Trying to be a good VPS neighbor

[Doug Nelson]

If your tech support tells you someone else on your VPS is eating your resources, it's probably me. Sorry about that. At least they tell me I'm the resident glutton on my VPS.

I'd like to be a better neighbor, but I honestly don't know what to do. I simply can't afford to go to a dedicated server. I run a small/medium-sized forum and use about 250mb in mysql storage. If I backup my db, the entire VPS crashes. If I run repair/optimize, the entire VPS crashes. This is even with my website totally closed.

Is 250mb too large a db to backup or perform basic maintenance on a VPS? I've deleted subforums, pruned threads, tried various "optimization" tips, and I don't know what else to do.

[Rob]

couldn't you upgrade to a higher VPS plan?

A database that's 250mb should not be on a vps with other files. What node are you on?

[Ron]

If your tech support tells you someone else on your VPS is eating your resources, it's probably me. Sorry about that. At least they tell me I'm the resident glutton on my VPS.

I'd like to be a better neighbor, but I honestly don't know what to do. I simply can't afford to go to a dedicated server. I run a small/medium-sized forum and use about 250mb in mysql storage. If I backup my db, the entire VPS crashes. If I run repair/optimize, the entire VPS crashes. This is even with my website totally closed.

Is 250mb too large a db to backup or perform basic maintenance on a VPS? I've deleted subforums, pruned threads, tried various "optimization" tips, and I don't know what else to do.

Did they tell you specifically which resource limit you are hitting? That is critical to know. Perhaps you only need to increase RAM so you aren't going out to swap too often. Perhaps you need more RAM to increase your MySQL cache size.

Can I ask why you're on a VPS? Do you need the ability to run non-standard applications, background daemons or have root access, for instance? Is this for the site in your profile?

There are probably many ways to approach this problem without going to a dedicated setup.

A database that's 250mb should not be on a vps with other files. What node are you on?

I don't understand this comment.

[Doug Nelson]

My forum postcount and users online seems to be just a little larger than this Jag forum (comparing both stats boxes just a minute ago). It's even the same forum software. Is that too large to reasonably run on a VPS? I'm already on the next-to-largest plan.

I do have Photopost and a couple of other things, but I can completely shut down the works and still not be able to do a full backup of just my forums alone.

They tell me I'm using too much CPU. I'm on a VPS because Jag shut off my SDX site a couple of weeks ago and told me I had to upgrade to a VPS. Honestly, I'd rather not have root access, it scares the jeepers out of me. This is one reason I can't afford to go dedicated, because I'd need cpanel, management, etc.

[thisisit3]

a 250mb mysql database is small. It definetly doesn't warrant a change to dedicated.

for example, my smallest mysql database is 271mb and the largest is something over 500mb. I'm using phpbb as a forum software. I run several backups on the database, optiomization queries and lots of other things without a single problem.

unless vbulleting is just cr*p then i don't see how a 250mb database could bring mysql down. If vbulleting is not the problem then the cause of the crash lies somewhere else.

try this, as root:

cat /proc/user_beancounters

and see if the error count is above zero on any of the QoS limits.

[Doug Nelson]

I had some QoS alerts when I first started, but the techs made some adjustments, and nothing in the past few days (and that includes this morning's crash).

And it's not a case of one forum software vs. another, because I backup using mysqldump.

[thisisit3]

then 250mb of data shouldn't be a problemt to "dump" them.

maybe the mysqldump process hits one or more QoS limits and its killed by the server?

[Doug Nelson]

I was told this morning that I made apache crash due to high CPU load, not the db server (even though it was me running a db repair and optimization that did it). Between the crashes and having my site shut off a few weeks back and the techs warning me to stop exploiting the system I'm feeling like my site is very fragile right now. Like one link to my site posted to a popular blog and it could blow away forever.

[Ron]

Install some monitoring software into your VPS to see what is causing the problems.

[Doug Nelson]

Install some monitoring software into your VPS to see what is causing the problems.

Any suggestions? Hopefully something a breeze to install from WHM with a nice GUI interface and big arrows pointing to what's wrong? As I mentioned, CLI terrifies me.

I use the Virtuozzo monitor, but it jumps around so much I can't make heads or tails out of it. It will jump from 0% to 100% (in yellow!) and back as fast as I can refresh, while the loads never break .4,.4,.4

[Ron]

start with "top" .. sorry, but it's comman line.
top can show you WHAT is currently occupying memory and using CPU

sar -- will take reading I think every 5 minutes by default and tell you WHEN your system is bogged down and some stats

There are some nice fancy monitoring/accounting packages out there; I have only used very expensive proprietary ones, I don't know what is out there for free, but I think I found one and even looked into it a tiny bit a couple of years ago;;; I think it was on sourceforge.

http://cspm.sourceforge.net/index.htm

or maybe this google

http://www.google.com/search?num=100...rmance&spell=1

I don't know why performing a dump would cause Apache to consume all resources... perhaps there is a major misconfiguration going on. Perhaps you could beg Masood to take a looksee since you've been moved a couple of times already due to this mysterious resource problem. (It mioght be worht $75 or $150 to have him look at it for a couple of hours -- I think you get an hour of admin time per month anyway, don'tcha?

[JPC-Masood]

I'm on a VPS because Jag shut off my SDX site a couple of weeks ago and told me I had to upgrade to a VPS.

That does not look right. I have said this many times on the forums and I have asked all staff members not to recommend this. Please pm the relevant ticket #. This is wrong upgrade path. If you have been using that much cpu that your site had to be disabled on SDX, you definitely need to go dedicated.

Ref: http://www.jaguarpc.com/support/kbase/702.html

[Rob]

there is Zabbix its quite easy to install and it also does graphing. Or you could just get a simple php monitoring system just look on sourceforge

[DeNasio]

That does not look right. I have said this many times on the forums and I have asked all staff members not to recommend this. Please pm the relevant ticket #. This is wrong upgrade path. If you have been using that much cpu that your site had to be disabled on SDX, you definitely need to go dedicated.

Ref: http://www.jaguarpc.com/support/kbase/702.html

Masood, I don't agree with you on this. It is possible that someone is using too much cpu because of bad script programming. Maybe all the user need to do is disable the script and take a good look at why the script is using that much cpu. Recommending dedicated server as the only option is definitely not the right upgrade path.

[JPC-Masood]

Please take a note of red marking:

Masood, I don't agree with you on this. It is possible that someone is using too much cpu because of bad script programming. Maybe all the user need to do is disable the script and take a good look at why the script is using that much cpu. Recommending dedicated server as the only option is definitely not the right upgrade path.

What about if that is not the case? Are you saying that no one needs a dedicated server if their cpu usage or traffic goes high?