Forum/Webserver Performance

[aragorn]

Over the last week or two i've noticed a marked degradation in the performance of the website in general, I've been getting pages simply fail to load, Quick Replys failing with no failure reason given, or appearing to fail then upon resubmition it turns out it did work the first time and now theres a duplicate post and on quite a few occasions the site seems to get slower and slower before it seems to drop off the planet before returning 5/10/15 minutes later with little improvement in its responsiveness

I dont mean to knock the guys running the show, its an awesome website, but it seems to me that whatever service its currently being hosted on is seriously inadequate. You can get fairly high spec fully dedicated machines for less than £50 a month so perhaps its time to look at changing hosting providers or upgrading to a better service with the existing crowd. A site like this should not be hosted on a shared box or VPS service imo, as the database and web load is simply far to high for such a shared machine to cope with.

If you'd like any advice or suggestions on better hosting i'd be glad to assist

Regards

Kevin

 

[NHN]

I'd have to say over the last 3 days its had some issues as above, anything changed backend Olly & crew?

 

[aragorn]

Minutes after i'd posted it i was getting out of memory errors from PHP...

I have to say if it IS on an VPS as i suspect it is, (the file path in the PHP error message seemed to suggest so, as it had the web files inside /home/audispor/public_html instead of the /var/www/<vhost> you'd expect it to be in had it been configured on any normal linux installation) it really has far outgrown such a service and you should be looking at a real machine for it!

 

[FactionOne]

Thanks for the feedback guys.

We are aware that some users have experienced problems recently.

All I can say for now, is that the matter is firmly in hand - there will be developments taking place over the next few weeks which I'm fully confident you will feel the benefit of.

And for the record, the main forum machine is a Linux box...

Regards,

Rob.

 

[aragorn]

i knew its a linux box, its more the fact that it doesnt appear to be dedicated, its looks like a Siteground VPS setup, which means your not getting a dedicated CPU/RAM/Disks to yourself but they're shared with other customers

If its in hand though then hopefully you'll have a better solution at the end of it. I've used a company called OVH recently for a number of dedicated servers for work, and they're pricing is very attractive. They'll do you a Core2Duo box with 2GB of ram and 500gb of RAID1 storage for £50

http://www.ovh.co.uk/individual/products/superplan_mini.xml

Kevin

 

[Highwayman]

Sorry to be a pain, but is there any progress on this, as current forum performance for me is virtually unusable . Pages aren't loading at all or, if they do load, they are taking about 30 seconds each, which is just too slow IMHO...

Hopefully things are well in hand with resolving these, but it's been a couple of weeks since the posts above, so I thought that I'd ask for an update .

Phil

 

[JohnS3]

Arg!!! The site is sooo slowww at the moment, I'm going to bed........
Please fix this as soon as possible, it really would be appreciated!

 

[G4JSG]

I run and It business. If you want quality hosting please give me a call. We can host this forum for you if you want on one of our dedicated servers.

I have used this forum for years and recently have noticed how slow pages are to load and sometimes failt to load. It seems it might also be something to do with the sponsors images you have at the top of the pages.

PM or email me if you want to talk about moving your hosting, I'm sure we can do something at a very reasonable rate.

John

 

[FactionOne]

Hi Folks,

As mentioned (ever more strongly the more pi**ed off I get with the current location) - we've been working the past couple of weeks at getting things copied over to a new dedicated machine elsewhere, but there have been a few logistical and technical snags along the way. All being well we should be on the move (and hopefully with some upgrades to user-experience stuff along the way too) in the near future.

As previously mentioned, we should be counting in days rather than weeks now; and the current company have been given a final kicking which should keep us running a little smoother between now and zero-hour.

More news as it comes...

Thanks for your patience and regards,

Rob

 

[NHN]

Not being funny Rob but whats going on with the site, its going up & down like a yoyo & dns records etc show you've swapped to another supplier fella so thought all would be cool by now, just when you type a long reply & then it crashes you lose it all & its tad annoying

Thanks.

N.

 

[aragorn]

its not on a different host, its still using the same host as it was when i posted this, nothing has changed, as i've queried in my other thread called "downtime" below this one

DNS Entry:

Name: audi-sport.net
Address: 74.200.72.186
Name: vps414.sgvps.net
Address: 74.200.72.186

Same as it was before.

