Is it that hard to load a php site?

by Sapphire (August 22, 2005)

I have a couple of sites that are pure HTML, but most of mine are php-driven. CMS or blog interfaces. And I keep seeing the same problem on every host: database failures to connect. The pure HTML sites would load - even a pure HTML page on an otherwise php-driven site would sometimes load. But the databases just weren’t responding.

Now, seriously, folks: I’ve had this problem on dollar hosts and slightly more expensive hosts, and finally a really reputable host that’s well-known for reliability (at least their tech support gets right on it when I report trouble). We’re not talking one or two connection errors. We’re talking enough consecutive downtime for my visitors, me and Host-Tracker to notice.

So, what’s the dang deal?

MySql and PHP and Apache server configurations are a delicate balancing act. It’s kind of like three people trying to have a successful marriage - stuff that goes out of whack impacts other stuff, which also goes out of whack, and in the end somebody’s sulking in the attic, somebody else is cleaning guns in the basement and somebody else is calling a lawyer.

Meanwhile, your site’s down, and visitors are being told, “Go away. If we were serious, we’d make sure our site was working.”

You and I know you can be as serious as you like and pay a fortune for hosting (even dedicated hosting or your own server), and use expensive php apps and still have downtime. (Did anyone see CJ after they came back online this Monday? I couldn’t even stay logged in for ten consecutive minutes!) There are just so many things in play that it’s not a lot less complicated than diagnosing what a human being is suffering from when they announce they’ve got a mild pain somewhere in their belly.

Potential issues include: hackers, people running poorly written php scripts on your shared server that hog all the resources, bad host configurations, bad MySql configurations, bad php configurations, your blog/CMS/whatever has a little glitch that only shows up with your exact server/Mysql/php configuration, or a butterfly flapping its wings in Tokyo.

Oh! And there’s one other problem I’ve been seeing lately that it more bizarre than getting propositioned by someone whose gender you absolutely cannot sort out: going into PHPMyAdmin and discovering you can get into every database on your shared server. That’s comforting.

In short, I don’t know what the problem(s) is/are. I don’t know the solution(s) either. I just hope someone else figures it out while I keep trying to manage my sites.

Posted in Development & Design, Hosting
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