Site Down?

@DC. He might not be able to see that post.

I don't actually know what caused it. The forums have been slow to initially load for a few weeks. But once loaded seen to work ok and navigating around or even uploading images are fine.

A couple of times last week the domain wouldn't actually go through to the server, instead going to a domain holding page. Then for a whole morning I was only getting 503 error pages. The forum and main site are hosted on the same server and the main site was still working, so it wasn't the server going down. Seemed like a sub domain dns issue. I've emailed server support but they haven't got back to me yet. Other issue could be database related. I will do another full site an db backup this week and run a database oprimisation.

But the reality is this server has been up and running since 2012, so is now 12 years old. Really need to move to a new server or look into VM or cloud servers as an alternative. But I just don't have either the time or money at the moment to do that. Especially as if I did look into a new home for CA I would want to migrate the forum to a better up to date platform. Xenforo being my preferred option.
[Reply]

No DC.... I can't see that secret thread....

& yeah.... it's lumpy for me....

[Reply]

I couldn't get the forum to load at all this weekend until now. Just returning a 503 error. Main site would still load but that was taking time to initially respond.

Think this server is on its last legs. Will contact the data centre again tomorrow to try and find out anything. But will start looking around for a replacement.

But if the forum goes offline please remember I will get it back, but if the server fails it might be some time until that happens. Maybe even not until the summer. Hopefully we can limp on as we are until then.
[Reply]

Just managed to get on here today. Page unavailable at first try this morning...failed for me every time since my last post in here on the 11th March.

Page did refresh eventually & here I am posting.

Not looking at all good H.

[Reply]

I'm still not sure what is causing this issue. I've not been able to get the site to load for days until now. I've looked through server logs but there isn't much to indicate other than the generic error about resources exceeded. But when looking at server loads this hasn't been the case. Might be a persistent DoS attack, but I'm not seeing that either from the traffic logs. So it's either a DNS domain resolving issue, routing, or server hardware issue.

I will therefore be looking at and testing possible new hosting solutions for the site and forum after Easter. Please be patient as I don't have much time to look into it at the moment, but I don't want the site to completely die. But it might be down for a few months if I can't find the time.

IONOS haven't been the most helpful in fixing this server issue or pointing me in any directions other than saying they can reboot the server, which I can myself from the control panel. I do have my suspicions that their dedicated servers are no longer completely standalone dedicated computers as the changes they made to how the databases can be setup and managed indicate they are using shared database servers (when it states in thy contact that servers are hosted locally on your dedicated server), which could be the root cause here. I'm thinking if they have offloaded database management to separate shared servers the forum database cache could be overloading and causing the bad slowdowns, eventally main to thy sit going down. This has been a note common issue on a couple of sites I've hosted in the last couple of years.

Something else the indicates they are doing something odd with dedicated server hosting is a chance in how many things on the servers are administered. As a dedicated server, linked to my own domains I've always been free to create ftp and ssh accounts that use the domain names and usernames and passwords of my choosing. They have removed that ability and now you get this fixed server account url address to log in and random number usernames. It all shouts shared hosting which with the server issues feels very much like issues we had on shared hosting years ago, which if why we moved before to dedicated hosting.

I'm going to talk to the guy who I handing thy backend admin of Amibay too, as he moved that site away from IONOS to a dedicated cloud hosting solution and the site has been running much better. But his solution might depend on the work needed as I think he just got a cheaper root cloud server, meaning you have to start from scratch, installing the OS, adding all the server services and setting them up. That takes a bit of work, and also means you have to have time each week to manage and update it all. We will see.

I will also reach out to the Xenforo forum community for recommendations on hosting platforms. Might as well upgrade to that forum software when I move host.

I think it's time to abandon ship and move on to somewhere new to host.
[Reply]

If there are no errors on the server logs, then it has to be something to do with the hosting surely? - Hardware either works or it doesn't. - There are no in-betweens.

I can appreciate there will be expenses with a different platform and other hassles of maintaining, but isn't cloud based stuff supposed to be a cheaper alternative any how?

That said, a cloud & virtual server has to be a more stable & secure solution, offering a newer & more up to date front end, whilst being easier to backup & maintain, surely??

Lots to consider H & would like to think I could be of some assistance if you need any. - Just good to be able to get on here again.

[Reply]

I'm going to start looking at alternative solutions this month. I'm leaning towards a virtual server or cloud solution for the forums as they have come a long way in the last 10 years and you get a far more powerful solution for your money these days, plus you often get the option to just expand its configuration if you find a site exceeding the resources. So things like the number of cores and ram can just be increased as and when needed.

I have my suspicions that the current server is just running out of ram, and it's only dual core. Although strange how it has carried on ticking along until now. I bet Ionos updated some system OS files without letting me know, or made so other fundamental changes to how something works, which hasn't helped.

I'm not sure what to do with the main .com website though. It took a lot of time and effort to build, and myself and DC put a lot of work in adding content. I don't want to lose it. It's fully backed up, but the problem is that it's built on a very old version of Joomla, running equally old components that need very old versions of PHP and MySQL to run. I will look at virtual solutions that allow different versions to be setup as that might be a short-term solution. Long term it would really need rebuilding from scratch. Possibly an autumn or winter project when the weather isn't so good for gardening or other stuff. We will see.

Just be assured its all backed up and whatever happens to this server it will survive one way or another. And if we go offline it will be back later in the year.

If you can't get on here there is a Facebook group. Or you can email me at dave@classicamiga.com
[Reply]