Blank White Screen on Homepage - even after trying all known fixes

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2,502 Posts

Jay Gilmore Reply #11, 10 years, 9 months ago

This does sound like some sort of resources issue. That being said. If you're using phpThumbOf widely, it has significant issues with large numbers of images and they way it caches/fetches new. The recent phpThumbsUp seems a good replacement for the front end. I am curious if all those logos at the bottom are generated using phpThumb.

On the hosts listed at modx.com/services, we do not have a vetting process, however, if we hear reports of issues with hosts that cannot or do not support MODX or provide a sub-par hosting experience, we always reserve the right to remove them. From anecdotal reports from MODXers, for most websites Site5 and Arvixe are good. We have business relationships with them as well as A2 Hosting, MODX Site Sponsor (with whom we encountered and resolved issues with the default Softaculous install of Revo (it bypasses environment checks in the normal MODX install process). Of course Skytoaster are involved in the community as is OneSmartHost (a Windows hosting company in the UK.) All of the aforementioned hosts are responsive to customer needs and generally work with their subscribers to solve problems. I have had personal experience with HostDime, in Florida and have heard good things of GlowHost.

My (personal) recommendation for finding the right hosting is asking people you trust (who know what they are talking about). All hosting environments will have issues, understanding how easy it is to get your problem solved with appropriate information and with tech support from the host, is critical. Good tech support is worth more than the price of most shared hosting. If you have one major problem that can be solved quickly by contacting support vs spending days trying to wade through logs on your own, why wouldn't you.

Another note is that we as web developers/designers and site builders have helped perpetuate the myth that all hosting is the same and that cheap hosting is good hosting. I am not suggesting this is the case for you, however, literally have this conversation on a weekly basis. Clients, who don't know anything about hosting, look at the price tag and go, "that's right for my online presence" The right hosting, is the one that is trustworthy, capable of handling your needs for today and tomorrow and can quickly help solve problems when they arise. GoDaddy is not a hosting company, they are a cross-sell/upsell company that uses hosting as the lure/hook. The cost of moving hosts is significant psychologically and sometimes financially and therefore it's a great business to be in. I certainly don't blame people for choosing GoDaddy as their brand is well known and in our world (especially in the North American market) that often is equated with trustworthy.

As I step off my soap box, I would love to see you come to a solution on this site, keep asking for help and sharing your findings.

Author of zero books. Formerly of many strange things. Pairs well with meats. Conversations are magical experiences. He's dangerous around code but a markup magician. Blog ✦ Twitter ✦ LinkedIn ✦ GitHub

19 Posts

Evan Reply #12, 10 years, 9 months ago

Thanks everyone for the thoughtful and measured responses. I do want to clarify that I DID find the Apache Logs on the GoDaddy server, but after digging through them I don't see anything that really correlates with the down site. The directory that Error Logs would normally be kept is empty, still working on that. I also have a developer friend here in Denver that owns a site called Unified Logging <http://www.unifiedlogging.com/> and he is going to help me get set up with his service to start keeping track of errors. There are a variety of connectors, including a "generic" PHP file that works with any PHP application as an include as well as a WordPress plugin. If anyone here would be interested in this service, and would want to take a stab at creating a MODx AddOn from his work, let me know.

That said, I believe the best course of action at this time will be to move hosts, and I appreciate everyone's recommendations here. I've never thought of GoDaddy as a "good" host, simply a convenient one. And since most of the sites I've built on MODx using their service have been predominantly hassle free I've stuck with it as a recommendation. However, their continued degradation of customer service and these hosting issues are leading me towards finding a new solution. Besides, in every other aspect of my life I make every attempt to support the people that support me and shop local whenever I can—as an avid cyclist I ride bikes made in Colorado. I drink local craft beer. When possible I avoid big box stores and patronize local merchants. Why should web hosting be any different, especially if value and service can be better?

