Board hiccups

[jimnyc]

Received a few calls that the board was down about half an hour ago. I came home, and although it was loading, it was VERY slow, and is still loading slowly for me. I can load images and HTML pages fine, just the board is slow, which means the SQL server is having issues or is overloaded.

I have already opened a support ticket. Hopefully they'll fix it ASAP. Likely another site on the server hogging the resources and they will terminate them or temporarily suspend.

Thanks for your patience as I get this fixed.

[red states rule]

Received a few calls that the board was down about half an hour ago. I came home, and although it was loading, it was VERY slow, and is still loading slowly for me. I can load images and HTML pages fine, just the board is slow, which means the SQL server is having issues or is overloaded.

I have already opened a support ticket. Hopefully they'll fix it ASAP. Likely another site on the server hogging the resources and they will terminate them or temporarily suspend.

Thanks for your patience as I get this fixed.

Right now everything is fine Jim. Thanks for the update

[jimnyc]

Yes, support sent me a reply about 10 mins ago that the SQL server was in fact overloaded. They have temporarily suspended the users account until they can sort their issues. Supposedly all is now returned to normal, but still seems a little slow to me. Then again, I think it's been slow for quite some time now.

Just an Fyi - I am looking for an alternative host for better performance and lower fees. It's a pain in the ass to move but we'll all be better off in the long run. I'll make an announcement down the road prior to any changes.

[glockmail]

In the admin panel go to maintenance/ Repair Optimize Tables and it should speed things up.

[red states rule]

The board was off line for about 15 minutes this morning Jim

[jimnyc]

In the admin panel go to maintenance/ Repair Optimize Tables and it should speed things up.

I do that sometimes, but the tables don't need to be repaired, and none of the tables are really large enough to where an optimization will make a difference. The problem here is that there are about 20 sites on this IP address, and one of them must be a popular site. When it gets real busy at that site, the SQL gets overloaded and everyone is fighting for requests.


The board was off line for about 15 minutes this morning Jim

Yep, saw that. I opened a ticket a little while back explaining the issues and asked them to find and not "suspend" the offender this time, but either terminate them for going over the appropriate usage, or to move them to a different server.

[red states rule]

I find the board running abit slow right now

[jimnyc]

I find the board running abit slow right now

Yep, it is, and it pisses me off for $30 monthly when I see so many faster sites on $5 plans. Once I can get back on my feet financially I will be making changes to both the server environment (move) and to the board.

[red states rule]

Yep, it is, and it pisses me off for $30 monthly when I see so many faster sites on $5 plans. Once I can get back on my feet financially I will be making changes to both the server environment (move) and to the board.

I would rather have it a little slow rather then down period. Seems to be fine right now Jim

[glockmail]

I do that sometimes, but the tables don't need to be repaired, and none of the tables are really large enough to where an optimization will make a difference. .... I've got a board with this same software that is very small, and when it gets slow it speeds things right back up. The IP suggested it to me. I use Startlogic, which is very cheap, and has provided decent support, way more than I figured I'd get.

[jimnyc]

My apologies for the down time in the past half an hour. I figured it couldn't hurt to do what Glock suggested, but I picked an inappropriate time to do so. It took about 15 minutes to repair all the tables - and that's only because it failed. It failed while it had the "post" table open - so some of you may have opened posts and saw no contents. I re-ran the repair again and this time I did the others separate, then the posts table, and it appears to be fixed now.

My apologies, and please let me know in here if you see any other issues.

[Mr. P]

My apologies for the down time in the past half an hour. I figured it couldn't hurt to do what Glock suggested, but I picked an inappropriate time to do so. It took about 15 minutes to repair all the tables - and that's only because it failed. It failed while it had the "post" table open - so some of you may have opened posts and saw no contents. I re-ran the repair again and this time I did the others separate, then the posts table, and it appears to be fixed now.

My apologies, and please let me know in here if you see any other issues.

Yeah, just one...HIRE a maintenance guy cuz the one ya got now ain't worth a chit! :poke::laugh2:

[jimnyc]

Yeah, just one...HIRE a maintenance guy cuz the one ya got now ain't worth a chit! :poke::laugh2:

But he's affordable as he's the only one who will work for free!

[Mr. P]

But he's affordable as he's the only one who will work for free!

