Deleting banner really taxing system?

[FTL_Ian]

Deleted another banner.  Another timeout.  Waited five minutes, didn't recover, rebooted php.

 

[Freeman]

I would like to help you out here Ian but I really don't know how to test the system without causing more problems.  I still have not been able to connect to the development environment to properly test bugs like this.  This sounds like it is a combination of code which is causing widespread changes to the website causing the system to re-cache every page on the site.  This re-caching is probably what is causing the site to appear to die.  If there are 100 users on the site then 100 pages could be generating at exactly the same time causing the site to be overloaded.

One possible solution is not to be so aggressive on caching and only cache 1 to 10 pages at a time.  Also, we should be able to be more efficient about what is cached and what is not on a given page.  Of course these are only solutions if I'm right about my theory in what is causing the problem.

What is the banner items that are you deleting ?  I still get confused on the terminology for this website.  Are these the ads on the right side of the site (Sakal CAI, Liberty Stickers, Ballantine Soap etc... ) ?

[FTL_Ian]

I would like to help you out here Ian but I really don't know how to test the system without causing more problems.  I still have not been able to connect to the development environment to properly test bugs like this.  This sounds like it is a combination of code which is causing widespread changes to the website causing the system to re-cache every page on the site.  This re-caching is probably what is causing the site to appear to die.  If there are 100 users on the site then 100 pages could be generating at exactly the same time causing the site to be overloaded.

One possible solution is not to be so aggressive on caching and only cache 1 to 10 pages at a time.  Also, we should be able to be more efficient about what is cached and what is not on a given page.  Of course these are only solutions if I'm right about my theory in what is causing the problem.

What is the banner items that are you deleting ?  I still get confused on the terminology for this website.  Are these the ads on the right side of the site (Sakal CAI, Liberty Stickers, Ballantine Soap etc... ) ?

Please email michael@freetalklive.com and I with a description of the trouble you are having connecting to the dev server.  I'll see what we can do to remedy it.

I am referring to the banners on the right side of the site.  I am deleting them via the manager at http://www.freetalklive.com/manage/banner-ads

[error]

Definitely, and also share with me your theories about what might be causing the problem.

I keep a complete copy of the virtual machines here on my home system so that I can test things (KVM ftw) and I still haven't been able to reproduce this.

[FTL_Ian]

Wow.  Now I am trying to update the URL on an existing banner (Silver Circle) and when I hit save the server times out and does not take the change.  However, the rest of the websites are still up.

[FTL_Ian]

Wow.  Now I am trying to update the URL on an existing banner (Silver Circle) and when I hit save the server times out and does not take the change.  However, the rest of the websites are still up.

Well... sorta.  FK was responding when I hit save, but then choked along with the FTL site and BBS.

I have tried three times now to update the url on the banner, and it has failed to a 504.

Looks like I'm going to have to delete the banner, restart PHP to recover from the inevitable crash, and the upload the banner fresh with the new url.

 

[FTL_Ian]

For the record, it appears only the right-side banners cause this issue.  I just removed and replaced a "page sponsor" (the top banners) and that worked fine.

[FTL_Ian]

Any progress on this now that the Dev server is up?

When I go to jail, someone else will have to manage banners, and if that person is Mark, then this bug is going to cripple that process.

Thanks!

[Laetitia]

When I go to jail

Oh, my... I've been out of the loop for several weeks. This ought to be an interesting comment to trace back through "unread topics"

[FTL_Ian]

Any progress on this?  I'd like to teach Mark how to handle the banners, but don't really feel comfortable doing that while this problem exists.

[Freeman]

I'm trying to reproduce the problem on the dev site but haven't been able to.  If there is a downtime, a time when not so many users are on freetalklive, then I'd like you to try to change a banner.  I am wondering if it has something to do with the number of users on the site.

I'll continue looking into the issue and trying to reproduce on the development site.

[dan]

php-fpm has a slow log that dumps PHP backtraces.  Enable it on dev and set it to 10 seconds.

[Freeman]

Thanks Dan, I'll give that a try.  BTW, I think I have reproduced the issue using the siege tool.   It took about 10 to 20 page loads per second to bring the site if the site has just cleared the entire cache.