Linux – a core, and will purchasing more cores for the VPS speed up page load times

central-processing-unitlinuxoptimizationperformancevps

I recently purchased a premium WordPres plugin called Hide my WP. I planned on using this plugin for my nonprofit organization's website, which is a multisite WordPress installation with an SSL.

Upon implementing it, page load times went from 4-6 seconds (already pretty bad, but I have a lot of content) to anywhere from 30-60 minutes.

I should add that 95% of the page load times deals with the server response time (you'd see "waiting for nationalcdp.org" in the lower-left when using Firefox); there must be bottlenecks in there, but I can't figure it out. Once the browser connects to nationalcdp.org, the actual pages load quite quickly.

Initially, the BlueHost techs blamed me that my sites weren't optimized. But they are optimized for speed … they get good grades on gtmetrix, pingdom, page speed insights, and others. All caching mechanisms are in place, images are losslessly compressed, javascripts are deferred, html and css are minified, etc. etc.

I explained that while I'm not knowledgeable with servers, I'm quite familiar on how to speed up page load times, especially when it comes to WordPress and SEO / speed optimization.

I'm using a VPS from BlueHost, and the details of my VPS are:

  • Had 2 cores (I just bought 2 more)
  • 30 GB SAN storage
  • 1 Terabyte of bandwidth

To solve the issue of the page load times, techs at BlueHost suggested I purchase 2 additional cores. I did just that, for $112 / 6 months.

This didn't help, however, and page load times were still 30-60 seconds. BlueHost techs said it was because I had "too many php running processes".

The tech said, "specifically, I'm looking at one process that has been open for 10 minutes now, and that shouldn't happen".

But plenty of others have used this plugin with little to no effect on page load times.

I might add that the BlueHost techs told me I was running at about 4.0-5.0 "server load" (I didn't understand what they were talking about), when ideally, you want to run at about .7 to 1.0 at most, and referenced me to review this article on server load.
So that leaves me with these questions for the server experts (you, if you're reading this and kind enough to proffer a reply):

  1. Did I do the right thing in purchasing the 2 extra cores?
  2. Should I ask for a refund?
  3. Should I ask for something else, like more Terabytes of bandwidth? More than the 30GB of SAN storage I currently have on my Linux?
  4. Should I just wait until I have exhausted this billing cycle, which ends in September, and go with another host?

I'm currently paying $30/month for this VPS — and then an extra $18/month for the two additional cores.

Thank you for any guidance anybody can offer!

Update: Thank you for everyone who took the time to read this question and answer. Unfortunately, BlueHost has had one of their infamous blackouts that occur monthly since they were acquired by Endurance International Group (EIG) in August 2014. So I'm unable to tinker with any of the solutions posed, as I have no websites, no FTP, no e-mail, and no cPanel access.

Best Answer

You might know what a core is from shopping for desktops and laptops. It's the CPU, the processor, the bit that does the work. Here's a wikipedia link that might help.

I plugged your site into this tool and most of the complaints were CSS and javascript that had to fully download before your site could fully render. Of course, I imagine we're viewing the site without the Hide My WP plugin, given the performance hit you noticed.

We don't really have enough information to tune your server for you, but the plugin in question says it's an IDS written in PHP that wraps your site. That would probably generate a lot of overhead:

Technically, it monitors all of requests of the site and assign a number (i.e. Impact Factor) to each request base on tens security checks. Impact factor indicates how much dangerous is that request. Should it be blocked? Should site admin be notified about it or we should just log it for future validity check. It’s useful against almost any type of attacks, any vulnerable plugin or theme! It may takes some time to trade off configuration in order to minimize false positives.

It also promises that you can safely install unsafe plugins. Hm. This is my skeptical face.

As to your actual questions:

  1. Did I do the right thing in purchasing the 2 extra cores?

Did it help? (I know it doesn't sound like it, but I didn't see the site before you bought them.)

  1. Should I ask for a refund?

Maybe? That depends on the answer to #1.

  1. Should I ask for something else, like more Terabytes of bandwidth? More than the 30GB of SAN storage I currently have on my Linux?

No. Nor should you buy more cores. I recommend not throwing any more money at running your $22 plugin. If it was some kind of business critical thing, maybe, but this is a $22 plugin that's making claims that leave me skeptical, and may just be too "heavy" for your particular site and your VPS. There are lighter and free plugins that... well, that aren't an IDS system written in PHP but will help security, if that's what you're after.

Instead, I'd try disabling plugins one at a time and see how that affects load time. You might be able to replace a slow plugin with another that offers the same functionality with less impact.

  1. Should I just wait until I have exhausted this billing cycle, which ends in September, and go with another host?

I don't feel like I can answer that based on the information provided. I have a friend who uses them and is perfectly happy, but her site isn't particularly processor-intensive.

Related Topic