Thread

Hi everyone.

I am relatively new to using ExpressionEngine and am having some trouble with a site I have hosted at MediaTemple.

The problem is that it is taking over 20 seconds to load the index.php file at my URL (Verified using Pingdom).

I am running the latest version of EE and have explored the various optimisation options offered in the documentation.

To test for any issues with includes I tried removing all links to external Javascript and CSS files but the page load times remained the same.

In further testing I took the code from the completed page and made a static version on the host. This static version loads in under 5 seconds despite including identical code/links to Javascript and CSS files etc

When I first implemented the site about a month ago the load times were not in the 20 second range but under 10 seconds based on my anecdotal experience.

The page does not contain any dynamic entries and is made up of about 5 basic embedded templates.

The url for the EE page is: http://www.noshgourmet.com

The url of the static testing page is: http://www.noshgourmet.com/testfile.html

If someone can provide me with assistance in figuring out the problem it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks Elliot

eliptus, sometimes the problem simply is MediaTemple.

If you don’t use embeds, is it faster?

Hi, Thanks.

Im wishing I had researched this more but chose Media Temple based on some one I knows recommendation… big mistake I guess.

I’ll try testing that tomorrow… its the early hours AM here in Australia.

It would kind of defeat the purpose of using EE if that suggestion does work but I guess it may help isolate the problem from a testing point of view.

I need to implement a bunch of dynamic stuff soon so I guess my problem will only get worse then.

Thanks for the reply.

Cheers Elliot

Elliot,

Perhaps we can first do some reduction testing.

Can you createa new template, and put *only* this in it:

Hello World

it should be blank otherwise, no other markup.  Now visit that template - is it fast?

Hi, Thanks for the reply.

I have done the hello world test as you have suggested:

http://www.noshgourmet.com/index.php?/eetest/

http://www.noshgourmet.com/index.php?/noshfoodmarket/eetest/

On Pingdom it comes in with a range of between 9-22 seconds to load these urls this morning.

When looking at the other data from the main url it would seem that its the initial connection time component that has the huge lag with all the various other files being loaded taking consistently under 8 seconds once the connection is established. This gives the total load time of 20 secs plus.

Does this test place the responsibility at the Media Temple door? Any other suggestions?

The Media Temple service agent is trying to make out like its a problem with the code of the site etc.

Thanks Elliot

Well, the template isn’t really doing any parsing here; it sounds like a slow database connection. Can you do another test for me?

In /system/utilities you’ll find dbtest.php.  Can you fill out the database connection values, upload it and visit that in your browser?  That is just a database test utility; let’s see if it’s fast or slow.

Hi. Thanks for the fast response and the help 😊

What do you mean by fill out the database connection values? Is this an action I perform in the code of dbtest.php or in the control panel?

Thanks Elliot

Hi Lisa

OK worked out what you meant now.

Im having problems filling out the settings. I get an error as shown below. NB: I have changed out some of the strings for x’s for security.

Am checking my settings again now.

Warning: mysql_connect() [function.mysql-connect]: Lost connection to MySQL server during query in /xxx/xxx/xxx/xxx/xxxxx/domains/noshgourmet.com/html/xxxxxxxx/dbtest.php on line 12

Unable to connect to your database server

Warning: mysql_select_db() [function.mysql-select-db]: Can’t connect to local MySQL server through socket ‘/var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock’ (2) in /xxx/xxx/xxx/xxx/xxxxx/domains/noshgourmet.com/html/xxxxxxxx/dbtest.php on line 28

Warning: mysql_select_db() [function.mysql-select-db]: A link to the server could not be established in /xxx/xxx/xxx/xxx/xxxxx/domains/noshgourmet.com/html/xxxxxx/dbtest.php on line 28
Unable to select your database

Sorry, I should have been more clear.  Hrm, those connection details match what you see in config.php? It looks like it did gain a connection but lost it; that would be a bad database connection. I’d recommend pointing your host to that file (it’s a totally standalone file separate from ExpressionEngine itself) and see if they have any ideas.

Hi

I made another database user so that I could determine if the passwords etc were working properly.

I got a much better result but don’t fully understand it. The connection was really fast. See below:

................
A connection was established to your database server

Unable to select your database
................

Thanks Elliot

We really need to test this with the database details ExpressionEngine itself is working or it’s not a good test.  Do you still get bad connections when you use the information as it is entered in config.php?

Hi

Will try it now.

thanks

Hi Lisa

Thanks… that little tip gave me the info I needed to get it connecting. Sorry Im such a noobie when it comes to database stuff.

This time it was really fast (under 1 sec) again and gave the following:

.....................

A connection was established to your database server

Your database was selected.

..........................

What do you make of this?

Thanks for the help.

Cheers Elliot

Your Hello World template still takes awhile to load, eliptus?

Hi Lisa

Yes 20+ secs

Elliot