Since this update required some manual intervention anyway to update the database version, I took the opportunity to perform some overdue server maintenance and upgrades.
I have migrated the server to a more powerful configuration, and changed the way image files are being stored and served (object storage as opposed to filesystem storage).
I am also aware of some federation issues that have affected this and other instances. I am not sure whether this upgrade will deal with these problems automatically. I will be looking into it and hopefully will implement some solution soon.
Sorry for the downtime experienced in the past few days, but hopefully with the more powerful server the experience will be smoother and will remain so for a while.
For other admins and users interested, this is a bit of information about the server
The 400 GB SSD was being used to store both the server's database and the image files, and this component in isolation had a monthly cost of $36. I have migrated the images to an object storage provider ($6/month for 500 GB), and used the resources previously used for disk space to increase
the other parameters. The new configuration is a lot better and less expensive.
Sal, I got some error here: couldnt_get_posts. That appears every time that I try to visualise the instance through the "Subscribed" communities.
The error does not appear if I browse the instance through "Local" or "All", nor if I check the list of communities that I'm subscribed to. The error happens across devices and front-ends (tested with Linux Firefox, Android Firefox, Jerboa).
EDIT/UPDATE: I unsubscribed manually to a few communities each time, checking if the front page loaded fine. Eventually, it did.
(@Shdwdrgn@mander.xyz ) I think it is related with the processing of so many activities per second while syncing with Lemmy.World.
I have tried changing some rate limits and the number of maximum database connections, but I get similar errors while moving around the site. The server is running well below 100% on all metrics, and the logs don't produce an obvious error. I will wait until we catch up with Lemmy.World and see if that fixes the issue. If it doesn't, then I will trouble shoot more in-depth.
Thanks! The database is currently fetching lemmy world data as fast as possible, so this might be saturating the database. Once the syncronization is tested, I will try to tune postgres if it still happens.
Great, thanks for letting me know!! I did a bit of research and I think that the next time I need to upgrade the instance I will move it to a dedicated server instead of a virtual private server. But hopefully it runs smoothly for some time! :)
Hey @RobotToaster@mander.xyz , @lvxferre@lemmy.ml , and @Shdwdrgn@mander.xyz - we are now in sync with lemmy.world and the database under much less stress. This seems to have fixed the problems that I observed on my end. Are your problems also resolved?
Ah! It looks like it JUST fixed it, I had checked about 15 minutes ago and still couldn't get my subscribed list to load, but it does appears to be loading up now. I'll reset my preferences and keep an eye on it through the day -- hoping for the best!
It should have been fixed about 13 minutes ago! Thanks for checking! If problems persist I will try to fine-tune the database settings as suggested above.
There was a brief outage soon after I left that last reply, assume you were doing another round of maintenance at the time, but otherwise it's still looking good from here.
Ah, thanks. I think that was when I reboot the instance to change a setting that controls how post thumbnails are generated, as the new setting was failing to generate thumbnails for many posts.
That's the same error I was asking about below, and wondering if it had to do with the current status of collecting all the content. If so, it sounds like it could be another day or two before we can view our front pages again?
Unsubscribing from comic strips did the trick a couple days ago, thanks! And just now I’ve subscribed back and everything is normal. So feel free to subscribe again.
All of this sounds like the issue is related to the new server still loading up the communities. I'm subbed to a pretty good list so it's probably best just to wait for the server to catch up. Thanks for the info though!
For now, one option is to temp change your settings to browse by "Local" or "All". Or alternatively temporarily unsubscribe off a few comms; if you're subscribed to a small number of comms, some trial and error might help you to find which ones are causing the issue. (For me it was two LW comms).