phpthumb.php and server overload

MODX Revo 2.2.5
mysql
PHP Version 5.2.17

Using TinyMCE as I would expect clients to do while editing their website. Inserted an image using the toolbar button and searching through the assets folder as they would - a fairly small .jpg (about 12k) image. Moments later my hosting service called with a ticket and statement that they had disabled phpthumb.php due to system overload.

Anyone else had this one? What is the fix?

Thanks in advance.

Jane

It sounds like your host has some very strict resource limits in place. The only solution is avoiding the use of phpthumb (hard as it's part of MODX File Manager), or switch hosting companies to a more MODX friendly host.

Thank you for your reply AMDbuilder!
Their limits are 25% server load and they cut off the offending script.
I've used the process previously without any problems...had just updated this site to 2.2.5. Haven't had time yet to run some additional tests on sites that aren't live.
Will try to do that soon and will post results here.
BTW-no errors were listed in the cpanel error log or MODX error log.
Thanks again for your reply.

Since I don't know what happened to this site to cause the phpthumb.php to execute continuously I've had to restore the site from the backup I made just prior to updating to 2.2.5. My ISP will not allow the script to execute unless I can assure them that this problem won't happen again - and since I don't know exactly why the script launched/relaunched and went into endless looping (just what I was doing at the moment which was pretty mundane) my only recourse is to go back to the old version.

Just as another aid to understanding - I don't modify scripts for MODX and have the following packages installed:

tinymce
taglister
quip
getresources
getpage
archivist
gallery
formit
wayfinder
easycopyright

All are/were up to date.

(heavy sigh)

I suspect Gallery is the culprit, it's been known to cause high load on some of our servers, granted not to the point we have shut anyone down.

Upgrading to 2.2.5 is unlikely to be the cause.

Thank you AMDbuilder - I'm not certain what else I can do to help determine exactly what the problem is. My accounts are all on shared servers so running tests is out of the question. Of course even on a dedicated server the other accounts would be impacted. Have a spare computer now that could be converted to a server, but that will take me some time.
Any thoughts on a way to test this out?

Install XAMPP or WAMP on your current machine. I like XAMPP personally. If you do, make sure to take a look at Bob's Guides documentation on using MODX with XAMPP.

This looks promising for load testing with Apache:
http://www.developertutorials.com/tutorials/php/load-testing-your-web-application-with-apache-bench-316/

Doing a local test you will have a full dedicated server more or less, ideally you should test it with another host to see if they have issues. If you want I can set you up with an account on one of our server for a month. If you still have issues then it's related to the site and further digging is required, but if it's problem free your current host is just too restrictive.

We had similar problems with phpthumb clogging up the server CPU. The only difference is that we had more than 700 images in one folder that needed to be phpthumb'ed. Fix was to upgrade the server CPU and RAM, and create a dedicated phpthumb cachefolder.

https://forums.modx.com/thread/72590/phpthumbof-really-slow-on-first-pageview#dis-post-407672

I have this exact problem. ModX 2.2.4 running on a dedicated server. Opening the image file browser either via the files tab or the RTE causes phpthumb to spawn tons of processes and the load on the server jumps astronomically, thereby bringing the server to it's knees. phpthumb doesn't seem to be using the cached files it's creating, ever.