Site Slow Down and Issues

[Rich]

You may have noticed that the site has been somewhat slow today.  Trying to diagnose what is causing it, but probably won't be able to dig in deeply until later today.

May notice some intermittent up and down time while I try to figure out what is causing it

[captaincanuck12]

 Seems a lot better (for me at least) today, which means it's likely fixed

Thanks @Rich!

[Rich]

50 minutes ago, captaincanuck12 said:

 Seems a lot better (for me at least) today, which means it's likely fixed

Thanks @Rich!

I haven't actually done anything to fix it.

I've been keeping on eye on some monitoring of the server, there was an intermittent database process that was pinning CPU usage (and spiking disk access) to above 100% when we typically average below 50%.  That was what was causing the slowdowns or freezes.  I would reset the virtual environment when I noticed the site was unresponsive and it would fix it temporarily.

I haven't had time to dig further into which query was actually causing it.  That would have been my next step to address it, but today we look to be back at typical CPU usage.  So, all the better for me, if this just fixed itself.  

I still need to do some digging just to make sure someone hasn't hacked the server and is mining bitcoin or something

[Noeller]

It's intermittent for me. Works great at times and slow or crashed entirely other times. All good though... First world problems!

[HardCoreBlue]

1 hour ago, Rich said:

I haven't actually done anything to fix it.

I've been keeping on eye on some monitoring of the server, there was an intermittent database process that was pinning CPU usage (and spiking disk access) to above 100% when we typically average below 50%.  That was what was causing the slowdowns or freezes.  I would reset the virtual environment when I noticed the site was unresponsive and it would fix it temporarily.

I haven't had time to dig further into which query was actually causing it.  That would have been my next step to address it, but today we look to be back at typical CPU usage.  So, all the better for me, if this just fixed itself.  

I still need to do some digging just to make sure someone hasn't hacked the server and is mining bitcoin or something

Mining bitcoin? As the most non IT guy you could ever meet, what the F does that mean?

Nevermind, I'm sure I wouldn't understand your answer anyways.

Thanks for your continued volunteer support on this site that provides me with joy and a bit of an escape from adulting.

[Tracker]

Apparently there have been intermittent network problems for several hours earlier today.

[Rex_Banner]

Still seems very slow, borderline unusable for me today.   But glad to hear you’re looking into it!

[Jesse]

Something needs to be done. It’s bad and it’s constant.

[bustamente]

Seems to be working much better today

[Rich]

I've been trying to dig into it off and on today.  Which has meant many restarts, which only fixes the problem temporarily.

[SpeedFlex27]

I cpuldn't get on yesterday but your post explains why. Hopefully, you'll get things figured out without too much work. Thanks for doing what you do. 

[Mark F]

thanks very much, working now for me.

[Rich]

It's not fixed.  It will slow down again.   Should get more technical help tomorrow.   Have shut off everything and really narrowed this down to the forum software itself.  Will see what their support says on Monday.

[MOBomberFan]

Several dozen of us hitting refresh every few seconds should help a lot I think

[wpgallday1960]

Still problems for me today.  Sometimes the site won’t load at all.

[Rich]

3 minutes ago, wpgallday1960 said:

Still problems for me today.  Sometimes the site won’t load at all.

Yeah, feel like I need to invest in one of these to keep rebooting the site

[Rich]

Fingers crossed this may now be resolved.    

In terms of cpu and disk usage, everything has been back to normal levels for the last 6 or 7 hours.  If this lasts through the day, I'd say we are good.

 

 

[BaconNBigBlue]

1 hour ago, Rich said:

Fingers crossed this may now be resolved.    

In terms of cpu and disk usage, everything has been back to normal levels for the last 6 or 7 hours.  If this lasts through the day, I'd say we are good.

 

 

Rock star.  Thanks Rich.  Without this site, it's just work all day long.

 

[Wanna-B-Fanboy]

41 minutes ago, Rich said:

Fingers crossed this may now be resolved.    

In terms of cpu and disk usage, everything has been back to normal levels for the last 6 or 7 hours.  If this lasts through the day, I'd say we are good.

 

 

Thanks @Rich, I know I speak for many on here when I say that we really appreciate everything you do- thank you for all your hard work.

This an awesome community that you've created here.

 

Edited August 15, 2023 by Wanna-B-Fanboy

[captaincanuck12]

On 2023-08-10 at 5:25 PM, HardCoreBlue said:

Mining bitcoin? As the most non IT guy you could ever meet, what the F does that mean?

 

Bitcoin like any Crypto-currency requires a lot of computer power.    If you know anyone that runs a Cryto-rig, they usually have several dedicated computers to do perform the operations needed to make their various transactions.  To simplify it, think of these "transactions"  like earning a penny for each successful one.    So the more transactions you do, the more  money you get.  Similar to how you would mine for gold in the olden days, the computer is a pickaxe, the internet is the mine.  So each computer is a miner.

What malicious people do (e.g. hackers), is they try to find insecure servers.   Once the hacker breaks into the computer, they installs the crypto-software, on the compromised server, and turns that into another one of it's miners.   The crypto-software essentially takes over the computer, and slows down everything on the machine (e.g. like the website running this form), turning this computer now into another miner for Bitcoin.

Hope that explains things in non-IT terms

@Rich thanks for getting the site back up!

[TrueBlue4ever]

 

[HardCoreBlue]

49 minutes ago, captaincanuck12 said:

Bitcoin like any Crypto-currency requires a lot of computer power.    If you know anyone that runs a Cryto-rig, they usually have several dedicated computers to do perform the operations needed to make their various transactions.  To simplify it, think of these "transactions"  like earning a penny for each successful one.    So the more transactions you do, the more  money you get.  Similar to how you would mine for gold in the olden days, the computer is a pickaxe, the internet is the mine.  So each computer is a miner.

What malicious people do (e.g. hackers), is they try to find insecure servers.   Once the hacker breaks into the computer, they installs the crypto-software, on the compromised server, and turns that into another one of it's miners.   The crypto-software essentially takes over the computer, and slows down everything on the machine (e.g. like the website running this form), turning this computer now into another miner for Bitcoin.

Hope that explains things in non-IT terms

@Rich thanks for getting the site back up!

Wow you’re s.m.r.t.

[SpeedFlex27]

 

https://y.yarn.co/39b6f177-d5d8-4d77-9900-5b4d70e30311.mp4

 

Edited August 16, 2023 by SpeedFlex27

[Mark F]

Thanks very much