Growing Pains - Soon to be Resolved (Very Boring - Don't Read)

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admin

Smoking a Pipe Right Now
Staff member
Nov 16, 2008
8,764
4,932
St. Petersburg, FL
pipesmagazine.com
Warning: This gets more boring as it goes unless you're a computer or web server geek.
Hey guys (and girls),
Most of you probably have not noticed this, but there have been several times in the last few weeks that the site has temporarily gone down for a few minutes.
This has been because of server overload. If you ever experienced your PC locking up or being sluggish because you were running too many programs, this is kind of the same thing.
The good news is that the site is doing great. Our traffic is phenomenal for a site with such a focused niche. The pipe smoker / collector market is really growing and so is PipesMagazine.com. There will be 2 more advertisers joining us in May too, and a third new one on the horizon for June.
Whenever the site goes down, I completely freak and start virtually screaming at a server tech on chat to re-start MySQL and Web Services, and then we come back up.
Ironically, the overload happens when the server can't handle the load of the automatic back-up system making copies of all the files and database, while serving up web pages and site functionality. The entire site is constantly being backed-up so we can recover from any catastrophic failures.
This was a new service I added a couple of months ago, which of course cost more $$.
Several months back I also added database caching to get the site running a little faster.
Later this week we will be upgrading the ram from 2 GB to 4 GB. That's as much as the current server can handle. There will be some down time, but hopefully not too much. I'm trying to get the guy to do it between 4 and 5 am, which is our slowest time.

 

marmal4de

Lifer
Feb 20, 2011
2,315
4
Richmond, BC
NEW SERVER TIIIIIIIIIIIIIIME! I notice all the time when my browser can't establish a database connection tot he site, it's only ever for 2 minutes or so though.

 

morlader

Can't Leave
Mar 2, 2011
483
1
Cornwall UK
Wow !!! I understood all that,I think I may need to get out more lol.But not before I've been on here.Best site ever Kevin. :clap:

 

lordnoble

Lifer
Jul 13, 2010
2,677
14
I've experienced a few crashes here but nothing that a few minutes can't handle. I usually first check to make sure that I paid my internet bill since I can't be sure that it gets paid by either my wife or myself. We communicate, just not about mundane stuff like who paid what bill. i hope that the ram thing fixes you problems, Kevin, but from my experience, ram upgrades only slightly prolong the inevitable... YMMV
-Jason

 

winton

Lifer
Oct 20, 2010
2,318
771
Actually I am often on the site between 4 and 5 in the morning. I leave for work at 5:30.

 

sirbogglesworth

Starting to Get Obsessed
Mar 20, 2011
168
0
Are we talking eastern or western times Kevin? I just want to know if I will still be sleeping or if I will actually have to do some work while in the office :P

 

admin

Smoking a Pipe Right Now
Staff member
Nov 16, 2008
8,764
4,932
St. Petersburg, FL
pipesmagazine.com
It didn't happen this morning. You may have noticed we had a database connection issue for a few minutes early this afternoon again.
We are now scheduled to have the ram upgraded Eastern U.S. time approx. 3 - 3:30 AM. Hopefully it will get done, go smoothly with little down time and solve our problem.
The site will in fact be offline for maybe 15 - 20 minutes. If it's any longer, it's a good thing I will be sleeping and not know about it or I would be having a coronary.

 

wallbright

Part of the Furniture Now
Aug 22, 2010
845
2
I am here too. I hope it doesn't go down as I am reading in the forums :( and I wanted to reach 800 posts tonight haha. But I understand it's for the good of the site. :worship: :mrgreen: I guess this is a bad time to ask for the addition of a chat room? 8)

 
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