I am so frustrated. I moved my site from a shared server to a VPS, then was told I needed to upgrade to a personal VPS that was bigger (or something, I don't understand any of this). The only thing I do know, is that when a lot of traffic comes to my site, it crashes and I am paying over $200.00 per month! Isn't there a server that won't crash under heavy traffic? If so, please tell me where it is! Thanks, Charisse (who is on hold waiting for her 24/7 customer support to pick up the phone and restart my server!)
how much traffic? how many sites? what CMS is being used? 200/mth you could have moved to a dedicated server. and what are the specs for the VPS you purchased?
I am on a dedicated server, sorry= I don't know anything about stats, etc. That's why I feel so totally lost. I use In Motion Hosting Essential dedicated server and I haven't been able to sustain more than 30,000 visitors in one day without the site crashing-
well I checked the specs from inmotion for the 199/server. it looks ok. Is it the site in your sig? I know its hosted on inmotion.
Yes, that's the site...is crashes anytime one of the stories goes to the top of Google News- tonight it was the Grammy's...
ok, that helps clarify the issue. It's peak performance that's the issue. Solving it is another thing though. First thing would be to look into WP-SuperCache, which you have installed. There is a lock down mode which might help you out at least temporarily. It's at the bottom of the WP-SuperCache Settings page and you can enable it when you expect spikes in traffic. I'd advise testing it first to see if you plugins are compatible. The knee jerk reaction will be "upgrade to a better server" or a load balanced solution. Neither of which are cheap. Before you spend more $$ for servers, I would have either the hosting company or an admin, check your Apache configuration and tweak it for better performance.
How much RAM do you have? most likely there are too many apache connections and all the ram is just being eaten up. You can hire someone to optimize your apache/mysql OR you can go for a cluster of servers. It won't be cheap but currently, it is one of the best ways to keep your site up at all times
See, this is my problem, when I hear apache...it's like Greek to me...it's taken me a long time just to get WordPress to the point where I have the site up and running...It is better since I have the WP supercache installed, but I need something that is traffic spike proof...and I don't have a clue how to do that... Yes, I do feel like going for the next 'package' is the only thing left to do, because I simply have no idea what is going on- I have a self hosted wordpress blog on the site- and I love the way that Google loves it... if only I could keep it online during traffic spikes....
Is there anything that can help me learn more about the Apache configuration? I'm the only administrator for the site...lol...my web hosting really doesn't offer any advice that will help, except for pointing me in the direction of the WP Supercache- oh..I do have the lock down mode enabled, Thanks for all your help, Charisse
Your hosting company will definitely provide more assistance just be sure to understand it will cost. It won't be cheap but they should know their hardware and setups. And you should be able to trust them to not screw up your site. Probably could get cheaper rates from an outside company but your problem there is you're taking a risk on their skill level since its pretty hard to tell who's skilled enough to help you. Just to be sure, the lockdown option on supercache is meant for traffic spikes. It should be disabled during the day to day running of the blog. Learning Apache/MySQL configuration is difficult to say the least. You can easily crash apache and be unable to bring it back up. Its an area to tread lightly and would probably take too long to learn to help you immediately. So here's the condensed steps I would take : Talk to your webhost, ask specifically how much they would charge to do an evaluation of your Apache/MySQL configuration to handle the traffic load. They have access to all the information they need. When they do the evaluation, ask for a estimate for implementing the changes to the configuration. Be firm because they will push for the Hardware upgrade as a fix. You much rather pay them a one time fee versus adding to your monthly overhead. If it doesn't work then upgrade to their Advanced Plan. That doesn't work, its probably time to go to either a Load Balanced setup or employing 2 servers with 1 for database and the other for serving the pages which isn't that hard to setup.