Ugh... more Database Errors. x.x

[Platinum Lucario]

As far as I've heard, twice between 2002 and 2004.

As far as I've looked into the history, PokéCommunity restarted in September 2003, and I'm not sure what it really was caused by or anything. But when I did look into the history... I did see some deleted accounts, I'm not sure if that was anything to do with the database crashing or anything like that, but yeah... we'll just see what Steve does for trying to fix the database. ;)

 

[Buoysel]

Well, unfortunately... there is no possible way of buying a dedicated server. You can only rent it, mainly because dedicated servers are made for buisness use, that's why the buisnesses have to make money by encouraging people to buy stuff... and not to also mention... they have to buy their goods as well to have them on the shelves for the people to buy. I have realized that it's basically about hosting, and it's more like a subscription service. Like I said, there is no possible way of buying one and owning it, you have to pay out each month for the cost... alot like when you have an internet connection using a wireless router or something

A dedicated server simply means that the server is dedicated to one function, in this case running the PokeCommunity. Which we have, we are just running out of horsepower on our current box.

@Rukario do let us know as soon as you find out, I'm sure if you had a special donation drive we might be able to raise some extra money, however that is not going to help with monthly bills. :(

 

[Kura]

DB Errors seem to be a daily thing nowadays. I wonder what's up ://

 

[Rukario]

blame vB. its crap that they use the db to store sessions in and, when there is an issue, all the sessions (members, staff, and guests) have to be re-authorized and its all done in the database... it make it VERY hard to recover the server after a busy time / overload.

6807 pokecomm_       localhost pokecomm_v         6  Query SELECT * FROM session WHERE userid = 0 AND host = '68.192.127.127' AND idhash = '3dbaed87da736cf61368967caa66bfa5' LIMIT 1
    6808 pokecomm_       localhost pokecomm_v         6  Query SELECT * FROM session WHERE userid = 0 AND host = '66.249.71.184' AND idhash = 'da54f4451ffc8354910165011e3da49b' LIMIT 1
    6809 pokecomm_       localhost pokecomm_v         6  Query SELECT * FROM session WHERE userid = 0 AND host = '77.88.29.247' AND idhash = '57a824e43166c4434e8b381b69e29d46' LIMIT 1
    6797 pokecomm_       localhost pokecomm_v         8  Query SELECT * FROM session WHERE userid = 0 AND host = '24.99.156.122' AND idhash = '78f30f497a725471fd0f23bd64f28d1b' LIMIT 1
    6798 pokecomm_       localhost pokecomm_v         8  Query SELECT * FROM session WHERE userid = 0 AND host = '24.99.156.122' AND idhash = '78f30f497a725471fd0f23bd64f28d1b' LIMIT 1
    6799 pokecomm_       localhost pokecomm_v         8  Query SELECT * FROM session WHERE userid = 0 AND host = '24.99.156.122' AND idhash = '78f30f497a725471fd0f23bd64f28d1b' LIMIT 1
    6800 pokecomm_       localhost pokecomm_v         8  Query SELECT * FROM session WHERE userid = 0 AND host = '24.99.156.122' AND idhash = '78f30f497a725471fd0f23bd64f28d1b' LIMIT 1
    6801 pokecomm_       localhost pokecomm_v         8  Query SELECT * FROM session WHERE userid = 0 AND host = '24.99.156.122' AND idhash = '78f30f497a725471fd0f23bd64f28d1b' LIMIT 1
    6802 pokecomm_       localhost pokecomm_v         8  Query SELECT * FROM session WHERE userid = 0 AND host = '24.99.156.122' AND idhash = '78f30f497a725471fd0f23bd64f28d1b' LIMIT 1

ALL of these are locked, and imagine 100's of them all at once.. again all locked and yet we still need to process the 'normal' queries.. like viewing a post / thread, etc..
*sigh*

 

[Meduza]

I heard refreshing the website again and again just makes it slower. I might be wrong.

 

[Rukario]

I heard refreshing the website again and again just makes it slower. I might be wrong.

it makes recovering it take longer..

 

[Kura]

Why don't you make the guests viewing more limited? Will that cut the traffic? Cause we get like 3 times more guests than we do members :X

 

[Nick]

Why don't you make the guests viewing more limited? Will that cut the traffic? Cause we get like 3 times more guests than we do members :X

I like this idea. Limiting the amount of forums and categories guests can view seems like a good idea to me, but that probably won't do much to help the database.

