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Help with configuration and server hardware for large stores

Posted: Mon Oct 05, 2015 6:10 pm
by tjvisualdesign
Hi all,

I need some help understanding the hierarchy of importance and what configuration is needed for servers with large stores. I have over 93000 products and the store is working fine right now, but I've had some trouble with extensions executing properly or not at all and was wondering if the developer is right when they say the server isn't good enough or if the extension needs to be written for the amount of products in mind?

I have a vps with 2 cores and 2gb ram with 60gb of space so it's not too bad. I've got access to the whm and have upped the execution times and memory limit, but not sure what actually makes a difference to the output of the site?

Any help would be appreciated!

Re: Help with configuration and server hardware for large st

Posted: Tue Oct 06, 2015 12:35 am
by EvolveWebHosting
There are a lot of factors here:

1) How new is the server?
2) Is it configured properly?
3) Are the scripts / modules you're running coded properly?
4) Are you using caching to increase load times?

Have you used sites like webpagetest.org or gtmetrix.com to see where the slow downs are coming from?

Re: Help with configuration and server hardware for large st

Posted: Tue Oct 06, 2015 9:08 am
by tjvisualdesign
1) I'm using justhost so I'm guessing it would be in their best interest to keep their hardware up to date, but who knows.

2) That's where I need help I don't know what settings are best for large databases. Should I be setting memory limits as high as possible as well as PHP max execution time? Are there other settings I should be focusing on?

3) I've got very little experience with best coding practices I usually try to find someone who is experienced and pay them, but it's hard to find someone who knows exactly what they're doing.

4) Yes I have page caching. The actual load times of the site is very good and it is scoring around 80 - 88 as a total mark on gtmetrix so there's no trouble there. I've tried to add as many optimisations as possible.

I was talking to a developer who was saying that the extension has to be written for large databases which I agree with, but then you have other developers saying that it's all up to the server, so it gets confusing as I'm sure they're both right respectively.

Thanks for your time

Re: Help with configuration and server hardware for large st

Posted: Tue Oct 06, 2015 9:32 am
by EvolveWebHosting
tjvisualdesign wrote:1) I'm using justhost so I'm guessing it would be in their best interest to keep their hardware up to date, but who knows.

2) That's where I need help I don't know what settings are best for large databases. Should I be setting memory limits as high as possible as well as PHP max execution time? Are there other settings I should be focusing on?

3) I've got very little experience with best coding practices I usually try to find someone who is experienced and pay them, but it's hard to find someone who knows exactly what they're doing.

4) Yes I have page caching. The actual load times of the site is very good and it is scoring around 80 - 88 as a total mark on gtmetrix so there's no trouble there. I've tried to add as many optimisations as possible.

I was talking to a developer who was saying that the extension has to be written for large databases which I agree with, but then you have other developers saying that it's all up to the server, so it gets confusing as I'm sure they're both right respectively.

Thanks for your time
I don't have any personal experience with justhost.com but they are owned by EIG and you can do a search for topics about this. Personally, I'd focus more on the coding vs. increasing settings on the VPS. If the scripts are written poorly, they're going to wreak havoc on your VPS and possibly crash it after you increase the limitations. At this point, I'd have to see the site to start debugging and helping any further. Do you want to post the domain name here?

Re: Help with configuration and server hardware for large st

Posted: Tue Oct 06, 2015 9:59 am
by tjvisualdesign

Re: Help with configuration and server hardware for large st

Posted: Tue Oct 06, 2015 11:19 am
by EvolveWebHosting
Hi,

Thanks for providing your domain. I would suggest additional caching / compression to decrease the load times. Your coding can be minimized and the requests should be able to get cut down with the right module.

What has your hosting support said about the way your VPS is configured? Have they given you any insight?

Re: Help with configuration and server hardware for large st

Posted: Tue Oct 06, 2015 12:27 pm
by tjvisualdesign
To be honest it's hit and miss with them, sometimes I'll get someone who's fantastic and will fix everythin, but most times I get someone who doesn't really know what's going on. I've asked them a few times if there's anything I should change in the whm, but I guess they don't really know the exact website setup and or they don't want to give the wrong details in case something breaks. So they usually give a non answer.

The extension that I'm having trouble with is an seo extension that creates tags automatically. It's getting stuck at around 55000 products and throwing an error ----

Not Found
Not Found
<!doctype html>
<html dir="ltr" lang="en">
<head>

<link rel="publisher" href=""/>


<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">

The other tags get stuck at around 10000 an throw the same error. I'm still talking to the developer and they have said a few things in regards to increasing the php execution time etc. I've got a cron job running now that they provided, but it's not budging from 55000 so this is where I'm stuck. Because I don't particularly want to go through 93000 products and change meta tags etc. The extension is perfect, but it's just that case of whether it's been built well or I need to upgrade my server hardware. I can easily add more cores or ram, but I only want to do that when I absolutely have to.

Thanks for your time, it's very much appreciated

Re: Help with configuration and server hardware for large st

Posted: Tue Oct 06, 2015 9:47 pm
by EvolveWebHosting
Does that module provide any performance issues other than when it's being used? If it does, disable it and see how the site runs. If not, I would suggest going back to that developer or another one to fix that extension. If I can be of any additional help or even if you want to consider switching hosting companies (transfers are for free), I'd love to help you out.

Re: Help with configuration and server hardware for large st

Posted: Wed Oct 07, 2015 1:55 am
by IP_CAM
a few tips regarding overall Performance can be found here:
http://forum.opencart.com/viewtopic.php ... 60#p583760
Good Luck
Ernie
jti.li/shop/