Movable Type support

[pielmorena]

I am currently hosting with DreamHost. Overall, I'm happy with their service. However, since I run my Web site with Movable Type, and the site has been getting bigger, I've been experiencing problems and am looking at moving the whole thing.

They have this program called "procwatch" (or something) which, basically, cuts off my service after I've been running the CGI for what it considers to be too long or too much. So, for example, if I want to add something to 100 posts and go through making the changes to the recrods one by one, it'll stop working halfway through. Or it won't perform the rebuild, or something. And then I can't access any of the sites running off this account until the program gives me access once again.

Anyway, my question is whether or not you have something similar, i.e., can I expect similar problems if I move to your system?

Thanx.

[Steven]

Hello and thanks for your post. To answer your question we need to know a couple of answers from you.

1) How long does the rebuild process take, how many times is it run (daily, weekly, monthly,etc)

2) How server intensive is the rebuilding script

We have many happy MT users as our clients will attest to. Our job is to maintain the integrity of our servers at all times and to ensure that we have them running optimally for our clients. We monitor our servers very carefully, so once you answer the above questions, we can give you a more accurate answer as well.

-Steven

[pete3005]

And that's why we love IH because they don't let the CGI crazies run riot on the server and ruin it for everyone.

I'm currently working on a PHP Blog, its still in its early devlopment, its a project I do as and when I get time. When it has all the features of MT plus more I'll release it for free.

A quick look is here http://petehawkes.co.uk/blog.php , excuse the mess its only about 2% complete, but you will get the idea. I'm also making one in Flash MX, it'll have the same features as MT but all Flash, it'll only work with the Flash 6 Player though.

Pete :D

[Sara]

Psssssssssssssssst move to b2 or php nuke! It will take up tons less of resources.

I just recently changed all my blog hostees to b2 from MT and I will finally get MT off of all the domains!

:)

Pete, what kinda of system and do you want any testers?

Sara

[pete3005]

Hi Sara,

Both will be and are PHP with MySQL, they will have polls, guestbook, chat room or IM messaging for other users of the blog system, obviously a blog with Calendar and archives, the ability to share other friends blogs through XML or some kind of web service and the Flash blog will also be updatable through an application on your desktop, so you don't even need to use your browser if you don't want to.

I will need beta testers, but not just yet because its still early days, I'll let you know when they are around 75% complete. I'll also need to look at the b2 blog, amongst others and at least equal the features.

The non-Flash one will be CSS-P and styled using stylesheets so it wll be easily customisable.

Pete

[pielmorena]

Originally posted by Steven
[B]Hello and thanks for your post. To answer your question we need to know a couple of answers from you.

1) How long does the rebuild process take, how many times is it run (daily, weekly, monthly,etc)

Right now the rebuild process takes anywhere from 3-5 minutes. I usually run it twice a day, when I make updates. Unless, of course, I'm making site adjustments to design, when I run it more than that.

2) How server intensive is the rebuilding script

I don't understand the question. Or rather, I don't know how to answer it. What, exactly, do you need to know?

Right now there are 6 blogs running off a mysql database, with @ 200 records each. Ironically, most of them work fine. It's then one that gets updated daily, with longer posts, that has the problems. The others have one or two paragraphs each, and only get touched once a week, some once a month.

Did that help at all?

pielmorena

[Steven]

Originally posted by pielmorena
Right now the rebuild process takes anywhere from 3-5 minutes. I usually run it twice a day, when I make updates. Unless, of course, I'm making site adjustments to design, when I run it more than that.



I don't understand the question. Or rather, I don't know how to answer it. What, exactly, do you need to know?

Right now there are 6 blogs running off a mysql database, with @ 200 records each. Ironically, most of them work fine. It's then one that gets updated daily, with longer posts, that has the problems. The others have one or two paragraphs each, and only get touched once a week, some once a month.

Did that help at all?

pielmorena

Hi Pielmorena,
See the issue that we are concerned about is how much resources the script is going to utilize for those 3-5 minutes of the rebuilding process. MT rebuilding is known to be server resource hog and that is most likely why you other provider suspended your site. Your account was eating way more then its fair share of cpu/memory usage. For us, a script that is running for 3-5 minutes and is server intensive like the MT rebuilding one is, is unacceptable, and not fair to the other clients on the server.

We would normally love to have your business, but as stated before our primary job is to maintain the integrity of the server at all times, and allowing a resource intensive script for 3-5 minutes would not be a wise decision on our part. Having said that, I don't think that we would be the best provider for your site, and maybe you should look elsewhere, unless you would like to switch to b2 or another cms which isn't as intensive during any rebuild as MT is.

