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Apache and MySql Performance Tuning for High Traffic Website

Chris Gilligan — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 14:27:52 +0000

SoccerNews.com is a high traffic WordPress site with over 600,000 unique visitors and over 2,000,000 page impressions per month. It is a content republisher and aggregator, presenting custom XML feeds for (what else?) soccer news from all over the world. The site has a very active user base, providing content in the forms of editorials and comments on news items. Advertising and sponsored referrals provide the revenue stream.

SoccerNews.com website

I was contacted by the publisher after responding to a plea for assistance in a WordPress.org support forum. Though the site was running on a dedicated server with 8GB RAM, it was crashing frequently under load. The developer tried implementing APC Alternative PHP Cache and W3 Total Cache, but these measures turned out to be incompatible with some of the custom PHP code and the software architecture of the server. Haphazardly implementing randomly suggested “solutions” had actually made the problems worse, resulting in an “own goal” that brought down the server.

I did an assessment of the software, hardware and traffic load and found that there were many improvements to be made. Among the changes:

Implemented a Stateful Packet Inspection firewall and Login Failure Daemon to block malicious IP addresses, malware servers, bad bots, content scrapers, etc. Many of the problems leading to site crashes were due to constant bad bot traffic, security probes and Denial of Service attacks. Connection Tracking in the firewall now limits the amount of resources a single legitimate IP address can monopolize, in addition to blacklisting attackers.

This is the first step to proper web server performance in today’s Internet climate. Popular sites that do not have a solid security and load balancing strategy are subject to crippling traffic from the Internet’s millions of malicious and compromised servers and personal computers.

Reconfigured Apache web server, PHP and MySQL to better utilize the server’s horsepower. Default configurations were limiting the number of concurrent user sessions the server could handle. Changed PHP to run as FastCGI (fcgid) and recompiled Apache to better handle the needs of a high traffic WordPress site. Configured a large MySQL table and query cache based on performance and load testing.
Configured a self-hosted Content Distribution Network, page cache, browser cache, and object cache with the WordPress plugin, W3 Total Cache. Due to the sheer number of ad scripts being served per page, there were inevitable JavaScript and PHP conflicts, but W3TC is very flexible and was able to handle the task.
Suggested a scheduled, offsite backup strategy that would utilize existing resources, and eliminate the need for a 3rd-party backup solution that was causing more load issues and costing $45.00 per month.

Now the site is stable and fast, and is ready for very high traffic. With World Cup Brazil coming up in 2014, the site will definitely see a huge amount of users. Future plans include moving the Content Distribution Network to an external provider, and possibly changing the architecture of the server to simplify the background processes and implement APC Alternative PHP Cache, or a caching web server front end.

Results? I’ll let the publisher speak to that!

The site has been as good as “flawless” since, with no downtime, and we couldn’t be happier. Everything is running smoothly and it’s a great relief knowing that we made the site faster, safer and more reliable. The site feels a lot more stable and faster. So you’ve done a great job.
– Kim Vincenzius, StarScape LLC

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Industrial Galvanizer Website

Chris Gilligan — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 21:27:25 +0000

Tennessee Galvanizing website

Tennessee Galvanizing had an aging Joomla site that needed major software updates. So, I migrated the site to WordPress for ease of use and ease of updates. WordPress is much more user friendly than Joomla, and also easier to maintain.

Simple WordPress site with front page slide show, news blog and contact form

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Office Furniture Retail Showcase

Chris Gilligan — Tue, 17 May 2011 15:21:01 +0000

Office Coordinators Inc. website

I worked with Office Coordinators Inc’s talented in-house designers to update the OCI website. OCI chose an e-commerce theme, and we completely reworked the CSS and layout to match their colors and logo treatment. After a previous failed attempt with another developer, they were surprised at how quickly the site came together, and how easy it is to manage with WordPress!

“Inquiry mode” e-commerce: customers can select items, add to shopping cart, then email for more information or price quote
Search Engine Optimization: Google Analytics and Sitemaps
WordPress Content Management
Social Networking with Facebook “score card”

Thank you for your persistence. You’re our favorite website/technically savvy guy ever.
— Emily Vaughn, OCI

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Farmers Market Website

Chris Gilligan — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 19:35:30 +0000

Main St Farmers Market website

This is a major redesign of the website for Chattanooga’s Main St Farmers Market. Local designers Widgets & Stone came up with the logos and suggested the look and feel, and I worked with Padgett Arnold to get the visuals and content just right. One interesting fact about the site: the web server is located on Main St as well! Keepin’ it LOCAL!

