So, I recently built a site using DNN 5.6.0
To date it's been an "experience", but overall I'm happy with the product. Here is a quick synopsis:
- I am currently using the Community Edition
- Hosted on a Deluxe GoDaddy Shared Hosting plan.
- The site is available at http://www.the-ifl.com, but is also being masked by http://www.ironfistleague.com
- The site will offer a series of social interactions and custom modules. (Forum, Articles, Active Social [so galleries, updates, etc.])
Why am I posting... well... the site is running dreadfully slow and I find myself having to run through a process anywhere from every 6 to 12 hours on the site. Quite frankly, I don't have the time, or the desire, to consistently do the following:
- Log into DNN as host, Clear Cache from host settings
- After Cache is cleared, restart application
- Log into GoDaddy, Recycle App Pool
Shortly after I've done the above the site runs great, then it seems to degrade incredibly quickly. I have done all sorts of tweaks that I can find online to improve long & short term performance, but it's not where I want the site to be or feel that it should be at.
What I would like to try and deduce is if this is a site or server issue.
Originally when I set up the site I used the GoDaddy install, which was frustratingly awful. I needed to have access to the DB remotely so that I could convert phpBB forum data and users to DNN users and a DNN forum (I ended up going with Active Forums). I ended up successfully unzipping and installing DNN to a sub-folder on GoDaddy and then moving it to the root. I still see errors in the event viewer consistently.
The most common errors are SqlDataProvider timeouts, and a "data resource already exists" when default.aspx is hit. I am at a loss as to how to resolve those issues and am concerned that they are contributing to the performance of the site. Another "error" that I've noticed is my PortalAlias table continues to grow. As I am using it chiefly for two domains I am not sure why this is. I thought I should have 2, but I have almost 300, most of which are either .png files or old pages that no longer exist on http://www.ironfistleague.com.
I would love an answer to these issues, if anyone has one.
If you visit the site, you will notice that the response time is abysmal, but that the pages load fairly quickly. To ensure that the application isn't exited, I set up an account at http://www.pingalive.com to track ping and keep my application running. What I have seen is that the ping from my site is incredibly erratic. It is currently averaging at around 2100ms (which is horrible), but is consistently around 5000ms and spikes at 10000ms. I am really starting to think that this is not an application issue but a hosting issue and am evaluating a switch in hosting to PowerDNN.
From my stance, the site should not be this slow/bad. On average, through the course of the day, we have about 12-15 users hitting the site to use the message boards. I have made a ton of adjustments to try and improve the site.
Below are the settings on the Host"
- Persistence = Page
- Cache = Memory
- Setting = Heavy
- Authenticated = Public
- Compression = GZip
- Scheduler = Timer
- Event Log Buffer = True
- Auto-sync files = True
- Site Log = Disabled
- Site wide Search = Disabled
- I have completely truncated and removed all access to DNN Search(even in the Scheduler) as it was affecting my DB size and performance.
I have even gone to the extent of uninstalling a lot of base & host modules that were not in use. (Site Wizard, banners, vendor, Search, etc.) to try and decrease my footprint. Still... it's horrifically slow.
So, after all that... I am trying to figure out if:
- Did I mess something up in configuring DNN or during Install (how do I find out)
- Or Is this simply a hosting issue
If you have used PowerDNN and GoDaddy Shared hosting, can you provide me with your thoughts on your experience?
The cost of the change isn't an insurmountable issue, but I do want to make sure that if I am paying 3x as much for hosting that the service is improved to be worth the increase.
Any and all help is appreciated.
Thanks!