Christian Forums

Been getting them intermittently the past few days.

I don't know. I had it ALL last night. Could not get on at all from about 6:30 pm m until this morning.

Same, 503 are server errors which are more likely attributed to hosting sites rather than GCF.

Oh ok. It was odd thiugh because I could get on other websites, but not this one.

A few minutes ago I got a 506 resource limit notice momentarily.

Is the server about to crap out?

I have no idea.

Quote from: NorrinRadd on Wed Nov 07, 2018 - 12:38:19
Is the server about to crap out?

I don't know if we own our servers or if we lease them. Either way, when maintained correctly servers are repairable in a "live" status if there is a disk error and if it was anything more serious we wouldn't be online.

403 "Backend Server unreachable" has joined the party.

I would almost hazard a guess that we are on a back-up, some things had changed and now seem to have reverted back.

Seems to be working just fine. And just every website will have some hiccups. No matter what.

Quote from: Jean74 on Mon Nov 12, 2018 - 15:48:43
Seems to be working just fine. And just every website will have some hiccups. No matter what.

It's working now.  It was completely inaccessible for several hours earlier today.  Sometimes it would just time out, sometimes it would return the 503 error.

Yes, every site will have problems from time to time.  This one has had hours of down-time every day for the past several days.

Quote from: NorrinRadd on Mon Nov 12, 2018 - 17:03:47
This one has had hours of down-time every day for the past several days.

It sure has!

If it permanently bites the dust, I guess it's good-bye to all you fun people. It was fun while it lasted.

Quote from: mommydi on Mon Nov 12, 2018 - 21:28:41
It sure has!

If it permanently bites the dust, I guess it's good-bye to all you fun people. It was fun while it lasted.

Jaime had said in the staff room that he's starting to collect a database of emails in case we go over the edge here. I've started too.

Quote from: Alan on Mon Nov 12, 2018 - 21:36:33

Jaime had said in the staff room that he's starting to collect a database of emails in case we go over the edge here. I've started too.

Oh, good idea!

I would really miss some of the regulars here. 

Rella and I exchange emails on a daily basis, though. We're like sisters! 

This sort of thing has happened in the past. I wouldn't worry about it.

508 Resource Limit Reached

+

Repeated episodes of 403 Backend Server Unreachable


If it continues, I'll be taking an indefinite break.  Just FYI.

Quote from: Alan on Mon Nov 12, 2018 - 21:36:33

Jaime had said in the staff room that he's starting to collect a database of emails in case we go over the edge here. I've started too.

It would actually be a much better idea if you were to clean out the sites history instead of keeping it.
One of the reasons for the 503 & 506 errors may be that the server is unable to properly handle the size of the database.

A reduction of the database size could improve performance dramatically.
It is still possible to reach posts from 2002, 16 years ago!
Why not clear out everything earlier than 2010? I estimate you can flush some 700,000 posts that nobody is looking at anyway.

AVZ, I think that's an excellent idea! Can mods do that, or does it have to be admin?

Quote from: NorrinRadd on Tue Nov 20, 2018 - 18:38:54
508 Resource Limit Reached

+

Repeated episodes of 403 Backend Server Unreachable


If it continues, I'll be taking an indefinite break.  Just FYI.

Don't go.

There are so many baptism posts from before 2010 that need to be preserved for posterity.

Quote from: mommydi on Tue Nov 20, 2018 - 19:40:52
AVZ, I think that's an excellent idea! Can mods do that, or does it have to be admin?

If I am not wrong this is an admin function.

Go to Admin>Manage Posts and Topics>Topic Settings
- increase the number of topics per page in the message index to 300
- bulk select the topics < 2010 or whatever you choose
- select all and delete

You probably have to repeat the action many times over because you can only bulk delete 300 topics at a time.

Quote from: AVZ on Tue Nov 20, 2018 - 20:50:18
If I am not wrong this is an admin function.

