Major forum freeze ups and errors 1 year in!

rockwaldo

I've been running a forum here for almost a year now (if not more actually) - here and it's been going fine pretty much.

However the past few months we have had MAJOR hang ups and errors really quite often. I have been banging on at my host for weeks now and they insist nothing is unusual or wrong with their servers.

What could it be?

knowns:

• most common error is:
  
  Fatal error: Maximum execution time of 30 seconds exceeded in d:\domains\stillwater-rock.com\wwwroot\forum\library\People\People.Class.Authenticator.php on line 96
  
  with that line being the last one of this - line 92-96:
  
  function GetIdentity() {
  if (!session_id()) {
  session_set_cookie_params(0, $this->Context->Configuration['COOKIE_PATH'], $this->Context->Configuration['COOKIE_DOMAIN']);
  session_start();
  }
  
• I have tried disabling ALL extensions and various different configs with no difference so it cant be them
• I recently made a backup and it backup up over 800,000 records.
• We have 397 users
• Frequently (i.e about 10 or more times an evening) the browser will just sit there when refreshing or navigating between pages. If you open another tab and try again, the same happens. If you open a fresh new browser it works fine straight away while the old browser still sits there looking.
  

What could it be? I've tried everything I can think of, database maintence etc....

I dont have another server to test it on unfortunately, so what else can I try?

It suggests to me some sort of session / cookie problem, but I have no idea.

Any help out there please?

ithcy

can't be certain, but this looks to me like a host/server problem, not a vanilla problem. it could be failing to create the session file.

can you get hold of your webserver's error log?

rockwaldo

Thanks for the reply!

Hmmmm, The host insist that there is no problem.

What shall I ask them to check specifically?

Minisweeper

Try making a php document containing the following: <?php $load = exec('uptime'); echo $load; ?> That's not guaranteed to work on your system, but if it does you should get a line similar to: 00:59:49 up 68 days, 11:17, 2 users, load average: 0.37, 0.53, 0.44 If those load average figures are above 1, it's not an ideal situation and could result in poor performance. If that mini script does work then keep an eye on those figures when you're having issues with the forum and report back what they are.

rockwaldo

Thanks Minisweeper.

It doesn't reply anything on my server unfortunately. I really want to avoid moving the host if I can, and I'm going to issue another ticket now, so any further help or suggestions would be great.

cheers

Stash

That doesn't work on my local dev server either, which is a Windows based server - is your host Windows based?

Minisweeper

Well it's difficult to say really, the problem you describe really seems like the load on the server is too high. I just realised you're on windows not linux so my script wont work..I'm not sure if there is a similar one to use for windows... The other possibility is an issue with the sessions (since theyre used on every page) causing a slowdown. But again I'd expect that to be host side..

Stash

This works on my local dev server (win2003).

Obviously, you may have to ask your host what the path to the pagefile is, and it may not even be possible on shared servers, who knows...

Minisweeper

I'm not looking for the uptime though, Stash, the load figures are more important.

ithcy

ithcy
can you get hold of your webserver's error log?

Stash

Ah, fair enough Mini... good point ithcy

jimw

I tried the script and it worked fine, showing me:
07:10:17 up 19 days, 17:01, 1 user, load average: 0.72, 0.50, 0.38

Minisweeper

Yeah, it will work on most linux servers with safe mode disabled, but not windows unfortunately.