BNA Server Down - Connection Issues

[MichaelB]

It took about 5 min top get the reply page to load !!!

Been as slow as a wet week for some time now.

Very frustrating indeed.

[casual_cyclist]

Firstly, I would like to thank the site admins for the effort they are putting in to resolving the server issues as I find this forum very valuable (and entertaining )

I have a strange error loading the main site (www.bicyles.net.au) which says

Cannot find tslib/. Please set path by defining $configured_tslib_path in index.php.

Also slow performance at 1:00 pm Western Australian Daylight Saving Time.

Thanks

[colafreak]

I consider it non-functional at the moment. I say that not to gripe, but so that when you're talking to the host you can tell them that we (well, me at least) can't see the point in visiting the site at the moment.

Why don't you let the ISP know your views? Might be more constructive.

Maybe PM me when the forum's usable again.

I think you are being a bit unrealistic here. That would involve a lot of work by the Moderators if we went down this path. I don't think anyone member is that important

Andrew

Not my ISP's problem.

And let me be clear, I'm not trying to gripe. Like I said, I just wanted to make it clear that at least for me, the forum is all but unusable. It's taken me all afternoon to check if my message had been replied to.

Also, I didn't ACTUALLY expect anyone to PM me. Besides, I'd have to come back and check my PM's to know if it was working.

Again, not complaining to you specifically, but you did ask for us to tell you how it was working.

PS. I posted in the forum/site feedback forum too because I thought that's where you said you wanted us to post re: new layout, but as at midday today there were no posts. Whatever the case, I've posted there too. haven't been able to check that thread yet, though.

[Chanboy]

Yeah, the forums are slow.

To help, lets do some numerical tests to quantify what "slow" means. Just complaining it's slow doesn't help so much.

Using http://www.websitepulse.com/help/tools.php we can test response times of websites. We'll test bicycles.net.au and compare it to a server we know is based in Australia.

Here are some results.

URL tested: http://www.bicycles.net.au
Test performed from: Brisbane, Australia
Test performed at: 2009-03-25 02:38:06 (GMT -04:00)
Resolved As: 203.19.59.90
Status: OK
Response Time: 64.427 sec
DNS: 0.018 sec
Connect: 0.015 sec
Redirect: 0.000 sec
First byte: 64.308 sec
Last byte: 0.086 sec
Size: 26569 bytes

URL tested: http://www.smh.com.au
Test performed from: Brisbane, Australia
Test performed at: 2009-03-25 02:17:45 (GMT -04:00)
Resolved As: 203.26.51.71
Status: OK
Response Time: 0.190 sec
DNS: 0.034 sec
Connect: 0.017 sec
Redirect: 0.000 sec
First byte: 0.040 sec
Last byte: 0.099 sec
Size: 132811 bytes

URL tested: http://www.commbank.com.au/
Test performed from: Brisbane, Australia
Test performed at: 2009-03-25 02:27:22 (GMT -04:00)
Resolved As: 140.168.129.40
Status: OK
Response Time: 0.390 sec
DNS: 0.291 sec
Connect: 0.021 sec
Redirect: 0.000 sec
First byte: 0.030 sec
Last byte: 0.048 sec
Size: 20003 bytes


Response time is the key. Anything over 1 or 2 seconds is generally unacceptable by any website.

For bicycles.net.au to be taking over 60 seconds its demonstrating catestrophically slow performance.

[Aushiker]

I consider it non-functional at the moment. I say that not to gripe, but so that when you're talking to the host you can tell them that we (well, me at least) can't see the point in visiting the site at the moment.

Why don't you let the ISP know your views? Might be more constructive.

Maybe PM me when the forum's usable again.

I think you are being a bit unrealistic here. That would involve a lot of work by the Moderators if we went down this path. I don't think anyone member is that important

Andrew

Not my ISP's problem.

Didn't say it was your ISP's problem. My comment was in response to what you said. That is instead of asking Christopher to express your concerns why not let them know yourself? The ISP is Digital Pacific I believe. A check of the home page of Bicycles Network Australia should confirm it.

Also, I didn't ACTUALLY expect anyone to PM me. Besides, I'd have to come back and check my PM's to know if it was working.

Well you did ask

Again, not complaining to you specifically, but you did ask for us to tell you how it was working.

No I didn't ... Christopher did

Regards
Andrew

[Aushiker]

Yeah, the forums are slow.

To help, lets do some numerical tests to quantify what "slow" means. Just complaining it's slow doesn't help so much.

Using http://www.websitepulse.com/help/tools.php we can test response times of websites. We'll test bicycles.net.au and compare it to a server we know is based in Australia.

Thanks for this. Useful information to use if contacting the hosting ISP.

Andrew

[Aushiker]

G'day

Using the information provided Chanboy I have filed a job with Digital Pacific, job no. OKJ-584202. Don't know if it will help or not but at least they know they have upset users.

Regards
Andrew

[colafreak]

Didn't say it was your ISP's problem. My comment was in response to what you said. That is instead of asking Christopher to express your concerns why not let them know yourself? The ISP is Digital Pacific I believe. A check of the home page of Bicycles Network Australia should confirm it.

Fair 'nuff, I won't because I wouldn't want to write something that would compromise Christopher's relationship with them. He can manage that one.

Also, I didn't ACTUALLY expect anyone to PM me. Besides, I'd have to come back and check my PM's to know if it was working.

Well you did ask

Yeah I did ask. I gotta say, though it's annoying to have to justify myself for using flippant figures of speech, but whatever. I can understand the confusion. My apologies.

Again, not complaining to you specifically, but you did ask for us to tell you how it was working.

