Troubleshooting a WordPress Site
The Crucial Role of RAM in Website Performance
I started my journey in the tech world in a role they call 'tech-adjacent.' I worked as a website manager. My interest in the tech side made me dive into understanding how it all works. This was back when terms like 'servers' were still unfamiliar to me. I faced a sysadmin issue before moving into tech-heavy roles, and I was quite lost, to be honest.
In startups, you often do different jobs. As a product manager, you manage the product and also act as a website manager. When in this position, things can't go wrong. At one point, I found myself managing a WordPress website. My technical knowledge was limited, and WordPress, being mostly drag-and-drop, required little coding.
Startups are known for being careful with money. Before validating a concept, entering the market, and seeking funding, financial prudence is crucial. So, we chose the most budget-friendly hosting option, allocating just enough resources for a static website.
What started as an informational website turned into a platform needing user information through forms. Unknowingly, we overloaded the same resources, stretching them beyond capacity. The website had frequent outages, almost every other week. I quickly reached out to our local hosting service for support. In my various roles, I found myself engaging with the hosting company's support team, sending many emails. There was a time when their customer support lines were unresponsive, leading me to use Facebook to restore the website. I firmly requested a quick diagnosis or an alternative resolution.
The outage affected our primary customer portal, rendering it completely inaccessible for 25% of our user base. Users experienced slow response times, with some unable to access the service entirely. In short, we found the problem: insufficient RAM.
They recommended an upgrade to a higher tier. We upgraded, but to another hosting provider that was responsive, had scalable resources, and gave us more control over server configurations while facilitating a smoother setup process.
I'm happy that the experience and my new System Admin and DevOps skills from the Alx software engineering program now help me write a technical postmortem on exactly what happened.
Issue Summary
Duration: Recurring outages lasted about a month, happening almost every other week.
Impact: The outages caused significant downtime and interruptions for users. The website, initially informational, later gathered user data through forms. Around 70% of our users were affected, hampering user experience and potentially causing user attrition.
Root Cause: The main issue was resource overutilization, specifically RAM exhaustion on the local hosting server, causing intermittent crashes.
Timeline
When: The issue was first detected when a client tried accessing forms, but the website was unavailable.
How Detected: Unfortunately, a potential client detected it.
Actions Taken: Explored domain management, investigated website maintenance, identified RAM shortages.
Misleading Paths: Initially suspected a specific WordPress plugin, leading to optimization efforts. Other assumptions were suspected traffic spikes; later realized RAM limitations.
Escalation: The incident was escalated to the hosting service support team after multiple troubleshooting attempts and ineffective resolutions.
Resolution: Migrated the website to a new hosting provider with better scalability and resources to handle increased traffic.
Root Cause and Resolution
- The main issue was the constant depletion of available RAM, causing recurrent website crashes. The resolution involved moving to a more robust hosting service, eliminating the underlying issue, and significantly improving website stability.
Corrective and Preventative Measures
Improvements:
Upgrade hosting plan to accommodate increased traffic.
Implement proactive monitoring for RAM usage.
Establish a streamlined process for support escalation.
Tasks:
Research and select a hosting service with scalable RAM options.
Integrate monitoring tools for real-time insights into resource usage.
Develop an incident response plan to expedite issue resolution.
In conclusion, navigating the challenges of managing a WordPress website brought to light the critical importance of addressing RAM considerations in the tech landscape. The journey from grappling with frequent outages to a strategic migration underscored the significance of a robust hosting solution and the need for proactive measures in managing resource utilization.
As we reflect on the troubleshooting process, it becomes evident that understanding the intricacies of RAM plays a pivotal role in ensuring website stability. This experience serves as a valuable lesson, emphasizing the ongoing necessity for vigilance, continuous improvement, and informed decision-making in the ever-evolving realm of website development and maintenance.