Something squirrelly going on.

[Dave Shepard]

And I don't mean little gray rodents with bushy tails. Been getting a lot of error message today, trouble finding the server. Some kind of MySql thingy going on trying to get to the gallery etc. Most of the error are blaming high traffic? Don't know what it's all about, but thought it was worth a mention.


Dave

[Jeff]

Yes, something is squirrelly and I don't know what it is yet. I'm seeking help from the company that hosts the dedicated servers on this, but nothing yet. There has been something squirrelly  since the new harddrive and OS was installed last October. I think something is not configured correctly.

[Jeff]

I just observed 58 yahoo spiders on the site at one time.  I blocked the access to the forum for those. We'll see if they could have been causing the connection problems. They certainly were sucking bandwidth.  At times, I really dont care if we get new information listed in the search engines. I'd rather grow by word of mouth and invitation.

[stonebroke]

whats a yahoo spider, pardon my ignorance?

Stonebroke

[Jeff]

Its a bot, or program that crawls around the internet gathering information for their search engines. That many here at once may have been creating problems. Probably not creating, but adding to what ever might me acting up.

[Greg]

FWIW, I've not seen any problems accessing the Forum, of late.

Greg

[Dave Shepard]

It may during the day, but this morning when I had the most trouble there was only 8 guests, 7 forumites, and one spider.


Dave

[Radar67]

Jeff I just got this on the main www.forestryforum.com page. Maybe it will guide you?

Currently Online:
Warning: mysql_query(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL-Link resource in /home/www/forestryforum/board/Sources/Subs.php on line 321

Warning: mysql_query(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL-Link resource in /home/www/forestryforum/board/Sources/Subs.php on line 321

Warning: mysql_query(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL-Link resource in /home/www/forestryforum/board/Sources/Subs.php on line 321

Warning: mysql_fetch_assoc(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource in /home/www/forestryforum/board/SSI.php on line 662

Warning: mysql_free_result(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource in /home/www/forestryforum/board/SSI.php on line 695
0 , 0

[Jeff]

I believe all of those those errors occurred because of a table repair process the host was running I just found out about. I just got this moments ago from them

Hello,
I have ran consistency checks on the hard drive and repaired several table indexing errors. If you continue to have a problem please submit a ticket and if possible let us know a way to duplicate the errors you're seeing with the website (any links, URL's, usernames/passwords etc would he helpful)

At the moment the database is in an optimal state per mysqld

best regards,
Josh Craddock
Linux Administrator

[ronwood]

Jeff,

How do you determine that you had Yahoo spiders on the web site?

Ron

[pigman]

 He looks here Ron.    https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=who

[ronwood]

pigman,

Thanks for the info.

Ron

[Fla._Deadheader]

Just got booted off the FF. Couldn't connect to the server ???   Clicked on another site and went right to that.  : : ??? ???

[thecfarm]

I just had to X everything out and start over.The first time I got something like what radar posted Tried again and here I am.

[farmerdoug]

Jeff,

   I have noticed that when I get the error to load page from SMF when I hit reload it will come up fine.  I also noticed that after the reload I see someone posted while I was getting the error in the database.  It usually happens only in the thread or board that I am loading at the time.  People posting in other boards causes no problems for me it seems.  I wonder if the database updating for the post is what may be the problem.  It may be a software problem that just is showing up due to our forum size.

[Jeff]

I dont think so as I've been playing around in the crash board for testing and it gives the same issues. Different database, much smaller, and a different instance of the software. I'm almost sure its the way mysql is handling the data, not the data itself, or the software, but something in the operating system.

[Jeff]

I just had an epiphany. Maybe. :D   After getting several cannot connect to the database errors today, I started thinking, what are the reasons that one could not connect? I started reading up on persistent connections and wondering how in the world we could be exceeding the settings for that, and if that might be the problem if we were. Then I got the errors on the front page where all the random photos are.  I looked at that and it looked like every time the front page calls for the random photos, it creates 12 separate connections to the database. If 3 people are coming at the same time into the forum, we have 36 connects, and so on and so forth. With the increased amount of traffic we are getting everyday, I wonder if thats the problem> Something as simple as the random photos breeding like bunnies?