 

[NHN]

Uh fella, they did change I know for sure as I checked all the way through who were there hosts back when all these problems started to see if the hosts sites were also down & they were which explained alot tbh, then little while later few weeks when I saw a slight improvement I checked again & the hosts were completely different, so possibly they've gone back, I checked the actual hosts site & got 2 completely different companies on both checks, so feck knows what they're playing at fella as I fear if its back to originals this explains alot cause you cant even get to the hosts main site either at moment

The registrar says panama so slightly concerning, lol

Anyway bottom line is its becoming a fair issue now & it really needs addressing I think, only IMHO of course

 

[aragorn]

i knew its a linux box, its more the fact that it doesnt appear to be dedicated, its looks like a Siteground VPS setup,

That was back in october at the beginning of this thread....

and as per my last post:

bash-3.00$ host audi-sport.net
audi-sport.net has address 74.200.72.186

bash-3.00$ host 74.200.72.186
186.72.200.74.in-addr.arpa domain name pointer vps414.sgvps.net.

As you can see, the IP address the site currently resolves to is the IP address of "vps414.sgvps.net" which, is a Siteground VPS, as i stated in the original post.

Nothing has changed. The errors are still the same, and as far as i can tell are being caused by the server running out of RAM. At a guess without seeing the actual box itself, i would imagine the kernels oom_killer is taking out the MySQL server when it runs out of memory, which is what causes these days of "Database Error" downtime.

Seems to be a deafening silence from the admins on this one... What is going on?

 

[Broken Byzan]

It is becoming harder and harder to access etc. I am sure the advertisers must be getting fed up by now. It costs a bit of money to advertise for 12 months and the way its currently performing i would bet they are lucky to see 60% uptime

 

[NHN]

That was back in october at the beginning of this thread....

and as per my last post:

bash-3.00$ host audi-sport.net
audi-sport.net has address 74.200.72.186
 
bash-3.00$ host 74.200.72.186
186.72.200.74.in-addr.arpa domain name pointer vps414.sgvps.net.

As you can see, the IP address the site currently resolves to is the IP address of "vps414.sgvps.net" which, is a Siteground VPS, as i stated in the original post.

Nothing has changed. The errors are still the same, and as far as i can tell are being caused by the server running out of RAM. At a guess without seeing the actual box itself, i would imagine the kernels oom_killer is taking out the MySQL server when it runs out of memory, which is what causes these days of "Database Error" downtime.

Seems to be a deafening silence from the admins on this one... What is going on?

As I said it has changed because it did back then resolve to different hosts but between then & now I have checked hosts when it improved for short time & it resolved to a completely different hosts & I certainly wasnt drinking heavily that night, lol

Anyway as you say from the mods, admins etc

Feck knows now as I checked the hosts site & that also looks different from when I checked before, now I'm worried this is a dream, lol, someone pinch me

Rob if you're listening have you changed hosts atall since the inception of this thread cause I swear blind you have.

 

[vrbob]

Jeebus what the hell is happening. i think this forum is down more than it is up lately.

 

[JohnS3]

Welcome back! what the **@! is going on with this site??????????

 

[NHN]

NO comment

Afternoon John

 

[Olly_K]

OK guys I do have a quick update for you. As you know I don't get involved with ASN anymore but thought I'd try and find out exactly what's going on.

Basically we're having major, major trouble with our host, Siteground. We pay a heck of a lot of money per month to them for a VPS server but their configuration and support leave a lot to be desired. It is not that we are trying to save money by hosting ASN on a cheap package to save money. I think it's fair to say that this site has outgrown the services and capacity of Siteground.

So we are looking to move again, which will mean a 24-48 hour downtime. I'm not sure when that will be, but we're looking at upgrading the forum software with a new classifieds section and much more. We'll use this downtime to perform upgrades then.

But as I said, I'm not sure when this move will take place. I know the database has been backed up and is being prepared to be imported into the new host's database as a test to see how it goes.

I'll try and find out more as things progress.

It's frustrating I know, but please bear with the guys.

 

[aragorn]

Sounds good

I did PM Rob as you suggested, not heard back yet though.

Hopefully a nice shiney dedicated box will get the whole thing moving along nicely

If you want any help with anything, just give me a shout.

Kev

 

[Olly_K]

Hi Kev, I posted as Rob isn't around for a while and I felt guilty that I passed you onto him

 

[NHN]

So are you actually still involved as in co-owner then Olly & deligating now or you've actually jumped ship completely fella.

