UKMIX Maintenance

[GaGarazzi]

This seems to be the only place I can post as for the last 3 days the site has been virtually unusable for me. Various pages take forever to load and then usually an error comes up to contact an administrator. When the pages do load the scrolling is continuous including all posts from first page to last all on one page. I don’t know if anyone else is experience these problems as for me it started only on the Chart Analysis page but is now affecting all threads. :(

[Wayne]

Messaged you.

[Wayne]

Awful tonight. Kept stalling once an hour - site would attempt to load then stop halfway through. Periods of 20 to 30 minutes waiting for the site to come back. Not good when you're tyring to do chart posts with lots of data and formatting. Hope it's OK again tomorrow.

It was horrid last night, I can see it in the performance stats - hopefully it’ll be fine today, if not I’ll be on with the hosts.

[Wayne]

Another day in paradise for UKMIX...

What is happening?
Well, the issue isn't really with memory this time - it's with the database. The UKMIX database is almost 50gb in size and it runs on a resource intensive software (vBulletin) - every time you click on something (a topic, the search function, a forum) or process an action (post something, delete something, like something), the database processes this as a query. Some of these queries are more complex than others and some of the queries can be +1mb in size, and will therefore be more resource intensive (for e.g. clicking on the "Today's Posts" functionality).

Due to our size (we are one of the largest forums on the net operating vBulletin software), we process thousands and thousands of queries each day - this is resulting in some of the database tables becoming abnormally large (the cache and cacheevent tables for e.g.). Eventually, these tables become too big and the database crashes.

What are we doing to fix this?
Well, it's not easily fixable - but to help mitigate future issues, we've created a database task that runs every 48 hours that will truncate the tables that are creating the most database errors (truncate = the action of deleting these tables and the data in them, and automatically rebuilding them).

[Diamondedition]

Another day in paradise for UKMIX...

What is happening?
Well, the issue isn't really with memory this time - it's with the database. The UKMIX database is almost 50gb in size and it runs on a resource intensive software (vBulletin) - every time you click on something (a topic, the search function, a forum) or process an action (post something, delete something, like something), the database processes this as a query. Some of these queries are more complex than others and some of the queries can be +1mb in size, and will therefore be more resource intensive (for e.g. clicking on the "Today's Posts" functionality).

Due to our size (we are one of the largest forums on the net operating vBulletin software), we process thousands and thousands of queries each day - this is resulting in some of the database tables becoming abnormally large (the cache and cacheevent tables for e.g.). Eventually, these tables become too big and the database crashes.

What are we doing to fix this?
Well, it's not easily fixable - but to help mitigate future issues, we've created a database task that runs every 48 hours that will truncate the tables that are creating the most database errors (truncate = the action of deleting these tables and the data in them, and automatically rebuilding them).

does that mean that crappy choices were made when the site was (re)designed?

[Thriller]

A lot of errors since we’ve been back sadly.

[Chartaholic]

Deleted

[Wayne]

I've only had 2 database errors in the last 6-ish hours, which tells me that things should be calmer now.

I've noticed the landing page is a bit slower but otherwise, it's alright.

Eventually, I think I'm going to turn off the "Today's Posts" function - we'll have to see.

[Tansike]

I'm always using the Today's Posts function (basically the only way I navigate through the forum for 90% of the times) but if the forum gets better by turning it off, I could live without it.

Thanks for all the hard work, Wayne!

[Graham76man]

I don't know if you know Wayne but Navibar Forum is back!
Plus when are you going to set the clock time right? Are you trying to have two new year parties this year?

[Blondini]

Getting lots of "unexpected token" and "fatal error".

[KEY9481]

Getting lots of "unexpected token" and "fatal error".

Yep, and it's been very slow to load each page.

[RayRay]

Eventually, I think I'm going to turn off the "Today's Posts" function - we'll have to see.

Maybe you can turn off something else? I'm always using the Today's Posts function. It is my way to navigate through the forum. Would hate to see it go.

[jio]

Yes, me too

[brian05]

Keep getting this notification.

Warning: array_key_exists() expects parameter 2 to be array, null given in phar://.../vb/vb.phar/permissioncontext.php on line 469 Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at .../vb/vb.php:1394) in /home/ukmixred/public_html/includes/vb5/applicationabstract.php on line 562

A System Error has occured.
The software is experiencing a systems error.

You should attempt to repeat your last action. If this error occurs again, please contact the site administrator.


What should I do?

[Magnus]

May I suggest modifying the last sentence to: "If this error occurs again, do not be surprised! It is a known problem. Do NOT contact the site administrator."

[brian05]

And how do I make UKMix secure?

[Magnus]

And how do I make UKMix secure?

You can't, it's a problem with the site.

The usual cause of this is when the page contains embedded images whose URL starts with http:// rather than https://.
I looked through the source of a page where I got the message and found these image links:

http://www.ukmixredo.co.uk/images/icons/twitter.png
http://www.ukmixredo.co.uk/images/icons/instagram.png
http://www.ukmixredo.co.uk/images/buttons/strike.gif

Those should be changed to:

https://www.ukmix.org/images/icons/twitter.png
https://www.ukmix.org/images/icons/instagram.png
https://www.ukmix.org/images/buttons/strike.gif

Which may solve the problem for that page (but there may be more cases like this).

[InFamous]

Are "todays Posts" and "Activity Stream" not basically the same thing ?
I use the activity stream all the time, never use Todays posts. If that is causing a major problem it could go for sure.
The activity stream is better cos you can just see the last posts in the thread, todays posts loads up the entire threads for no reason really on another page so I can imagine it is very memory intensive.

[Thriller]

It’s a nightmare today, gave up trying to post in one thread after five attempts and getting the white error page.

[thebigham]

Too many errors today!!

[Metalweb]

^

Yup!

[jason2379]

I find most days the site is unusable. It might not load at all, it might load and then crash. Even posting something feels like a chore these days. Even posting this failed

[thebigham]

Still bad this morning.

[Carbon]

Horrible today, the white error pages appear every couple of minutes, need to refresh constantly.

[playstation]

As someone who has decided to be more active in this platform this 2021, the unstable dilemma of this site is frustrating. Do we have a technical explanation for this?