"Alas" may be having an unexpected hiatus

Well, our server is shaking us off like fleas – either because “Alas” has attracted a Denial of Service attack or because it’s too popular and the bandwidth is too high, I’m not sure which is going on. (You can see the email we got – which is all the info I have – below the fold).

The alternative arrangements we were making have fallen through, so we need to find a new server for “theennead.com” and also for “amptoons.com.”

Until that happens, it’s possible”Alas” will be down for several days.

If anyone would like to recommend a good not-too-expensive server, or to let me know what the heck the computerese stuff below the fold is about, feel free. :-)

From: “Lunarpages Helpdesk”
To: [censored]
Date: Mon, 28 Feb 2005 02:11:41 +0000 (GMT)
Subject: Account suspended and moved to Quantz [4842-ETPK-4878] [052db701] Question Created
==== Enter your reply ABOVE this line ====
Dear Elkins,

The following ticket has been created by a member of our staff for you

Your question’s details:

============== Title: ==============
Account suspended and moved to Quantz

============== Message: ==============
Hello,

we suspended and moved your account to “Quantz” server because of the
following reasons.

Too many php processes and mysql connections caused Europa to hang.
Here are the log files from Europa:

Processes running while server had load issues:
————————————————————————————-
freedo15 9616 0.0 0.1 14940 5728 ? S Feb24 0:01
/usr/bin/php
theenn2 29054 2.3 0.1 14556 7156 ? S 17:09 0:00
/usr/bin/php
theenn2 29062 7.8 0.2 15128 7800 ? S 17:09 0:00
/usr/bin/php
theenn2 29134 3.0 0.1 14408 7080 ? S 17:09 0:00
/usr/bin/php
theenn2 29191 3.5 0.1 14420 7080 ? S 17:09 0:00
/usr/bin/php
root 29266 1.0 0.1 12796 4576 pts/2 S 17:09 0:00
/usr/local/bin/php -q /etc/lunarscripts/menu/shell_runp
theenn2 29289 15.5 0.1 14904 7500 ? S 17:09 0:00
/usr/bin/php
theenn2 29301 8.0 0.1 14520 7068 ? S 17:09 0:00
/usr/bin/php
theenn2 29325 15.0 0.1 14420 7076 ? S 17:09 0:00
/usr/bin/php
theenn2 29466 2.2 0.1 14540 7152 ? S 17:09 0:00
/usr/bin/php
theenn2 29534 11.0 0.2 15132 7748 ? S 17:09 0:00
/usr/bin/php
theenn2 29537 12.3 0.2 15128 7748 ? S 17:09 0:00
/usr/bin/php
theenn2 29542 3.3 0.1 14416 7080 ? S 17:09 0:00
/usr/bin/php
theenn2 29644 0.0 0.1 14424 7080 ? S 17:09 0:00
/usr/bin/php
——————————————————————————–

MYSQL log:
——————————————————————————–
———————————–+
| 2073 | theenn2_amptoons | localhost | theenn2_MT | Query |
4 | Copying to tmp table | SELECT alas_posts.*,
MAX(comment_date) AS max_comment_date FROM alas_comments,
alas_posts WHERE alas |
| 2078 | theenn2_amptoons | localhost | theenn2_MT | Query |
4 | Copying to tmp table | SELECT alas_posts.*,
MAX(comment_date) AS max_comment_date FROM alas_comments,
alas_posts WHERE alas |
| 2079 | theenn2_amptoons | localhost | theenn2_MT | Query |
2 | Copying to tmp table | SELECT alas_posts.*,
MAX(comment_date) AS max_comment_date FROM alas_comments,
alas_posts WHERE alas |
| 2083 | theenn2_amptoons | localhost | theenn2_MT | Sleep |
|
| 2084 | theenn2_amptoons | localhost | theenn2_MT | Query |
2 | Copying to tmp table | SELECT alas_posts.*,
MAX(comment_date) AS max_comment_date FROM alas_comments,
alas_posts WHERE alas |
| 2607 | theenn2_amptoons | localhost | theenn2_MT
Query | 6 | Copying to tmp table | SELECT alas_posts.*,
MAX(comment_date) AS max_comment_date FROM alas_comments,
alas_posts WHERE alas || 2608 | theenn2_amptoons | localhost | theenn2_MT
|
Query | 6 | Copying to tmp table | SELECT alas_posts.*,
MAX(comment_date) AS max_comment_date FROM alas_comments,
alas_posts WHERE alas || 2610 | theenn2_amptoons | localhost | theenn2_MT
|
Query | 5 | Copying to tmp table | SELECT alas_posts.*,
MAX(comment_date) AS max_comment_date FROM alas_comments,
alas_posts WHERE alas |
| 2612 | theenn2_amptoons | localhost | theenn2_MT
Query | 5 | Copying to tmp table | SELECT alas_posts.*,
MAX(comment_date) AS max_comment_date FROM alas_comments,
alas_posts WHERE alas |
| 2613 | theenn2_amptoons | localhost | theenn2_MT
Query | 3 | Copying to tmp table | SELECT alas_posts.*
MAX(comment_date) AS max_comment_date FROM alas_comments,
alas_posts WHERE alas |………….
——————————————————————————————