Quote from: smashingred at Jul 24, 2013, 12:28 PM

This does sound like some sort of resources issue. That being said. If you're using phpThumbOf widely, it has significant issues with large numbers of images and they way it caches/fetches new. The recent phpThumbsUp seems a good replacement for the front end. I am curious if all those logos at the bottom are generated using phpThumb.

Thanks for the heads up on this. The logos at the bottom are not being generated by phpThumbOf, they are simply hard-coded into a chunk that I have to manage if a logo is added or deleted. The client has expressed a desire for a better way to manage those logos, and a MIGX template variable with phpThumbOf would have been my first thought. Good to know phpThumbsUp might be a better solution for this.

Quote from: smashingred at Jul 24, 2013, 12:28 PM

On the hosts listed at modx.com/services, we do not have a vetting process, however, if we hear reports of issues with hosts that cannot or do not support MODX or provide a sub-par hosting experience, we always reserve the right to remove them. From anecdotal reports from MODXers, for most websites Site5 and Arvixe are good. We have business relationships with them as well as A2 Hosting, MODX Site Sponsor (with whom we encountered and resolved issues with the default Softaculous install of Revo (it bypasses environment checks in the normal MODX install process). Of course Skytoaster are involved in the community as is OneSmartHost (a Windows hosting company in the UK.) All of the aforementioned hosts are responsive to customer needs and generally work with their subscribers to solve problems. I have had personal experience with HostDime, in Florida and have heard good things of GlowHost.

I appreciate the transparency here. These and other recommendations are what I will be looking in to. A2 Hosting looks like it may a good option, since you've worked with them to make the Softaculous install work well. Or do the other hosts Softaculous installations work fine? Having an installer that works well is pretty clutch for me, until core upgrades MODx are made available through the Package Manager. wink

Quote from: smashingred at Jul 24, 2013, 12:28 PM

My (personal) recommendation for finding the right hosting is asking people you trust (who know what they are talking about). All hosting environments will have issues, understanding how easy it is to get your problem solved with appropriate information and with tech support from the host, is critical. Good tech support is worth more than the price of most shared hosting. If you have one major problem that can be solved quickly by contacting support vs spending days trying to wade through logs on your own, why wouldn't you.

Good advice here.

Quote from: smashingred at Jul 24, 2013, 12:28 PM

Another note is that we as web developers/designers and site builders have helped perpetuate the myth that all hosting is the same and that cheap hosting is good hosting. I am not suggesting this is the case for you, however, literally have this conversation on a weekly basis. Clients, who don't know anything about hosting, look at the price tag and go, "that's right for my online presence" The right hosting, is the one that is trustworthy, capable of handling your needs for today and tomorrow and can quickly help solve problems when they arise. GoDaddy is not a hosting company, they are a cross-sell/upsell company that uses hosting as the lure/hook. The cost of moving hosts is significant psychologically and sometimes financially and therefore it's a great business to be in. I certainly don't blame people for choosing GoDaddy as their brand is well known and in our world (especially in the North American market) that often is equated with trustworthy.

This is 100% true, and I'm as guilty as anyone for perpetuating the myth here. My desire for a single entity to handle one-click install/upgrades, DNS management, domain registration, etc. coupled with my desire to NOT become a reseller/VPS manager has kept me with GoDaddy for a while. I'm learning that there are other, more reputable, hosts that offer these things and are competitively priced. This thread has been a good place to start. I've searched these forums for hosting recommendations before, and didn't seem to turn up anything. The process of moving hosts is significant, and one that I find difficult to explain to clients. Tough to say "You need to move everything over to host X because host Y is the issue. I realize I recommended host Y in the first place, but clearly I was wrong. Oh, and you're going to have to pay me for my time to do all this." At the end of the day, spending the time NOW (billable or not) for a more stable hosting long-term is worth it. And as much as I haven't wanted to become a reseller or manage a hosted server of some sort, is it any better or worse than managing a bunch of shared hosting accounts all of which have different usernames and passwords, etc.?

Quote from: smashingred at Jul 24, 2013, 12:28 PM

As I step off my soap box, I would love to see you come to a solution on this site, keep asking for help and sharing your findings.

