A new server = new server problems, apparently.

I just received an e-mail from WestHost saying I’m consuming too many server resources (”critically high load on the server” was the technical term), just like I was at Total Choice Hosting in the during my Hurricane Katrina traffic surge. Because my traffic is back down almost to pre-Katrina levels, I thought I’d be OK using a shared server again, but apparently I was wrong. This explains why the website has been loading more slowly in recent days.

It looks like I’ll probably need to have WestHost move me over to a semi-dedicated server; hopefully, that will be enough, because my budget really can’t handle the cost of a fully dedicated server, yet I really, really don’t want to go through the enormous hassle of another full server switch. (Switching servers within WestHost is no big deal; moving back to Charles’s server, or to another company’s servers, would be.) Bah.

Anyway, in the interest of keeping my readers informed, the text of the e-mail from WestHost is after the jump.

UPDATE: I’m switching to a semi-dedicated server. The switch will take place tonight, and there will probably be about a half-hour of downtime, sometime bewteen 1am and 3am EST.

Dear Brendan,

Recently your account brendanloy.com has been causing critically high load on the server. This is a serious problem as it degrades server performance for all of our clients whom you share the server with. High loads cause problems such as delayed e-mail and slow site loading times. I have created this ticket on your behalf to track this problem more efficiently. The following applications/scripts appear to be causing the high load due to high resource usage:

* MySQL - The WordPress database receives a significant amount of queries and is extremely CPU intensive
* Apache - The amount of traffic your account is receiving is causing Apache to tie up considerable amounts of server resources. The way it has been configured prevents it from using any more then it already has, which is causing your website to respond slowly.

We have put together a document to help you understand resource usage in your VPS account. While the entire document may not be relevant to this problem, it should be a good resource in tracking down and resolving this issue. You can find the document on our website at http://members.westhost.com/reducing-resources.html.

Please keep in mind that excessive resource usage is against our terms of service due to the problems it causes our other clients (see http://www.westhost.com/terms-conditions.html, specifically the section “Server Resources”). While we are happy to provide you with suggestions on how to resolve the problem, it is your responsibility to ensure that you are abiding by our terms of service.

If you feel that your site’s resource usage cannot be reduced without causing problems with its functionality or availability then you may be interested in our higher level service options. We have managed dedicated servers available and can automatically transfer your account onto your server for you. More information is available at http://dedicated.westhost.com/. Alternatively, we now have the option to upgrade to upgrade you the “Business Semi-dedicated” plan, where we guarantee a maximum of only 20 accounts per server. This allows your site to use considerably more resources without having to upgrade all the way to a dedicated server. You can visit http://www.westhost.com/semided-business-hosting.html for more information.

We understand that it can take time to resolve these types of problems, but please take a moment to awknowledge this problem within 48 hours. If we do not hear back from you by then, or if the problem gets worse we may need to temporarily disable your account due to terms of service violation. If you have any questions please contact me. If I am unavailable feel free to contact our technical support department at http://members.westhost.com/contactus.html.

Best Regards,

Jonny Fillmore
Hosting Systems Team Lead
WestHost, Inc.