NationStates

When I attempted to access the forums a few minutes ago I received this error:

General Error
SQL ERROR [ mysqli ]

Too many connections [1040]

BACKTRACE

FILE: includes/db/mysqli.php
LINE: 78
CALL: dbal->sql_error()

FILE: common.php
LINE: 210
CALL: dbal_mysqli->sql_connect()

FILE: index.php
LINE: 20
CALL: include('common.php')

I am sure it is a lot of connections being made but I am wondering what's causing this?

Thanks.

I got that for a bit too.

The MySQL server can only accept so many connections at one time, similar to how an FTP server can only accept so many users.

It's bad practice to show technical details of your errors to the public as they may be able to use them to hack your systems.

same here

I got it too. It works now. Now all we need is an explanation and a vaccine against future happenings.

The site and forum admin have been informed already of this error, as mods have already got this error earlier. It is being taken care of.

It happened again and I took its picture!

same:

General Error
SQL ERROR [ mysqli ]

Too many connections [1040]

BACKTRACE


FILE: includes/db/mysqli.php
LINE: 78
CALL: dbal->sql_error()

FILE: common.php
LINE: 210
CALL: dbal_mysqli->sql_connect()

FILE: posting.php
LINE: 17
CALL: include('common.php')

Saaaaaame...

Flammable Ice wrote:It's bad practice to show technical details of your errors to the public as they may be able to use them to hack your systems.

Yes, and did you know that many notebook computers are highly aerodynamic? If you drop yours out of a high window it may be able to cruise on a thermal and return to your hands!

I haven't gotten that specific error, just a few 500 Internal Server errors, which go away if you refresh.

Flammable Ice wrote:It's bad practice to show technical details of your errors to the public as they may be able to use them to hack your systems.

Security through obscurity is bad practice. The reason things like wikipedia and open source work is because the overwhelming majority of people are good-natured. I prefer to hear about our bugs.

But not ten times. Please no more "me too"s unless you have something to contribute.

Forum traffic has been rising steadily -- I think it's growing pains. The server itself is holding up well, though, so I think we just need some software tweaks. We'll get it fixed.

Pythagosaurus wrote:Security through obscurity is bad practice. The reason things like wikipedia and open source work is because the overwhelming majority of people are good-natured. I prefer to hear about our bugs.

I am not advocating security through obscurity. I am saying you can get the system to automatically notify you of problems, including their technical details, while having the users see a (relatively) friendly page like "We are experiencing technical difficulties and apologise for the inconvenience".

My posts are exactly the type of good-natured contributions you claim to be in favour of, and yet I receive criticism. Oh well.

Flammable Ice wrote:I am not advocating security through obscurity. I am saying you can get the system to automatically notify you of problems, including their technical details, while having the users see a (relatively) friendly page like "We are experiencing technical difficulties and apologise for the inconvenience".

My posts are exactly the type of good-natured contributions you claim to be in favour of, and yet I receive criticism. Oh well.

They're running a (relatively) vanilla phpBB3. You can go download the whole source of the forum system and look at exactly how it works if you want. Hiding their error messages will do nothing to improve security, while letting them appear provides another way for them to be reported, if the automated reporting system fails for some reason (like, for example, the forum being under heavy load and locking up).

UNIverseVERSE wrote:

Flammable Ice wrote:I am not advocating security through obscurity. I am saying you can get the system to automatically notify you of problems, including their technical details, while having the users see a (relatively) friendly page like "We are experiencing technical difficulties and apologise for the inconvenience".

My posts are exactly the type of good-natured contributions you claim to be in favour of, and yet I receive criticism. Oh well.

They're running a (relatively) vanilla phpBB3. You can go download the whole source of the forum system and look at exactly how it works if you want.

I see what you mean. My suggestion only really applies to bespoke softare.

if the automated reporting system fails for some reason (like, for example, the forum being under heavy load and locking up).

I would hope phpBB3 sets an artificial maximum load, rather than letting system resources be exhausted.

Flammable Ice wrote:I see what you mean. My suggestion only really applies to bespoke softare.

Even in that case it's flawed -- better to report what went wrong in a useful way, so that your clients know how to fix it and what caused it. If the technical detail in your error messages permits a security breach, you've got some very major issues with your software anyway -- namely, it being crap. Hiding the crap won't help against a determined attacker.

Flammable Ice wrote:I would hope phpBB3 sets an artificial maximum load, rather than letting system resources be exhausted.

So would I, but I haven't actually looked at the internals. It also means that any technically minded users can suggest fixes -- one of the key principles of Open Source is that "many eyes make bugfixing easy".

UNIverseVERSE wrote:Even in that case it's flawed -- better to report what went wrong in a useful way, so that your clients know how to fix it and what caused it. If the technical detail in your error messages permits a security breach, you've got some very major issues with your software anyway -- namely, it being crap. Hiding the crap won't help against a determined attacker.

I don't think I expressed myself very well, but this is a thread-jack now, I think, so I'll stop.