So, for a test, I decreased the photos to 3. Lets see if thats helpful.

[Dave Shepard]

I got one connection problem last night really early this morining, otherwise smooth sailing.


Dave

[Brad_S.]

I was getting extremely frustrated with the ssllloooowww response to the point that I was avoiding the forum, but it's cruising along nicely now!

[Jeff]

Thats no way ta be...

[Dave Shepard]

I just wait, I get withdawls if I don't. Don't want to start twitchen' or nothin'. ;D


Dave

[farmerdoug]

Jeff, I am still getting the Database is busy error but the forum is loading faster when there is no problem that is. :

[Dave Shepard]

Connection Problems

Sorry, SMF was unable to connect to the database. This may be caused by the server being busy. Please try again later.


Is this what you are getting?


Dave

[farmerdoug]

Yes, that is the main one.

[Jeff]

Yep.  I think I made an improvement, but there is still something fishy going on.

[breederman]

I got it this morning when posting a reply, retryed it and it worked.

[ronwood]

Jeff,

I got the same error this morning as Dave. Not sure what is going on but if I can be of any assistance please let me know.

Ron

[Jeff]

Any idea on how to up the Max persistent connections on PHP?

[ronwood]

Jeff,

Have you looked at changes any of the settings in the php.ini file. Link might be of help

http://www.thekramers.net/phpdemo/dbphp.html

Will have to take a closer look to night.

Ron

[Dave Shepard]

Right now access to the Forum is lightning fast, the delay to load pages is almost imperceptible, and I'm on the slow computer. ??? I'm not complaining mind you. ;)


Dave

[Dave Shepard]

Had to open my big mouth, back to Turtle Speed. I think it may be my connection though, it, too, can be squirrelly. :(


Dave

[Kevin]

me acting up.

I've seen that before but Tammy usually steps in before it gets too out of hand.  ;D

[Tom]

I just had an epiphany. Maybe. :D   

I always wanted one them.   They have big ears.  I think they are cute.  ;D

[Brad_S.]

For a while there, searches were very fast, now I am timing out before any results are returned. Related?

[Jeff]

I have not been able to index the search because of the problems at hand.

[Norm]

I have had zero troubles with the forum lately. Did you find your squirrel Jeff?

[Jeff]

I think I did Norm.  I found a difference in one of the apache modules from the old operating system to the new called mod_security.  Its actually another layer of security on the server, sort of a php firewall if you will. I believe that its configuration was objecting to the security's built into the software and causing the clashes.  I did a little creative editing with our .htaccess file so the Forum's software could dodge that module. From the minute I did that, things got better.

I was talking to Ronwood on the phone and together we were shooting ideas back and forth. I forgot now what it was exactly that Ron said to me, but it sparked an idea to look for something in a new direction and my research led me to that updated module as a potential problem.

All signs so far look like we caught the squirrel.

[Dave Shepard]

A friend of mine caught a squirrel chipmunk once. He skinned it and made a hacky sack out of it. Kinda weird playing hacky sack when it's got a tail on to it. ;D


Dave

[Norm]

Way to go Jeff. Those are the kind of problems that are very tough to solve. We all appreciate your hard work.

[Coon]

I still got the connection cannot be made just earlier this evening.  I X'd the page out and reloaded from the start and it worked.  Everything seems to be working just fine now though.

[Jeff]

testing

[Jeff]

Shoulda knocked on wood yesterday. :-\    I've got it running again via some database table repairs, but not sure if things are right yet.  I see some issues where the last posts made just before the problems that erupted this morning dont show in the index .

[Norm]

Sorry Jeff, I knew if I said anything it would jinx you. ;)

[Roxie]

"Backing up database! Be back with you shortly
  Backing up database! Be back with you shortly
Administration Login
Username:  Password:   
Minutes to stay logged in:    Always stay logged in:  "


Ack!  Got this after I tried to send a message .... I think the message is lost because it's not in my "outbox" folder. 

[Jeff]

Yea, that was the generic message while I has working on it. I then changed it to technical difficulties Happy Easter. :D

If you tried to send the message while I was in the middle of this, yep, its lost. Sorry Roxie. :-\