Busy server for the first time in almost 5 years?

[Keld Denar]

So, tonight in no fewer than 3 times, I've come across messages thay say that the server is busy, and to try again later. Usually goes away in a minute, but yea.

Just thought I'd let the admins know. I first noticed it at about 9:30 PST. Hope this post helps you guys figure it out! Best of luck!

[arguskos]

I've been seeing those screens for awhile now, maybe a few months. They don't pop up much, but they do show up every now and then when it's fairly late (12 AM-3 AM, EST). Not sure why right then. Haven't given it much thought honestly, figured it was natural server lag.

[Keld Denar]

Just for reference, it is different from the 503 error page. Its an actual forum screen similar to the backup page.

[arguskos]

Just for reference, it is different from the 503 error page. Its an actual forum screen similar to the backup page.
Yeah, I know. It says "The server is too busy at the moment. Please try again later." in a little box with the standard forum bar (User CP, FAQ, Members List, etc) at the top and the news, comics, stories, etc on the side. Trust me, I've been seeing it for awhile now. Just didn't think anything of it.

Ironically, I got it while posting this.

[Rockphed]

Wait, did you really say 5 years? That screen was pretty popular about 1 - 2 years ago. I must admit I was surprised when I saw it today, about 12:30 EDT, but I didn't really think much of it.

[Dallas-Dakota]

Yeah, it's been a couple of months since it slowly popped up occasionally, again.

SMEE told me the moderators have indeed noticed and that's enough for me. Since they'l either be working on that then, or on higher priority things.

[Prime32]

Got one a few minutes ago.

[jiriku]

And again today. Periodically yesterday too. GIANTITP: TOO POPULAR SEXY FOR OUR OWN SERVER!

[KerfuffleMach2]

I got it at around 11:00 PM EST last night, and again this morning at about 9:00 AM EST.

For those who are keeping track of such info.

Last night's lasted a couple of minutes, and today's was less than a minute.

[Yuki Akuma]

It keeps happening today. :smallfrown:

It may be time for another server upgrade - the site's getting more popular, apparently.

[Mauve Shirt]

Almost 5 years? The upgrade was like 2 years ago at most!

And I got one yesterday, but not today.

[Claudius Maximus]

I've seen this too. I'm pretty sure this is not the same kind of error we would get back when the server needed to be upgraded. At least for me, it was a failed connection page rather than a message presented by GitP.

So I guess it's either not the same problem, or they just have a real error message for it now.

[Kobold-Bard]

I've seen this too. I'm pretty sure this is not the same kind of error we would get back when the server needed to be upgraded. At least for me, it was a failed connection page rather than a message presented by GitP.

So I guess it's either not the same problem, or they just have a real error message for it now.

I thought it was a GitP message last time too :smallconfused:

[Keld Denar]

I got the 503 error at about 3:30 PM PST, and just got the "server busy" error at about 4:03 PM PST.

Just lettin y'all know.

[The Bushranger]

I thought it was a GitP message last time too :smallconfused:

No, it was a "The Forums have been shut down due to server overload" message before (usually when there was a new comic). When the server crashed those times, you'd get failed connections, then they'd take the forums down and you'd see that.

Since we're getting something different, and it's not New Comic Syndrome, I suspect it's a different problem.

[Snares]

I've had this screen several times today. It's been appearing sporadically for the last few weeks too.

[Cealocanth]

First time today. For the record, 5:40 PM CST.


These are fairly new to me too. Is the playground undergoing reconstruction or something?

[happyturtle]

Spammer attacks? General forum traffic? Squirrels chewing on the internet tubes?

[Gourtox]

Dirty rotten squirrels. Also I have seen this a few times.

[CoffeeIncluded]

Just got it a few minutes ago over here. And yesterday too.

[The Giant]

I don't know what's going on, but we are aware of the problem now. Further "I got one too!" messages don't tell us anything at this point. Please only post if you have more information, such as a different type of message or a server error (rather than the "server is busy" message).

[Obrysii]

Giant, every time I've gotten a "Server too busy" is when you post new comics.

I don't know if the comic is hosted on the same server as the forum, or if the forum becomes exponentially busier as we all rush to make our opinions known about the comic (most excellent #755, btw).

Or it could be purely coincidental.

