Connection problem error

[arhipova]

Just wanted to let the forum staff know that while using the forum today, I am getting a unique error saying :


"Connection Problems
Sorry, SMF was unable to connect to the database. This may be caused by the server being busy. Please try again later. "

I hope this is resolved soon.

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[SuiMikira]

It the problem when the server is overloaded. Maybe a DDoS attack, wait patiently, Admin will check it, Mod can't check this problem.

[vlad230]

Yes, I'm getting it too... It looks like the server is overloaded as after a refresh it usually works fine.

Here's a screen shot of it:

[The Cryptovator]

Same to me also. I thought just I am facing this problem. Look like server is too busy today.

[Jet Cash]

I'm surprised the server has any time to handle the processing of new posts. It has to give priority to the registration of bots, merit analysis calculations, and members searching for decent posts.

[mdayonliner]

I'm surprised the server has any time to handle the processing of new posts. It has to give priority to the registration of bots, merit analysis calculations, and members searching for decent posts.

I do not think it has anything to do with specific page, group of tasks or anything else like that. It's the general database connection problem due to excessive request for data I guess. The DB connection is breaking when trying to store data or pulling out the data the client side is asking.

Sorry, SMF was unable to connect to the database. This may be caused by the server being busy. Please try again later.

Problem here is, there are no error number. Perhaps we need a higher bandwidth now than we currently have.

[TheQuin]

I'm surprised the server has any time to handle the processing of new posts. It has to give priority to the registration of bots, merit analysis calculations, and members searching for decent posts.

Damn lucky someone invented multithreading 

I'd guess either a DDoS attack targeting a particular database function or a hardware fault at the hosting facility. Hopefully, admins will be able to resolve soon.

[esmanthra]

Problem here is there are no error number

Well, I got some error number while attempting to edit the watchlist (pressing the appropriate button). But the funniest thing is that this number is always different.:P

[TheQuin]

I think we have our answer.

Merit stats are temporarily disabled

[Joel_Jantsen]

I'm surprised the server has any time to handle the processing of new posts. It has to give priority to the registration of bots, merit analysis calculations, and members searching for decent posts.

Nope. Mostly a DDos attack that overloaded the server.

Damn lucky someone invented multithreading 

I'd guess either a DDoS attack targeting a particular database function or a hardware fault at the hosting facility. Hopefully, admins will be able to resolve soon.

Multi-threading but applied on which part of the system? On the server level, we have load balancers and what not. Doubt if anyone actually writes multi-threading code to handle concurrent requests as most of it is done by the hosting services.

Hardware fault at the hosting facility is unlikely to happen. Even if it does, they have back-up servers. The rookiest way to go about it is to do

Code:

sudo service mysql restart

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[theymos]

There was a query in the merit stats which became too slow and ended up jamming up the whole database. Possibly it was pushed over the edge by new bot activity, but no intentional DoS attack AFAICT. Or maybe my fix from yesterday's unrelated database issue degraded performance. I'll look into it more later. In any case, I think I fixed it for now.

[TheQuin]

Multi-threading but applied on which part of the system? On the server level, we have load balancers and what not. Doubt if anyone actually writes multi-threading code to handle concurrent requests as most of it is done by the hosting services.

It was a light hearted response to Jet Cash's obviously less than serious post.

Hardware fault at the hosting facility is unlikely to happen. Even if it does, they have back-up servers. The rookiest way to go about it is to do

Code:

sudo service mysql restart

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

From a lot of experience in this, I can say that however resilient you make your system, on occasion outages can and will still occur.

Edit: theymos in with the answer while I was typing.

[TheBeardedBaby]

There was a query in the merit stats which became too slow and ended up jamming up the whole database. Possibly it was pushed over the edge by new bot activity, but no intentional DoS attack AFAICT. Or maybe my fix from yesterday's unrelated database issue degraded performance. I'll look into it more later. In any case, I think I fixed it for now.

Idk if it something to say, but yesterday everything stated after I click the Top-merited replies, all-time. Waited for some time and came a weird error on the statistics (looked like a quoted message with "Error #2349890238*"  and I was thinking to take a screenshot but then I decided to click the other statistics but they all were OK. When I clicked back to the Top-merited replies, all-time again to make the screenshot,then I lost connection to the server and I got the rest of the errors below..

(*)- I'm sure for error code began with #2 but for the rest of the numbers are just random.

There were 5 different errors I got during that time, here are the last 3 i recorded >

~

[Zandro]

We are experiencing the same problem issue, at first it's my WiFi connection, it will be normal again maybe the system has maintenance or.tje system is just overload... keep refreshing your page

[Joel_Jantsen]

It was a light hearted response to Jet Cash's obviously less than serious post.

I just wanted to show off a bit anyway 

From a lot of experience in this, I can say that however resilient you make your system, on occasion outages can and will still occur.

I agree! Even big companies with excellent tech stacks like Uber/GitLab suffer occasional server outages. Thing is, there is no perfect system that is ready to take all the load yet function smoothly. Only trial and experiment is the key.

[Insanerman]

I thought that implementation of Badge System is the cause of SMF connection problem.

Seriously, I feel excited when I encounter this error LOL It just made me think how beautiful the forum will be if there is a badge underneath the username.

[sheenshane]

I thought that implementation of Badge System is the cause of SMF connection problem.

Seriously, I feel excited when I encounter this error LOL It just made me think how beautiful the forum will be if there is a badge underneath the username.

The same idea as here I thought when SMF log in says that under maintenance, the thing that comes up in my mind that having again a new rule implemented. Maybe I'm too much excited for the new badges to be updated on account another rule to face here in this forum.

There was a query in the merit stats which became too slow and ended up jamming up the whole database. Possibly it was pushed over the edge by new bot activity, but no intentional DoS attack AFAICT. Or maybe my fix from yesterday's unrelated database issue degraded performance. I'll look into it more later. In any case, I think I fixed it for now.

And thanks for this clarification that everything now was fine. Thank you!

[mdayonliner]

There were 5 different errors I got during that time, here are the last 3 i recorded >

~

For a website when it is database driven - it pulls the stored data, saves the new data constantly depending on the request from the users.

When it comes to pulling data and when it's too many data to pull (say entire table for merit history) sometimes it cross the default time defined by the database server. The user ends up seeing error then.

When too many users (client side) are interacting with the database (server side) at the same time then because of the bandwidth limitation and/or possible other factors, a database server can refuse request. The user will end up seeing error.

Anyway I guess the below references will give you a decent idea.

503

The server is currently unable to handle the request due to a temporary overloading or maintenance of the server. The implication is that this is a temporary condition which will be alleviated after some delay. If known, the length of the delay MAY be indicated in a Retry-After header. If no Retry-After is given, the client SHOULD handle the response as it would for a 500 response.

      Note: The existence of the 503 status code does not imply that a
      server must use it when becoming overloaded. Some servers may wish
      to simply refuse the connection.

504

The server, while acting as a gateway or proxy, did not receive a timely response from the upstream server specified by the URI (e.g. HTTP, FTP, LDAP) or some other auxiliary server (e.g. DNS) it needed to access in attempting to complete the request.

      Note: Note to implementors: some deployed proxies are known to
      return 400 or 500 when DNS lookups time out.