George Wallace
Army.ca Dinosaur
- Reaction score
- 99
- Points
- 560
Looks like the site is getting "stressed" out again......trouble loading pages.
*Server Is Under High Stress*
- Thread starter Mike Bobbitt
- Start date
Eye In The Sky
Army.ca Legend
- Reaction score
- 3,780
- Points
- 1,160
I've noticed recently that I get the "server is under high stress" message a lot when trying to get on New Replies to posts, etc. I've noticed is usually happens when there is a high (700+) amount of *guests* logged on.
Has there been any thought to limiting the amount of concurrent guest connections and would this make the attached pic *go away*?
Has there been any thought to limiting the amount of concurrent guest connections and would this make the attached pic *go away*?
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 210
I see it a surprising amount in the very early hours of the morning too.
- Reaction score
- 265
- Points
- 980
When I last spoke to Mike, to renew my subscription and send a little extra along, he said that money would help, but time is the main thing. Then he made it clear that he doesn't turn a profit with the place - a true labour of love. So, considering this, I think anything folks can give will help.
I'm sure Mike will be along and maybe he can offer insight into what the upgrades cost.
Thanks for asking!
I'm sure Mike will be along and maybe he can offer insight into what the upgrades cost.
Thanks for asking!
Eye In The Sky
Army.ca Legend
- Reaction score
- 3,780
- Points
- 1,160
Got the same *message* again a few times over...and then looked at the "guest" numbers...thought this would be a good example.
- Reaction score
- 4,651
- Points
- 1,160
Didn't see that the spiders were that busy here. Maybe this could help? http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2067357/Bye-bye-Crawler-Blocking-the-Parasites At least block Baidu.
- Reaction score
- 198
- Points
- 1,210
Folks,
I apologize for the recent server performance issues. It seems to be a recurring issue that pops up from time to time and has a number of root causes including increased general usage (including spiders, but mostly from real people). We have also been running the same server specs for 2 years now, a time when our user base was much smaller and the site was moderately less active. We still have another year to go on our server hosting plan, which means a couple things.
First, we must make do for another year on the existing hardware. So far we have been able to do "OK" but only by occasionally investing time in server optimization (caching, database performance tuning, sit optimization etc.). This is the stuff that takes a great deal of time (and usually trial and error) to complete. I've just finished another round of this and so far the server's performance has stabilized. (Fingers crossed, and thanks for your patience in the meantime.)
The other thing it means is that we will soon need to be in "fundraising mode" to help pay for the up front cost of our server platform. This cost is used to secure a term contract, giving us much cheaper usage over time. Last time, this cost was $1,200 USD. To renew the same server platform, we are looking at $1,028 USD. (See http://aws.amazon.com/ec2/pricing/, under Reserved Instances. We are currently on m1.large, Heavy Utilization, General Purpose.) Given that we are struggling to keep up with the current load, signing up for the same tier again - for 2015 to 2018 - would be a mistake. In order to keep pace with increasing performance demands, we are looking at a m3.xlarge ($1,922) or even m3.2xlarge ($3,844).
Both of these platform upgrades come with increased up front and hourly costs. In addition to fundraising to pay the initial cost, we are looking at doubling or almost quadrupling our monthly costs to migrate to these new platforms respectively. As you can see, we are going to have to do some planning to ensure we keep pace with our growth.
It's also interesting to note that our current hosting plan is partially billed on utilization/traffic, and our original forecast of $50 / month has risen to over $150 / month. I have taken some steps to reduce our storage and cut this cost a bit, but the bulk of the increase comes from the increased site traffic.
We now top out at almost 500Gb per month, where 2 years ago when we signed up we barely broke 160Gb per month. The good news is, we are getting popular!
In the mean time, please bear with us as we come up with a viable plan to move forward.
Thanks
Mike
I apologize for the recent server performance issues. It seems to be a recurring issue that pops up from time to time and has a number of root causes including increased general usage (including spiders, but mostly from real people). We have also been running the same server specs for 2 years now, a time when our user base was much smaller and the site was moderately less active. We still have another year to go on our server hosting plan, which means a couple things.
First, we must make do for another year on the existing hardware. So far we have been able to do "OK" but only by occasionally investing time in server optimization (caching, database performance tuning, sit optimization etc.). This is the stuff that takes a great deal of time (and usually trial and error) to complete. I've just finished another round of this and so far the server's performance has stabilized. (Fingers crossed, and thanks for your patience in the meantime.)
The other thing it means is that we will soon need to be in "fundraising mode" to help pay for the up front cost of our server platform. This cost is used to secure a term contract, giving us much cheaper usage over time. Last time, this cost was $1,200 USD. To renew the same server platform, we are looking at $1,028 USD. (See http://aws.amazon.com/ec2/pricing/, under Reserved Instances. We are currently on m1.large, Heavy Utilization, General Purpose.) Given that we are struggling to keep up with the current load, signing up for the same tier again - for 2015 to 2018 - would be a mistake. In order to keep pace with increasing performance demands, we are looking at a m3.xlarge ($1,922) or even m3.2xlarge ($3,844).
Both of these platform upgrades come with increased up front and hourly costs. In addition to fundraising to pay the initial cost, we are looking at doubling or almost quadrupling our monthly costs to migrate to these new platforms respectively. As you can see, we are going to have to do some planning to ensure we keep pace with our growth.
It's also interesting to note that our current hosting plan is partially billed on utilization/traffic, and our original forecast of $50 / month has risen to over $150 / month. I have taken some steps to reduce our storage and cut this cost a bit, but the bulk of the increase comes from the increased site traffic.
We now top out at almost 500Gb per month, where 2 years ago when we signed up we barely broke 160Gb per month. The good news is, we are getting popular!
In the mean time, please bear with us as we come up with a viable plan to move forward.
Thanks
Mike
- Reaction score
- 198
- Points
- 1,210
...and bear with me as I do one final round of server maintenance which is causing a high load. Should be done later on this morning.
- Reaction score
- 198
- Points
- 1,210
I'm recompressing images on the server to save bandwidth, so that's keeping things busy for a bit. Should be done soon.
- Reaction score
- 79
- Points
- 680
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- Reaction score
- 198
- Points
- 1,210
Sharp said:
Advertising is already running on the site, but if you have an ad blocker you may not see it. (I had to disable my ad blocker so I can monitor the ads.)
Advertising is one of my favourite ways to make money because it doesn't draw funds from end users. As much as possible, I'd like to keep this a free/voluntary support service and paid advertising plays nicely into that. With that said, if anyone is able to leverage advertising out of their unit kit shop or favourite gear retailer that would help a lot. Ad campaigns start as low as $20.
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 110
Mike Bobbitt said:
When I get home, I'll add this site to my adblocker's whitelist. I would encourage others to do the same.
A donation system is always a great way of getting support. Another idea would be to include a service of some kind available on the site. A "premium" option for example.
Edit, just read the post 2 posts above. I'm an idiot, lol.