[wp-hackers] Expected WPMU Performance

[Shayne Sweeney]

Hackers,

I am hoping to seek advice from a WPMU expert.

I have recently setup and configured a WPMU installation with ~20 blogs and
over ~40,000 articles. A single blog's article count ranges from only 72 to
over 15,000. I hope this is sufficient enough information as to the content
loaded into the system.

I am using a dedicated database server located on the server's LAN.

Hardware/Software Specs:
- Web Server
* P4 3.0GHz HT
* 2GB RAM
* 160GB IDE 7200RPM
* Litespeed Webserver (Std.)
- Database Server
* Dual 3.0Ghz Xeon
* 2GB RAM
* 160GB IDE 7200RPM

Here's the situation ...

With all the blogs configured (themes, plugins, etc..) I was only able to
squeeze max., 8 requests/sec.

Instead of going through all the plugins and theme customizations that are
bundled into this WPMU system I decided to run a second benchmark, using no
plugins and the default Kubrick WP theme.

Even then my benchmark maxes out at 33 requests/sec.

I am using the app 'http_load' to benchmark the system using the following
command:
$ http_load -parallel 5 -seconds 10 bench_urls

The 'bench_urls' file contains random locations to blog indexes, categories,
dates, articles, etc...

Given the information provided, where did I go wrong? I have to be missing
something big, as these numbers just don't make sense.

I am praying for a WPMU optimization solution.

Thanks,
Shayne