6 ms·
Ouch
- CharlesPal 16y agoI've also experienced similar spikes before. It's important to added that everything will slow way down... that includes SSH access. Even if you think "I'll just jump in there and correct the issues if/when the time comes" you may not be able to if SSH access slows down to a crawl. Like the post says, the best course of action is to be prepared ahead of time and not trying to make tweaks while the traffic spike is happening.
- rythie 16y agoOr put your blog on posterous or blogger.
- cstross 16y agoThere are several reasons my blog isn't on blogger. First: I like to own my own IP. And I don't want to be vulnerable to a spurious takedown notice if some random griefer decides to take aim at me. Second: blogger has some hard limits -- official list here: http://www.google.com/support/blogger/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=42348 http://www.google.com/support/blogger/bin/answer.py?hl=en... -- and there are anecdotal reports that there is a limit on how many blog entries you can have. I seriously considered Typepad, but once I worked out how much it would cost it was cheaper to stick with a dedicated colo server (hint: there's more than one blog on the system I run, and there's also a mailman server and some other stuff). Also: I've been running on a Linux colo since 1996/7, and I really don't feel the need to take a couple of weeks off work to re-jig my entire online presence. This is the first time I've ever had anything like this load level. If it starts happening regularly, I'll reconsider my strategy. Until then, it's a one-off.
- patio11 16y agoAnd, for God's sakes, turn off Apache KeepAlive. It kills more blogs than cancer.
- mhd 16y agoWhat's the current name for that? Do we still call it "slashdot effect"?
- wazoox 16y agoSometimes it's the reddit effect, or similar. However "slashdotted" should remain understandable to anyone.
- RyanMcGreal 16y agoThough in this particular case, the site seems to have been Gaimaned.
- wiredfool 16y agoAnd boingboing, and reddit x2, here, and a bunch of newspapers in the uk. I couldn't go anywhere yesterday without tripping over that link. He got slammed. If you want a picture of the future, imagine an internet stamping on a single server— for a day anyway.
- metageek 16y agoIsn't the general term "flash crowd"?
- RiderOfGiraffes 16y agoPlease could you make the submitted title a little more informative? Perhaps: Ouch! (First hand experience of a massive load spike) Thanks.
- xiongchiamiov 16y ago> 4. Tune Apache now — you won't get a chance to do it when the stampede arrives! Or take the easy route and ditch Apache. I'm not saying that Apache can't be great (people who know much more than me use it), but if you need to quickly serve up a ton of requests without bothering to tune this and tweak that, there are better choices, in particular for static pages. Cherokee's my preferred, but lighttpd, Nginx, thttpd, etc. are all good, too.
- mechanical_fish 16y agoDitching Apache is only "easy" if (a) your blog software isn't designed around Apache-isms like .htaccess and mod_rewrite, and (b) you have time to find and comprehend the documentation for your alternative server. Nginx is great, for example, but the docs are primitive compared to those for Apache, which has been around forever and which has spawned thousands of hints and snippets all over the web. EDIT: At this point I should probably say out loud that for accelerating static pages it might well be simpler to get a reverse proxy, e.g. Varnish, running in front of Apache than to actually ditch Apache.
- wiredfool 16y agoIs varnish a drop in fix for something like this while everything is going to hell, or is there some monkeying that has to be done to make it play nice with movable type?
- splitrocket 16y agonothing really is a drop in solution for traffic spikes, however, there are a plethora of articles about how to make Varnish play nicely with moveable type: http://www.coldhardcode.com/2009/04/varnish-and-movabletype-for-co.html http://www.coldhardcode.com/2009/04/varnish-and-movabletype-... The same is true for wordpress: http://www.varnish-cache.org/trac/wiki/VarnishAndWordpress http://www.varnish-cache.org/trac/wiki/VarnishAndWordpress
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- param 16y ago" I don't have an exact breakdown of what just happened, because my logfile analyser is still churning, from 2am last night.That's because the Apache logfile today is over 500Mb it's normally about 150Kb. " The post is timed at 11:31. I think another lesson learned is that the log analyzer needs to be analyzed.
- pronoiac 16y agoIf the server's under really hard load - memory or I/O or both, with the swap thrashing - I'd be unsurprised. I've never checked to see how my stat analyzers fare on half a gig of logs.
- pero 16y agoI understand this is HN and all, but has anyone even bothered to take a peak at the EXTRAORDINARY content that was behind the spike? In a nutshell, it is a transcript of a British parliamentary session in which the speaker claims a shadowy yet totally legitimate organization--"Foundation X"--is willing to donate billions to the British government no strings attached. It is extremely engrossing.
- wiredfool 16y agoYep: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1864932 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1864932
- mcantelon 16y agoHere's video of the speech (starting at hour 2, 34 minutes). Exceedingly odd. http://bbc.in/9qS59B http://bbc.in/9qS59B
- zoomzoom 16y agoI still don't know if this is to be taken seriously. What exactly could be going on?
- fredoliveira 16y agoSky news is reporting on it too, and while it looks like it could be a work of fiction (it sure reads like one - Dan Brown comes to mind), it apparently isn't. http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Politics/Foundation-X-Lord-James-Of-Blackheath-Tells-Sky-News-Group-Could-Pay-Off-Billions-Of-UK-Debt/Article/201011115795267 http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Politics/Foundation-X-Lord-...