Have to say though Olly, isnt this what we were told few months back when it all started, as aragorn said it doesnt take this long to switch providers, it really doesnt mate, not meaning to break your balls but site is going up/down like a yoyo & its a very good audi site thats being tarnished by bad backoffice support, I think, only a suggestion, you should jump hosts sooner rather than later as I know I'd be happy if was done now not later, with hours/days of the site being down because of bad support, only IMHO of course

Hey if its a case of needing a contribution to get better services I know alot of members would chip in cause its saved us all literally hundreds if not thousands with the help etc, but doesnt appear to be this issue huh fella.

 

[JohnS3]

I have to agree with Nige, there's over 20,000 active members and even if 10% of them chipped in just a pound..... Makes you think!

 

[NHN]

yeah with 20k members & say they all paid £1 membership which they probably would, then 20k would pay for a huge fibre link with loads of bandwidth & a dedicated server probably with change leftover tbh let alone any advertising revenue & not being funny but you guys if you monitor this site that well would have seen along time ago how popular its becoming & maybe considered a contingency plan along time back & upgrades to be able to handle it, but alas not my site so who am I to tell you what should of done, lol

I mean I had a client who paid less than 20k a year for a link to LA from Essex, shows you what you can get for your money these days & that link is considered tad out of date now, lol

 

[Olly_K]

So are you actually still involved as in co-owner then Olly & deligating now or you've actually jumped ship completely fella.

Have to say though Olly, isnt this what we were told few months back when it all started, as aragorn said it doesnt take this long to switch providers, it really doesnt mate, not meaning to break your balls but site is going up/down like a yoyo & its a very good audi site thats being tarnished by bad backoffice support, I think, only a suggestion, you should jump hosts sooner rather than later as I know I'd be happy if was done now not later, with hours/days of the site being down because of bad support, only IMHO of course

Hey if its a case of needing a contribution to get better services I know alot of members would chip in cause its saved us all literally hundreds if not thousands with the help etc, but doesnt appear to be this issue huh fella.

Not co-owner anymore, just haven't updated my profile as I really don't visit this site anymore. And I haven't jumped ship completely, I handed everything over to Rob and others, and I left nothing unfinished. (there were a few hosting probs when I left but we all thought these would go away not get worse).

I'm not going to answer every point of yours but yes the site is going up and down like a yo-yo and thats why were changing hosts. The reason we havent changed sooner ? because our current host keeps saying it wont happen again and lo and behold it does, so we (they) made the decision to move. Its easier to stick with the current host instead of migrating databases and FTP and DNS etc.

And yes as I'm aware you were told this story a few months ago and the server did move to a different one albeit in the same hosting company.

Your not breaking my balls mate, I hate posting on here but I felt like I should and now in true ASN style this thread will turn into an argument.

And it does take a while to switch hosts, first, a suitable BETTER host has to be found. Then theres the 3 databases to backup and verify. Then
they have to be migrated/imported into the new hosts server. Then theres the FTP filestore. Global config files needs to be changed to point to the new databases etc and then DNS forwarders need to be changed and wait 24 hours to be updated. Then everything needs to be tested. It's a big big headache and although its easy to say "move hosts" in reality its a total, total ballache.

But it will happen, im not sure what more you want from us (them)

 

[NHN]

No argument from me, just opinions, but to add you could get the move done fairly quickly tbh, propogation takes very little time these days & I've seen dns update within minutes of the changes by me when I switched hosts for my customers domains & 99% updated within 24 hours & if you make changes backups etc at same time you should be able to do I would guess over a weekend no.

Anyway just commenting on experiences, its only a ball break if its not advantageous to all at the end dont you think, but 2-3 months later does kinda seem a long time

& I knew you'd switched servers as I checked when it got better so I was right, but whats weird is the hosts were completely different company, you sure was with same company Olly cause I checked all way through the hosts to there sites when it all started & when the service improved temp, couldnt see links between 2 companies

Anyway lets hope they find new hosts very very soon.