Interactive home page presents tons of information in a compact javascript slider
Fresh content includes recipes and a list of what’s available each week
Facebook fan page gets automatically updated with new content
New photos and videos are easily uploaded via SlideShowPro and YouTuber for a fun, engaging user experience
Lightweight CSS3 design and an alternative layout for mobile browsers present the site quickly and efficiently

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Landscape Architect Website with Slideshows & Social Media Integration

Chris Gilligan — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 20:32:48 +0000

Craig Design Group Website

This is a simple website for a Chattanooga based landscape architect that focuses on beautiful portfolio slideshows. We’ve also added Twitter and Facebook integration to keep fans and customers updated on the latest projects.

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Organic Farm Website with Slideshows and Content Management

Chris Gilligan — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 23:09:28 +0000

Sequatchie Cove Farm website

This site was produced in tandem with Widgets & Stone, a Chattanooga design firm. We’re members of Sequatchie Cove Farm’s Community Shared Agriculture program, so we are very familiar with the quality of the eggs, dairy, meat and produce coming out of the clean and fertile Sequatchie Valley.

(Will Work for Food!)

WordPress Content Management System allows the farmers to easily add their opinions, information and images
Automated updates to Facebook Pages, with linkback
Automatic Twitter tweets for new posts, with linkback
Social Media bookmarking
SlideShowPro gives the site a slick Flash-based Image Management System so the site can feature seasonal images.
MailMan manages a plethora of mailing lists for the weekly emails that keep the farmers connected to the communities and individuals they serve

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Property Management Website

Chris Gilligan — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 15:32:34 +0000

Walldorf Property Management Website

This site for Walldorf Property Management in Chattanooga uses Joomla CMS and EZ-Realty to create a site that’s easy for Walldorf employees to update and manage.

Online forms for lease applications, maintenance requests, and general questions
Multiple listing categories and unlimited properties
Image uploads automatically create slideshows for each property
Multiple, automated RSS and XML feeds to external property listing sites create strong search engine placement — top Google rank for all important keywords and phrases
Google Maps & driving directions automatically created for each property listing, with an overall area map showing all properties

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Rafting and Adventure Travel Site with Reservation Form

Chris Gilligan — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 00:20:28 +0000

Southeastern Expeditions website

This site, for an adventure travel company that runs rafting and eco-tourism trips in North and Central America, features a clean interactive design and extensive search engine optimization, including tailored metatags, hyperlinks, and a backlink referral network.

The site also features a simple reservation form that collects all information needed by booking specialists to bill for trip deposit and contact the customer to seal the deal, and saves the info in a secure database for retrieval.

Joomla Content Management System allows owners to update information, add new pages and modules to highlight season specials
TLS/SSH: secure encryption of confidential customer information

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Non-profit website with Calendar and Slideshows

Chris Gilligan — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 17:54:39 +0000

Sequatchie Valley Institute website

I visited Sequatchie Valley Institute years ago with my children, and made a long-term goal to some day live and work with the folks I met there. We use the web extensively to communicate with our members, the public, and the media.

SlideShowPro Director provides an engaging and easily-updated frontpage show, and a gallery of current and past events
Event Calendar manages our online calendar
Registration forms and contact forms for events and communication, routed to the proper folks
MailMan takes care of our e-mail blasts
Vanilla forum helps the board of directors sort out our business

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Adventure Travel Website

Chris Gilligan — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 15:25:00 +0000

Austria Adventure Week website

I worked with Bike Tours Direct to create this sub-site to promote their Austria Adventure Week package, a 2-week trip catering to mountain bikers and trail runners. We picked an open source WordPress template and made some minor tweaks to personalize it for the site by replacing a few images and adding navigation tabs.

Easy to use WYSIWYG editor allows administrators to quickly make edits, add pages or images, etc.
Comment feature for visitors to ask questions and get quick answers
SEO — Search Engine Optimization for automated submission to Google, MS Network, and Yahoo; automated SEO-friendly titles, URLs and descriptions
Custom contextual navigation system

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