No I didn't ... Christopher did

Regards
Andrew

I turned off avatars hopign to speed things up. Didn't realise who was talking to me

[Chanboy]

I wouldn't be to quick to blame the hosting ISP at this stage... but at least with statistical data, they must acknowledge that there is a issue somewhere.

I checked out the Digital Pacific website and some of their other clients, all seem to be performing ok.

There are a number of things that could cause a performance hit such as this...

Firewall misconfiguration at host side - unlikely as it would normally affect many applications
CPU/memory/resources not enough - unlikely, even with our traffic, its nothing compared to what a modern server can handle.
Software configuration - more likely what my guess would be.

The website is performing slowly, but it is consistently slow. Webservers "Apache" in this case, have many different configurations regarding number of concurrent connections they will allow. What this "feels" like is the incoming connections are being throttled to a small number, hence once that number is reached, every new connection needs to wait till one of the earlier ones is finished.

I would be investigating the setup of the server and also the forum software to see if any such configuration has been overlooked.


It may also be worth taking the forum down till this issue is resolved. (it took me close to 10 minutes just to get in here to make this post). A simple page informing of the issue with an ETA will prevent further frustrations by all the users.

Anyway, disappointing - because the new upgrade really looks great. We all want to get in there and use it!

[Rockford]

Looks like they have moved you to your own server. I can't find any other domains being hosted on that IP 203.19.59.80

But if the other domains still hosted on .81 are having issues it could be a Datacentre issue or a switch/router issue.

Could be a VM for all we know and it's still on the same physical box. Going to http://203.19.59.80 shows the Parallels Infrastructure Manager console which is a popular VM management console. So maybe all they have done is created another VM for you. (VM = Virtual Machine)

[AUbicycles]

Gotto post quickly before it breaks.

EDITED - A big block removed about contacting the host. The problem may now be solved

To the technical, yes the site was moved again (new IP)- and as it is still experiencing problems on the new server, there is probably a software verses hosting environment conflict. We can now rule out that there was an issue with another customer on the same server. In the new environment this new forum was installed - as a clean start (incase the older version of the forum may have been causing a conflict). I have Typo3 (a content management system from which the main bicycles.net.au runs) installed as a test server also with Parallels - without conflict so am hoping to rule out problems there.

The host is current running a duplicate site and bombarding it with requests to try and track down when it breaks. At the moment the site initially runs fine for 10minutes to 5 hours and then bogs down.

Newest info just in is that the site has been moved to a dedicated server and seems to be running ok since about 8:50pm (Sydney 25.03.2009) with the conflict probably being Virtuozzo (for which I don't know much about).

Cheers
Christopher

[CoffsGal]

Site is fast agin now with instant response...

But...am I correct in noticing a number of posts from this evening missing again?

EDIT - Also notice this post with a time of 9:38pm appears before others with a time of 7:52pm !!!

Emma

[sharktamin]

As so many others have said, this evening (around 8pm) snail mail would have been quicker than the forum....
but now at 1050 we're flying! I knew the gerbils could increase their cadence if they tried - but what whatever you gave them was performance enhancing!

[AUbicycles]

Just a confirmation -
BNA is now on a dedicated server and my feedback is that the problem was located and thus the site moved (probably the 4th) so connection issues should be a thing of the past. Please keep me posted though.

[casual_cyclist]

Just a confirmation -
BNA is now on a dedicated server and my feedback is that the problem was located and thus the site moved (probably the 4th) so connection issues should be a thing of the past. Please keep me posted though.

So far so good. Seems to be working great tonight.

[Earthy Ochre Man]

Yeah... running fast and smooth. Well done.

[Chuck]

Seems better, fingers crossed.

[Spiza]

aaaaahhhhh.... all good again. You can stop tearing your hair out now Chris and crack open a beer Thanks again for your efforts over the past week of dramas.

[Chanboy]

now the problem is... there are too many new active threads to keep up with!

Good work sorting it out.

[Aushiker]

I wouldn't be to quick to blame the hosting ISP at this stage... but at least with statistical data, they must acknowledge that there is a issue somewhere.

Dear Chanboy

If you flick back through the thread you will find various posts indicating that other websites hosted on the same server at the time, where also having access problems when we where which tends to suggest an issue at the ISP end, no?

Regards
Andrew

[Aushiker]

G'day

0850 WA DST (GMT + 9) and it is running sweet for me. I can even post

Now off to Singapore tomorrow AM. Wonder if going back in time (and for that matter turning off DST) will temporarily stop me posting as per last night. Will be curious to see what happens.

Regards
Andrew

[Chanboy]

I wouldn't be to quick to blame the hosting ISP at this stage... but at least with statistical data, they must acknowledge that there is a issue somewhere.

Dear Chanboy

If you flick back through the thread you will find various posts indicating that other websites hosted on the same server at the time, where also having access problems when we where which tends to suggest an issue at the ISP end, no?

Regards
Andrew

I wasn't aware if the ISP was responsible for both the network and the software/hardware that is hosted... hence my suggestion. I see blame incorrectly placed in many such issues like this - doesn't hurt to be cautious, and find the root cause before associating who is at fault.

[Mulger bill]

Loading faster than I can flick between windows, how good's this?

Shaun

[casual_cyclist]

Loading faster than I can flick between windows, how good's this?
Shaun

+1

Thanks to the site admins for all their work.

[AUbicycles]

Just a clarification regarding the topic of ISP.
I don't use my host for bicycles.net.au as an ISP. Even if this was the case is is possible to split hosting issues from internet access issues.
Regarding the problems with this site - we could clearly isolate the issue initially to the server on which the site was hosted and then later specifically to the site itself (meaning that the problems were a conflict specific to bicycles.net.au and the hosting environment).

In anycase - it is all solved now.