 

[Ho-Oh]

Stop the guests from viewing all of the creative, social, etc, sections where members contribute their own input on stuff other than Pokemo-- or just allow the gaming sections, since people do come here for game info (and ROM hacking but pretty sure that's already cut off for guests iirc), as opposed to most of the other things and have a notice at the top as to what sections PC has?

 

[Livewire]

I like this idea. Limiting the amount of forums and categories guests can view seems like a good idea to me, but that probably won't do much to help the database.

I agree here too.

But, what exactly would reduce server stress, out of all PC's features? I hear a lot about the server itself, but not about what features of the site put the most stress on the server, if you guys get that. What could feasibly be removed/changed, and vice-versa.

 

[Rukario]

still won't stop the session id hashes from being done.. I've already tried it to a limited extent in the hacking/game dev areas..

 

[Nick]

what about completely blocking some parts of the community from guests?

 

[Platinum Lucario]

still won't stop the session id hashes from being done.. I've already tried it to a limited extent in the hacking/game dev areas..

Then what are we going to do? In this rate... like I said, it could continue on until it ends up in the end with PC stuck with it's last resources of the forum, then having another database error with nothing left to do.

And I do understand... that is the problem with vBulletin. I really don't know why Jelsoft couldn't give all the tools needed to handling the database. However... when I do look at forums like SPPf, they don't have any Database Errors, they only have lagging.

 

[Melody]

I know it's draconian and probably not wanted, but could we possibly require all guests to login? (except for maybe the search spiders?)

If we required all users to login in order to view the entire forum, would this not help to reduce the session hashes?

 

[Kura]

I know it's draconian and probably not wanted, but could we possibly require all guests to login? (except for maybe the search spiders?)

If we required all users to login in order to view the entire forum, would this not help to reduce the session hashes?

I figured if the guests have restricted access.. it'd also restrict them from clicking around threads that are HUGE ._. Imagine guests clicking on threads that are 600 posts or more. And it has to load for them every time they do newest?

:/ I dunno.. I figured it'd probably help SOMEHOW. I figure there wouldn't be as much stress on the server because of it.

I dunno about making guests log in though @_@

 

[Melody]

Another idea that occurred to me would be to modify the Database Error page itself and remove the refresh link...and include instructions asking people to wait patiently for the site to repair itself?

Perhaps a static timer on the Database Error page with a wait time between refreshes? That might give people enough of an idea how long they ought to wait before checking in on PC again. Something like this:
Request to PC fails with Database Error.
The edited Database Error page Redirects to a to another error page outside of vB, passing the URL you were requesting from PC Forums to it as a parameter. This script makes you sit and wait by setting an expiring cookie on your browser that the script checks for. Navigating back only gets you sent to this page, because it's a redirect...and retyping the URL of PC only lands you on the DBE page which points you to the error page outside of vB. This external error page can do a few things like count how many times you've reloaded, and perhaps block you temporarily if you've been too impatient. :p A 30-60 minute block/deny on the server side could be arranged couldn't it? Of course since the DB is out, why not use PHP and cookies to determine how much someone has been reloading?

Of course once the timer has expired on that error page, it would remove the cookie, redirect you to the URL you previously requested and if PC fails with a DBE again...you wait through another wait period. This might be useful for adding to the "Server is Busy, try again later" page on PC as well...implement a script within vB that sets off a timer that auto reloads in about 15/20 minutes. (Or more, depending on the situation, you could make it customizable by reading a configuration file or something)

 

[Buoysel]

Why are more than half of those querys from one IP?

Hey Rukario, out of curiosity, have you though about disabling echo return requests? May or may not help, but at least you would be minimizing an attack surface.

 

[Platinum Lucario]

Hm... I always wondered and thought if the vBulletin HTML coding and PHP would actually be edited and stuff? I always knew that you can edit stuff on the webpage, including the PHP files that are uploaded on the internet and all that. Just thinking about it... I'm sure it would be possible to modify or even add new things into it to change the way the vBulletin forum works and all that. Maybe then we'd have some success, as I'm gradually learning about how websites work and all that. I'm kinda wondering myself... that if we modify and add some special PHP codes, like what Pachy said, it might... fix the problem with the MySQL Database, it just might... fix it.

 

[WonderGirl]

But what exactly is not functioning properly? As in, what has to be changed? Is it vB itself or the host?

 

[Platinum Lucario]

But what exactly is not functioning properly? As in, what has to be changed? Is it vB itself or the host?

It's the MySQL database that supports vBulletin, there's probably some things in vBulletin that may be un-changeable, but I'm sure Steve will do his best to fixing it up. However... there are some things that aren't possible to do.