ADVICE - Jan 2012 - Performance issues since Jan 19

[AussiePhil]

All
Apologies from myself for the current up and down nature of the forum and chat.

What's Happened?
On Thursday 19th we patched the Linux server hosting the forum with 278 outstanding package updates for security purposes and it appears that the Ajax Chat software and the updated Apache Daemon are not playing nicely together.

What are we doing?
We are actively looking for a root cause for this. If no direct cause can be found or the current release of Ajax Chat is found to be not compatible with the Apache version then we may need to change chat software. As an interim step the number of Chat users has been limited to 16 and i would ask that users log out of chat when finished chatting.
Also with regards to forum growth and general performance slowness we are actively seaching for a web host to increase the available bandwidth to gain a performance impact.

Due to the way the CPU usage goes to 100% it may be required to reboot the server at unexpected times so apologies for this inconvenience in advance.

I will update this advice as more information is available.

Regards
Phil

 

[AussiePhil]

Monday 23rd update:

Due to the patching of the Server OS an existing configuration for the forum was discovered to be no longer valid, this has been changed and an increase in the actual forum performance has occured, this is not a large increase but is still an improvement.

Phil

 

[AussiePhil]

Monday 23rd update2:


The Interim measure reducing the number of chat clients been lifted to a MAX of 30 chatters, this should cover most situations.
I will also as a check lift the request that members log out of Chat when not around to see what the impact is.


Alternate Hosting solutions continue to be actively investigated.


I thank everyone for the timeless patience.


Phil

 

[AussiePhil]

Two Updates.

1. Service Outage Friday Morning:
This was caused by a 3rd party contractor doing some work causing a power failure that took out the underlying infrastructure for the website. resolved around 8.25am.

2. The search continues for a Webhost that can handle the AjaxChat component of the site without also costing an arm and a leg. A number of options have been trialed and rejected over the last few weeks.
Just to expand on this for people that are technical, Ajaxchat is the Chat software integrated with the forum, it has a known issue with being CPU intensive and with 20+ chatters even my Enterprise class Dual Xeon server starts to see near 100% utilisation in bursts. It is this performance overhead that is causing some issue with finding a suitable host.

Cheers
Phil