Your account’s STATS before we suspended your account:

theenn2 theennead.com
Average cpu usage : 6.66%
Average memory usage:1.63%
Average Mysql Usgae : 0.6
Top Process%CPU 72.0/usr/bin/php
Top Process%CPU 63.0/usr/bin/php
Top Process%CPU 50.0/usr/bin/php

Hence we moved you to Quantz first to solve the issue of the degraded service
on Europa and second as a courtesy in order to prevent any downtime on your
site to allow you time to rectify the situation. Currently, your site is not
suitable for a shared hosting environment.

Quantz is not a production server and is not guaranteed to run in the same
manner as your old server nor will it support all functions you may have.
This is a transitional server only and is not intended to be a permanent
placement. Please make a decision on how you would like to proceed within
seven (7) days. After seven (7) days, your account will be suspended if no
other arrangements are made.

You have the following options:

1.You may take steps to correct the problem. This must be done before the
seven (7) days are up. You will need to let the technician know the steps you
took to correct the issue and get approval before being returned to a
production server.

2.You may look for a dedicated server or other hosting solution. Please
remember that propagation takes up to seventy two (72) hours so if you decide
on changing hosts you should allow enough time for propagation.

Thank you for your cooperation in this matter. We value you as a customer and
want to work with you toward a solution that is mutually beneficial. Please
let us know as quickly as possible how you would like to proceed.

Please Let us know, If you have any issues!
We are at your service and Our mission is to serve you better!

Regards,
Ramarajan.V,
JRSA, Support team.

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4 Responses to "Alas" may be having an unexpected hiatus

  1. mythago says:

    Dreamhost.com. Can’t recommend them enough.

  2. Laurel says:

    here’s my best guess, as a totally amateur web-person: you have a shared hosting deal, where a whole bunch of different websites are hosted on one server. it’s a lot cheaper that way, but it means that if you’re taking up a lot of space (not just bandwidth and memory, but computer power to run the programs that process the comments, etc) you affect the other sites on that server. so when they say they’ve moved your site from Europa to Quantz, they’re saying they moved you from one computer where you were using a lot of space to another where you won’t affect their other clients. When they say your site is no longer suitable for a shared hosting environment, they’re telling you to buy space on a dedicated server – one that’s just for you – which is a lot pricier.

    if they have telephone customer service (which they should!), you could call them and ask what would resolve the problem. it looks like php and the MySQL database you have are using most of the space: maybe you could cut down on some of the dynamically generated stuff (like the comment preview) temporarily?

    good luck managing your popularity. alas is a great site.

  3. Daniel says:

    I too have heard wonderous things from Dreamhost. If I was php based, this would be my home.

  4. Mr. Nosuch says:

    I moved from Dreamhost when they were a little pricer (years ago) even though I loved them dearly. Stupid mistake. I came back over a year ago when their pricers were great (and they are having a deal now.) Our site got kicked off by a fleabag hosting company who felt we were drawing too many DoS attacks because we ran a very popular, non-English PHPBB board.

    Since moving to Dreamhost, life is good. We get almost a million page views a month, and spend less than $20 hosting (but I have a scad of domains. 3 or less domains is even cheaper.)

    Do check them out.

Comments are closed.