CPU Quota

[mathcam]

I've received a couple of different error messages recently when trying to load a page on the site, saying something about the domain having overused its CPU quota. I'll try to get a more precise error message next time it happens.

Sorry if this has already been posted somewhere.

Cam

[ChannelDelibird]

I've had that a couple of times, seems to me it happens when a lot of people are logged in at the same time. Seems to go away quite quickly.

[Mr. Flay]

I got that yesterday about 4pm (Central US time)... hope I didn't cause that by mucking about with the wiki (doubtful, but maybe after school isn't the time to import pages).

[mith]

The CPU error has more to do with lots of different things happening than with one action.

We get that error if our account uses a large percentage of CPU time (it used to say 20%, but I think it's more like 15%); probably partly to combat denial-of-service attacks, and partly to keep one site from slowing down all the other accounts on the server. It lasts for about 10-15 seconds.

I recently received an email saying they now have servers specifically for those of us who get this error frequently, but it's a significant jump in cost. Something to consider in the future, though.

[mathcam]

Well, once we start selling off stock from

Mafiascum Mafia Cards, Inc.

(once we go public), we should be able to afford it.

Cam

[mith]

Exactly.

[Mr. Flay]

I received my first one of these of the year (probably longer than that, but I don't remember exactly) this morning. Hope it wasn't caused by the new wiki updates I've been doing...

[mith]

I hope so too... guess we should stop messing with the wiki for a day and see if that's what's causing it.

Looking at the logs, it looks more likely that it's something else. We're getting a big list of slowness for about 5 minutes at a time, with gaps in between (unfortunately, the gaps aren't very big). I'll look into it.

[JDodge]

I've gotten it about 4-5 times today, over a span of roughly 8 hours.

[Mr. Flay]

I haven't edited the new wiki in about 12-14 hours, so if the CPU quota is tallied more recently than that, it's probably okay... (and really, my 300 page loads or whatever are probably nothing in comparison to the 500-600 posts a day made in the forums).

[mith]

Nearly everything in the logs is forum page loads (with the odd slow mysql query thrown in for good measure). I guess it's possible one of the edits messed something up on the server, but like I said, it's more likely something else.

[petroleumjelly]

I was going to suggest (after reading Flay's OCD with the Wiki) that Flay's title should have something to do with the Wiki. That was, for the first time, when I realized that "Wicked" was spelled oddly for a reason. ><

Also, I think I had a couple of those CPU Quota messages earlier this morning. Just so this post isn't totally irrelevent to the thread.

[Mr. Flay]

Actually, I'm going to work on the theory that continuing to mess with the wiki will show up if it's causing the problem, since we haven't had any CPU problems in ages... and I'll be getting something done to boot.

PJ: Good morning!

[Thestatusquo]

Just had CPU overuse about 20 minutes ago.

[jeep]

*sigh*

-JEEP

[Mr. Flay]

Me too, but only once every three hours.

[mith]

Looks like there was about a six hour gap, then another five minutes of log, and it's been quiet since then.

jeep, have you made any code changes in the past day or two?

[GreenLiquid]

I got two of them last night around 8 and 10.

[mith]

That makes sense. The last log is from around 9 (I believe the server is on the west coast). We'll see how it looks today. If nothing comes up, I'm inclined to believe it's just a temporary server hiccup - some of the queries that were taking large chunks of CPU time simply shouldn't have been. Probably worth looking into making some things more efficient anyway.

[spectrumvoid]

mith: Sorry, but I just received the message a few minutes ago.

The web pages are also loading very slowly.

[jeep]

I haven't made any changes since Saturday.

-JEEP

[mith]

An update on this:

We only had the one CPU exceeded incident yesterday. As I discussed with jeep, the main culprit in that appears to have been a mysql call on the search table. Given that the query is very routine and never ever takes as long as it did that time, I still think it's most likely this is some temporary server issue. We may do some archiving just in case, though.

[GreenLiquid]

Just got two in quick succession: one when loading the site, the other while on the way to this thread to report it.

[GreenLiquid]

Then, while making the previous post, I got this:

[spectrumvoid]

I got it too. A minute ago.