Latest server problems

[Fraser]

I know there have been some problems with the server in the last couple of weeks. I'm not sure exactly what happened, but there were a bunch of strange temporary tables in the database. Anyway, I just upgraded vBulletin to the latest version, repaired all the tables in the database, and ran a bunch of scripts that vBulletin recommends for larger communities.

I'm hoping this will fix the problems we were having. If not, I'll keep looking.

Just in case you're wondering, moving to a faster host wouldn't really help. We're now on about the fastest hosting environment that money can buy. Sorry to get philosophical, but the solution is inward...

[slang]

Thanks, and welcome back!

ETA: quick reply works for me, I don't see Rommel543's problem.

[rommel543]

I don't know if it's related to the vBulletin upgrade or just something funky going on but when I attempt to post by clicking the "Post Quick Reply" it's taking me to the Advanced reply, yet showing that I've already posted my comments in the recent posts.

Edit: Did the same with this post.

[Hlafordlaes]

Thanks, Fraser, sir, for all the hard work. Daily life without BAUT is like having no morning coffee and yesterday's cold toast for breakfast.

[Swift]

This is a test of Rommel's reported problem

ETA: Rommel543 - I just tested it and didn't have that problem with this post.

[Van Rijn]

Thanks much, Fraser. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like everything has cleared up. I'm still not seeing Tusenfem's post on the banned/suspended log thread:

http://www.bautforum.com/showthread....ed-posters-log

(I don't particularly care about the post, but checked it because I couldn't read it earlier. That hasn't changed.)

Perhaps a mod should try a test post there?

ETA, the last post I see is by Sticks on the 17th.

[Moose]

I nudged the thread. Seems to have worked.

[Van Rijn]

Yes, I'm seeing the posts (including yours). Thanks.

[Fraser]

I just saw another major slowdown, so there's still something going on. :-(

[GeorgeLeRoyTirebiter]

If it helps, I've noticed that BAUT and UT seem to be equally affected by the recent slowdowns/outages (not counting the database problem). Over the past month, whenever I've gotten a page timeout on BAUT I'll check UT (and the reverse), and they're always down simultaneously.

[rommel543]

Ya, it's not doing it anymore posting is working just fine now. So either it was something hokey with my machine or just a ghost in the system.

[kleindoofy]

... there were a bunch of strange temporary tables in the database. ...

Which fits in perfectly with what a few here suspected.

... moving to a faster host wouldn't really help. ...

At least as far as I could tell, speed, or lack of it, never seemed to be a major factor. Reliability might be the keyword here. Perhaps the constant dynamic re-configuring of the cloud resources can be detrimental to individual Php/MySQL data transfers, resp. the MySQL buffering process, depending on the load on the system as a whole.

Most MySQL based systems have a very one-sided read/write ratio, i.e. the database is read much, much more than it is written on, putting less strain on the temp buffer files, resp. their being written into the database tables.

The write ratio on forums is much higher. Very much higher. Maybe that's a problem at times in the cloud.

Dunno.

[Fraser]

Restarting apache seems to clear out the memory problems. So our solution... for now, is to restart apache automatically if the memory load gets too high. But we'll be searching for a more permanent solution.

[Hlafordlaes]

Just got a dbase error when trying to post a quick reply, which hadn't happened for several days now.

[Trebuchet]

Site was down again, along with UT, about an hour ago.

[slang]

Site was down again, along with UT, about an hour ago.

Did you get an error message, if any? I had "connection reset" for a while, about 6 or 7 hours ago. Not a very unusual error, but it was unusual that it persisted for a while. I didn't worry too much since it was bed-time anyway.

[Trebuchet]

Did you get an error message, if any? I had "connection reset" for a while, about 6 or 7 hours ago. Not a very unusual error, but it was unusual that it persisted for a while. I didn't worry too much since it was bed-time anyway.

No error message from the BAUT/UT server, if that's what you mean. Just the "unavailable" message from the browser.

[Ara Pacis]

I got that too yesterday when I came to check here and UT. After probing further, IE told me that BAUT didn't have a public port available for WWW protocol.

[kleindoofy]

... IE told me that BAUT didn't have a public port available for WWW protocol.

That's just a generic error message that means IE thought BAUT was there but couldn't connect to it. More likely is that the connection was completely down and IE was fooled by something else.

Error messages are pre-defined and don't always reflect the actual case. Honest error messages would add an apologetic "... or something like that," but I doubt that will ever happen.

[slang]

Sometimes the only thing you can safely assume from a certain error message is that it was not a different error message.