We have tested SMF version 2.0.6 with a very large amount of data of which had the following characteristics:
mySQL Database 5.5
php 5.3.24
1 Million Plus Posts
1 Hundred Thousand Plus Forums / Sub-Forums
63 Thousand Plus Users
15 Groups
our php5.ini file was not configured (we used the system defaults):
USAGE:With this configuration SMF performed beautifully and without any issues just a well as it did with a much smaller forum. SMF did not even blink with this amount of data and can handle much more without issue. It is coded and optimized for growth much better than most other forum software.
DATABASE:The database design does not have enforced table relationships. This is not bad per se but it would prevent a developer from accidentally deleting a topic without deleting all the post for that topic first (safety measure); the same would go for deleting forums.
MODS:SMF has a large array of MODs written for it and this makes it easier to configure your system the way you want it.
Pros
- Fast and responsive.
- Does not attempt to cache the entire system so it can grow with your needs and still be fast.
Cons
- Cannot handle more than 65536 boards due to the table datatype. This is probably set small because of the limitation of the software not the database. The board ID datatype is set to smallint(5) and we do not know why there is a self imposed limitation set here. Although this limitation is set, SMF can handle much more data efficiently better than other forum software due to the way it was designed.
- The Administrative Move Topic function does not work after importing all data. This is most likely due to some sort of caching limitations.
- Does not have functionality to move posts to another topics.
Notes:There is a MOD titled Admin Toolbox (http://www.smfhacks.com/index.php?action=downloads;sa=view;down=190) from SMFHacks.com; which will allow you to move boards, topics and posts to other areas; which will help very much with the conversion to get data to exactly where you want it to be.