loading ads from .txt files or mysql ?

[TEENFRONT]

Hey.. little explanation..

 

I have a large site...serving around 6million ad impressions per day.

 

Now a few months back mysql was getting hammered with all the mysql calls to the db and dragging out a random ad code to display... so... i switched it over to pulling the ad codes from .txt files instead and this greatly helped the mysql issues.

 

Now it seems its the other way round, Apache is taking a beating but im unsure if its related to these ad calls from txt files. so im thinking of swapping back over to mysql... whats the load difference from loading things from txt files, to loading things from mysql?

 

Obviously mysql is faster but from a "load" point of view, is it better? i dont wanna free up apache...then feck up mysql...

[DeanWhitehouse]

Opening a file is slower and uses more resources than reading a mysql database.

 

I would say you just need to upgrade your hosting package to a dedicated server if the current one can't cope.

 

Although i am not an expert in Servers or response times.

[TEENFRONT]

Thanks for your suggestion - Thing is, i have 3 dedicated servers.

 

2 Apache servers and 1 mysql server. Its a meaty setup. Its just recently, in busy times, apache has been taking a real beating and reaching its max_connections then bombing out.

 

We really do have a LARGE site and the meaty server setup made me lazy with things like optimizing queries etc as the setup just coped fine. now with it lagging a little im looking for the best option.

 

Im also tempted to get the sites php code entirely rewritten by a Guru... hmmmmm lol. Any fancy some work?