Yeah, and ya see, you get what you pay for. :poke::laugh2::laugh2:

[glockmail]

My apologies for the down time in the past half an hour. I figured it couldn't hurt to do what Glock suggested, but I picked an inappropriate time to do so. It took about 15 minutes to repair all the tables - and that's only because it failed. It failed while it had the "post" table open - so some of you may have opened posts and saw no contents. I re-ran the repair again and this time I did the others separate, then the posts table, and it appears to be fixed now.

My apologies, and please let me know in here if you see any other issues.
If you haven't done it in a while best to close the board while being done. Sorry I didn't point that out. Has it improved performance? It appears to on this end.

[crin63]

Is it just me or are others having server problems? I have been disconnected about 4 or 5 times in the last few days.

[chloe]

It always happens when Im replying to a post or updating my profile LOL, never when Im just reading posts by other people:laugh2:

[jimnyc]

Is it just me or are others having server problems? I have been disconnected about 4 or 5 times in the last few days.

I am aware that the past 2-3 days there has been issues with the SQL server. This "server" is actually a service that runs on the same server as everything else, and is used to hold all the data for the board and is retrieved by "queries" whenever you request something by the links you click.

The first 2-3 outages were extremely minimal so I took no action. Last night and the night before it was down both times for over 20 minutes. I asked support to take a look and they basically just told me that they see the server services were down, but that things were back up and they were going to continue to monitor for performance.

I just checked my email a few moments ago and had 529 emails. Whenever the SQL server cannot be contacted, the board automatically emails me an alert. It appears it was up and down for over a couple of hours. I opened another ticket and am hoping for them to tell me exactly what is causing the service to fail, if it's been fully fixed, and if not, when. I'll keep you guys updated as I know more, should you care! :)

[crin63]

I am aware that the past 2-3 days there has been issues with the SQL server. This "server" is actually a service that runs on the same server as everything else, and is used to hold all the data for the board and is retrieved by "queries" whenever you request something by the links you click.

The first 2-3 outages were extremely minimal so I took no action. Last night and the night before it was down both times for over 20 minutes. I asked support to take a look and they basically just told me that they see the server services were down, but that things were back up and they were going to continue to monitor for performance.

I just checked my email a few moments ago and had 529 emails. Whenever the SQL server cannot be contacted, the board automatically emails me an alert. It appears it was up and down for over a couple of hours. I opened another ticket and am hoping for them to tell me exactly what is causing the service to fail, if it's been fully fixed, and if not, when. I'll keep you guys updated as I know more, should you care! :)

Thanks for the update Jim.

[Kathianne]

Lots of problems this morning-from 4:30-5:30 and still going on. I'm leaving for school in a few. I got several, "Can't connect to server" messages. When I can get on, it's very slow.

[jimnyc]

Lots of problems this morning-from 4:30-5:30 and still going on. I'm leaving for school in a few. I got several, "Can't connect to server" messages. When I can get on, it's very slow.

Funny thing is, I got a response from "support" at 3:41 am with this reply:


Hello James,

I have checeked the url http://www.debatepolicy.com/faq.php, but could not reproduce the error from my end. I have checked this url from different network and page is loading without any delay. I have also checked and verified that mysql service is running fine on server.

If you wish, we can move your account to a new powerful server.Please let us know if you want us to proceed with Account transfer.

I gave them that address because that page has minimal SQL queries. I acknowledge that at "moments" it might work fine, but I've been telling them that this issue is sporadic and ongoing for quite some time. Rather than telling me HOURS after I open a ticket that "the site loads fine" - they should be looking at server logs and determining what is causing the SQL server to crash at times, and to be so damn slow at times.

At any rate - I gave them the address to this thread. Can EVERYONE whom experiences slowness please chime in to show this is not an issue coming from my PC to the site, or a routing issue - but rather slowness that is affecting ALL the members.

If this cannot be fixed ASAP - I am moving the site to another host where I host my brothers site. Instead of $30 a month, I pay $5 for his server. He has about 150 people online at any given moment and his board, threads and posts all load 25x faster than everything here. His SQL database is large and has twice as many records. There is NO reason for performance to be so much better on another server, unless the other server isn't overloaded, or having SQL pounded.

[crin63]

This board is still very slow. Its taking about 10 seconds right at this moment to do anything vs. about 1-2 seconds on a gun forum that I'm on daily. Whether it makes any difference or not both use vBulletin® Version 3.8.1.

