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YaBB Hints!

YABB CGI MODIFICATIONS

This post is for two reasons:

1. You can rate your level of treatment on boardmod.org (as far as your questions being answered)

2. This thread enables you to ask questions that you simply don't get answered elsewhere.

Now, you may ask, well doesn't boardmod.org do that? Yes they do, and for me they do an excellent job, but unfortunately some still get forgotten, also, many write me about the changes I made, or how I got certain mods to do something that they have been asking about.

We have some mod writers on here so maybe they will see your post here too and answer? Let's call it your second shot.

Hints YaBB

Q. Why is CPU usage so high on my YaBB?
A. my personal experience has been that a script could have been installed wrong by you causing a loop. If this loop get out of hand only the administrator of the server can shut it down.

Q. What else can cause high server usage?
A. If a lot of people are on the forum at the same time. Some lamer is pressing reload constantly or a search bot like AlltheWeb.com is indexing your site. Of all the processes in YaBB I have found that loading the boardindex to be the highest, then the message index and so on.

Q. How can I track what is going on with my YaBB?
A. Use the who's online script to see who is doing what at a given moment. Use the error log to see where a script or process might be giving trouble. It is imperative that you have access to the files of your server. I do not wish to explain FTP and file permissions, you should know that already. You can check th error log on your server to see what errors are also be logged seperate from YaBB. If you have shell access (you may have what is called, 'jailed shell access') then you can use a free program called, 'PuTTy' to get a real time perspective of what is going on in your server. Use the 'top' command when you are logged on.

Q. Does installing mods cause the CPU usage to go up?
A. In a word, yes! However, if the mod does not do any complexed tasks then it should not increase it by much.

YaBB Hints! Gaming Video & Issues Computer

Q. I do not have shell access, how else can I check what YaBB is doing?
A. You are with the wrong hosting company. There must be a way to show what a process will do. Change your host otherwise your host can say you are doing 'x' and you are causing 'x' with no real way to prove or see why that is.

Q. My host just showed me that my YaBB is causing up to 50% CPU usage in an instance, is that high?
A. It is high only if it is sustained. By sustained I mean that the CPU usage continues for long seconds or minutes. An instant process may take up more CPU usage than that, but it should be just that --> instant. Any host will admit that even they do processes (example CPANEL) which go over 100% CPU, but likewise it is just an instant. This is why it is important to have shell access so you can know if your host is trying to bug you just for an instant usage of extra CPU or if it is sustained.

Q. What are normal CPU process percentages?
A. In my experience watching a normal web page can take 1%, a more complexed web page can take up to 5%, where as a simple script might take up the same amount or a little more. With YaBB the board index takes up the most - 30% to 50%. They key is to keep stuff on the board index to a minimum.

Hints YaBB

Thanks a lot of your hints on YaBB. They are very helpful for all YaBB holders, especially for such who faces this high CPU usage  ;).

Today I got access to shell.  :) Load PuTTy, but I am so dummy  :, I dont't know what to look there.

I see this lines:

"306 processes: 301 sleeping, 3 running, 1 zombie, 1 stopped
CPU states: 53.1% user, 17.4% system,  0.0% nice, 29.4% idle
Mem:  1025688K av, 1015600K used,   10088K free,       0K shrd,   69780K buff
Swap:  522072K av,   78116K used,  443956K free                  399228K cached

 PID USER     PRI  NI  SIZE  RSS SHARE STAT %CPU %MEM   TIME COMMAND
16952 nobody    18   0 23356  19M 17276 S     7.9  1.9   0:00 httpd
16917 nobody     9   0 22640  18M 17352 S     7.6  1.8   0:00 httpd
16974 super   17   0  6088 6088  1228 R     7.2  0.5   0:00 YaBB.pl"

How could I check what exactly in yabb folder excluding yabb.pl itself causes high  CPU.
What from CPU meanings are that "instant": user, idle or system?  

Hints YaBB

This line:

16974 super   17   0  6088 6088  1228 R     7.2  0.5   0:00 YaBB.pl

Says that user 'super' which refers to your account on the server ran a script called, 'YaBB.pl' and it used 7.2% of the CPU. that is all you need really. Now the best thing to do is put your board in working mode and run tests. For instance, load the board index and then look at putty, it will tell you how much CPU that caused (putty loads automatically when using the 'top' command).

YaBB Hints!

all processes are under 10-20 CPU %. Only search and view users last 50 posts go with 30-40 %.
But if about 70 simultaneous users are logged in, what then? Every users uses different processes and they sumed up?
How can I face my host provider with this results?
Or maybe I want to try another one..

YaBB Hints

Well if you have 70 users on at the same time then you need to have a dedicated server because no matter what host you go with you are going to have problems. However, you may have users who are a burden to the system. These 'trouble' users may be using the board to spam, etc. You will have to keep tabs on that to see if it is not a few that is really causing the problems.

Offtopic but, Please update your location in your profile to make the green blob go away.

YaBB Hints Computer Issues & Video Gaming

I have been on Lithuanian hosting for half a year.
And then even didn't mention about high CPU.
I switch because lithuanina prices for bandwidth are really cosmic.
Ant then my new hoster suggest to convert because "IPB can handle 80 or more users online with 10-20 CPU %".
So may be this is a problem of YaBB.
Yes, if you have busy yabb forum, you must go to dedicated for 70-200$, but with the same users on IPB, for ex. you could have forum for 10-20$.