[Drolyt]

Not sure if this helps, but when it happens to me (I see a "The server is too busy at the moment. Please try again later." error when I go to user cp) refreshing doesn't seem to help. I click on something else and then back on my user cp and it works, but not refreshing for some reason.

[The Bushranger]

Giant, every time I've gotten a "Server too busy" is when you post new comics.

I don't know if the comic is hosted on the same server as the forum, or if the forum becomes exponentially busier as we all rush to make our opinions known about the comic (most excellent #755, btw).

Or it could be purely coincidental.

That's how it used to be with NCS (New Comic Syndrome) before the last upgrade. It hasn't been happening that way this time. It's happening at all hours, although mostly at night, and when #755 came up, that was one time it wasn't doing it. :smalltongue:

[F.H. Zebedee]

I just had one in the middle of the day, half an hour past noon. Went and ate a nice post I'd spent half an hour whipping up, so I'm slightly saddened. Just saying this since it seems to wildly diverge from the typical "midnight" happenings of these errors. It was a "Server is Busy, Try Back Later" message.

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

That's how it used to be with NCS (New Comic Syndrome) before the last upgrade. It hasn't been happening that way this time. It's happening at all hours, although mostly at night, and when #755 came up, that was one time it wasn't doing it. :smalltongue:

Aye. It got so bad that they preemptively took down the boards for a good little while after a comic first went up, to dissuade people from just posting "great job!" and stuff like that in the comic thread.

[Silverraptor]

Giant, every time I've gotten a "Server too busy" is when you post new comics.

I don't know if the comic is hosted on the same server as the forum, or if the forum becomes exponentially busier as we all rush to make our opinions known about the comic (most excellent #755, btw).

Or it could be purely coincidental.

I just got one, yet Giant hasn't updated the comic when I got it. So maybe its not entirely the New Comic Readers causing the problem...

[Cealocanth]

If this helps, all of mine have occurred between the hours of 8 and 10:00 PM.

[Prime32]

I've got them at various times, and when comics have been out for a while.

[Lhurgyof]

It seems to happen to me around early morning in school (about 8-10 EST) and late at night (around midnight EST). And, it only happens for about 1-5 minutes at a time.

It doesn't occur every day, just here and there, although it seems to be happening more often lately.

I hope this is of help to you, Giant.

[The Vorpal Tribble]

Hmm, getting bad on my end. Busy several times an hour, and may remain busy for several minutes.

Just hope the signature rules don't have to get even more strict to cut down on space...

[Drolyt]

Hmm, getting bad on my end. Busy several times an hour, and may remain busy for several minutes.

Just hope the signature rules don't have to get even more strict to cut down on space...
My impression (someone correct me if I am wrong) is that the signature rules are to prevent your sig from taking up the whole screen when people browse the forums, not a space saving issue. Also, running out of space isn't the first suspect when getting these kinds of errors. Something is wrong with the servers; without more information I couldn't even guess as to what, but I'm sure the Giant has more knowledgeable people than me working on it as we speak (type?).

[Thajocoth]

I've started to get this recently. This is the first it's happened since a few months after I joined up. During that time, it was fairly constant though. That was only a couple years ago, certainly not 5.

[Irbis]

Hmmm, got this 10 times today only. That is 3x times more than the whole 2009 and first 8 months of 2010.

I'm starting to get flashbacks to 2008 :P

[Creed]

Encountered it twice today, and three or four times in the past week... something must be up... maybe it's our insane amount of users?:smalltongue:

[drakir_nosslin]

At 11:05 (GMT +1) today, I got this as I tried to view Board/Site Issues and my User CP


Internal Server Error

The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.

Please contact the server administrator, [email protected] and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might have done that may have caused the error.

More information about this error may be available in the server error log.

Apache/2.2.3 (Red Hat) Server at www.giantitp.com Port 80

Earlier, I've just gotten the same error message as the others, but this one is new for me..

[Temotei]

I just had one in the middle of the day, half an hour past noon. Went and ate a nice post I'd spent half an hour whipping up, so I'm slightly saddened.

I'm pretty sure you can just hit back and wait for the problem to subside. I just did that.

If that doesn't work, you might still be able to hit back, copy the post, go forward and wait, and then paste it.

[Rawhide]

For the record, immediately after a forum backup is a very high load time. Be prepared to experience slowdowns and minor errors for a while after a backup.

