Yeah. I can upgrade to squeeze. I’ve been plannig to do that sometime soon. I also have another Virtualmin GPL system that is already running Squeeze. I could just backup & restore the virtual server to that server & see what happens.
I am currently using CGI, and it is working without the timeout issue. I think we’ll just leave it that way for now. I have also replaced the CPU in my XenServer from a 1.6Ghz quad-core Xeon E5310, to a 3Ghz quad-core Xeon X5365. That helped too. Now PHP CGI is able to produce the CSV in about 2 minutes, rather than the 4.5 it previously took. So this is better, but still not great.
I have also been working with the developer of our PHP app just to try to get better performance. He has told me that instead of using native mysql commands from his PHP, he is using some middle-ware framework that enables the use of various database storage back-ends (not just mysql). He says that the performance issues I’m having are a result of that framework’s performance, and the solution would be to rewrite some of his PHP code to use native mysql, and bypass the [slow inefficient] framework.
My customer may be willing to pay him to code the changes. We’ll see…
In the meantime, we do now have a working solution. It just requires some patience.
I will report back as to whether moving the site to a debian squeeze system fixes the issue with the timeout seeming inconsistent.
Thanks for your help!
Doug