Arvixe Hosting and Internal Server Error

I keep getting ‘Internal Server Error’ on a Piwik install using Arvixe hosting. There are no other domains hosted. The install was done using their cpanel and then upgraded to 1.10.1 a week or so back while this issue was happening. I have not done any customisation other than adding the 3 sites.

Arvixe are saying

Piwiki works fine on our hosting server and all its requirement are met on our server. But the resource usage is limited as you are hosted on a shared server. You will need to optimize the website and keep it under check. Incase you website require much more resources, you will need to consider upgrading the plan to business class.

I can see that website wlp444.com is loading pretty fine from our end now. It could be showing 500 error when the traffic for the website is high. Please optimize the website or upgrade the plan to resolve the issue.

I have three low usage sites, which probably average at most 1 visitor per day. Peak might be 3 visitors and Arvixe are saying this is using too much resource!

They posted this last week

After analyzing the process log for your account, I found a few processes which could have caused this.

wlp444 wlp444.com 30.0 /usr/bin/php /home/wlp444/public_html/index.php
wlp444 wlp444.com 35.0 /usr/bin/php /home/wlp444/public_html/index.php
wlp444 wlp444.com 18.3 httpd [wlp444.com] [/index.php?moduleProxy&actiongetCss&cbf02cadb9d03d984eee]

The numeric indicate the % of CPU used. From the last process, I get the impression that a module installed is causing this. Try uninstalling the modules and see if that helps.

Most often it is a corrupt plugin which causes such issues (high processes which result in internal server errors).

which doesn’t help me at all as I haven’t added any modules.

Unless there is a bug in Piwik, I cannot see any reason why this install would use resources… Any ideas?

Alternatively, can anyone recommend a better hosting solution…? :frowning:

Would be nice to get some error logs output. I have used hostgator for 2 years and no real hassles. I have had an avg volume though 10K per day pvsso nothing huge. How much memray have you allocated to php.ini?

There’s nothing showing in the error logs in cpanel. I haven’t touched php.ini - it’s a stock install via cpanel.

what is the path of the error logs you looked at? can you check to see what those php memory settings are?

Hello,

My name is Ryan and I am the server operations manager at Arvixe. I want to work with you to come to a resolution regarding these issue you are facing. If you could please provide me your most recent ticket(s) regarding this so I can take a look, it would go to great lengths to getting this resolved and figuring out exactly what went wrong. I do apologize for the inconvenience you are facing. If you would to speak further privately, my email is ryan (at) arvixe (dot) com.

Thank you for your patience and understanding.

[quote=lesjokolat]
what is the path of the error logs you looked at? can you check to see what those php memory settings are?[/quote]
OK found php.ini

memory_limit = 512M;

Hi ok that should be more than enough. Are you using an htaccess file at your root web folder? If applicable can you check your suhosin memory limit?

I heard some hosts need to whitelist your site or else it can cause the 500 error so maybe have them look at that.

Hello,

We do not actively deploy suhosin across any of our servers, rather making use of a rather vanilla suPHP deployment. We do, and always have made use of CloudLinux. About a year ago, we only offered 1GB of memory per Personal Class customer, but over the last 6 months, this has been increased to 3.1GB. With that being said, this account is using all of its 3.1GB at a time, multiple times throughout a day. Over the last 24 hours, there have been no issues, but over the past 7 days, I can see multiple “faults” which are logged in your cPanel under Resource usage. It’s important to note I installed a test copy of Piwik and had multiple Arvixe staff as well as my self attempt to browse to it on this server. Not once was I able to get it over a few hundred megabytes. As I’ve referenced in your ticket, it appears to be something specific to your configuration or deployment of the script. While we go out of our way to attempt to resolve these types of issues, the wide array of scripts available today, it becomes increasingly hard to troubleshoot every single type of situation.I recommend keeping this in mind and taking perhaps some of my suggestions mentioned in the ticket. On our Business Class, we offer 9.1GB of memory, and while I still feel this is a configuration issue of some sort, it is worth mentioning I feel.

Thank you Ryan for posting here!

@Rick88 have you customized your piwik in any way?

No, not that I remember. I’ve done a complete reinstall to see if that will fix it.

