Best MediaWiki Hosts

[FlyingRagnar]

I have been really annoyed with hostgator as of late.  dragon-quest.org seems to be slow all the time.  I'm really starting to contemplate moving to a better host.  I just don't envy having to everything again.

[FlyingRagnar]

I've done some research and performance tuning.  The hostgator support people tell me that my shared server is not being overloaded.  It seems to be significant that hostgator offers no PHP accelerator such as APC. 

So, for those of you on BlueHost and Linode, did you manually install some sort of caching accelerator?  I'm experimenting with the file caching mechanism, but I'm skeptical that it will help. 

What are your wiki's config settings to improve performance?

[Jake]

So, for those of you on BlueHost and Linode, did you manually install some sort of caching accelerator?  I'm experimenting with the file caching mechanism, but I'm skeptical that it will help. 

What are your wiki's config settings to improve performance?

Nookipedia uses APC for opcode caching as well as the file cache, and it works really well. APC is really easy to install, and it works almost automatically. You may need to go in and tune some of the settings for your server, but otherwise it works like a charm and really speeds things up.

You may also want to check out the MediaWiki guide to improving performance, if you haven't already: http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Performance_tuning

[Koroku]

This is what the guy that does the technical stuff said about us...

We have xcache for opcode+object cache configured to use 16M per process of php (we run php on fastcgi). MediaWiki is also configured to use static page caching.

[Jake]

If you have xCache installed, you may be able to use it for Object caching. See this page for more information.

Essentially, you just change $wgMainCacheType = CACHE_NONE; to $wgMainCacheType = CACHE_ACCEL; in LocalSettings.php. If you notice a speed increase, that means it's working. You may want to ask your tech guy about it first though.

[FlyingRagnar]

Ok, things are getting a bit clearer now.  Yes, I've been reading the Mediawiki pages on performance tuning.  Too bad pretty much all of the options are not available at my current host.

This pretty much sums up hostgator's policy on PHP accelerators:
http://support.hostgator.com/articles/pre-sales-policies/is-it-possible-to-install-ioncube-php-accelerator-on-shared-server

I put all of my jobs queue on a cron a long time ago.  I enabled file caching, but that really only helps visitors to the site, not logged in users.  I turned on logging, but have yet to see any thing of significance.  I guess I could post the log file here.  I haven't tried using the mediawiki profiler either.

I seem to get only intermittent delays though.  Sometimes the pages load fast, sometimes really slow.  Hmmm.

[Jake]

I've never seen a shared host offer a PHP accelerator, so I'm sure there's some technical reason as to why they can't offer them.

I seem to get only intermittent delays though.  Sometimes the pages load fast, sometimes really slow.  Hmmm.

That's pretty typical for a shared host. Because you're sharing the same server with other customers (see below), your load times depend not only on your own traffic, but on the traffic of everyone else as well. So if another site on the same server is experiencing a huge increase in traffic, your site performance will suffer as well. We used to have this issue with Nookipedia, which is why I eventually moved us over to a VPS at Linode. Needless to say, our site's speed is much faster now.

I ran a reverse IP lookup for your wiki, and found that the following sites are also hosted on the same server:
[spoiler="List of Sites on your Server"][/spoiler]

[FlyingRagnar]

Nice.  Thanks for posting that.  I didn't realize you could so easily do a look up.  All those scented soy candles must be slowing down the wiki hehe.  I've been messing with the profiler, which is pretty nice.  It tells the same story: most page loads are less than half a second, others can be 2-7 seconds.  

For those of you using static file caching for visitors, did you configure your mod_rewrite to go directly to the static pages?  It is described here:
http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:$wgFileCacheDepth

I'm definitely considering a jump to Linode in the future.  All of the flexibility it offers is really appealing.  

[FlyingRagnar]

Hostgator blows.  I checked today and we are sharing with 93 other sites.  We have had lots of random spikes in performance because of this.  I'm going to contact them to complain, but overall it just sucks.

[FlyingRagnar]

Bump.

So, as of today Dragon Quest Wiki is still hosted by hostgator.  A month or two ago they migrated to new hardware.  I really haven't noticed performance issues as much as 2 years ago when I originally created this thread.  However, doing maintenance and other stuff is still a pain because of access restrictions. 

I assume there are still other NIWA wikis running on shared servers?  I wondered if there might be interest in getting a Linode that maybe a few of the smaller/less active wikis could share together.  Seems like this would make things easier with regards to making sure all the wikis are up, the upgrade process, shared costs, etc.  As NIWA moves forward, it seems like it would make sense to have some of the smaller wikis band together.

How many wiki could be supported via a 1GB Linode?

[dkpat]

There is in many ways already a bandwagon server for NIWA wikis. Well, multiple really.

Fire Emblem Wiki, Wikirby, Lylat Wiki, and Wikibound are all hosted in conjunction. 
Metroid Wiki and Strategy Wiki are hosted together.
Nintendo Wiki and F-Zero Wiki are hosted together.
Donkey Kong Wki, Super Mario Wiki, Smash Wiki, and Pikipedia/Pikmin Fanon are also hosted together.

lol, As you see a whole lot of NIWA are hosted on a server where another wiki is as well.

The only NIWA wikis that I think might consider this kind of a deal would be Starfy Wiki and Icaruspedia. Everyone else is pretty well situated.

Also, to answer your question, I would probably stick 3 wikis on a 1GB Linode, to be safe (Mediawiki recommends 256 mb per install)

[FlyingRagnar]

Well, I guessed it was not an original idea.   It makes a lot of sense.

So, by that accounting that leaves the following wikis as independent:

Bulbapedia
Dragon Quest
Icaruspedia
Nookipedia
Starfy
Wars
Zelda

I would assume Bulbapedia and probably Zelda would stay where they are due to volume of traffic.  Some of the others could definitely be considered for sharing a Linode or similar situation.  Right now, I pay for all the fees related to the Dragon Quest wiki.  The hosting isn't much (about $5 a month), but it doesn't make sense for me to pay $20 a month for a 1GB Linode that the wiki would only need 1/3 of.  Splitting that cost 3 ways to be about $7 per month would be great however.

I really don't know how this would happen, but I'm open to the possibilities if others are interested and have some knowledge of how it might be done.

[dkpat]

Both Nookipedia and Wars Wiki are a part of a larger fansite. (even if Wars Wiki is abandoned) Which is why I didn't include them in my above suggestions. and Bulbapedia and Zelda Wiki are obviously out just due to sheer volume of traffic (Bulba is hosted on one of the most powerful options there is, and it needs it. lol) Also, GSU is situated well, so we are good as we are. lol.

However, another thing to be aware of, is that a Linode server does not include cpanel. You will need to buy a license to use cpanel, if you so desire, in addition to the host its self. (Pricing may vary)

[KidIcarus]

Anything but Wikia seems to be the consensus