Recent Technical Issues with DSA Website

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  • RaTix
    Emperor

    Recent Technical Issues with DSA Website

    As most of you have noticed, and probably fought with I'm sure over the past month or so. The Website was exhibiting random "Blank Page" or "White Page" errors. This issue was also causing other mods and functions, such as TapaTalk from working properly, or at all.

    I am happy to announce that after much frustration, (long waits on hold, multiple support calls/chats/emails to the Webhost support, whole lot of digging on my own part to figure out the root cause, and a serious look at self hosting the website myself including going as far as setting up IIS and copying all backups of Website files and Database to my personal server), The problem finally appears to have been resolved. Yes, this also means that TapaTalk is finally working once again as well.

    Due to how the fix was implemented (FastCGI instead of ISAPI), There might be some errors with certain pages, or functions, that might have slipped by (Special PHP.INI settings on specific directories). So PLEASE, if you notice any errors, problems, or whatever, Let me know so I can correct them as they pop up.





    Technical Mumbo Jumbo that I'm sure no one will care about
    The root cause seems to have been a change on the Webhost, where the Apache Process Limit was changed, or how it handles PHP requests and processes changed. I'm not sure exactly, who knows what they did to screw it up.

    So after X amount of people were on the site, and X amount of page requests, the Process Limit was reached, cutting off any further requests, and causing a 500 Error page (Internal Server Error). Causing errors in the log to show as such,
    Caused by SystemException in API_Linux.cpp:444: execve() for program "/ramdisk/php/54/bin/php54" failed: Resource temporarily unavailable, referer: http://www.darksidealliance.com/index.php
    Apparently the Webhost support was stumped, and kept suggesting PHP changes that I already tried. They even suggested going back down from PHP 5.4 to PHP 5.2. Considering the work to get scripts to run that I already optimized and changed to work with PHP54, this was not going to happen. Especially since everything was working fine on 5.4 for some time before the issues started.

    It took me digging into the issue myself, and even setting up a mirror of the site on my local server to test things out. Once I confirmed that I had no issues on my server running it, I knew it was on their end.
    Fortunately I figured out a way to use FastCGI ont he webhost instead of the default ISAPI modules for the PHP processing. This cuts down on the overhead and keeps it from hitting the process limit.. hopefully.

    I can't tell you how close I came to actually moving the whole website completely over to my local server.

    Because FastCGI uses a single PHP.INI for it's settings, there might be issues on some sub-directories where I had special settings applied. Like the Gallery, Arcade, AdminCP, etc.. So if anyone notices problems using these, let me know. This also includes upload limits on videos, images, attachments, etc..
    "POWER!!! UNLIMITED POOWWWEEEER!!!!!!

    "Tell me what you regard as your greatest strength, so I will know how best to undermine you; tell me of your greatest fear, so I will know which I must force you to face; tell me what you cherish most, so I will know what to take from you; and tell me what you crave, so that I might deny you."
    ?Darth Plagueis

    "Peace is a lie, there is only passion. Through passion, I gain strength. Through strength, I gain power. Through power, I gain victory. Through victory, my chains are broken. The Force shall free me."
  • jmhc74
    Honorary DSA
    • Dec 2007
    • 2433

    #2
    Thanks for the fix Ratix...much appreciated.
    sigpic

    A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years. ― Alexis de Tocqueville

    Comment

    • RaTix
      Emperor

      #3
      I even got the imperial logo Favicon working again, lol. Might need to clear offline pages/cache in browser for it to show up.
      "POWER!!! UNLIMITED POOWWWEEEER!!!!!!

      "Tell me what you regard as your greatest strength, so I will know how best to undermine you; tell me of your greatest fear, so I will know which I must force you to face; tell me what you cherish most, so I will know what to take from you; and tell me what you crave, so that I might deny you."
      ?Darth Plagueis

      "Peace is a lie, there is only passion. Through passion, I gain strength. Through strength, I gain power. Through power, I gain victory. Through victory, my chains are broken. The Force shall free me."

      Comment

      • Kamui
        Imperial Advisor

        #4
        Thank you Ratix! It was painful making long posts and then they don't go through.
        <a href="http://s11.photobucket.com/user/dsaBOSS/media/mui_sig_zpsdfb059b2.png.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a178/dsaBOSS/mui_sig_zpsdfb059b2.png" border="0" alt=" photo mui_sig_zpsdfb059b2.png"/></a><a href="http://psnprofiles.com/XxkamuixX1"><img src="http://card.psnprofiles.com/1/XxkamuixX1.png" border="0"></a>

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        • Muncher
          Lieutenant

          #5
          Now everyone donate for all the trouble Ratix has saved us!
          We are all gonna have to live in da woods some day, cause the government is gonna take our guns away.
          [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]

          Comment

          • k1gibson
            Stormtrooper
            • Jan 2009
            • 1849

            #6
            Ratix thanks for sticking it out and making it right!
            sigpic
            "We have learned that power is a positive force if it is used for positive purposes."
            "Conquer, but don't triumph."

            Comment

            • Stryker0022
              Honorary DSA

              #7
              Ratix, thank you for all the hard work you've put in. It's much appreciated.


              Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
              PSN: Stryker0022
              XBL: DSA Stryker

              sigpic

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              • norm
                Imperial Guard
                • Jun 2006
                • 4051
                • DSA norm

                #8
                Nice job man!

                Loved the RCA!! lol

                Comment

                • RageProphetXIII
                  Officer
                  • Jan 2009
                  • 3029

                  #9
                  Ratix thanks for all the hard work.



                  I've been seeing the Playstation symbol across borders of the threads and Darth Vader from the border moved to the bottom and the Death Star missing
                  sigpic

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                  • RegentOne
                    Imperial Advisor

                    #10
                    Why would they change the Apache process limits and how it handles PHP knowing this would have an adverse effect on clients? I would think that their technicians could have tested this fix in a dummy virtual network environment first before they go live to see any failed modules? It seems to me like somebody involved there does not know their business. Great job getting all the errors fixed Ratix!
                    "Do on to others before they do on to you.”
                    {DSA} RegentOne

                    sigpic

                    Comment

                    • BOSS
                      Imperial Advisor
                      • Jun 2005
                      • 5834

                      #11
                      Thanks for taking the time to find a solution. Good job!
                      sigpic
                      "You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain."
                      <a href="http://psnprofiles.com/dsaBOSS"><img src="http://card.psnprofiles.com/1/dsaBOSS.png" border="0"></a>

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