Joomla, intermittent 500 errors & .htaccess woes

[leonforthewin]

I'm only learning this more complex side of things so bare with me!

I'm getting intermittent '500 Internal Server Errors' with my domain frontlinefit.co.uk. - I feel confident that it's a module that's causing it called 'Facebook Graph Connect', could be very wrong though.

Simple enough to find out right? Well that module is kind of integral to the website, so rather then using the process of elimination I have learnt you can add work arounds in the .htaccess file?

My error log is as follows:

[Sun Sep 04 08:44:16 2011] [error] [client 193.35.132.33] (12)Cannot allocate memory: couldn't create child process: /opt/suphp/sbin/suphp for /home/theonlyp/public_html/frontlinefit.co.uk/index.php, referer: http://frontlinefit.co.uk/
[Sun Sep 04 08:44:16 2011] [error] [client 193.35.132.33] (12)Cannot allocate memory: couldn't create child process: /opt/suphp/sbin/suphp for /home/theonlyp/public_html/frontlinefit.co.uk/index.php, referer: http://frontlinefit.co.uk/
[Sun Sep 04 08:37:20 2011] [error] [client 193.35.132.16] (12)Cannot allocate memory: couldn't create child process: /opt/suphp/sbin/suphp for /home/theonlyp/public_html/frontlinefit.co.uk/index.php, referer: http://frontlinefit.co.uk/administrator/index.php
[Sun Sep 04 08:37:20 2011] [error] [client 193.35.132.16] (12)Cannot allocate memory: couldn't create child process: /opt/suphp/sbin/suphp for /home/theonlyp/public_html/frontlinefit.co.uk/administrator/index.php, referer: http://frontlinefit.co.uk/administrator/index.php
[Sun Sep 04 08:33:51 2011] [error] [client 66.249.71.42] File does not exist: /home/theonlyp/public_html/index.php
[Sun Sep 04 08:33:51 2011] [error] [client 66.249.71.42] File does not exist: /home/theonlyp/public_html/index.php
[Sun Sep 04 08:33:51 2011] [error] [client 66.249.71.42] File does not exist: /home/theonlyp/public_html/index.php
[Sun Sep 04 08:33:51 2011] [error] [client 66.249.71.42] File does not exist: /home/theonlyp/public_html/index.php

I don't think the memory allocation errors are creating 500's. However the last 4 entries are indeed referring to something that doesn't exist - there is nothing installed in the main domain directory. I'm guessing this is an auto-generated URL which would be product of one of the modules? Funny thing is a refresh fixes it all every time.

My .htaccess file is standard as far as I know:

# BEGIN WordPress
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>

# END WordPress

I'm also not running any WP installations at the moment, in case that's relevant.

If anyone has any ideas into further investigation I can do or even can go as far as providing a solution I would be eternally grateful - This website is meant to be going live with a huge members section soon and these errors will kill it.

Cheers,
Leon.

[Corrosive]

Are you sure it isn't the memory allocation that is killing it? What are you running server-wise?

[leonforthewin]

Umm I'm not entirely sure on that - My hosting is with GreenGeeks. Im guessing I could find out via cPanel?

Just had a look at the stats - Linux running Apache? That sound right? I can always get onto my hosts after i take the pups for a walk?

[Corrosive]

Umm I'm not entirely sure on that - My hosting is with GreenGeeks. Im guessing I could find out via cPanel?

Just had a look at the stats - Linux running Apache? That sound right? I can always get onto my hosts after i take the pups for a walk?

Is it your own private/virtual private sever or shared? If private you should be able to get info from WHM. If shared you'll need to ask your hosts.

Shared I'd guess you are probably running 32M memory limit which might be stopping it if it is a larger/more complex application.

[leonforthewin]

Sorry it's a shared - cPanel does say 524288 KB available?

[Corrosive]

Sorry it's a shared - cPanel does say 524288 KB available?

Check with your hosts. Tell them what you are running in terms of applications and see what they say. Be prepared they'll probably try and up-sell you!

[leonforthewin]

So you think this is the actual issue? I've never seen memory usage over 20%!

[Corrosive]

In my experience 500s are probably caused by one of three things;

1. Something rotten in your .htaccess file. Try refreshing it with the .htaccess file you get out of the box. Keep your current one backed up just in case.

2. Conflicts in plug-ins. Try disabling them one by one until your site functions correctly all the time.

3. Over memory capacity. That's down to your hosting.

I'd usually take a punt and say number 3 is the cause but investigate the other two as well.

In any case;

This website is meant to be going live with a huge members section soon

Tells me you want to stump up for some decent hosting anyway or you are gonna have some disappointed huge members (sorry, couldn't resist).

[leonforthewin]

Just spoke to my hosts I do indeed have 512mb of ram available. - After telling the bloke thrice about the memory allocation error he said:

If you see an 500 error appear randomly, this is because our system is limiting you for exceeding your memory limit. You will have the ability to optimize your site to prevent this error from occurring by using caching plugins, optimizing code, etc

Makes sense. I may have turned caching off at some point for doing lots of small updates. I will look into it. CACHE EVERYTHING! - Also do you think having joomla zip everything up would reduce the memory load?

Thanks,

[Corrosive]

Makes sense. I may have turned caching off at some point for doing lots of small updates. I will look into it. CACHE EVERYTHING! - Also do you think having joomla zip everything up would reduce the memory load?

Yes, that might help. It would be wise to run a beta test with a few people on the site at the same time if you can. Stress testing should highlight any weaknesses in your set up.