Go to Admin>Manage Posts and Topics>Topic Settings
- increase the number of topics per page in the message index to 300
- bulk select the topics < 2010 or whatever you choose
- select all and delete

You probably have to repeat the action many times over because you can only bulk delete 300 topics at a time.

Our Admin privileges are very limited and this is not one of the functions that we can perform. We can delete threads but that is time consuming not to mention we have been told NOT to delete threads/posts.

Quote from: Alan on Tue Nov 20, 2018 - 22:04:01

Our Admin privileges are very limited and this is not one of the functions that we can perform. We can delete threads but that is time consuming not to mention we have been told NOT to delete threads/posts.

That's a choice you will have to make if you want/need to reduce the size of the database.
There are other solutions as well, such as database splitting, but these require re-coding of the software.

I am not saying that the problem is the database, it is possible but not necessarily the case.
It may as well be the infrastructure of the server.

But if indeed the issue is the size of the database...then you will have to reduce it, or be content to accept the errors.

If the issue is the size of the database, wouldn't it be reasonable to expect the errors to not only persist but to increase as the size of the database continues to grow?

Quote from: NorrinRadd on Wed Nov 21, 2018 - 02:53:37
If the issue is the size of the database, wouldn't it be reasonable to expect the errors to not only persist but to increase as the size of the database continues to grow?

You would if indeed the configuration of the server remains the same.
However, on a shared server you could experience difficulties because other people run their databases or sites on the same server as well.
So its not necessarily your database that is difficult to handle, it could be the consolidated volume of all databases.

It also has to do with how a database is indexed, how many variables are being loaded and how much memory is assigned to operating processes.
The error "resource limit" seems to be an indication that some of the settings are insufficient or cannot be handled fast enough.

Quote from: AVZ on Tue Nov 20, 2018 - 22:27:25
That's a choice you will have to make if you want/need to reduce the size of the database.
There are other solutions as well, such as database splitting, but these require re-coding of the software.

I am not saying that the problem is the database, it is possible but not necessarily the case.
It may as well be the infrastructure of the server.

But if indeed the issue is the size of the database...then you will have to reduce it, or be content to accept the errors.

If I was to hazard a guess I would think we are experiencing failure in the array but I can't know for certain. Depending on the size and quality of the server a database from a forum like this shouldn't require too much hardware. Anther forum that I'm on rents their server/hosting as one package for $40 quarterly albeit their member list and age isn't as much as this forum.

At any rate, we have little support here. The admin hasn't been active or logged on in months and the guy that can keep things running smoothly around here isn't getting paid, so we're kinda on our own doing what we can. 

Quote from: Alan on Wed Nov 21, 2018 - 12:04:21

If I was to hazard a guess I would think we are experiencing failure in the array but I can't know for certain. Depending on the size and quality of the server a database from a forum like this shouldn't require too much hardware. Anther forum that I'm on rents their server/hosting as one package for $40 quarterly albeit their member list and age isn't as much as this forum.

At any rate, we have little support here. The admin hasn't been active or logged on in months and the guy that can keep things running smoothly around here isn't getting paid, so we're kinda on our own doing what we can.

This board runs on SMF 2.0.6 which is an open source forum software package.
I am quite sure the software has been tested and proven itself.
The latest version is 2.0.15 so there have been quite a bit of updates since 2.0.6
I checked the changelog and noticed there are updates that relate to database issues, cache memory and PHP5.5 integration.

You are absolutely correct that this site and its operation does not require high hardware specifications.
In fact one could easily run this board from a home PC and have no issues whatsoever.

This forum can run on any commercially available shared server solutions.
Lowest configuration is about USD 100 a year, highest configuration is about USD 300 a year (Linux)
Running this on a Windows based platform is about 30% cheaper
Not very expensive.

However you do not know how many other sites reside of the same server. The hardware specs must be aligned to the total of all sites and requirements.

