503 error since last update Topic is solved

[Vorak]

Hello,

I am currently running the latest Joomla 3 version. However, I noticed that as of the past days/week, my Joomla site has been very slow at times. Very frequently, it doesn't load at all and in the end gives a 503 timeout error.

Usually, the website still loads if loaded as a visitor (not logged in), but even just logging in often causes a timeout. It seems to have started sometime after I updated to the latest version of Joomla (the update process went without any problem).

I did not make any changes to any Joomla settings or settings of extensions. I did not add any new extensions for quite some time either. The amount of visitors to the website has not suddenly increased and I can't think of anything else that would indicate a reason for these timeouts.

My website is running on a virtual server, and on that end everything is working perfectly with a stable configuration. Other (much smaller Joomla) websites running on the same server but with different domain names continue to work without an issue, which seems to indicate that it's this particular Joomla site that keeps running out of memory. It seems weird though that a new version of Joomla should suddenly require so much more memory from the server when nothing else changed.

Can anyone please help figure out the cause of this problem?

[annahersh]

Are there error log files in your Joomla root or administrator directory? If yes, view error messages. Set error reporting to development and enable debug and test for error messages and check the database query info in the debug output to see if a particular query is exceeding the limit.

What php/mysql versions are used on the VPS?

[Vorak]

Hello,

thanks for your reply. THis is what the database query info gives me:

141 Queries Logged 1232.13 ms

11 duplicate found!
2 duplicates: #2 #140
2 duplicates: #3 #141
2 duplicates: #92 #96
3 duplicates: #126 #134 #135
2 duplicates: #133 #138

Of course, at the moment the site is running smoothly again because I've rebooted the server and then it runs well for a little while.

PHP is version 5.6.37.
phpMyAdmin is 4.6.6.

I did not see any error log files within the Joomla root or Joomla Administrator root, nor in their respective logs directories.

[AMurray]

Perhaps you can try updating PHP 5.6 to 7.1.x or higher? (I think 5.6 is about to reach EOL in December).

[garly01]

Have you installed the latest version of jch optimise. It might just help speed things up a bit.

Might be no harm testing it on gtmetrix too just to see if it clocks something that is slowing your site down

https://gtmetrix.com/

https://extensions.joomla.org/extension/jch-optimize/

[Vorak]

I have updated PHP to version 7.1.21 -> in itself the Joomla site works fine on that, but the timeout issues remain the same.

I just tried to install the JCH Optimise plugin -> no effect on the timeout issues.

GTMetrix -> when the site loads normally, it doesn't give any results that (to me) would indicate the sourceo f this problem. When the site times out, GTMetrix can't connect to it either and therefore has no results to show. This is the same issue with the Joomla error reporting / debug mode on -> when the website times out, nothing loads but a 503 error so I don't see the results of that either when it's actually needed.

[Vorak]

In addition, I should probably mention that the timeouts also affect the admin panel. Some things on the admin panel cause the timeout issue as well.

[Webdongle]

viewtopic.php?f=714&t=793531

[Vorak]

I have done those FPA instructions before when asking about another issue about a year ago. I posted the results in that topic, and after that got no response anymore (it's resolved in the meantime but through other means). Since it does contain quite alot of information of my website, I asked several times to remove the report again (seeing that it's apparently impossible to edit your own posts on this forum?) and I was completely ignored.

I'm willing to follow those FPA instructions again, but only if someone's actually willing to look at them and follow up on them, and erases the report results for me afterwards.

[Webdongle]

I am not a moderator but I can nag them until they remove it. Usually 1 report is enough. I will comment on the fpa if you post it.

[Vorak]

Joomla! Instance :: Joomla! 3.8.12-Stable (Amani) 28-August-2018

[Vorak]

Thanks. I tried posting the results here, but I got the error "Your Message/Registration was blocked".

So what I did was save the results as an html file and upload that file to my website:

http://www.website.org/temp/FPA.html

I hope that works.