[Irbis]

Hmmm, I don't know, the forum backups usually are at 9:00, yet I hat problems between 18-21, at the opposite end of the day.

[drakir_nosslin]

For the record, immediately after a forum backup is a very high load time. Be prepared to experience slowdowns and minor errors for a while after a backup.

That might be what happened to me today, as the backup kicks in around 10 here.

[Rawhide]

Hmmm, I don't know, the forum backups usually are at 9:00, yet I hat problems between 18-21, at the opposite end of the day.

I never said it was the only time, only that it was a prime time.

[Marnath]

I've been getting the server busy error in increasing frequency over the last few weeks, I got it about 11-12 times in the past 12 hours. Come to think of it, they were at a pretty even rate too, so about once an hour. Is that significant?

[Yora]

I think people reported that the Server Busy message appeared almost always late in the evening in the US.
I've got one right now, but I have no idea what time it is at yours. It doesn't seem to be limited to a specific time frame.

[Eldan]

Actually, in the US it's earlier than here, so it would be morning for them.

I had it three or four times this morning, from around 10am-13pm in my timezone.

[Drolyt]

I've personally had it both in the morning and at night, but never during the day for some reason. Essentially, I've had them from about 9 at night until 10 in the morning, US Eastern Time (UTC-05). I don't get the error message often though.

[Zherog]

I think people reported that the Server Busy message appeared almost always late in the evening in the US.
I've got one right now, but I have no idea what time it is at yours. It doesn't seem to be limited to a specific time frame.

Your post was made at 10:20 am Eastern Standard Time. To convert that to other timezones in the continental US, it would be 9:20 Central Standard Time, 8:20 Mountain Standard Time, and 7:20 Pacific Standard Time.

[turkishproverb]

I don't know what's going on, but we are aware of the problem now. Further "I got one too!" messages don't tell us anything at this point. Please only post if you have more information, such as a different type of message or a server error (rather than the "server is busy" message).

ON that note:

Internal Server Error

The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.

Please contact the server administrator, (email deleted just in case not public and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might have done that may have caused the error.

More information about this error may be available in the server error log.
Apache/2.2.3 (Red Hat) Server at www.giantitp.com Port 80


and later


Service Temporarily Unavailable

The server is temporarily unable to service your request due to maintenance downtime or capacity problems. Please try again later.
Apache/2.2.3 (Red Hat) Server at www.giantitp.com Port 80

[Mordokai]

I just had one in the middle of the day, half an hour past noon. Went and ate a nice post I'd spent half an hour whipping up, so I'm slightly saddened. Just saying this since it seems to wildly diverge from the typical "midnight" happenings of these errors. It was a "Server is Busy, Try Back Later" message.

Have you considered just hitting the Back button in your browser? It works wonders, you know.

[Mystic Muse]

Have you considered just hitting the Back button in your browser? It works wonders, you know.

It apparently doesn't work on some browsers.

[Elder Tsofu]

Have you considered just changing your browser? It works wonders, you know.
:smalltongue:

[Douglas]

I've seen Firefox recover a post in progress even from a crash, btw.

[Drolyt]

Even Firefox will fail at that sometimes though. At any rate lets not clutter the thread, the admins might be watching it for actually useful information.

[Ravens_cry]

I would also like to report this phenomena. While I can usually get stuff back, it's still damn annoying.

[Defiant]

Further "I got one too!" messages don't tell us anything at this point.

While that is true, the messages do help people unload their frustrations and annoyance. Most people will feel some satisfaction in knowing that their ails are shared by everyone, and by joining in the conversation on them. So while their messages may not be useful towards fixing the problem, they may be useful at least towards alleviating the symptoms.

[Mordokai]

It apparently doesn't work on some browsers.

Try changing it, as Elder Tsofu(that good for nothing smartypants, rumblemumble... :smalltongue:) suggested? And I know there are people out there who aren't even aware of the possibility. If we can save but ten posts(since, c'mon, one really isn't worth mentioning :smalltongue: ), then I will consider my warning to not be in vain.

[Turalisj]

What browser is everyone using? I use chrome on one computer and IE on another, and get the busy server message on both of them. I also get 'cannot find webpage' from chrome every once in a while.

[Drolyt]

What? Browser has nothing to do with it. The Giant is having a server issue, it has nothing to do with our end. Browsers only came up because someone lost their work.

[Turalisj]

Ah, ignore that then. :smallredface: