Due to High Stress on the server....

[pierse]

Due to high stress on the server, the search function is temporarily disabled. Please try again in a short while.

Ummm... is a hint of things to come to other forums?  Or is there something specifically wrong?  I get this error pratically everytime I try to search the forums. 

[Ben_S]

The server that the sites hosted on isn't particulally powerfull.

[Tony Reid]

Its also used for development.

If your having problems searching - please use the 'Search entire Site' option at the top of the page - this will use google to search the forum

9 times out of 10 you will get what you are lookign for

Tony

[[Unknown]]

Unfortunately, as this forum grows in size and usage, a Celeron 1700 with 512 megs of ram is just not able to serve all 300 people at once, when most of them are searching a lot.

-[Unknown]

[forsakenlad]

I would prefer it like this. I guess if the search function hadn't been disabled on times of high load, then we wouldn't be able to browse the forum. I think actually being able to navigate around the forum is much more important than searching.

Also as Tony suggessted you can use the Google Search, as most of the pages of this forum is crawled due to the high pagerank it has

[rhizome]

Well, I agree that browsing the forum should overide searching.
Though when trying you want to search for a question that has probably been answered, the function being disabled gets to be mighty frustrating. Which may end up forcing a user to post a question that has probably been answered many times already
Also, as in the case of the phpbb forum, the search being disabled does nothing to the promote forum software, as some new folks will just see it as a SMF software flaw, rather than a generic server issue

Given SMF ain't no 2-bit fly-by-night (open source) operation, couldn't Lewis Media start digging deeper into its pockets for a more poweful server

[RickW]

Given SMF ain't no 2-bit fly-by-night (open source) operation, couldn't Lewis Media start digging deeper into its pockets for a more poweful server

I don't know who the developers are for SMF, so I don't know who to contact about this.  BUT - if you guys can get ahold of me, and share some of your site statistics / bandwidth needs, I might be willing to give you a place for these forums.  I'll see if I can find your contact info on the main site too...

[Rudolf]

Also, as in the case of the phpbb forum, the search being disabled does nothing to the promote forum software, as some new folks will just see it as a SMF software flaw, rather than a generic server issue

  I was thinking the same. Today when I came here I got half an hour an error saying that the server was not able to resolve the hostname, or something like that. Next time I write down the error message. Anyway, the point is that for half an hour or so I couldn't access at all the forum AND the entire site.
  I understand completely the server issues, and I would say that it doesn't really bothers me, because I am just hanging around here, not really in need for support. The forum I set up is working just fine.
  But what about a new visitor? They don't care, they see that the site doesn't works, they see that the forum is slow (because sometimes it gets terribly slow and hangs + add my slow 52kbps connection  ). They don't stop to question if the problem is with the server or the software.

   I know that if it does with me the first time when I came I wouldn't have bothered to come back.   I feel quite lucky that I found this place before the problems started.

   I don't mean to preach,  know I'm not saying anything new to the Lewis Media.

Rudolf

[anna.young]

Its also used for development.

If your having problems searching - please use the 'Search entire Site' option at the top of the page - this will use google to search the forum
...

Tony

Thank you for this tip Tony, did not realize that those were two different searches. Maybe it should have a note for newbies saying:  use this search when the forum 'search' is too busy... or something like that...

Anna

[Amacythe]

Is there a way to just go straight to the google search instead of displaying the error?

[Isaac]

Is there a way to just go straight to the google search instead of displaying the error?

That's not a bad idea. 

[TonyG]

New user here, not the same "Tony", you all know.

Looking at prior posts for info on this issue, it seems this issue with Search goes back couple months.  I have another suggestion: Limit searching to registered users.  Someone who isn't registered can simply get the server is overloaded message and maybe pointed to the Google link.  Those of us who actually are using the software and are registered here should have access to the resource.

As rhizome mentioned, without being able to search, newbs like me are tempted to post FAQs without knowing it's a FAQ.  Its VERY tough to filter signal from noise in this forum, and inability to search just creates more of the same.

2 cents... ching ching...

[Compuart]

Some CVS processes that shouldn't be active were choking the server. The problem has been solved and the load has returned to normal. The search should be accessible again.

[TarantinoArchives]

Unfortunately, as this forum grows in size and usage, a Celeron 1700 with 512 megs of ram is just not able to serve all 300 people at once, when most of them are searching a lot.

-[Unknown]

that really is the wrong hardware for a site like this.... any plans on changing that? how's the financial situation? does it allow a change?


i dont agree that the disabling promotes browsing of the forums. the disabling of the search engine only promotes the creating of topics for questions that already exist in other topics because nobody can find them anymore

[Trekkie101]

http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=51672.0

[Ben_S]

that really is the wrong hardware for a site like this.... any plans on changing that? how's the financial situation? does it allow a change?

New server is almost ready.

i dont agree that the disabling promotes browsing of the forums. the disabling of the search engine only promotes the creating of topics for questions that already exist in other topics because nobody can find them anymore

Disabling search whilst under high load prevents the entire server hanging.

[Ben_S]

It's already been stated in this topic that a new server has been purchased. The migration strategey just needs to be finnished and implemented.

Other forum software has a fusebox type feature in to prevent server load run away, certainly vB does.

People do not have to make use of the feature themselves if they so choose, it just happens to be used here to prevent the current underpowered server from dieing and causing the entire site to drop off the net.

[StarWars Fan]

certainly vB does.

vB =
SMF = 

[paladin]

Upgrade your server would solve this.

[Sys_ZERO]

Upgrade your server would solve this.

What do you think SMF are doing?

SMF's machine is 3yrs old and they're paying the original price for it (I believe), so it's expensive. Why upgrade when you can get a better server, for the same price?

Sys_ZERO