Does Mysql really need occasional restarts?
You may have seen my blog occasionally go down due to database problems. I have been constantly on email and phone with bluehost support to try to figure this out. The responses I’ve gotten always seem completely ignorant of bigger issues. Ranging from “we didn’t see a problem” to “we killed the threads so everything should be fine now”. The last time it happened, I was online at the time and literally saw some reaper scripts fire up and nuke the Mysql server and cause it to restart. So I decided to investigate why this was happening with support.
After about a round of ten emails, I got escalated to level 3 support and got the best “you’re in a helicopter” response ever: I asked why they have scripts that run that kill and restart mysql after I caught this happening during a time when my blog was down. The answer: “When there are problems with mysql the server will try to restart it…”. Uh, really?
Now maybe I’m crazy here, but can I get a show of hands of people who have such problems with their Mysql that they have to regularly restart it? In my experience, it’s possible to run a properly configured database instance with nearly infinite uptime. So, are they royally screwing something up? Or is this really just a downside of running a database for tons of clients who may be doing bad things to it?
Update: bluehost has admitted the problem is not from my account. They have a connection limit of 20 connections for Mysql for all accounts on the server. That it took me ten emails to have them admit they’re overselling capacity is downright unacceptable. And I’ve been fighting this battle with them for more than two months now. I asked them time and time again to admit they’re overselling and to fix the problem by reducing load on the server, but no one would so much as even answer my question, every time implying that it was my php scripts (a standard wordpress installation, using caching, and on low traffic with less than 5 php fastcgi instances) causing the problem. Now they’re offering to migrate me to another server, clearly again band-aiding the problem instead of addressing the core of the problem.
From bluehost support:
“When you get the error that mysql is out of connections that means mysql connections on your server have backed up to the point to where the connections are maxed. Not necessarily from your account, but the server as a whole. We don’t think a restart is the answer to the problem, however often times stopping mysql, running a repair to fix any corrupt tables then restarting will often times clear out the cause of the problem.”
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