improve drupal 7 multisite performance

Question

I think this has to be performed when the project is starting and not when the project is running, but, I don't decide that. I'm only the developer. I read a lot about performance in Drupal 7, and I saw modules like (Boost, Devel...) but I'm not very experienced with this.

Devel isn't working for my project (when I enter here admin/config/development/devel the page only stay await for a couple of seconds and return a problem with the server [The connection was reset] and nothing happen). AS of yet, I have not tried Boost.

I want to make performance improvements not only for Drupal way but also for Apache+MySQL. I read something and some guys talked about jMeter to make some stress test and other thing. buy, I want to know what you think, what you use and your experience dealing with performance.

(One answer will be: CACHE, but I'm looking something more than a cache).

So much thanks guys!

Answer 1

Drupal

When it comes to multiple sites, you should consider what would be effects of managing multiple sites. Having a separate MySQL database for each Drupal site would means that your could do the following without disturbing others

• take one Drupal Site offline
• load new content into one site
• alter contents of one site

Consequences

• Upgrading Drupal content for one site may possibly affect others that are still running previous versions
• Doing an Upgrade requires a full shutdown of all sites
• Features for improving performance of one site (such as Boost Cache) may hurt performance for other sites

MySQL

When it comes to MySQL, you will have to consider one of two things

• Using MyISAM Storage Engine
• Using InnoDB Storage Engine

MyISAM and InnoDB have strengths and weaknesses.

• MyISAM only caches Index Pages
• InnoDB caches data and index pages
• InnoDB can also be configured to have InnoDB bypass OS caching
• InnoDB can be configured to access multiple cores/CPUs
• There are some instances where MyISAM can be as fast or faster than InnoDB
• As of MySQL 5.5, only MyISAM supports FULLTEXT indexing. MySQL 5.6 will introduce FULLTEXT indexing to InnoDB

Please see my past posts about other Pros and Cons:

• May 03, 2012 : Which is faster, InnoDB or MyISAM?
• Sep 20, 2011 : Best Of MyISAM and InnoDB
• Jun 07, 2011 : How do I convert a database from MyISAM to InnoDB?
• Apr 15, 2011 : https://drupal.stackexchange.com/questions/1715/what-would-be-the-optimal-mysql-configuration-for-a-drupal-7-site/2367#2367
• Apr 14, 2011 : What are the main differences between InnoDB and MyISAM?