Is vbulletin prone to database errors on large sites ? Over the last few years I've noticed large vbulletin based sites going down due to "database error" enough times that it seems like an issue. Is this something to do with vbulletin ? Is it just a lazy db administrator ? I think the one sizable vbulletin I've never seen go down due to a database error has been Sitepoint, which makes me think that instead the issue is either attacks against the site (who would want to attack Sitepoint?) or lazy db admins. On the other hand, Sitepoint seems to have access to a large pool of database experts judging by the numerous books they've put out. Not to mention how long they've been around.
I have 5 vB forums have only ever had a couple, that on refresh were gone. The only database errors I see more often are the ones here at DP (its a source of amusement at other forums!). I have not seen any database errors at SP.
I did run a forum running on VB few months back. Got few database errors every few days. Anyways DP is such a huge forum so it bounds to crash sometimes
I have had vbulletin forum around 5months back, I run that for around 1 year, Never get Database Error except 1-2 time only, in that whole year.
Yes we are managing a big forum ) it is really big in terms of visitors per sec) and it is having some issues recently with the database, we are tweaking the SQL and trying to make it fine
It's not just Digitalpoint. For instance ubuntuforums.org periodicly goes down and it's size is comparable to DP. Could it just be database maintainence where the db administrator doesn't bother to put up a meaningfull plain English message ?
vBulletin is not to blame for the DB errors. It runs just fine normally. The errors start to come up when the board is customized and unofficial modifications/hacks are added. So no, vBulletin itself does not frequently have database problems.
No , its the problem of the exploits and php my admin wrongly handles. That's why its better to update the vbulletin and backups must be taken daily.
"database error" is a very generic error message. - there are LOTS of things that can cause a site to report this. On my forum, that error is mostly caused by: 1. Maximum user connections to mysql - meaning that the forum has hit its maximum number of allowed connections to the database. Increasing the maximum number of connections usually fixes this problem. 2. Connection to the database timed out - there is a timeout limit. Meaning, if the database does not reply within a certain amount of seconds, the connection is considered dead.
So it could just be freakishly large unanticipated massed of visitors causing the database to become overloaded. That makes sense too. I suppose that would mean if it happens more than occasionally it would mean the hardware budget is tight, or someone hasn't fined the perfect balance for the servers yet.
I have seen the database error only on DP, I saw it on one other forum as well but that was because of their server problem. I think large forums need to increase the allowed no. of connections to database(s). My forum is new and I am happy I have never seen any error on it so far (within 7 months time period)
Most vB database errors are due to incompetent servers. Take DP for example, we all know that serious work needs to be undertaken to overcome the ever growing amount of database errors that we all see from day to day. I don't normally see the same thing on other large vBulletin forums.
I see the Database Error message every night at Namepros. I assume it's from a nightly cron database backup. I often see DB problems on VB sites and believe it's because of the large load that VB places on any server. VB is intense software that pushes the limits of many servers.
yes if the host is down, you will no doubt get mysql errors...but to say it is never VB is not right - nothing is perfect, like one post said, there can be a number of factors if it is not the host, then VB, if not vb, then hacks or modifications. VB is big and complex at best, never say never.
If you forums get such problem, check your MODs and your host. Your MODs may establish too many MySQL connections and that's the reason MySQL errors appear. Dont use too many MODs, just use most important MODs.