How to make your server run more efficiently
 

Any server gurus here that could list some tips or tweaks you can do with your dedicated server to make it run more efficiently and reduce server load and speed up page load times and whatnot?

There's probably a good site with info on this but I'm not having much luck with Google.

memcached
ACP for PHP
lighttpd instead of apache
Good coding :)

for some good input and response post your question here

http://serverfault.com/

Isn't your server sitting idle because you couldn't think of a way to use it?

Are you looking for general optimization tips, or do you have specif things running that you would like to optimize such as apache, mysql, etc?

What's your server running, unix of some kind? Or windows?

In addition to what has been mentioned already, one very easy tweak is to adjust your crontab entries where it makes sense. Some scripts instruct you to have them run every minute but you don't always need this. Maybe you can have them run every other minute (*/2) or every three minutes (*/3). Before you try it check with the author of the script to make sure this will not cause any side effects.

You might also consider the use of 'nice' or something of that sort. Stats programs such as awstats can be resource hogs depending on how they are set up. If you are pushing your server maybe you will want to change awstats to run only once or twice a day instead of say hourly or every 30 minutes.

switch to a 1000MHz-enabled 64 Bit kernel....

tests on same server:
load on a 32 bit kernel were at 3.2
load on 64 bit kernel dropped to 0.9
load on 1000MHz-enabled 64 bit kernel dropped to 0.05

all software (apache/php/mysql etc stayed identical)

I shit you not.


---edit
I don't remember the kernel for 32 bit, but probably 2.6.11. The 64 bit kernels are 2.6.34.6 x86_64 (with HZ_1000 for the current version).

it all depends too many factors...

feel free to contact me (icq in sig)
I can take a look...

Think of your server as a formula one race car ...

You can be the driver, or the pit crew ... but you won't win too many races trying to be both.

Food for thought.