Server Busy issue
 

Dear support,

Our site is hosted in the USA by Midphase, we are Dutch but like you probally know we like it cheap but good ;)

Since a few weeks we have problems, the server gives the error: Server Busy.
Midphase has done several things to come to a solution, but the problem still remains, now they ask me the following, although I'm Dutch, my English is reasonable good, but the request from the sr Systems Administrator from Midphase is a bit difficult and they ask me the following:

In order to assist you with this issue, we'd need you to modify your scripts to show the actual error message.
The mysql/web services had no issues on the reported time, in fact the mysql service was restarted 9 days ago, and on the reported time your visitors were trying to access the website (the non-existent image) and therefore the web server was responsive as well.

The error message you receive is the generic one from the software you use, while we'd need the real error message to be showed (please check with your developer if debug mode is available for the scripts).
Like said, nor mysql, nor web services experienced the issues on the time reported, which means you could reach the mx number of mysql user connection or hit another limit which would cause the generic error to be displayed. Thank you.

Could you please advise me and if this is possible, my MySQL knowledge is poor.
Thanks in advance.

what software do you have this would help alot.

In our software admin global options do you have this set to anything but 0

Load limit for server?
If running *nix and you want to disable your forums when load goes over a certain limit; place the high limit here.

Chuck,

We are currently running PhotoPost 6.1 and vBulletin 3.8.2.

This option is set to "0"

In the phpAdmin program I found out that the: max connections is set to 300, so does this mean I have to set the above option to 300? This un fortunatly goes a little bit above my knowlegde, but I learn every day ;-)

So if I understand correctly, when I set this to 300 in PP and the mySQL connections are 300 then our forum will be disabled?

But what about the error message Midphase is talking about, I've seen errors, and last week I told you and you gave me the solution, but I never got an error saying anything about Server Busy, but my feeling say, if the Max.No. of connection is reached the server can't handle more, but Midphase want's the full error if they want to change anything for us. I have: "Debug Setting How do you want PhotoPost to handle errors?" set to: Email errors

What more can be done?
Thanks Chuck for helping to resolve this issue,
Gerard

How about in vbulletin admin settings they have a similar NIX setting what is that set to?

They are telling you some software is saying the server is busy. This may be as simple as you setting vbulletin to say SERVER BUSY if the load is over a certain number.

Chuck,

I think I understand what you are saying, so it's easy for Midphase to say the problem lies in te software, but for the moment I'm in between to fires, one is Midphase and on the other hand there are Photopost and vBulletin, and I don't know what to do.

I think I have found the vBulletin setting, at least that's the only *nix I could find:
NIX Server Load Limit
vBulletin can read the overall load of the server on certain *NIX setups (including Linux).

This allows vBulletin to determine the load on the server and processor, and to turn away further users if the load becomes too high.

If you do not want to use this option, set it to 0.
A typical level would be 5.00 for a reasonable warning level.

It's set to 5, still I don't know what I best should use for Photopost and vBulletin and I hope you can advise me in this matter.

Can it be good to set the max.connections in PP to something like 290-300?
Thank you for helping in this issue
Gerard

Try setting it to 0 but vbulletin support might be best to help you with that.

setting max connections your not doing in PP you do that to your server. You can ask your host to raise levels.

My suggestion is set the nix thing in vb to 0. Then you dont get any messages. If your server becomes slow etc then you go to your host and say fix this.

You can contact your host and say your message came from vbulletin because you have a setting to give that message if your NIX level is 5 or over. Ask them what they can do to lighten the load on the server.

Thanks Chuck,

You know what, the error messages I had problems with and you gave me the solution, they all were in English, the server busy error message was in plain Dutch, I don't think either PP and VB will send error messages to screen and in Dutch.

If I see max.connections = 300 and I see in de phpAdmin runtime report: max. concurrent connections: 104 that sound to me that we are 104 connections over the max.connections limit.

Per day we have approx. 500-800 visitors a small part of them, approx. 100 are uploading photo's and post messages on PP and VB, ok I have got alot working with Midphase so I'm sure if I send them enough emails they finally will rais the connection levels.

BTW feel free to visit our website, ok it's completely in Dutch but you get an idea what we're doing and you get a change to see what I have done with the layout of the site, www.wfcfotobeeld.com.

the link in the menu: Foto galerij index is Dutch for: Photo galery index. So a little Dutch lesson ;-)

Chuck again thanks for helping me out here, I wish you a very good weekend.
Gerard

Drare the message you get is from vbulletin if you are using Dutch language the message will be in Dutch. Basically your vb is showing people SERVER BUSY when the nix is over 5 ;)

Ok, but I think Midphase should do their part and raise the connections right away, I have had enough trouble now with Midphase since the last 2 months, 1 server change, not properly working exif, server busy etc. Then for some strange reason after the move to another server they forgot to terminate the old account which let to problems, then they renewed the sql software, I'm tired, I just want a good working site.

Sorry to be of topic and it isn't your fault, I'll wait what Midphase is replying with.

Have I told you I'm very happy with Photopost? No? Shame on me, great software Chuck, really and togheter with VB we have a unique package I have'nt seen in Holland before.

Thanks :D

Have a great weekend sorry to hear about your hosting troubles.

Have a great weekend yourself, the troubles will go a way, I'm confident.

I will try

Goodmorning Chuck,

I was just wondering about the max. no of connections, we still have problems that th no of connections reach their limit, Midphase says, your on a shared server, upgrade to VPS or dedicated, yeh sure! Great isn't it!

But what I'm trying to find out, if a connection is openend to the database, and data is retrieved, I guess the connection would be closed again, or am I missing something? So I view a photo, it's stored at the disk, the data is in the database, so if the photo is displayed, the connection should be closed, am I right or not, that's the thing I would like to understand.

So when 20 users are online, they open for example 5 connections at the same time per user (I'm just giving an example, ad I don't know if 1 user can open 5 connections at the same time), 20x5=100 connections, when all is loaded the same 100 connections are closed again. What are changes that connections are not closed? This is a remark from Midphase.

Besides Photopost, we have vBulletin as you might know.

The reason I ask this is not that I have doubts about Photopost or vBulletin no way I think both software packages are great, but I don't seem to get through to Midphase and I trying to find a solution for this problem and I was hoping, yes I know you are very busy, but from you I got the best answers to all my questions, upgrading to VPS or dedicated is not an option, we have no piad subscriptions and I'm not a miljonair to pay $200 a month.

Thank you in advance for any help you may or can offer us.

Gerard

You can get a VDS from westhost for about $22 a month

Max connections in the server is just that server config not much we can do about that.

Chuck,

Indeed, max connections I cannot change, unfortunatly we have to stay with Midphase for another 1,5 year, we bougth a 2 year package, never knew we would have so much trouble with them, in the meantime I will visit Westhost and do some browsing here in Holland to see if there is a host who also has unlimited features or VPS for a reasonble price.

Thanks again Chuck.
Gerard

I am on westhost and the prices are what I posted. ;)