 

[Olly_K]

but whats weird is the hosts were completely different company, you sure was with same company Olly cause I checked all way through the hosts to there sites when it all started & when the service improved temp, couldnt see links between 2 companies

Am not sure about this, I knew there was a move and I "thought" it was same host / different server but I could be wrong, I will check

 

[S3mad]

If it helps i have a massive server that will not get this problem . I dont mind if you use it . Let me know

 

[Olly_K]

thanks for the offer but I believe a suitable host has been found in london docklands

 

[Khufu]

I guess from the then the outages aren't planned. I had planned to suggest that any outtage could have been posted on the news page prior to let everybody know whats happening, although that wouldn't help those bookmarked straight to the forum.

 

[aragorn]

Just a polite little nudge on this guys...

Its now nearing the end of march, and we still seem to be using the same host...

The problems aren't as bad as they have been, but problems are still happening, including the forum being offline all evening a few days ago.

It really doesn't take n months of effort to move a web host. Its something you can do in a few hours, and yes DNS can take a while to update because of caching servers, but all you need to do there is wind the TTL right down a few days before the change, so the cached versions expire quickly!

 

[NHN]

Yeah couldnt agree more with the Hobbits friend, but tbh DNS takes less than 24 hours to update mostly so this cant be an excuse, site is running better but still problematic & always at the times when you really dont need it, serious consideration should be given to updating/transferring as was promised some months ago.

 

[aragorn]

The owner of the DNS can set a Time to Live on the entries their DNS server sends out. If you set this to say 30mins, a few days before, then all the caches that are holding it for 24hrs or whatever will expire, and will from then on only cache it for 30mins, rechecking with the ASN DNS server if more than 30mins has elapsed since its last request to see if its changed.

Its a side point anyway, the main one being that migrating some databases and a webserver takes at most a few hours. The sensible approach would be to migrate a snapshot of this site over, with this one still live, iron out all the kinks and get the replacement working, then pull this one offline, resynchroise the databases to bring any changes upto date and repoint the DNS. You could easily get the downtime down to a half hour.

 

[NHN]

Think its falling on deaf ears mate, really do.

 

[quattrojames]

The site performance is pretty poor today, I keep getting error pages and stuff

 

[aragorn]

Is anyone going to actually take some responsibility for this and get something done? I've emailed both Rob (FactionOne) and Adam Bloch (The Site owner as far as i can tell) and been ignored by both of them.

What exactly is the problem here... If you dont have enough time to do the required work, you need more help, and i've already offered my assistance to the two folk mentioned above, which wasnt even graced with a response...

There really is no reason for this crap. The forum is an excellent and well used resource, with plenty of commercial support in the form of advertising, and the current server is letting it down big time. Money is clearly not an issue, as the money your currently spending on the existing VPS would easily buy you a much more powerful setup if the money was spend wisely.

 

[aragorn]

Is anyone going to actually take some responsibility for this and get something done? I've emailed both Rob (FactionOne) and Adam Bloch (The Site owner as far as i can tell) and been ignored by both of them.

What exactly is the problem here... If you dont have enough time to do the required work, you need more help, and i've already offered my assistance to the two folk mentioned above, which wasnt even graced with a response...

There really is no reason for this crap. The forum is an excellent and well used resource, with plenty of commercial support in the form of advertising, and the current server is letting it down big time. Money is clearly not an issue, as the money your currently spending on the existing VPS would easily buy you a much more powerful setup if the money was spend wisely.

 

[Olly_K]

As far as I'm aware, they are both away dealing with real life.

Please don't respond to my post because I have no answers for you at this point in time.

 

[aragorn]

I think the very fact that your the one replying olly shows there are some very real issues here that need sorted out...

You've said yourself earlier in this post you have nothing more to do with the running of the forum, yet you manage to find the time to post saying the people who ARE supposed to be running the show are too busy to even bother replying to this.

If the people who are in charge cant be *****, or dont have the time for whatever reason, they should be appointing more people to do the jobs that need done.

This issue goes futher than the forum/webserver too. As an example a chap over on the B5 forum was trying for over a month to attain permission to have a ASN banner produced for the upcoming show at Santa Pod, his emails and PM's seemingly falling on deaf ears.

 

[Olly_K]

Unfortunately mate the people who will untimately move the site are the same people that needed to grant permission to use the ASN logo. In the end I gave permission for both requests.

But I can't do the same for the hosting move as I don't have access to the backend or I would've sorted it by now.

The people in charge can be ***** but unfortunately the timing sucks. Dealing with deaths in the immediate family's just puts everything into perspective really.

Again, I'll try and contact them, but they may well not want to speak to me which is understandable.