However, it is first a good idea to determine the reason for such high resource usage. If you have cPanel, the Resource Usage log is a good place to start. To access this, use the following procedure:
- Under the Logs section, click Resource Usage.
- If you have been getting 508 errors, cPanel will probably say something like "Your site has been limited within the past 24 hours" and it may tell you what type of resources were limited.
- Click on [Details]
- You may modify the timeframe dropdown as needed. Your goal is to find out when the amount of resource usage began to increase. Knowing the pattern of your site's resource usage will help you figure out the cause of the high usage.
Possible causes of high resource usage:
- Wordpress update: In this scenario, you may notice a sharp increase of resource usage that then levels out at a higher level than before. It is recommended that you research online forums to see if other users are experiencing similar difficulties with this new Wordpress version. They may have found a solution.
- Installing a new plug-in: In this scenario, you may notice a sharp increase of resource usage that then levels out at a higher level than before. You may need to uninstall the plug-in and find a different way to accomplish the same thing.
- Your site is under attack: If you notice that the level of resource usage has been steadily increasing without leveling out, your website may be under attack by a hacker or computer bot that is visiting the site hundreds of times every hour. To see if this is the case, look for a recurring IP address. If you have cPanel, you may use the following procedure:
- Go back to the cPanel Home screen
- Under the Logs section, click Recent Visitors
- Click on the magnifying glass to view stats for the domain experiencing issues.
- At the top of the page, you can see the timeframe for the list of visitors. It shows the most recent 1,000 visitors, so if the timeframe is less than a day, your 508 errors are probably due to a bot causing abnormally high traffic to your website.
- Click through the pages and see if you notice one IP address showing up again and again. Hundreds of requests over a period of several hours is not normal for any human user.
- If you see evidence of this problem, create a ticket to report the issue to Webservio engineers. We can block the IP address to prevent it from accessing your site.
- Your site has been hacked: If you notice that the level of resource usage has been steadily increasing without leveling out, your website may have been hacked. A malicious program can run harmful scripts that increase resource usage high above what is normal. You'd want to send an email to security@dtechghana.com to have our Security admins review yours site.
Even if you are unable to determine the cause of high resource usage, please contact D-Tech support to notify us of the issue. The nature of a shared server is that the actions of one domain/website can affect the system as a whole. For example, excessive CPU or memory usage taxes the server - meaning sites load slower. In extreme cases, it could even cause the server to crash. If one website is hacked, the "infection" could spread to other sites on the server. Notifying D-Tech engineers of ongoing 508 error issues will help us maintain a better hosting envirionment for everyone.
