Fast CGI

CoolKevin

Nutcase on the loose
Staff member
Super Moderator
Mar 30, 2007
9,992
3,594
Hello
I keep getting the fast cgi message again, it seems to be getting worse everyday, Thank you for listening
 

No!e

Discount Sushi Hunter
May 24, 2009
11
0
Cool, I'm glad to hear. As a newbie you often wonder whether the problems are locally experienced or otherwise.

Here's lookin' forward to Fast CGI free days!
 

techie

SuupaOtaku
Jul 24, 2008
568
4
That's exactly what happens. It's too busy because too many people are browsing it at the same time.

Not at all. If that was the case we would not experience these issues also when very few are surfing the forum.

I did some reading on it, and I won't discuss the back end to much but it's a script-thing-o-ma-jig. The solution is simple but in order not to take the forum off line completely while fixing the backend, it will take some time to resolve it.

Chompy and the fellows are working on it.
 

Rollyco

Team Tomoe
Oct 4, 2007
3,562
34
If that was the case we would not experience these issues also when very few are surfing the forum.
In reality Akiba-Online has two failure modes that produce the dreaded FastCGI 500 errors:

1) Too many users online.
2) Periodic crashing of the webserver every few minutes, regardless of load.

We're going to switch to Apache soon. That will prevent #2, but might not help much for #1.

The solution is simple
hopefully...
 

guy

(;Θ_Θ)ゝ”
Feb 11, 2007
2,079
43
In the meantime, here's an interesting tech preview, announced just a couple days ago:
[youtube]v_UyVmITiYQ[/youtube]

I can already envision that a lot of forum software will be rewritten to take advantage of Wave, and with the architecture of storing the "conversations" in a single location on Google servers, forum servers will only be charged with serving up CSS and site-specific scripts/media.
 

techie

SuupaOtaku
Jul 24, 2008
568
4
I am not really prop google considering only a few weeks ago, their cloud network went off line and caused people not being able to even log in to online banking because they rely on google analytics.

14% of the Internet usage in the US was off line for a good 4 hours straight.

This is a fact and I've been saying it for a long time.
Look at their policies... when will Googlemail come out of Beta?
Why release a Beta chat on googlemail that started out with locking you out of mail unless you altered settings first, manually, since they default-opt you in to beta versions.

What it will mean is a) forums can be monitored from a single location.
If for any reason a subpoena against google goes through a court, then the justice system has the right to weed through every blog and forum system on the planet that happens to be hosted on google servers?

b) If google doesn't like "having become a folkname" so to the extent that "googling" for information has become a new English word, then why even bother being all over the place as they are.

c) Once again, it's a fight for market shares, to prevent competition taking points from their core services. Especially with Bing from MS being around the corner by days only.

Next up, when will they actually focus on core services?

We all know that no one can be good at everything, so why not just focus on doing a few things really well, instead of doing everything "half-a$$ed"?
 

guy

(;Θ_Θ)ゝ”
Feb 11, 2007
2,079
43
Actually Google is (finally) taking a number of their products out of beta right now.

And if you look at the demonstration for Google Wave, you should take note that the project is fully open source, so it's possible to 1) freely modify the code for the purposes of addressing privacy concerns, or 2) simply install the code on your own server which means content will never land on Google servers (which was a big point that Lars made when he was discussing "federation").
 

japonaliya

Banned
Apr 1, 2007
872
9
Akiba-Online Access Problems...

For the last few weeks, maybe a month or so..whenever I try to log on, or read a new post etc. SOMETIMES, I get a blank pg. with this on it:

FastCGI Error
The FastCGI Handler was unable to process the request.

Error Details:

* The FastCGI process has failed frequently recently. Try the request again in a while
* Error Number: -2147467259 (0x80004005).
* Error Description: Unspecified error

HTTP Error 500 - Server Error.
Internet Information Services (IIS)


Is this a problem with the Akiba-Online server, or my computer..?

I have had some weird things happening to my PC, and think it maybe a failing video card.

So..might this be a prob. with my computer or computer hardware, or have others here had the same message occasionally?

