MySQL/Hosting problems
 

I'm having problems with a mainstream board that I help run. The host is saying that there are a bunch of open connections to the msql database that are coming from SE spiders. We havn't had to make any changes to things on about 4 months after we upgraded to the new version of board software (Invision Power Board v2.0.1). We have been noticing that server load has been quite a bit higher than normal, up around 7-25% at times, and it used to run about 2%. Tonight we got this message right before msql hung and they robooted the server:

This database is causing problems on the server it currently has open dozens of queries and is causing high loads on the box.
Please respond back to us tonight with a fix to avoid suspension

I do know they have max_connect set at 500. One of the other admins has been talking to the host, and evidently at the highest we were running about 220 open connections at one point a few nights ago (which was a busier night for us). The only other thing that has changed is that they went to mySQL 4.0.22-std and phpmyadmin 2.6.1-rc1 recently from what the other guy said. I do not know what else is running on the box we are.

Basically, it's a pretty small board and I don't think that we would be causing this many problems. I'm just wondering if we are, and have something setup wrong, or if our host is jerking us around for some unknown reason. Dealing with thier tech support has been unpleasent and bordered on unprofessinal, so we are going to be switching anyway. I would just like to know what is going on.

use robots.txt to block some of the spiders ....

block spiders with htaccess

Although I am not familiar with Invision, most forum scripts can use persistent mysql connections. Make sure yours is set to NOT use persistent connections.

It sounds like your host has something set up wrong. If they just moved mySQL up to version 4 and didn't set the configurations properly, they could have made it perform worse than the previous version.

Having a problem with "Dozens of connections" has got to be the stupidest thing in that whole post. If the server can't handle a few dozen connections, something is obviously extremely wrong with it.

They should be trying to figure out what's wrong with their server, not telling you to fix your shit or risk suspension. Any server should be able to handle hundreds of Apache and mysql processes simultaneously without any trouble. My servers run over 30 mysql queries per second, plus handle several hundred thousand hits a day on apache and they don't give any trouble.

Not trying to spam...But if you want to talk, hit my sig.

hosts
 

lame hosts dont want to run boards on their shared servers, they will do anything to get rid of you.

Smilies and all that page proccessing sucks the CPU to hell... this affects their other 2 customers, so they shit on board runners, and most hosts are pathetic resellers so ugh find a new host or get dedicated and end the stupidity.

also sounds like they have no clue how to successfully tweak server, mysql out of the box is sadly configured