[Webdongle]

Session Path Writable: No ... should be Yes
Folders 775 ... should be 755
Upload Size: 16M | Max. POST Size: 16M ... make both 32M or 64M

[leolam]

This is a server error and not a Joomla issue.

I would suggest to remove the "open base" directive. No need when the server is properly configured.

If you can tune your Apache server, read about the Timeout attribute that you can set in httpd.conf. Look in the httpd/logs/error_log to see where the timeouts are occurring.

Connect with your host on this error. They should be able to resolve this for you

Leo

[Vorak]

How do I make the session path writable? I was able to do everything else but not that, can't seem to find that setting in my Plesk control panel.

It seems that part of the report was posted after all (weird, it didn't show up earlier) but it's not the complete one due to character limit, the one I linked to should be complete.

[Webdongle]

How do I make the session path writable? ...

Ask your Host to do it

[Vorak]

Is there no way I can do it myself? I have access to the server with Putty, but I have no clue how to do it manually.

How do I remove the "open base" directive? In Plesk it is currently set at the default as: {WEBSPACEROOT}{/}{:}{TMP}{/}

Other options I can select are {DOCROOT}{/}{:}{TMP}{/} and "none".

I have also looked at the error log of the server, and there's alot of this stuff in it:

[Thu Sep 13 01:46:37.619145 2018] [proxy_fcgi:error] [pid 1486:tid 140612925843200] (70007)The timeout specified has expired: [client 87.238.161.27:56476] AH01075: Error dispatching request to :

[Thu Sep 13 13:55:30.138954 2018] [proxy_fcgi:error] [pid 7768:tid 140283873060608] (104)Connection reset by peer: [client 143.129.120.51:63847] AH01075: Error dispatching request to :

No idea what to make of that.

So far, with the changes I already made, the timeout issue still appears the same as before.

[Vorak]

Toward the end of the error log there's also these entries:

[Thu Sep 13 16:14:51.953840 2018] [proxy_fcgi:error] [pid 15644:tid 140686938560256] [client 143.129.120.51:50108] AH01071: Got error 'PHP message: PHP Warning: is_writable(): open_basedir restriction in effect. File(/var/lib/php/session) is not within the allowed path(s): (/var/www/vhosts/druidcircle.org/:/tmp/) in /var/www/vhosts/druidcircle.org/httpdocs/druid/fpa-en.php on line 1406\n'

[Thu Sep 13 16:16:50.599957 2018] [proxy_fcgi:error] [pid 15644:tid 140686972131072] [client 143.129.120.51:50134] AH01071: Got error 'PHP message: PHP Warning: is_writable(): open_basedir restriction in effect. File(/var/lib/php/session) is not within the allowed path(s): (/var/www/vhosts/druidcircle.org/:/tmp/) in /var/www/vhosts/druidcircle.org/httpdocs/druid/fpa-en.php on line 1406\n', referer: https://www.druidcircle.org/druid/fpa-en.php

[Vorak]

UPDATE: I have finally found out what was causing these timeout issues.

After updating Joomla to the latest version, there was apparently a conflict with the plugin/component "Joomdle" (a bridge between Joomla and Moodle). Disabling Joomdle immediately resolved the timeout issue.

As it turned out, all that was needed was updating Joomdle to the latest version. It just wasn't clear at all that there was a new version for Joomdle to begin with (not even a new version, just a new build), and since the server's error logs weren't pointing toward anything in particular, it was not obvious that Joomdle was the cause. It was just by disabling all components and re-enabling them one by one that I happened to discover this. I would never have thought that something like this could actually cause timeouts.

The server provider was not at fault, as now the Joomla website is running smooth again. I did ask the provider to make the sessions path writable, and am awaiting their answer.

Thank you for your help. The FPA report that was partially posted above can be removed again (the link to it on my server has already been removed).

[Webdongle]

... The FPA report that was partially posted above can be removed again (the link to it on my server has already been removed).

I reported the post that had the fpa report. A mod has now removed it for you.

[Vorak]

Thanks, I appreciate it!