Unknown database error

[Matt_B]

Hi Jeff. I'm sure you're probably aware and have fixed it, but in case it resolved itself, I couldn't access the site this morning. It gave a non-descriptive message of something like the post title.

 

[Jeff]

Yep. Sorry about that.

An automatic software update overnight for some reason turned off the database server. It also turned off the monitor that checks the database server is running and restarts it if it's not.


As a result the site was down from 03:42 until 08:57.

 

[SwedeFox]

I've got this a few times today and the site seems generally slow - probably just due to more visitors than usual?

 

[homer]

I've got this a few times today and the site seems generally slow - probably just due to more visitors than usual?

Not as many as Foxestalk, though, and all those great posters....

 

[Jeff]

I've got this a few times today and the site seems generally slow - probably just due to more visitors than usual?

Nothing to do with the number of people on the site, but a problem elsewhere on the internet is causing a bottleneck for some sites on this server and overloading it. I'm trying to find a solution.

 

[Jeff]

The server has 32GB RAM, plus a swap file, which is normally way more than enough for the sites that are hosted on it.
Problems on other sites meant the memory was all used, and the database server crashed and had to restart. That's what caused the error message.
I've been able to free up over 20GB RAM, so even if the problems on the other sites persist it should be a while before the memory is all used up again.

 

[Jeff]

The site has been showing the database error message for the last hour or so - sorry about that.

I rebooted the server and when it started again, the database server refused to work. None of the obvious things would fix it so I had to trawl the web looking for a solution. Got there in the end.