Although it has gotten better, I think the server 2 short, periodic downtimes are still happening.
I thought of a sure-fire way to fix this if and when we get the proffered server 3.
(This works on the assumption that some file or script in one user's account is to blame)
So here's how it would work:
(for simplicity, lets assume there are 10,000 user accounts on server 2)
1]You get server 3 set up just like server 2.
2]You take half of the user accounts to server 3.
3]You wait to see which server does the periodic crashing thing.
4]You take note of which half of the suspected accounts is on that server, and label them as suspected, while labeling the other half as innocent.
5]You take half of the suspected accounts and put them on the other server
6]Repeat from step 3 until you've narrowed it down to only one account.
7]Work with the owner of that account to fix the problem, or (if you're feeling mean) delete that account.
So, to make an example;
_________|
--Innocent:|------0|5,000|7,500|8,750|9,375|9,697|9,853|9,931|9,970|9,980|
Suspected:|10,000|5,000|2,500|1,250|625--|313--|157--|79----|40----|20---|
(I think my math is a little off here, but you get the point)
-And so on...
You could find out which one it is with only fifteen iterations, if there were 10,000 accounts.
Perhaps you've already thought of this, or perhaps the problem has been solved without me noticing, but I thought this was a good idea.
Last edited by ocalhoun on Tue Oct 31, 2006 8:30 pm; edited 2 times in total
Good in theory however that would mean during the course of this 'search', hosting the same amount of users, put paying for an extra server. It could also take some time and might possibly be an un-sustainable idea.
Don't forget, new accounts are still eing created and each time this happens, it restarts as well.
I used to notice the downtime a lot but I think as well as server 2 downtimes there's some problem with my forum getting excessive 404 errors (I need to ask phpBB forums about it). I've moved my main site and dedicated my Frihost server to my forum now but when I did have my main site hosted on server 2 as well I had very little downtime... hardly noticable.
I like the idea but I think a better way to do it would just work out when the downtime started happening and then suspend all accounts before that time. Then make the owners of those accounts re-activate and I'm fairly sure that the guy that's screwing it up won't reactivate because we will kill him he he does. That said, downtime, what downtime? I haven't had any serious downtime for a while now.
As Good as idea that it is, It won't work. Why? because of the Name Servers, People would need to keep swapping the address of their domains witch could cause problems.
You could however, split the server somehow and test it that way...
Good Idea though
| mathiaus wrote: |
Good in theory however that would mean during the course of this 'search', hosting the same amount of users, put paying for an extra server. It could also take some time and might possibly be an un-sustainable idea.
Don't forget, new accounts are still eing created and each time this happens, it restarts as well. |
Oh, so the problem is that when new users join, the server restarts?? | scotty wrote: |
| ... downtime, what downtime? I haven't had any serious downtime for a while now. |
Thank you! Someone else seems to have noticed that too! The downtime on Frihost has significantly reduced over the past month or so. Despite this, more and more people have been complaining about the hourly restarts and other short downtimes that are necessary for Frihost to continue to operate. These "necessary downtimes" have pretty much always been present on server 2 - they've not got any worse either.
Admittedly, there still may be one or two script problems on user's sites, but other than that there aren't any significant issues. Certainly none significant enough to be paying for a brand new server![quote="Animal"] | scotty wrote: |
| hourly restarts and other short downtimes that are necessary for Frihost to continue to operate. These "necessary downtimes" have pretty much always been present on server 2 - they've not got any worse either. |
If you don't mind me asking... Why? Why are the necessary? Is it a Direct Admin thing? | garionw wrote: |
| If you don't mind me asking... Why? Why are the necessary? Is it a Direct Admin thing? |
It's to do with Apache (the Linux software that makes your website work). It has to restart every time a user is added or removed from the server - this is necessary and we can't stop it. Apache is also restarted once every hour (at 30 mins past the hour) to maintain stability - if we don't restart it, it can become unstable and crash. If it crashes, it has to be manually restarted, and that means waiting until Bondings is available to log into the server. Unfortunately, since Bondings has to sleep too, this could mean very very very long downtimes. By restarting it hourly, it remains stable and only causes very brief periods when websites are not accessible - this only lasts a few seconds though.^ Certantly this is not normal behaviour for a server...
Wait--downtime has been reduced?!? I thought it was becoming more frequent! And much more than just a few short seconds. It's been as long as 5 minutes (at least that's the longest I've recorded), and more than every hour. Then again, I may only be checking every time a new person joins... 
I haven't developed my site any further in hopes that the server would be fixed before I try attracting a larger audience. It's not too much of a trouble for me (cuz it's all great and free), but I'm wondering if other people's hits are going down because of this? Yeah.
I haven't been able to access my website for at least an hour now, this happens alot.
Ok. Please stop complaining about the "current" downtime that has now been fixed - apologies for the inconvenience.
In response to the original topic, there may be a third server coming at some point in the future, but maybe not. If there is, it's doubtful its primary purpose will be to "fix" server 2.
-close- to prevent yet more spamming.
