UBB.threads PHP Forum Software Community Forums UBB.threads 7 Version 7 Support Forum goes down

I have my site hosted on Bluehost. They have a switch in their server, when the load gets too high, it automatically changes my database password in my control panel (for the site) to 00000 to shut down the forum. They claim it is the forum bogging the server down. It will happen randomly from once every other day to a few times a day. It is making me crazy.
The UBB software is the culprit they claim.
ANYONE ever hear of such a thing?????

Eventually everyone grows out of a shared host and needs to look at a VPS (Virtual Private Server), Business Class Hosting, or a Dedicated Server (depending on traffic); how large of a forum are we talking here?

Do you have a large forum on their shared hosting BASIC/STARTER account?

https://my.bluehost.com/cgi/help/price

They may be correct, in that you have outgrown their shared hosting BASIC/STARTER plan.

You may want to research upgrading your service to their Blue Host PRO plan.

I was on their pro account. To give me even more speed/room I just upgraded to their cloud service. No better. How big is my forum?? Give me someway to measure it. It is old, with posts that go back to 2001. Its traffic isn't too heavy though, I don't think. I get a couple new users a day maybe.. Main posts table is about 850 MB. Is that too big??

Is this too big?? take a look:
http://handymanwire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/forum_summary


Thanks for taking the time, by the way..

The UBB itself, along with just about any other php script that generates content from a database and is not primarily static content, may have extreme performance issues with Cloud Hosting environments.

With a database that large (really, anything over a 600mb database) I'd recommend you be at least on a VPS or Dedicated Server; especially if you're coming from a Pro Shared Hosting account. You're definitely looking at needing dedicated resources; and BlueHost already provides some great solutions for VPS services.

So, the cloud, that was a bad move, eh? Of course that was their recommendation. It only cost $1 a month more. So I went with it. I had the pro sharing account. I know they keep pushing the VPS. I just wasn't sure if my forum needed it. The thing is, prior to January, I would say.. things ran ok.
So, a couple things.
1) You recommend getting off the cloud server. (This has been worse, by the way, I never tripped the overloaded CPU switch before I switched.. things would just slow to a crawl).
2) You think the data base is too large for even a pro account and it needs a VPS...

Chris

Ok, this scares me.. here is what it says about the VPS:
Our virtual private servers are built from the ground up on cloud technology. Enjoy increased power, flexibility, and control for your websites.

Does that mean I will have the same problems since it is built on "cloud technology"?

As an alternate, you can ask that your site be moved to a less crowded server. They can do that in a few hours.

I am with Blue Host on their Pro plan.

About 3 years ago, I asked to be moved to a different server, since the one I was currently on kept having the "CPU Throttle" trigger, triggered.

The move was done sometime within the week. I got an email about the "planned maintenance." Then a few hours afterwards, received an email about the move being complete. On my end, it was painless. IIRC, I only had to update my config.php file to move a directory pointer from [EXAMPLE] /home2 to /home4.

If I had to make a guess, I was on a Pro server that had a few poorly written sites. But really, I have no clue. My sites are running like a champ now. And it's been fixed since then.

The move can easily be accomplished by making a phone call to their technical support department. If the person you speak to sounds a bit unsure of themselves, ask for someone who has a better understanding of things, and who is willing to walk you through the details of the procedure.

That's all it took.
Oh, and not being afraid to ask any questions on anything I was unsure of.

"Cloud Computing" and "Cloud Hosting" are two different things.
I believe that the "Cloud Technology" they reference is intended to cover "Cloud Computing."

Cloud Computing:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_computing

Cloud Hosting:
http://www.interoute.com/what-cloud-hosting

I have spoken to at least 10.. of their support staff. Most didn't even know that CPU throttle trigger was there. For days they were trying to figure out how my password in the config file kept getting changed. (and it was the control panel password that would get changed by the trigger.. as YOU probably know).

Then the recommendation was to switch to the cloud. That was worse.

An "out of left-field" question for you:
Have you ever logged in to phpMyAdmin and done a "Repair Table" (or "Optimize Table") to all of your tables in your forum's database?

