Cause for webserver problems found
After two weeks without problems, I’m now confident that I have found and fixed the cause for the webserver problems on 25 and 26 September.
Two security plugins for WordPress were the offenders, “Acunetix WP Security” and “Ultimate Security Checker”. After the last update, the first one began to carelessly make many long-running database queries. Meanwhile, the second one had inflated WordPress’ crucial wp_options table over the course of time. I guess a webserver which is no longer online after a database crash is kind of secure…
This shows that some functionality that might be beneficial for a website with 1000 page views per day can be disastrous for a website with 100,000. Apart from deleting the two plugins, I worked on the website backend during the last two weeks to further increase its performance.
One of the import parts of security is “available to authorized parties, for authorized activities.” That part did not work so well there for a couple of days. Glad to hear you got it figured out.
@ David Nuttall:
Arrg, “One of the important parts of security…” Sorry about that.
now I am quite curious, how do you that: “I worked on the website backend during the last two weeks to further increase its performance.”? Are you changing something in the core files of wordpress? Or just your theme/plugins? or???
Bernhard
hey folks
thanks for taking the time to get a smooth running site. Some sites I love just give me 100% CPU doing javasript. Your site is exemplary in economic usage of resources. A+ for that.
Keep on creating.
WitzKaWumme wrote:
Mostly some work on the ComicPress theme and removing unnecessary entries from the database.
@ Novil:
thanks you!
Pow, right in the kisser!
…Sorry. Somebody had to say it.
“A webserver which is no longer online after a crash is kind of secure…”
That is such a good line! I want to use it now.
I’m not sure how much traffic you guys get (100k views a day seems kinda heavy for a small site!), but if it’s a fair amount on your server, you might want to consider a CDN service like Cloud Flare, Google PageSpeed, Incapsula, or Coral/CoDeeN. All of those providers offer a free level of service. Some are better suited for some things than others (for example, Coral is good with static content but not so good at dynamic content).
There are numerous other ones, too, which are paid, but I’m guessing S&W/Gaia doesn’t get that much traffic to warrant that.
Disclosure: I don’t work for / at any of those companies. 🙂 I’ve just been looking at them lately because I’ve been pondering how I can best use such services myself.
You might also be interested in trying http://www.webpagetest.org/ (Google and others run the service) to see how long it takes to load content, and how content could be delivered faster.