This Blog Pwned My Web Host’s Server?

I’ve been using WordPress for almost 6 months now, installed it via Fantastico that goes with my web host. I’ve downloaded and installed several plugins that were recommended by some bloggers so as to put additional features on this blog easily. Everything works smoothly and flawless, until I got an e-mail from my web host yesterday.

Yesterday, I got a notice from my web host asking me to transfer to a new host because according to their sys admin, my wordpress database overloads their server. It sends too many SQL queries, causing downtimes not only to my blog but to all the website this blog is sharing with on their server. Of course, I was surprised. How come? Aside from the traffic upsurge that is currently happening on this blog due to the Gretchen-John scandal post, I can’t think of any reason why this blog will send too many SQL queries on their server. And the traffic upsurge is not that much, at most, I could only see 25 simultaneous users online. Compare that to Yugatech with 100+ simultaneous users online, that is still very light to cause such downtimes.

So, I investigated. Before, I thought my plugins were all ok. Aside from the Adsense Logger which inserts record to the database, all other plugins simply query the database for recent comments and other data. But when I checked my WordPress database, I saw a table named wp_live_hits with 70,000+ records. What the hell is this table doing there with that much records?

So, what is this table? This table is created by the Live plugin that I installed on this blog so as to monitor the incoming traffic on this blog on real time. I installed it because it is something featured by Yugatech, and I really wanted to see my visitors on real time. Never in their website or in the help file that goes with the plugin they mentioned that they are going to insert a new table to my WordPress database and they will log every page views there.

So, imagine the scenario. When a visitor visits my blog, the Adsense Logger updates a record on the database for pageview count, and at the same time, the Live plugin inserts a new record to wp_live_hits table. For every page view, Live plugin inserts a new record. Now, imagine if you have huge traffic. Simultaneous traffic. This can be handled if you have a dedicated web hosting, but for a shared web hosting, this will be an overkill. Your blog will clog the server with too many SQL inserts, just like what happened here.

So what did I do? Simple. I just disabled the plugin and told my web host that I already fixed the problem. No downtimes has been recorded so far after disabling that plugin.

Well, when worst comes to worst and still, my web host can’t handle the traffic, I’ll be forced to move. Any web hosting company who’s willing to offer me a better option at an affordable price?

Technorati Tags: WordPress, Live plugin, troubleshooting