-Steven

[Sara]

Sounds great, Pete, wow, what an undertaking. Maybe sometime next year?? Keep me posted, okay? :)

I did remove MT from all our servers as the rebuilding time was taking way too long and the resource usage is just unbeliveable. We were hosting 10 blogs and that was just a big resource hog. I'm really happy with b2--been playing with it for 6 months and using it for 4. You really should try it, pielmorena

:) Sara

[lucas]

What is involved in this "rebuilding"? I find it suprising that adding/editing something to a 200 record database takes 3-5 minutes.

[harmonic]

Originally posted by lucas
What is involved in this "rebuilding"? I find it suprising that adding/editing something to a 200 record database takes 3-5 minutes.

You would be suprised how fast MySQL is; Although, I don't see why every entry must be 'rebuilt.'

[lucas]

Originally posted by harmonic
You would be suprised how fast MySQL is; Although, I don't see why every entry must be 'rebuilt.'

yeah, thats what i'm saying. i know how fast mysql is, thats why it doesn't make any sense to me that a 200 record database would take 3-5 minutes to change something. i have hacked together ASP scripts running off of Access databases that would take less than a minute to make a change in 200 records.

[Sara]

Maybe the MT isn't on total MySQL. That would be the reason! :) I have a theory about MT anyhow, it grew too fast. As an afterthought they put MySQL on it. There are blogging tools that are made with PHP for MySQL...not as an afterthought.

:) Sara

[Aaron]

Just curious if updating my MT blogs are a drain on server resources. I really don't have any desire to switch to b2 but if it's a choice between that or not being allowed to run MT because of it's resource drain, then obviously I'll make the switch and be happy about it.

Do you, and the server admins, cringe anytime someone comes along who wants to run MT on their IH hosted site?

Do you know if there's anything I can do within MT to make it less resource heavy?

[Steven]

Hi Aaron,
Actually I believe that these rebuild scripts that these customers are taking about are custom written scripts to rebuild the whole MT database at certain times. Those rebuild scripts are what is taxing on the server. We have many clients who use MT on their sites and the servers run perfectly, so it is this rebuild that is the problem. If clients want to update their db, then all we ask is that they do it at an off peak time. We watch our servers very carefully so we know when the load spikes who the culprit is, and also there is a big difference when a rebuild takes 10 seconds compared to a server being hammered for 5-10 minutes.

-Steven

[Aaron]

-Steven

Thanks for responding so quickly. As usual you guys amaze me. You must have some kind of alarm that sounds whenever someone asks a question. I can just see you in a fire station type setting with a loud siren blaring and flashing red lights and one of you scrambling to slide down a pole to the PC so you can answer questions.

I understand what you're saying, but it sounded to me like pielmorena was just doing normal updates to a rather large blog. My largest blog only has about 30 posts it has to update, while it sounds like pielmorena has six blogs with upwards of 200 posts each. My blogs are relatively new so they aren't causing problems right now, but it's conceivable that once they are quite a bit larger they could.

-pielmorena

When you run your updates to change blog design, are you updating "all files"? All you really need to update are "indexes" and more specifically the css index, which you can do from the css template page right underneath the template itself. I don't think it's necessary to update "all files" very often at all, unless you're making drastic changes.

[pielmorena]

Thanx for the tip. You're right, I have been rebuilding all files every time I make an update. I'll make a note of your comments.

Bye.

[Ayemeola]

I've finally got Movable Type all installed...but when I go to login for the first time, with the default login and password (Melody, Nelson as per the instructions) it says invalid password. Can't find any documentation annnnnywhere that gives me an idea as to why it wont work. Any ideas, has this happened to anyone else before? Thanks...

Amber

[pielmorena]

There are any number of reasons for this, you may want to try posting at the MT support site.

Things that may be wrong:

* your configuration
* cookies may not be enabled on your browser
* the login cookie may be corrupted (which you can correct by deleting the history files on your browser)

But try the MT support forum to see what they tell you.

[Aaron]

Originally posted by Ayemeola
I've finally got Movable Type all installed...but when I go to login for the first time, with the default login and password (Melody, Nelson as per the instructions) it says invalid password. Can't find any documentation annnnnywhere that gives me an idea as to why it wont work. Any ideas, has this happened to anyone else before? Thanks...

Amber

I have had that problem and I can't remember what the fix was. I'm pretty sure it was something I was doing wrong. I'm thinking it was something to do with either cookies or a file being chmoded incorrectly. I'm sorry I'm not more help. If it comes to me I'll post again.

[StateDOG]

I had the same problem, turns out when I did the config file, I had to go back and redo the URL in lowercase, not upper case like it was when I first opened it.

When I changed it to lowercase, it worked fine.