I'm looking forward to being a valuable part of the MODx community, even if it is in a limited "Front End Developer/Designer" capacity.

The older I get, the faster I was.

http://www.evanchute.com/

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Frogabog Reply #13, 10 years, 9 months ago

Quote from: full at Jul 24, 2013, 04:46 PM

And as much as I haven't wanted to become a reseller or manage a hosted server of some sort, is it any better or worse than managing a bunch of shared hosting accounts all of which have different usernames and passwords, etc.?

That's the key point for me, the reseller account for the most part has simply allowed me to be in control of the sites that I do manage for clients in the most convenient way, for me. Having one login and a single list of the sites that am "in charge of" offers me the convenience that I do not have with my clients hosted elsewhere. I get a small payment monthly or yearly for hosting, it pays for the hosting itself and offers a little more for a few coffees per month. Shrug... better than a punch in the nose, eh? I find managing my reseller hosting to be simple, and as with most things, once it's set up it simply works all on it's own.

After succumbing to actually "advertising" that I host on my website, those clients that I offer it to are able to buy and setup hosting online. That makes them happy, and I'm happy because I don't even have to set up the accounts (I use WHMCS). It also offers another perk for those of us who like to buy local (or buy "real", not all my clients are local). I can sell the hosting while selling a project easy enough because I am a real person, and generally people like that idea. I still retain my support perks because my hosting provider is also real. If there's a problem, especially a MODX problem that I can't solve myself, all I do is contact my hosting support.

I haven't had a lot of luck with the install scripts on other hosts, and as a result am still a proponent of installing and upgrading MODX manually despite the presence of such scripts. It's not a bad idea to know how to do that anyway and it really doesn't take much time. That being said, I've been using the Softaculous installer lately at SkyToaster and it has proven so far to be just fine. I don't know what the issues were that Jay refers to at A2, but I can say that they don't seem to exist at SkyToaster, and I know for a fact that they themselves use the script.

I guess my long winded point is... reseller is a convenient way to offer shared hosting to select clients and is no more painful than maintaining multiple logins and dealing with the various cPanel setups on multiple hosts. Plus, you get paid a little bit, regularly. When the 2.2.8 security update came out last month, updating all my sites took about 20 minutes total, and I even did the upgrades manually, navigating between accounts through my cPanel. I've been known to host for free if a client is paid up with another host simply to get the client off hosting that causes me troubles, for my own convenience and in the end they pay me for continued hosting. Win win for everyone!

Frogabog- MODX Websites in Portland Oregon
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Mark Hamstra Reply #14, 10 years, 9 months ago

Evan,

Sorry I derailed this thread into a host-recommendation fest (Patrick and others here are right that I recommend SkyToaster though - I have the affiliate link to back that up, hehe), despite all your information to prevent that from happening, but I am glad yet another person is moving from GoDaddy.

That said. If you manage to get hold of the error logs at some point (it does sound like that's going to be tricky if the folder is empty), timed with your down time notices from pingdom we should be able to see if anything stands out. There might be some information in the apache (access) logs, but that likely wont tell more than "this is when it went down". They might be useful for seeing how busy it was right before it went down (the times seem fairly random) which could confirm it's a resources problem - but that doesn't bring much of a solution other than moving/upgrading.

Mark Hamstra • Developer spending his days working on Premium Extras and a MODX Site Dashboard with the ability to remotely upgrade MODX and extras to make the MODX world a little better.

Tweet me @mark_hamstra, check my infrequent blog at markhamstra.com, my slightly more frequent ramblings at MODX.today or see code at Github.

19 Posts

Evan Reply #15, 10 years, 9 months ago

Quote from: markh at Jul 26, 2013, 04:05 AM

Sorry I derailed this thread into a host-recommendation fest (Patrick and others here are right that I recommend SkyToaster though - I have the affiliate link to back that up, hehe), despite all your information to prevent that from happening, but I am glad yet another person is moving from GoDaddy.

No worries, it's all good information and I appreciate the discussion.

