I've made a bit of progress since this last e-mail.
Put back in the debian default my.cnf. mysql processes are now about 6-8% of memory, apache is around 3.5% per thread. However, the server is still swapping out, crashing etc. seemingly at random every couple of days. We're _only_ running drupal on it, postfix is installed but only doing sendmail sends from contact.module, not receiving anything, and it's otherwise a fairly vanilla xen/vds/debian sarge installation.
I also installed the blockcache.module to see if that would help - this has definitely reduced queries per page by about 20 (still roughly 200-250 queries per page but that's 10% so not bad). There really doesn't seem to be any obvious trigger to the crashing out though - it'll be fine at high traffic levels (for us), so I'm wondering if something is going into a loop etc.
As always, any help much appreciated.
Nat
Im running only Drupal 4.7.3 on a 512mb ram VDS debian sarge mysql 4.1 apache2 php4
Memory usage is generally fine overall, cpu can be a bit high sometimes which I think is down to a lot of 404 errors from the old site. We want to eliminate some of those 404s first, then switch off drupals handling of 404s altogether, Im not sure this is our mysql memory problem though.
Running top u mysql just after /etc/init.d/mysql restart mysql processes are between 4.4 and 5% of ram, then I can watch them creep upwards all the way to 20% each. Eventually this slows things down, the server starts swapping out, then both apache and mysql crash and require a restart, then it starts over again.
This may not be drupals fault, but Id appreciate any advice you can offer with it.
Basic site information:
Around 8000 nodes and 110,000 comments, private message table is around 10mb. Average traffic is 10 logged in users and 20 guests on line rarely more than double that, often less. Forums index takes about 300 queries due to lots of subforums (c. 45) but not noticed any other pages that are significant resource hogs by themselves.
Were using cck, panels, imagecache, contemplate and views a lot. This has been a persistent problem for months now, which I originally put down to cache table overhead (sometimes megabytes of overhead within a few minutes of flushing, have dbmaintenance optimising it every hour now).
Im using a fair amount of contrib modules, so am wondering if it could be down to one of those notwithstanding my mysql settings. Everything is pretty much up-to-date by the way using almost entirely 4.7 versions except for a couple running CVS where theres not an official 4.7 branch.
Full list of contrib. modules below, devel module is generally off. Also making use of free tagging, forums, tracker and other core modules. Forum_get_forums runs pretty slow judging by devel modules output, and administering taxonomy access requires a php memory limit of around 60mb due to free tagging, so Im wondering if its something to do with one of those.
bbcode
tagadelic
cck
flatforum
pathauto
taxonomy_access
comment_mover
image
privatemsg
contemplate
imagecache
quicktags
views
content_moderator
imagefield
quote
db_maintenance
nodewords
scheduler
devel
panels
smileys
For completeness, heres my my.cnf settings:
skip-locking
key_buffer_size = 20M
max_allowed_packet = 1M
table_cache = 384
sort_buffer_size = 1M
net_buffer_length = 8K
read_buffer_size = 256K
read_rnd_buffer_size = 1M
myisam_sort_buffer_size = 4M
query_cache_type = 1
query_cache_size = 64M
query_cache_limit = 4M
max_connections = 55
max_user_connections = 55
Any help much appreciated. This problem started happening when I had very few modules installed (mainly flatforum/smileys/cck/views/taxonomy access/privmsg/quicktags/bbcode).
Thanks!
Nathaniel
On 9/22/06, Nat Catchpole natcatchpole@hotmail.com wrote:
This may not be drupal's fault, but I'd appreciate any advice you can offer with it.
Problems like this are almost always hardware related. Unfortunately, the only way to test this is to take the server out of production, run hardware tests on it (e.g. memtest, cpu maxing utilities, etc.) and then see if it falls over.
These problems can seem like they are caused by software performance because the box only falls over when the system is maxed out and performing badly - but a server should handle getting maxed out for days on end without problem.
If you can add some more monitoring (e.g. for temperature inside the box) and watch to see if there is a correlation there you may be able to diagnose the problem without taking it down. Then the solution is to do something to fix that problem (e.g. a bigger fan, different cabinet) and move on.
Regards, Greg
Like some others, I'm having problems with the event module and the site time zone settings (Drupal 4.6).
All events being posted are showing up one hour earlier, even though the site time is set correctly and configurable time zones is turned off.
Turning configurable time zones on and adjusting the setting for the event module has no effect--events are still one hour early.
I have also created a flexinode called calendar_event so that events can have a description and location, but there does not seem to be any way to turn off access to the basic event in access control. No one on the site has permission to use the 'basicevent' module, but in the create content menu, an 'event' item shows up.
I can take that option out with the menu settings, but I don't understand what module is generating the basic event node as a 'create content' option. I should be able to turn this using access control.
Thanks, Andrew
I've just spent about two hours reading message after message in the Drupal forums about timezone offset problems, and still can't figure out what the problem is.
I have two sites running on the same server, with site time and event time settings set the same way, and one site handles the time correctly, and the other site does not.
At this point, it appears to be luck as much as anything if Drupal displays the correct time.
Andrew
On Sep 23, 2006, at 4:47 PM, Andrew Cohill wrote:
Like some others, I'm having problems with the event module and the site time zone settings (Drupal 4.6).
