My server issues appear to be behind me

Posted on January 12, 2006
Filed Under Geeeek Stuff

The life cycle of most web projects looks something like this:

- Come up with an idea.
- Buy a domain name.
- Write some code.
- Write some content.
- Signup for hosting somewhere.
- Upload code.
- Do some advertising.

That’s all well and good for MOST projects. Not exactly the way things worked out for one of my recent projects, though.

A couple months back I started working on a site called PixelTrafficWatcher.com. I came up with the idea for the site right after finding the MillionDollarHomePage and setting up my own pixel based advertising site. About the same time I launched PTW, I started having issues with my then current hosting company. They were having database issues and my sites would all be dead for 15-30 minutes at a clip several times a day. If I contacted support they would restart MySQL and tell me the problem was fixed. I explained that they have removed the symptoms, but the problem is in fact still there. Proof that I was right would show up a few hours later when the sites would all be dead again. So, after a week of having my sites be down 3-5 times a day, I could take it no longer and I moved all my sites away from that hosting company and on to a new account set up at 1 and 1 hosting. (it’s been about 2 months and so far I’m nothing but thrilled with their service!). Instead of putting PTW on the server at 1 and 1, since it is a VERY database intensive site, I decided to get the site it’s own hosting package at a different host who I’ve worked with in the past. At that point, all seemed to be right in the world…

I got an email one Saturday afternoon 2 weeks ago with the following subject line:
pixeltrafficwatcher.com overloading our server

Turns out, I am getting so much traffic to the site, their server had basically stopped sending out email entirely. So, anybody else using that server was having a hell of a time. Oops.

After putting some thought in to how I wanted to solve the issue, I decided to go with getting my own server and placing just the one site on there for now. Then, I’d watch it and see how it performs. I bought a server and Todd was kind enough to configure it for me. On Monday evening it was installed and ready to go. I copied all the files over, moved the database (no small task here) and did some basic testing. We agreed to wait until Tuesday morning before switching the DNS to point to the new server. After switching the DNS we ran in to about a dozen issues throughout that first day. It was not much fun and a bit nerve wracking considering I have large amounts of traffic hitting the site all day long. But, by the end of the day, all seemed to be in order and back to normal. Then, Wednesday went by with absolutely zero issues. The server is up and running at about 1.5 requests per second and the CPU usage is at about 1%. I think this should allow for plenty of growth from the site. And, if it continues the way it’s been going, I’ll need the extra processing power.

I’ve got my fingers crossed that my server issues are behind me. I owe you big time, Todd. Thanks!

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