I have noticed that the present errors are all generated due to a database call.
The server is online and remains so.

I sympathize with your guys for the lack of support by your admins, but as I see it they are instrumental to the resolution of the present errors.

Quote from: AVZ on Wed Nov 21, 2018 - 21:08:35
I sympathize with your guys for the lack of support by your admins, but as I see it they are instrumental to the resolution of the present errors.

As I'm sure you're well aware we have regular attacks at the front end by an ambitious but vengeful individual that has the ability to generate hundreds of IPs. When we pleaded for help our requests were ignored (assuming that admin's primary email is linked to his account). Not sure if the magazine side is being updated but I have noticed that my FB feeds have ceased.


Admin has at least one other site that I'm aware of and it is doing the exact same thing.

Quote from: AVZ on Wed Nov 21, 2018 - 21:08:35
Lowest configuration is about USD 100 a year, highest configuration is about USD 300 a year (Linux)
Running this on a Windows based platform is about 30% cheaper

Why? Any of the Open Source *nix OS's will do the job that a licensed and paid for copy of Windows Server can do. As for other Windows versions, they don't always play nice with disk arrays. RAID 0 striping yes, but configurations like RAID 5 or 6 create headaches. 

I know virtually nothing about such things, but FWIW, when one plugs "gracecentered.com" into "who.is," the results include "Site Status -- Inactive."

Quote from: Alan on Wed Nov 21, 2018 - 22:10:13

Why? Any of the Open Source *nix OS's will do the job that a licensed and paid for copy of Windows Server can do. As for other Windows versions, they don't always play nice with disk arrays. RAID 0 striping yes, but configurations like RAID 5 or 6 create headaches.

I think you want to host a site externally, unless you want to run your own server and take care of the infrastructure that comes with it.
Take any OS you want, I am just pointing out what the approximate costs are.
As for using Raid...this site by itself doesn't require much.

Quote from: NorrinRadd on Wed Nov 21, 2018 - 23:25:21
I know virtually nothing about such things, but FWIW, when one plugs "gracecentered.com" into "who.is," the results include "Site Status -- Inactive."

you mean this?
https://www.whois.com/whois/gracecentered.com

Quote from: Alan on Wed Nov 21, 2018 - 21:33:59

As I'm sure you're well aware we have regular attacks at the front end by an ambitious but vengeful individual that has the ability to generate hundreds of IPs. When we pleaded for help our requests were ignored (assuming that admin's primary email is linked to his account). Not sure if the magazine side is being updated but I have noticed that my FB feeds have ceased.


Admin has at least one other site that I'm aware of and it is doing the exact same thing.

That's when someone with some php scripting abilities would come in handy.
It would be very simple to make a short piece of coding that will lock out the vengeful individual.

Quote from: AVZ on Wed Nov 21, 2018 - 23:33:12
That's when someone with some php scripting abilities would come in handy.
It would be very simple to make a short piece of coding that will lock out the vengeful individual.

What we need is a confirmation email for registering new members that actually works. This guy makes up any random fake email and walks right in. It wouldn't be difficult but it would take some work at the back end by Admin or his maintenance guy. We also have a first post moderation system in place but again, this guy magically passed right on by and was able to post freely with each new member account.

Quote from: Alan on Thu Nov 22, 2018 - 05:25:38

What we need is a confirmation email for registering new members that actually works. This guy makes up any random fake email and walks right in. It wouldn't be difficult but it would take some work at the back end by Admin or his maintenance guy. We also have a first post moderation system in place but again, this guy magically passed right on by and was able to post freely with each new member account.

Just a small routine that prevents a new account holder from posting more than 1 entry within 30 minutes for the first 10 posts.
And I would also issue a session variable that prevents multiple user accounts to be created during the same session.
I would also log the IP address and prevent multiple account creations from the same or similar IP string for lets say 1 day.
Finally, I would install a cookie.