Site Performance with a lot of SKUs

[scott_itf]

my new site has 400+ products and some of the configurable products have a lot of attributes/over 2500 associated simple SKUs.

the configurable products with 4000+ associated simple SKUs actually do not display as the request times out...so I have had to disable them from a customer experience point of view

the developer of the site said that this is more than likely due to the shared hosting and has advised moving to a VPS hosted service...I have researched all of the performance enhancements you can make to magento and had the developer action these accordingly

just wanted some advice whether moving to a VPS is simply the answer or if there are other considerations?

moving to VPS is not cheap (Australia) if I go with the developers managed service and I am not technical enough to host the site on an unmanaged VPS...I have floated with the developer that he looks after the site (adhoc) even though it is hosted elsewhere and he seemed ok with this but it would be a risk

thanks in advance

Scott

[Finestshops]

Hi Scott,

Your developer is right. There is not much optimization you can do on a shared hosting account. Cheap option is to get an unmanaged server and hire server optimization guys from this forum to set it up for you . << Snipped >>

[JLHC]

You may be able to keep the website in shared hosting if a caching system like LiteMage Cache or Varnish is available. 

If you decide to go with a VPS, I wouldn't recommend going with an unmanaged VPS as you will be responsible for not only the optimization or server management but also security, which is the most important aspect of a server. 

[Pronto]

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@JLHC wrote:

You may be able to keep the website in shared hosting if a caching system like LiteMage Cache or Varnish is available. 

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Setting up Varnish can be quite complicated. Like really complicated. However I strongly recommend adding FPC (Full Page Cache) for Magento CE installations as this can give you speed boost that can be measured in orders of magnitudes. Also it's just a matter of installing an extension.

[MagenX]

first of all varnish and fpc cache is for page loading speed, using these when we have about 2-5 seconds from normal page loading speed.  here we have a problem that page just timeouts. so add some fpc = you will get the same result.

what you need to do is to check with your hosting provider - what exactly limits you have right now.

if there are some abnormal memory, cpu and php execution limits, slow hard drive, contention issues.

then you need to try to install aoe profiler and check any slow parts.

obviously if you trying to load +4000 options on product page - this is very stupid.

anyway vultr have cheap ssd vps in Australia.

[JLHC]

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@Pronto wrote:

Setting up Varnish can be quite complicated. Like really complicated.

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It wouldn't be complicated if the hosting provider support it out of the box, which is why I said if it is available. 

[Pronto]

I don't know about your hosting provider, but mine certainly doesn't install necessary Magento extensions. Also they don't do configurations (such as hole punching) and related custom coding (when necessary)

[scott_itf]

thanks for your reply and I will certainly speak to our developer and hosting provider about your points

however, not knowing my site, business, local market and the reasons behind the large number of SKUs I find your comment about "this is very stupid" to be extremely naive for someone who is deemed to be an expert

anyway thanks again for your input

[Hadifarnoud]

don't use vanilla Mysql. use MariaDB. this may not solve your issue but it's generally a good idea

[MagenX]

exactly 

usability and market needs are two different things.

im sure there are lots of shops like yours but designed much better in terms of usability.