Unfortunately a reinstall hasn’t fixed this. I tried installing on another host and I’m not seeing any issues with that install. I suspect it’s something in the Arvixe hosting - I don’t have the time or technical resources to try and debug.

Hello,

I apologize for the inconvenience, and appreciate your patience.
I’ve spoke with the server manager Ryan who’s assured me that this is now resolved.

If you have any issues moving forward, please feel free to contact us at qa [at] arvixe.com
We appreciate your understanding.

Thank you!

Hello Everyone,

I’ve attempted to reach out to the billing contact on file for the account (A Terry?) in this circumstance in an attempt to get this resolved once and for all. We appreciate your patience.

[quote=adam.arvixe]
Hello,

I apologize for the inconvenience, and appreciate your patience.
I’ve spoke with the server manager Ryan who’s assured me that this is now resolved.

If you have any issues moving forward, please feel free to contact us at qa [at] arvixe.com
We appreciate your understanding.

Thank you![/quote]
That is not true. Arvixe failed to fix the issue and refuse to refund the hosting fee.

This is what I posted on their support ticket.

I have installed Piwik on another host and have run it for 5 days now with no issues. I do not have the time nor tech resources to sort this, so I think the only solution is to cancel the hosting.

So now I’m down $132 for nothing. Use Arvixe at your own risk.

I assure you that we can get you refunded for the time that you paid for that was not used. We do not advertise such policy for abuse, but management approval allows us to do so. We would like to work with you and ensure that the issues have been resolved as we have recently doubled the CPU and memory that we are providing to all of our customers across all of our shared hosting plans. We would like your feedback to attempt to determine if this bump is enough to allow the application to function properly. If you would please email me at ryan (at) arvixe (dot) com so I can work with you regarding this, it would be appreciated.

I have had no practical use from your hosting. Compare that with an install I did last week on an alternative hosting - I’ve seen no issues whatsoever. It just works.

For quite some time you have been claiming

For fast, secure and reliable Piwik Hosting, look no further than Arvixe for all your web hosting related needs. This Arvixe hosting plan will be preloaded with a fully configured installation of Piwik Analytics.
It provides everything you need to get you up and running within minutes.

I quoted this on 17 January 2013 and 25 January 2013. As I said several times in the support ticket, Piwik was installed via your own cpanel, with no modifications… And has three very low usage sites being monitored… and your hosting doesn’t handle that…

@Rick88 it may be a temporary issue with your account, I would recommend try to work with arvixe by email as they will surely help you.

Dozens of small Piwik users are working very well with Arvixe, so it can work for you too!

And in any case you can ask for a refund, like Ryan proposed. Hope it helps.

Matt is right, we do have many Piwik users, and with the doubled CPU and memory, I really think this would have resolved your issue. Regardless, although I would like to work with you to ensure we have came to a proper resolution, and Matt, as we value our partnership with your company, if you would like to get with me to ensure we are still complaint and that your script does still actively work on our servers without issues, I’m always available and ready to get something setup (ryan (at) arvixe (dot) com).

I’ve responded back to your ticket Rick, and although our payment gateway only allows for processing of refunds up to 60 days, we can cut you a check for the time remaining on the account (minus any domain fees, etc which are non refundable). We appreciate your understanding. We will simply need your address of where you want the refund mailed.

Again, we do apologize that you were not successful in getting your Piwik install deployed on our servers, and assure you we take this as a serious issue and are working to prevent a recurrence.

[quote=matt]
@Rick88 it may be a temporary issue with your account, I would recommend try to work with arvixe by email as they will surely help you.

Dozens of small Piwik users are working very well with Arvixe, so it can work for you too!

And in any case you can ask for a refund, like Ryan proposed. Hope it helps.[/quote]
My install was done via Arvixe Cpanel. Twice. What exactly should I have done over and above that to make this work? I do not see how dozens of other users would work well when mine didn’t. Why would Ryan have to double the cpu and memory to resolve the issue if dozens of other user where running just fine?

By contrast I installed via cpanel on vidahost shared hosting and I’ve had no issues whatsoever. How do you explain that?

I’ve asked for a complete refund.