[Kathianne]

Aound noon I couldn't get on at all, error message:

ERROR

The requested URL could not be retrieved

While trying to retrieve the URL: http://debatepolicy.com/

The following error was encountered:

Connection to 69.73.181.50 Failed
The system returned:

(111) Connection refused

[Kathianne]

Keep getting the vbulletin sign of 'server busy' try again in a few minutes. Been on and off for a couple hours now...

[jimnyc]

Keep getting the vbulletin sign of 'server busy' try again in a few minutes. Been on and off for a couple hours now...

Yes, as of my posting I can see the site now resolves to a different IP address. I had my host move the entire site to a newer and more powerful server. Since the site is over 4gb in size, and is comprised not only of flat files, but also the SQL database, it takes a while to migrate. They would also have to make a few changes on the backend DNS servers pointing to the new IP address. Since the site is now loading on the new IP, I assume the migration is completed.

I would have announced a migration in advance, but due to the problems with the old server being down more than up the past few days, I thought it best to perform the move immediately.

Everyone, please leave feedback over the next few days about the performance of the site. Has it gotten faster for you, slower, same?

[jimnyc]

I know it's a bit premature...

I just clicked around the board and it seems much faster responding on my end. I also opened multiple windows and tried to do various things at once, all much better than it's been. Finally I ran a few tests on the server itself and the response times are much faster - especially coming from SQL.

[Kathianne]

I know it's a bit premature...

I just clicked around the board and it seems much faster responding on my end. I also opened multiple windows and tried to do various things at once, all much better than it's been. Finally I ran a few tests on the server itself and the response times are much faster - especially coming from SQL.

Much faster than in a long time. Thanks, let's hope they keep the gerbils running!

[chloe]

Let's move the board to the cheaper faster place.

[jimnyc]

Much faster than in a long time. Thanks, let's hope they keep the gerbils running!


Let's move the board to the cheaper faster place.

I'm big on loyalty, even though at times it ends up in "growing pains". I'm also a firm believer in "you get what you pay for".

I've been with JaguarPC for over 6 years now. Their support is fantastic in the aspect that they almost always reply ASAP. 9 out of 10 times they fix the presented issue on the first try. They've been solid and supportive to me through everything.

This happens with almost all large hosts. They're forever getting more clients and forever growing. They add new clients to servers as they go along, and then add new servers as they need them. As you can imagine, sometimes servers will be inundated with too many sites that are "popular", and the performance of all the sites on said server suffer as a result.

I originally upgraded to this "better" server, as the specs are better, and they limit the amount of websites hosted on each server to a fraction of a typical shared server. Well, in my belief, our last server either has a few clients with very popular sites, or they added too many. As you can see, now that we're on a fresh server, the performance is night and day.

I'm not saying we'll be here forever, but at least for now. They dealt with my complaints and ultimately put me on a better server for the same money. I'm content with the resolution.

[jimnyc]

Can I assume that nobody has seen a difference in performance since the swap yesterday?

[Jeff]

Can I assume that nobody has seen a difference in performance since the swap yesterday?

I have Jim, it is a bit faster for me, as you know I have been sitting in the same spot, LOL, so signal is the same, but yes moving around the board is faster

[crin63]

Things are much faster than they were. Thanks Jim!

[emmett]

Much faster for me

[Kathianne]

For me too, keep those gerbils goin'!

[emmett]

Soon the gerbils will form a labor union and want more and more you know.

[HogTrash]

Soon the gerbils will form a labor union and want more and more you know.I'm sorry, but I simply can't afford to feed, clothe, house and provide healthcare for any more gerbals!

[emmett]

I'm sorry, but I simply can't afford to feed, clothe, house and provide healthcare for any more gerbals!



You insensative bastard. See there it is folks like you that are the problem with society. You don;t want to give a little so others can have more.:laugh2:

[Jeff]

I'm sorry, but I simply can't afford to feed, clothe, house and provide healthcare for any more gerbals!

Wow a new name for them huh :laugh2:

[HogTrash]

Wow a new name for them huh :laugh2:LOL!...The new secret code word for socialists and minorities is gerbals...I like it!

[gabosaurus]

The board hiccups are a liberal conspiracy.

[Mr. P]

The board hiccups are a liberal conspiracy.

:laugh2: Probably..Now how to work Bush into it?