lost database connection - 2nd time!

Hi, I don’t know this is the problem with my webhost or the Modx. It has been the second time I found I can’t login to the manager, it gives me "Failed to create the database connection! Please run the MODx install utility", needless to say I can’t see my site too.

It first happened about 10 days ago, everything went back to normal after 10 minutes or so, first I thought it must be that I mis-clicked something in the system configuration as I was there checking something. It gave me a 500 Internal Server Error error, because I just turned on the friendly URLs, and although it was working, I thought maybe it wasn’t working properly so I removed the ’.htaccess’ files from the server, I wasn’t immediately check the page after the files removed, but I think I did check it few minutes later and I was certain it didn’t work, however few minutes later everything went back to normal.

This time, it has been over an hour. I wasn’t working on my site yesterday and can’t remember if I ever check my website since Sunday night. My web host is Dreamhost, but there is no report of problem at dreamhost status.

Anybody ever experience such thing? I never have similar problem with Etomite and TextPattern and is a bit panic now.

thanks!

tgp

The "Failed to create the database connection" error points to an error with the database server itself. Probably over shared server and it can’t handle all connections.

EDIT: DreamHost is famous of having power outages and it could be that.. check this

EDIT2: And this.. not looking very promising after a quick googling.. I guess you are already familiar with this site?

Dreamhost does from time to time have issues. As far as cheap hosting goes though, it’s pretty good, but as with most cheap hosting, you usually get what you pay for. There will be outages and inexplicable performance hiccoughs, it’s just a matter of when and for how long.

(Full disclosure: I’m a former customer of Valueweb, Dreamhost and Serverbeach, in that order ... at the Planet for two+ years... Dedicated servers since Serverbeach...)

Quote from: rthrash at Apr 03, 2007, 08:14 AM

Dreamhost does from time to time have issues. As far as cheap hosting goes though, it’s pretty good, but as with most cheap hosting, you usually get what you pay for. There will be outages and inexplicable performance hiccoughs, it’s just a matter of when and for how long.

It did has many problem the first two months I signed up, but everything has improved lately, nevertheless, I do consider to move to a new host when this one is due for renewal. I am just curious though, there are 4 domains hosted, 2 are static html sites and one is using Modx, the other TextPattern, TextPattern has no problem at all. Just make a dummy html page to the one with Modx, I can see the page fine, but my Modx’s site is still gone. Haven’t get reply from Dreamhost; would it be something in Modx casuing database corruption? If Dreamhost insists that there is nothing wrong with the server, what should I proceed?

Thanks!
tgp

Lots of things can cause database corruption when servers are starved for resources. It’s the gamble you take when sharing a server with other unknown users.

Are the two sites using the exactly same database server? Of course static html will work, but if modx cannot connect to the database server, it won’t work

Thanks for the reply. No, they are using seperated database.

rthrash, thanks for your feedback. I do understand there is a risk using a shared server, but I get what I am able to pay

If my question has slightest implication that I think Modx is causing the lost connection, I apologize. I am not accusing Modx nor saying it must be the reason, I am simply trying to find the possible cause from different directions by asking questions.

tgp

I don’t think anyone here would be angry at you for asking if it’s possible that MODx has something to do with you losing the database connection. People here are pretty open and friendly, and they have the confidence of knowing they’re working on a great project. So they’ll tell you that MODx most likely isn’t to blame, but they won’t flame you for asking or anything like that.

Any database application could be the cause, including MODx. I don’t think MODx is particularly hard on databases though unless you’ve got poorly implemented snippets or possibly some really odd corner case that we need to nail down indeed.

yes, i’m not angry or anything like that. English is not my mothertongue and sometimes i might sound harsh even if i’m not trying to. usually i havent got enough time/energy to try to write pretty anyways.. If the two sites are on a different dbserver you cannot compare them. The problem simply is that the host dbserver that modx is set to use is unreachable.