Quote from: markh at Jul 26, 2013, 04:05 AM

That said. If you manage to get hold of the error logs at some point (it does sound like that's going to be tricky if the folder is empty), timed with your down time notices from pingdom we should be able to see if anything stands out. There might be some information in the apache (access) logs, but that likely wont tell more than "this is when it went down". They might be useful for seeing how busy it was right before it went down (the times seem fairly random) which could confirm it's a resources problem - but that doesn't bring much of a solution other than moving/upgrading.

I believe my plan/strategy is going include moving all of my clients to a new host with better MODx capabilities, although I'm not sure what that timeframe looks like at this point. As for the GoDaddy error logs, I can attach or upload what I have for the last few days. However, they don't look very helpful, I quickly scanned through them and every line looks something like this:

[Mon Jul 29 11:59:17 2013] [10049833] [dir:error] [client 85.17.156.11:42633] Inside mod_dir, setting document_root to PARENT_DOCUMENT_ROOT : /var/chroot/home/content/33/10049833/html
[Mon Jul 29 11:59:17 2013] [10049833] [dir:error] [client 85.17.156.11:42633] Inside mod_dir, setting document_root to PARENT_DOCUMENT_ROOT : /var/chroot/home/content/33/10049833/html
[Mon Jul 29 11:59:17 2013] [10049833] [dir:error] [client 85.17.156.11:42633] Inside mod_dir, setting document_root to PARENT_DOCUMENT_ROOT : /var/chroot/home/content/33/10049833/html
[Mon Jul 29 11:59:17 2013] [10049833] [dir:error] [client 85.17.156.11:42633] Inside mod_dir, setting document_root to PARENT_DOCUMENT_ROOT : /var/chroot/home/content/33/10049833/html

The other hitch in the giddyup is this: I found out the MODx date/timezone setting was different than the server timezone setting in php.ini, so tracking down what happened and at what time might be a chore. I changed the date/timezone settings in MODx to my local time, and at the least the last 5 errors in the Manager error log (attached to this post) appear to be correct. The rest of them are probably GMT, and I believe I am -6:00 GMT here in Denver. Arrrrgh. At any rate, if the info contained in the GoDaddy error logs aren't going to help at all, it's pretty much not worth continuing down this road.

For posterity, here's when Pingdom said the site went blank. These down times will be 24 hour local time:

7/18/2013 - 18:45:50
7/18/2013 - 20:17:50
7/18/2013 - 18:04:50
7/18/2013 - 10:30:50
7/18/2013 - 5:11:50
7/19/2013 - 15:50:50
7/20/2013 - 13:51:50
7/20/2013 - 7:55:50
7/22/2013 - 4:45:50
7/22/2013 - 7:47:50
7/22/2013 - 23:55:50
7/23/2013 - 7:21:50
7/23/2013 - 20:49:50
7/24/2013 - 7:25:50
7/25/2013 - 0:10:50
7/26/2013 - 2:28:50
7/26/2013 - 6:19:50
7/26/2013 - 11:51:50
7/28/2013 - 0:06:50
7/28/2013 - 13:26:50
7/28/2013 - 21:45:50

As of just a few minutes ago today I globally disabled the cache for the site, as a quick experiment to see if that stops the blank screen from happening at all. It's a small site, so my hopes are that it doesn't run too awfully slow for the time being until I can find time to migrate sites to a new hosting situation.

Again, thanks everyone for replies and recommendations.

The older I get, the faster I was.

http://www.evanchute.com/

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AMDbuilder Reply #16, 10 years, 9 months ago

Hello,

I took a quick look through your attached error log and there is one error popping out regularly:

[2013-07-18 05:11:50] (ERROR in xPDOConnection::connect @ /home/content/33/10049833/html/core/xpdo/xpdo.class.php : 3003) SQLSTATE[HY000] [2003] Can't connect to MySQL server on 'enc1231003211320.db.10049833.hostedresource.com' (111)

You generally see these errors on overloaded servers, or if MySQL has crashed for some reason. This could be causing the blank pages if MySQL is failing when the cache is being updated. In either case moving the site to new hosting would be recommended to eliminate that problem. Also bringing MySQL on the same server should reduce your load times and avoid the DNS lookup to a remote server.

