if one user is experiencing this issue far more than others, I suspect a cache/cookie issue.

What is the actual URL within the board that you are trying to load?

For instance, the main forums listing page is...

http://www.boatingabc.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/ubb/cfrm

Active topics of past 24 hours...

http://www.boatingabc.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/ubb/activetopics/range/1/type/t

I will look to see what query starts at that line in the specified file.

One thing that could be a hang up is the feature that shows how many unread topics there are when you view the main forums listing page.

That set of queries is very resource consuming. For now, I have disabled that feature to see if it has a positive impact.

So, to help track down what is happening, please post the URL to any page that you get an SQL error (or if the page is very slow to load) when attempting to access.

Here is the url I got the error above going to:

http://www.boatingabc.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php

BTW, it seems much faster now that you disabled the unread messages. Maybe it's because there are not that many people on New Years eve but the site is loading immediately where before I got a lengthy pause.

Yes, it's really zipping along now. I guess I haven't been reading enough threads. Lately all I read is the Misc and General Boating.

I got a similar error this morning when doing a deep search on the General Boating forum. Same search terms were Ok on the other forums. Cutting back the same search from 4 years to the 3 year depth cleared up the problem. This was searching for numerous common tokens, the 8 page limit filled up in less than 1 year.

Could it be that the General Boating forum needs re-indexing?

Could it be that vee need to split the General Boating forum into 2 or 3 different forums? Such as BoatShowroom and MyBoating?

dee wude wan

This supports my suspicion that the board has outgrown the server at least for some of the more process intense features.

I have been looking at an upgrade for some time now, and feel the time to stop looking is at hand. Still, comparison operators are very demanding on system resources and will always bog down the server when doing complex searches or searching a large forum going back several years. This is why I have the limit set to 4 years. As it is, this seems to be too long a time frame to allow.

Good point about subdividing the General Boating forum. However, this would only help if those doing a search actually select only specific forums rather than all of them at once.

Another factor that will help is optimization of the code. The next release (which will be very soon now) should see a marked improvement in this area as the searching functions have been totally re-written along with general optimizing of the entire code base.

Further, I have been doing some reading up on how to better tune MySQL. The current installation is running pretty much "out of the box" other than some application and site specific settings.

For all the others who have commented on slow page loads..

Am I to take it from the general lack of comments here that you are no longer experiencing this issue?

Will the board operate with anything other than mySQL. There are better products out there (but no Open Source). How are the tables linked and how many joins need to be done to establish a search.

If the search requires you to join tables for each forum, the search will be large. You can break it out by restricting the search for an individual forum (and not the (all)). I'm not sure if the software does this sequentially through the forum list or joins them then searches.

Might be something to think about. If you want help, let me know and I can see if I can assist.

Sebago

Maybe ignorance on a lot of us. Other than what a pig does, what is SQL?

Jack; it is pronounced "See Quill". Does that help?

You guys really bust me up.

Jack,

SQL = Structured Query Language.

The SQL wiki.

All the contents of this message board are stored in a Database.

In this case, we are using MySQL.

To answer Sebago's "query", this is the only DB the software supports.

Where the older version stored the content in a "flat file" (bunch of text files)database, this version uses a (Relational Database Management System (RDBMS).

This is separate software that runs on the server. The forum scripts execute queries against the database and use the returned results to fill in the topics, postings and such to the calling script for display to the user.

This all works very well, but can be a source of a bottleneck if the queries take too long to execute.

Sebago, I appreciate the offer of help.

Without "hacking" the code of the scripts, there is little I can do to make things much better. I do know that the writers of the software recognize that many of the queries are not optimal. Thus the total re-write of all search functions. I've not delved into the code much at all and truth to tell, am not well qualified to critique the work.

Version 7.3 is just out in private beta. I have it and will be installing a test instance soon to see how it works. I will wait until at least 7.3b2 before turning it loose here.

I will happily call on you for help/advise if I run into difficulties.

Actually I never did experience slow page loads. Even though I visit frequently, and am on a slow dialup connection. My ISP DOES get the "slows" from time to time, but that is just my stupid ISP, not BABC's issue.

My little experience with databases is that maintenance is a far, far, far of more critcal concern than performance. As once the *&^%$# thing breaks, it will no longer matter how blazing fast it used to be.

As for limiting searches, I NEVER use the "seach all forums" mode. I always, always target individual forums when searching on BABC. There are various strategies for limiting search loads. The year depth limit is only one. Another common one is to allow a given user only 1 search every 5 min (or some other time window). More rare, but some sites require special registration for search users.

I made the suggestion of splitting the General Boating forum only half in jest. It does seem to me that any forum whose title includes the word "General" becomes a magnet for those to lazy to give thought to where their post really should be planted. Go - to - General forum - turn - off - brain. Thus forum bloat.

still wude ...

Believe it or not, there is a threshold that makes it better to use flat file storage and indexing based on a key. MySQL has tried to evolve to more of an enterprise database, but is limited to its indexing abilities.

The speed is based on the index of the database and the proper development of the tables of the database. A universal main index key is needed with a complex table structure to minimize computation time for access to the data for results.

Search the code for "join". The more you see, the slower it is.

Like, now I understand----NOT! Thanks for trying, though. I still think, much like what a pig does, it is what the system says when it gets tired or pinched.

Sorry Jack T. I guess I deserve the propeller head for that one

By the way Admin, I'm sure you are receiving a virtual server (VMWare). The performance also depends on what you were allocated and what else is allocated on that server. They will oversubscribe and someone may be taking quite a bit of traffic during the shopping period. If they are good, they will go back and beat on the offender. That may also have freed up some resources.