Urgent Help - Moodle 1.9 running very slow, not loading pages etc

[tj2419]

Hi

 

Good old frantic Help!

 

We have been running moodle 1.9 of our own server Windows 2008 for a few years without too many issues. All of a sudden today it seemed to crash and now pages take minutes to load or don't load. It is running incredibly slow.

 

I know it's a bit vague but any moodle experts have any ideas what could be causing it or what we could try?

 

Nothing was changed prior to it going very slow.

 

Cheers

[Michael]

I presume you've restarted your server or restarted IIS?

[tj2419]

I presume you've restarted your server or restarted IIS?

 

Yes thanks restarted iis, SQL and the server.

[tj2419]

It keeps going really quick then horrifically slow.

[pcstru]

Check server memory. Has something tipped it into paging?

Check disc space. Is it low?

Look at what is running (taskmgr) and see what (if anything) is grabbing CPU.

 

Run some very simple PHP on the server, a page with a php info call. How is the performance of that?

 

Sometimes database indexes can get messed up. refreshing (regenerating indexes) won't do any harm but eliminate general server problems first, otherwise it might take some time.

Edited November 20, 2012 by pcstru

[Michael]

Do you keep Moodle patched? It is highly recommended you do so!

[dhicks]

Do you keep Moodle patched? It is highly recommended you do so!

 

And, if you do so, remember to log in as admin and run the database upgrade procedure, otherwise things get very confused. Our Moodle server updates nightly from source code control, it was running slowly before I logged in and ran through the procedure to upgrade the database along with the PHP files that had been updated.

[tj2419]

 

Check Has something tipped it into paging?

 

Run some very simple PHP on the server, a page with a php info call. How is the performance of that?

 

Sometimes database indexes can get messed up. refreshing (regenerating indexes) won't do any harm but eliminate general server problems first, otherwise it might take some time.

 

Sorry i'm quite new to moodle (inherited it) how would you do each of these?

 

Thanks

[dhicks]

Sorry i'm quite new to moodle (inherited it) how would you do each of these?

 

This is general server stuff, not Moodle-specific. On Windows, check the performance monitor and look at memory usage and see if the page file is being used lots (you'll also probably be able to hear the harddrives chugging away if you go and listen to the server itself). Write a simple PHP script, plonk it in the WWW root folder and see if you can run it and how long it takes. Have your database package / control panel regenerate indexs.

[penfold_99]

Do you know if the RSS block is enabled? I am aware of Moodle 1.9 runnign slowly do the bbc feeds timing out.

[glennda]

Do you know if the RSS block is enabled? I am aware of Moodle 1.9 runnign slowly do the bbc feeds timing out.

 

Have you been working with WSCC schools again?! Had that exact problem too!

[tj2419]

Third day now. Same again. Got to about 12:30 and then moodle grinds to a halt a few hours later its fine.

 

No backups running.

No changes in software othe server.

Down time is at different times in the day.

E.g. Day 1 (Tuesday) - went off about 9:30

Day 2 - went off about 11

Day 3 - went off about 12:30

 

CPU usage is really high but can't see anything suspect in the task manager.

 

I think the issue is more server based than moodle.

 

We have disconnected network cables and it stays the same.

Run it as local host off the network and still slow.

 

Anyone any ideas?

 

Thanks

[pcstru]

On the task manager tab there is a processes tab. Go to the tab and sort the list by CPU use (click on the CPU header) so the CPU hungry processes are at the top. When it is on a go slow, take a few screenshots of that tab.

 

Also look at the scheduled tasks. There are some processes that moodle likes to kick off on a daily basis. Check if something is being set off every day at that time.

[glennda]

have you got vss snapshots enabled on the server? that happens everyday at 12:00 if configured.

[tj2419]

UPDATE

 

Still happening.

 

Day 1 (Tuesday) - went off about 9:30

Day 2 - went off about 11

Day 3 - went off about 12:30

Day 4 - went off about 17:00

 

Could this be someone trying to hack our moodle? It's just so random and nothing changes just before it happens. :S

[witch]

The antivirus isnt suddenly checking every page accessed is it? We had something similar and it slowed everything down every day but at different times due to different useage. We traced it to an antivirus update which changed the settings so everything accessed on the server was scanned

[tj2419]

WHich antivirus did you use? Can you remember what setting was called or details of what it was that caused this?

 

Thanks