All events being posted are showing up one hour earlier, even though the site time is set correctly and configurable time zones is turned off.
Turning configurable time zones on and adjusting the setting for the event module has no effect--events are still one hour early.
I have also created a flexinode called calendar_event so that events can have a description and location, but there does not seem to be any way to turn off access to the basic event in access control. No one on the site has permission to use the 'basicevent' module, but in the create content menu, an 'event' item shows up.
I can take that option out with the menu settings, but I don't understand what module is generating the basic event node as a 'create content' option. I should be able to turn this using access control.
Thanks, Andrew
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------------------------------------------------- Andrew Michael Cohill, Ph.D. President Design Nine, Inc.
Design Nine provides visionary broadband architecture, telecommunications and broadband master planning, and broadband project management.
Visit the Technology Futures blog for frequently updated news and commentary on technology issues. http://www.designnine.com/news/
http://www.designnine.com/ Blacksburg, Virginia Voice: 540.951.4400 Cell: 540.320.4406
When I first created a site about a year ago, the 4.6 code was very inconsistent in the handling of timezones. It was hard to "fix" the code because making a change in one place broke other things. The CivicSpace distribution I ended up using fixed a lot of these issues compared to the vanilla Drupal code. Presumably, those changes should have been rolled back into the 4.7 code.
However, if you are using flexinode with the events module, I don't know if you can migrate to 4.7 without problems. I have been afraid to upgrade since everything I read says that flexinode doesn't really work with 4.7. Apparently, the CCK module is the new darling of developers and flexinode is considered yesterday's news. However, there are still several other modules that nobody has ported to work with CCK. So, unless you have the time and skills to start porting code, I don't know what to suggest.
The CivicSpace code might be a place to start, but they seem pre-occupied with their other projects these days and I can't tell if they ever plan to do 4.7-based CivicSpace release. (That's fine, it's up to them where they want to focus, but it's good to know the status before you commit to something.)
For now, I'm still running a CivicSpace-based site and deciding what to try next. I really want to limit the amount of custom code on my site since I want to hand over maintenance to someone who may not be a PHP hacker.
-dpm
Andrew Cohill said:
I've just spent about two hours reading message after message in the Drupal forums about timezone offset problems, and still can't figure out what the problem is.
I have two sites running on the same server, with site time and event time settings set the same way, and one site handles the time correctly, and the other site does not.
At this point, it appears to be luck as much as anything if Drupal displays the correct time.
Andrew
On Sep 23, 2006, at 4:47 PM, Andrew Cohill wrote:
Like some others, I'm having problems with the event module and the site time zone settings (Drupal 4.6).
All events being posted are showing up one hour earlier, even though the site time is set correctly and configurable time zones is turned off.
Turning configurable time zones on and adjusting the setting for the event module has no effect--events are still one hour early.
I have also created a flexinode called calendar_event so that events can have a description and location, but there does not seem to be any way to turn off access to the basic event in access control. No one on the site has permission to use the 'basicevent' module, but in the create content menu, an 'event' item shows up.
I can take that option out with the menu settings, but I don't understand what module is generating the basic event node as a 'create content' option. I should be able to turn this using access control.
Thanks, Andrew
-- [ Drupal support list | http://lists.drupal.org/ ]
Andrew Michael Cohill, Ph.D. President Design Nine, Inc.
Design Nine provides visionary broadband architecture, telecommunications and broadband master planning, and broadband project management.
Visit the Technology Futures blog for frequently updated news and commentary on technology issues. http://www.designnine.com/news/
http://www.designnine.com/ Blacksburg, Virginia Voice: 540.951.4400 Cell: 540.320.4406
-- [ Drupal support list | http://lists.drupal.org/ ]
Op zondag 24 september 2006 20:33, schreef David Maynard:
I have been afraid to upgrade since everything I read says that flexinode doesn't really work with 4.7.
It works just fine! There are less issues then CCK and more fields then CCK.
I am not sure who started this FUD, but it should stop here and now. :)
Bèr
On 9/24/06, Andrew Cohill cohill@designnine.com wrote:
I have two sites running on the same server, with site time and event time settings set the same way, and one site handles the time correctly, and the other site does not.
I suggest you try a third site and see what happens. And then a fourth. It's hard to figure out intermittent problems - but if you do the same thing over and over and finally figure out what is different between them then it becomes easy to solve the problem.
I know this advice is much easier to give than to receive, but it's the path I would follow if I were faced with this problem. Just keep trying until you can see what is different about the sites where it works from those where it doesn't.
Regards, Greg
Andrew Cohill wrote:
I've just spent about two hours reading message after message in the Drupal forums about timezone offset problems, and still can't figure out what the problem is.
The problem is that I am in the same situation. ;-/ The timezone thing "just works" for me, bu tthen i don't allow users to chose a TZ.
I have two sites running on the same server, with site time and event time settings set the same way, and one site handles the time correctly, and the other site does not.
Check the user's settings. Even if you disallowed them to change it, there might still be old data in the tables which might be used.
Cheers, Gerhard
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Andrew Cohill -
Bèr Kessels -
David Maynard -
Gerhard Killesreiter -
Greg Knaddison - GVS -
Nat Catchpole