Thanks..
 

kbryc08

Master Cheef
Super Moderator
Nov 17, 2006
1,277
160
For the last few weeks, maybe a month or so..whenever I try to log on, or read a new post etc. SOMETIMES, I get a blank pg. with this on it:

FastCGI Error
The FastCGI Handler was unable to process the request.

Error Details:

* The FastCGI process has failed frequently recently. Try the request again in a while
* Error Number: -2147467259 (0x80004005).
* Error Description: Unspecified error

HTTP Error 500 - Server Error.
Internet Information Services (IIS)


Is this a problem with the Akiba-Online server, or my computer..?

I have had some weird things happening to my PC, and think it maybe a failing video card.

So..might this be a prob. with my computer or computer hardware, or have others here had the same message occasionally?

Thanks..


It's not your computer, its a server issue.
 

Iloveidols

New Member
Jun 3, 2007
8
0
Maybe it is the additional usage due to.....

Scan Lover Forum has been off-line a couple of days now -
 

newsn

Member
Nov 1, 2007
894
23
When I first opened this thread I got the Fast CGI screen, halarious. Just hit the F5 key once or twice to refresh the page, this always does the trick for me.
 

techie

SuupaOtaku
Jul 24, 2008
568
4
I will try again to reply here as I got a FastCGI error when clicking post the last time.
---

In an attempt to settle the discussion on the reason behind the FastCGI let me shed some light on a few apparent facts about it's use.

a) As you see of the error message, the server is using Microsoft IIS for hosting http content.

b) FastCGI is a module provided by PHP to enable IIS to incorporate PHP in web sites it hosts.

c) IIS is in this case upgraded as far as we can get with all needed patches, however, FastCGI was a module for PHP designed for IIS 5.0, and is since the change of PHP to version above 5.2, not supported for use anymore.

Instead, PHP should incorporate use of an included ISAPI module, rather than running as a CGI.

d) The transition of the server to a new hosting software would 1/ greatly enhance serving speed and 2/ remove the need for referencing the old (no longer supported) Fast CGI altogether.

--- And here comes the difficulty in this case.

AO has well over 200,000 members and is growing on a daily basis.
In order for Chompyt and the technical admin/s to migrate to a different server software, albeit on the same server hardware, some extremely detailed planning is a must.

Consider the following...

1 - How do we set up a new server software to run on port 80, when port 80 is used?
(simple, but still caution, not to disrupt running domains until done.)

2 - In the new server software, before removing the old, install the forum software in a new location.

3 - Migrate the code calling the databases already existing, so that we don't lose all previous posts, and at the same time, make sure the security updates and patches follow in the migration.

4 - Turn off the old server software and turn on the new port settings, without disrupting server access.

Any failure along these steps will cause potential loss of data, previous posts, member settings, and possibly even the entire membership database.

As you can see this is not something any self respecting site admin will undertake without extensive practice, testing and verification of steps before even attempting it.

Chompy and the fellows are pondering these steps as we chat about the issue, and a move will be eminent however, we need to give them the time it takes to process this move in an orderly fashion.

I would like to, on behalf of all the mods, thank you for your patience in this process, and rest assured that Chompy will advertise any changes in a timely and orderly fashion on the site before making these massive changes needed.
 

Rollyco

Team Tomoe
Oct 4, 2007
3,562
34
I have migrated the webserver to Apache.

No one should be seeing FastCGI errors anymore.

Where there are a lot of users online, pages will sometimes take a long time to load. Sometimes up to a whole MINUTE.

When load is extremely high, you might come across "Service Temporarily Unavailable" errors. Nothing to do except hit the refresh button.

To the forum regulars: please report any wierdness in this thread, or send me a private message.
 

uberlordz

~~Rezu To Oppai Lover~~
Oct 7, 2007
85
0
got this error now & then, sometimes changed with the FastCGI error message..

Service Temporarily Unavailable

The server is temporarily unable to service your request due to maintenance downtime or capacity problems. Please try again later.
Apache Server at www.akiba-online.com Port 80