Yeah, a Cloud based VPS is different than the cloud shared hosting; I use a vps with Stablehost that uses their cloud vps technology without problems. BlueHost was my second choice, the reason being their helpdesk support in off hours wasn't what I needed, I needed fast turnaround online any time of day, versus just telephone.

Yes, I have tried optimizing the tables. It made no difference. I was just on the line with them. They sold me more cores and RAM. So maybe I won't hit the trigger. I didn't get anywhere with them with the less loaded server route. I was going to go with the VPS, but they really talked me out of it, because they seemed to offer less support. It seems like they give you a server and you get to manage it yourself, which I am not knowledgeable enough to do.

So, I am STILL on the cloud.. so I don't know if I will actually have fixed anything or not.
The thing is, the forum runs GREAT, fast, no issues, and then BOOM hits the trigger. So, I guess my trigger just got moved to a higher number.. so maybe I won't hit it??????????????????
Man, I hope so, this has been killing me.

Thanks for the tip on repairing and optimizing the tables. It makes me feel like not such a goof, since I tried both of those, thinking it might help.

Yeah, unless you buy management services you have to manage a VPS yourself; I offer some management services for clients, but it's more geared towards updates/modifications vs much else; I'm horrible at tuning apache lol.

One last minor tip, is to visit the "PHP Config" from the Blue Host control panel. Choose "PHP 5.6 (Single php.ini) [Beta, check site functionality for compatibility after enabling]"

This will backup your current PHP.ini and create a new one with all the default settings for PHP5.6.

Since your site has been around for so many years, you may have a few elements left over from php 5.2 (or older) stick in your php.ini. This will bring those up to speed for you.

My php.ini (PHP 5.6) is fully stock, except for a completelty-unrelated-to-ubbt LOG option that turns off "warning logging."

So, forgive me, I never looked at this php screen... what exactly am I doing since I trust the statement above it that says basically if you don't know what you are doing you shouldn't be here.

This is what it actually says:
f you are not familiar with these options, do NOT change them.
This can cause all PHP scripts on your site to stop functioning if misconfigured.

I do have other php scripts... nothing major, but my main page is a index.php for instance..

Does that make a difference?

this image from an unrelated post here.



---

The warning basically refers to if you have any custom tweaks in your php.ini file, changing the setting on the page will 1) make a backup of that file to a dated file in that same directory 2) will create a new file with all the default settings of the version of php you've selected.

I easily moved over from PHP 5.4 to PHP 5.6. I was expecting something to throw-up. nothing happened. BUT I did test everything to made sure the results were as I expected them to be. Gave it 30 minutes (grabbed a coffee), then visited the "Error Logs" section in the Blue Host control panel to see if anything was being reported. Nothing. 4 weeks later, still nothing for me

Thanks a ton. So glad you guys were here to talk with!
I have more CPU cores, more memory, and PHP 5.6, and so far so good. But I won't believe it till it makes it a week. (I did manage to last 3 days last weekend).

Thanks
Chris

Ok, more on this.. if you can help me.
I am trying to reduce the size of the data base, since they are pointing to that as an issue (lots of slow queries being logged). It is slow in the "posts" table. Of course, where else.
So, I look at the size of that table and it is > 800MB table. I just pruned 20000 topics and the table size hardly if at all reduced. How do I reduce the size??? Am I missing something?

So, I am still having trouble. What should I trim my data base size down to in order to keep this forum working??? I am at just over 1G right now.

Are you sure that you were on the Bluehost high performance shared PRO plan, or possibly could you have only been on their standard performance shared PLUS plan?

I have a few sites with databases at least twice the size of what you've mentioned above, and I am not having any of the problems you're having. I'm on their shared PRO plan.

Possibly from the issues you've listed above and those that have been shared in PM, it could be time to move away from Bluehost entirely. But this will have to be your call, as I personally am not having any issues with them since at least 2009 -- I've been their customer since 2006.


Attached is a table I quickly put together of all Bluehost's packages and pricing that is related to this topic, and openly listed on their website.