If you would like to try the site on a different server, see if the issue persists I can set you up with a trial account on one of our servers. We can also help you with migrations if you don't have the time, and would just prefer it done.

I hope that helps some

Patrick | Server Wrangler
About Me: Website | Tweets | MODX Hosting

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sottwell Reply #17, 10 years, 9 months ago

As far as moving hosts, so far I've had no problems using the Vapor script. Run it as directed on the original site, install the same version on the new host, put the package generated by Vapor in the new site's core/packages, install like any other package in Package Manager. Done.

One thing that's really fun is you can ssh into the original site, and from there use scp to the new site (or vice verse), and the transfer of the package is as fast as the two servers's connections. No need to download to your local machine, then upload to the new server. Well, that's if you have ssh access to both servers.

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Willi Waizenegger Reply #18, 8 years, 9 months ago

I see this is a really old thread but I do need to resurrect it since I'm experiencing this on multiple sites spread over multiple servers.

Most of the problems manifest themselves as white blank pages, but not always that drastic. The sites range from v 2.2.6 to v.2.3.3. A v.2.3.3 site problem manifested itself recently with a mysterious disappearance of the Wayfinder menu on the frontend. Clearing the cache from the control panel brought it back. The site does not have PhpThumb. It also has both compress_css and compress_js turned off. The error log in MODx control panel is clear. Permission is 755 on the core>cache directory.

This problem manifests itself intermittently and I cannot reproduce on purpose. Sometimes it manifests once daily...other times weeks go by between whiteouts/menu disappearances. The other day I came to work to find 5 MODx sites with problems, a mixture of complete front-end whiteouts or simply having the Wayfinder navigation menu disappeared. In all cases, simply clearing the cache within the control panel brings the site back.

I'm also of the mind that this is somehow server-level related but am having one heck of a time tracking it down (I'm also a front-end designer/developer and not a server/php guru). We have many MODx sites spread out through various servers by the same host (KnownHost). The host has been willing to help but they cannot identify any particular thing that stands out. The server error logs only point to multiple entries that ImageMagic was missing (due to a recent upgrade with our servers...to more than enough horsepower to run MODx by the way) and we had the host put it back on all servers, but unfortunately I experienced another whiteout this morning, so that's not it.

As previously stated, we are running MODx on multiple servers and as we understand it, all configured the same. We had migrated most our installs from servers running Direct Admin to servers running cPanel and interestingly, the ones running Direct Admin don't exhibit any issues. We have three servers running cPanel and one seems more snarky than the others. Another has a few occurrences and the third hasn't exhibited the problems yet. Our two Direct Admin servers have been good so far but we really want to move away from them.

This problem seems to be getting chronic and as I see, has been an issue for many people for years. I'm thinking this alone makes this problem something that needs to be addressed with more urgency. Hard to keep recommending the system to clients like this.

Thank you in advance.

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BobRay Reply #19, 8 years, 9 months ago

It sounds like something is intermittently corrupting your cache. I've seen other similar reports but no one has found the cause or reported a permanent solution.

Are you running any cache-related extras (e.g., CacheMaster)?

Are you running any third-party caching software (e.g., APC, e-Accellerator, varnish, etc.)?

The only solutions I've seen involve either setting up a cron job to periodically clear the cache by running a PHP script that instantiates MODX, then does this:

$cm = $modx->getCacheManager();
$cm->refresh();

or having the script delete all files in the core/cache directory.

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Willi Waizenegger Reply #20, 8 years, 9 months ago

Thanks for replying, Bob.

None that I know of. The weird thing is that we didn't have this problem before moving the sites to new and more potent servers running cPanel; more RAM...better processors...etc, yet at the same host. Not sure if that has anything to do with anything but I'm at a loss.